This is Why I Save Every E-mail

I never consider it a stellar day when I start out with e-mails from Flunky the Property Maintenance Asshat. He annoyed me on vacation last month--another blog I haven't gotten around to writing--and he is annoying me now.

You may remember this particular incident. The tenant in question had water on her floor. Apparently it rained and the weather stripping wasn't doing its job. Or something. For whatever reason, the tenant could not see her way to actually wiping up the water and now there is a bigger issue: the hardwood floor is warped.

But, you see, the tenant moved out a few weeks ago. And the first response to the e-mail from Maria, my "contact" over there who never contacts me back, was "They ruined the hardwoods, do not release the security deposit." Just to make sure everyone knew I was serious, I also told the bookkeeper I was fighting for the deposit, so don't release it to the former tenants. I thought this was resolved 14 days ago and I went on my merry way, with full delusional knowledge I would be seeing this money in a few weeks.

But of course, nothing in life ever works the way I think it should. And, even though the security deposit is rightfully mine apparently Flunky did not feel that way. So, this morning I started my day with six different e-mails from Flunky saying that the warped floors were there all along and that the tenants did nothing wrong. He even CC'd Marty Sunshine just to, I guess, make sure I wouldn't protest. To solidify his point, because I was pretty sure he knew I wouldn't agree, but that's just a guess, he got Luigi involved.

Luigi happens to be the owner of this property management company. And right on time, Luigi wrote me. He said he was pretty sure he and I discussed the condition of the hardwoods when the tenant moved in, saying they were already warped. In fact, he was sure he saw them when the tenant moved in. So, case closed.

I wrote Luigi back. I explained that I did not recall ever discussing the floors with him. And, when did Luigi start handling move-ins, because I don't remember that either. And finally I asked if he had an e-mail that might jog my memory so we can put this silly business behind us.

Quick as a wink, Luigi back pedaled. No, he didn't handle move-ins. He must have been at this house for some other reason once upon a time before the tenant moved in, but he KNOWS we discussed it. I am willing to bet if I went through my cell phone records I would not see one call from him since February of 2014, back in our honeymoon period. Simply, I  don't like talking on the phone and I always want a paper trail.

Also, to make his point, Luigi also sent me over some weird e-mail that had absolutely nothing to do with the above issue, but suggested it might jog my memory. He did comment that he was "still looking" for proof.

In return, I sent him two past e-mails I kept that mentioned this issue. One in 2015 when Flunky stated there was a problem with the weather stripping and he had fixed it. The other e-mail was three months later saying there was water coming in under the door that the tenant didn't clean up.

Luigi's response was to say, "Aha! See! Things can break after they are fixed!" Therefore the tenant doesn't owe me the deposit.

I wrote back, "Actually, if you guys fixed the problem and there was water on the floor then the tenant was 100 percent responsible, so the deposit is mine.

My e-mail box has been strangely quiet since then.