Collapsed Ceiling (and Personal Finance Links) |
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Yesterday, I woke up to a call from my tenant. That's never the right way to start the day. It turns out that the new washer that I got last week overflowed causing the part of the ceiling to collapse. These things always seem to happen on a Sunday when you can't get a hold of contractors and the appliance company.
Fortunately, I have a great tenant. He knew a contractor that could get there and give an estimate. It will be around $1600 to fix. My next call was to the appliance store to find out if it was an installation issue, but it was closed on Sunday. I did get to speak with the store this morning. They sent someone by to look at it immediately and they determined that it was a bad machine. The next step is to get GE involved but they might not get to see it for a few days.
I expect that it be deemed a faulty machine as there was no "user error" or "installation error" and I think GE is going to end up footing the bill The only cost to me is a lot of wasted time and energy. At least the Patriots won historically big yesterday. That typically makes for a good day even if it starts off as bad as it did.
Now the links I promised...
- Brip Blap discusses the side effects of transparency.
- The Sun’s Financial Diary writes Dow closed above 10,000 for first time in a year!
- Digerati Life asks is the bull back? Read more in double dip recession: why Dow 10,000 may not last.
- Frugal Dad shares thoughts about successful investing—not magic.
- Generation X Finance posts four fiscally-fit financial roadblocks.
- Million Dollar Journey asks who pays? The delicate balance of dating and money.
- Money Smart Life gives readers job hunting tips.
- My Dollar Plan asks do you need a local bank?
- Investing Tool Kit advises readers to go beyond U.S. Stocks to hedge against inflation.
- Rich Credit Debt Loan discusses debt repayment methods.
- PT Money shows 15 surprising places to save money.
- Get Rich Slowly posts five steps to six figures in seven years.
- Money Crashers explores best jobs in America in 2009 by CNN.
- Interesting Money shares a story So I Went to the Movies Yesterday…
- Technical Trading Patterns posts death of the dollar, again: before you mourn, see this chart.
- The Disappearing Middle Class Dream - How the Average American is coping with the Recession: Savings, Banking, Housing, and Investing. Over 50 Million Households Living on $52,000 or less a year… Charts, graphs, analysis and more by My Budget 360.
- Feminist Finance ponders to merge or not to merge.
- Dog Ate My Finances is dealing with an unethical realtor.
- One Frugal Girl is planning our winter vacation.
- Wise Bread gives six tips to saving on tax preparation fees.
- Saving Advice blogs when it’s a good idea to pay a fee.
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Tipd5 Responses to “Collapsed Ceiling (and Personal Finance Links)”
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Very true about these sorts of things always happening at bad times.
Here’s my favorite tenant story. It’s not really related to personal finance, but I’d like to think that it’s amusing.
When I was in college, I lived in a little efficiency apartment near campus. One Saturday, the toilet began to back up. I called the management company (around noon, I think) and they assured me that they would page the maintenance guy.
A few hours later, nobody showed up. Due to the fact that I was literally a couple hundred feet from campus, I had easy access to public toilets, so it wasn’t a major inconvenience … but still …
So I call back, and they assure me that they will once again page the guy. He must be busy with something.
Fast forward a few more hours … still no maintenance guy. I call again, and the management people promise to raise hell with the maintenance guy.
A short while later, the maintenance company calls me back and apologized profusely. It turns out that the maintenance guy isn’t tied up on another call so much as he’s tied up on vacation. In Hungary.
Because of this, it is somewhat unlikely that he can address they problem. They call Roto Rooter.
The Roto Rooter guy shows up and quickly discovers the root of the problem. The previous tenant (who, btw, stiffed me on some $$ that were promised as part of the sublease) had flushed tampons down the toilet. They had essentially stuck together and formed a massive dam within the plumbing sysem.
The RR guy said that he hoped the basic equipment was going to work, but that it was possible that he would need to return the next day with the really heavy slicer/dicer thingy. I’m still taking this situation with better humor than 99.99% of the population.
All’s well that ends well … the normal slicer/dicer is able to puncture the tampon dam and allow the water to burst forth to the sweet freedom of the plumbing system.
Oh no! Gosh, you’ve had some rental issues… this makes me rethink my distant dreams of becoming a landlord. I think I’m going to beef up my REITs instead before I contemplate buying rental property….
Forgot to say… good luck with it Lazy Man. Hopefully the problems resolve soon and that GE does cover it all!
One time we had a renter complain that the garbage disposal wasn’t working. The problem is that the house doesn’t even have a garbage disposal. It seems the renters were shoving food down the sink assuming there was a disposal down there. I wonder if they flipped the light switch on and off at the same time and wondered why the disposal switch made the lites turn on/off.
Good to hear a happy ending to your renter’s troubles. Thanks for sharing my article too.