Wednesday/It Dawned On Me........

............today that I could blow Mary's work for reduced rent and the "fact" - according to her - that I haven't given her sufficient credit right out of the water. Not that I don't have ample proof of her saying 2 completely different things already, but - let's just say the judge sees things her way in this deal and wants to give her January for free - rent that is.

It occured to me today that Mary actually took over that family room a long time ago, like within weeks after moving in - by filling it up with her stuff. All kinds of stuff - 2 chairs; an antique dresser with mirror; 3 tables and various this and that. She was using it to store her stuff. She also brought in 4 barstools at one point and had those sitting in the middle of the room. I never actually gave her permission to put that stuff in here - but regardless of whether I had or hadn't, there is certainly a huge rent concession right there: the use of a second room, rent free. That room is at least about 245 square feet - the room she was in is about 160 square feet of living space. 6 months times $500 = $3,000. She also used my car for a month. What's the going rate to rent a 4 door, full sized sedan? $30 a day anyway. Times 30 = $900. I am going to use that to show what I've actually done for this woman in terms of use of my house and even my car.

Mary intends on paying me - so she says - for February. I am not going to accept it. How can I accept rent for the next month when I am filing for an eviction against her? I desperately need the money - yes, but - I need her out of here worse.

Well, anyway - nice day today. Weather is beautiful. Oh, speaking of Mary, she has stopped working out front altogether. Which means I need to go out there and water some plants. I watered everything in the back yesterday, but some of the stuff out front looks to be getting a bit dry, want to make sure to keep up with that. I don't think they need too much watering in the winter, but still. It's warm enough that all the plants are growing anyway - the only thing that stopped was the tree I planted. It's a deciduous tree, it dropped it's leaves and I guess it's waiting until it believes winter is over before putting out new leaves.

Actually, it was cold this morning. Cold by my standards, anyway. Anytime I can see my breath floating through the air, it's cold.

4 days until the Superbowl. I had thought about throwing a Superbowl party over here, but - people don't do parties like that in these days unless you have a big-screen TV. The biggest screen around here is 32 inches, hardly a big-screen TV. Oh, how I miss that TV I paid for and then burned up in that house fire. It's one of the things I REALLY miss. Ken has a friend that's selling one just like that one I had for $200. That's a bargain - too bad I don't have $200 to spare right now.

Well, I have things to get done before the sun sets, c'yall later or tomorrow.
ben

Court

As usual, you get into the court room and the lawyers get to go first. They're there with stacks of forcible detainers in reprensenting a single apartment community.
Of the 5, only 1 single tenant showed up to dispute the rents owed. It was the same thing as my situation: a person had done work for the apartment community and were told they were going to get a free month's rent in exchange.

Let me tell you right here: I will never be offering "work for reduced rent" ever again. I mean, I pulled that ad the day after I posted it because I knew there was too much left open for problems. I would have made it a part of the rental agreement - but again - Mary said at the get-go that she would just pay the full rent.

The judge set that case for hearing on Thursday. I figured right there that because of the dispute between us, the judge would also set ours for hearing as well.

Our names are called, we get up before the judge, Mary makes her claims, I make mine. The judge says hearing will also be on Thursday, does that work for you? For me - sure, my boss will give me the time off I need. For Mary? Nope. She has a "lot of clients" she has to deal with on Thursday, so the Judge says that Tuesday of next week is the only other day available. Mary asks for an extension to Tuesday.

The Judge looks at me. Now, Mary at least said that she believed all of January should be free, according to her. I said that Tuesday is in next month. The Judge spoke to Mary - another month's worth of rent. Mary says yes, she intends on paying me next month. I have that, sworn in oath, in front of a judge. I said at least concerning January because she isn't trying to take this into eternity in terms of free rent.

Now - the judge wants all applicable documents to back our case. Okay. I'm going to get pics of her door made up into nice sized photos because Mary is claiming that the reason she doesn't have to pay for the month of January. So - if the judge finds for her - I am also going to add an extra defense: We agreed long before that work was ever done that the door she put up there would have to match the rest of the interior doors of the house, and that she or her worker doing the work would have to contact Cavco Homes in order to get another door. Obvious saying that means, no, she did not put up a matching door and it's rather ridiculous, to say the least.

I'm camping on this until the weekend. I have no need to go all crazy about getting my own pics made up, I'll do it, but I'm taking a breather from this stuff. We'll see whether Mary actually pays anything before next month. If she doesn't, this will be brought up to the judge - the whole conversation was recorded.

So that's that. Set for Tuesday at 2:00 pm. I actually liked Tuesday better after the judge stated the time, because the Thursday hearing would have been at 9:45 am, meaning missing an entire day of work. Tuesday at 2:00 pm means missing a couple of hours of work.

As for the "rest" of this day? Nothing I want to do. I just made a huge plate of the ham I cooked the other day and wolfed down a can of lima beans and some mashed potatoes with gravy alongside. That ham is so delicious. I put a pineapple chunk/pineapple juice/brown sugar glaze on it that just tastes marvelous.

Anyway, done for now.

ben

Court/Mary

Wish me luck. Or pray if you do that - whatever you do.
I found a written statement from Mary that I had not even seen that she sent to me this month: she fully admits that she owes me rent and was going to pay me on the 15th. In that, she said she didn't pay me because I announced doubled rent - she was occupy 2 rooms without my permission. I don't really need much more than that, frankly. I'm going to be very interested to see how the judge deals with all of this.
She was just here with the same friend that showed up with her when she first moved in. Guessing that woman is going to court with her. Nice - but - I clearly remember what I said at that first meeting. My seal on this thing, however, are Mary's written statements, I need not go further than that.

Now, I'm going to take about 15 minutes to review AZ landlord/tenant law, get dressed up, and take off.
C'ya later.
ben