My slumlord, the man who collects the monthly rent on the squalor I call my college residence, was not prepared for what the New Year of 2012 had in store for him. As the ball dropped on New Years Eve, so did my ceiling, causing 4×5 square feet of plaster to land on my dining room table, breaking it clean in half (No one was sitting at the table, so luckily no one was hurt).
There could not have been a better platform to exercise some skills in project management! The work, defined as fixing the gaping hole as well as making sure no future injury or cave-ins would occur, had a deadline of two weeks (as stated in the lease). Also, since my Slumlord is a dentist by day, I found the job to be unfamiliar to him, as well as having complex interrelated tasks. I suggested to the Slumlord that a licensed carpenter would do best at completing the project.
The Slumlord doesn’t like project management very much. He does seem to like micro-management, however, and has insisted on doing the entire project himself. Eleven days later, and the ceiling inspires terror to all who venture beneath its clumsy workmanship. It seems some key characteristics in successful project management were lost, including top-down commitment (because the Slumlord could not care about his property any less before it before it is classified as condemnable) and good communication (because he insists on talking over me whenever I make a request involving the project).
Here’s to hoping that next week’s lesson is in management and conflict resolution… Or how to manage ending a lease early.
What trade-offs are being faced by the performance failures? What techniques can be used when project management is not going accordingly?
It’s very frustrating when you’re trying to advise someone to do something, yet it’s clear that they aren’t listening and don’t intend on taking any suggestions. This is a poor example of project management, as he clearly is not willing to outsource (outside of himself) in order to fix the ceiling. In the long run (or even short), he’ll end up losing tenants like you who pay their rent on time and are involved in helping him out. It is apparent that because your suggestions that were not followed, you’re still stuck with a poorly constructed ceiling. This will probably lead to it caving in (again!), at which point he will hopefully try and follow some advice.
You bring up a good question about the tradeoffs the slumlord is making. He is willing to spend his own time to fix the ceiling, rather than spending money and hiring somebody. It is obvious that he will not be able to do the exact same job as the carpenter, but from his perspective he thinks he can save money. What he doesn’t realize is that he is probably going to lose the tenants in his building because lack of understanding the future consequences. In the short-run he will save money, but in the long-run, when he has no tenants, he will surely regret his mistake.
It’s very interesting to hear that your slumlord decided to take on this project himself, considering what’s at stake if something happens again and, god forbid, someone gets injured. In this situation since project management is not going accordingly, and since he won’t listen to you, maybe you could bring someone else into the picture, like a parent or lawyer. By doing this he’ll take you and the safety of his building, which is obviously an investment of his, more seriously.
In my eyes you are experiencing one interesting slumlord who takes no responsibility for his actions. First he is very stubborn it is very difficult to find a landlord that really cares about his tenants. I currently rent my one bedroom one bath apartment in terrific neighborhood. However I do collect the rent from my renter but take no part in fixing anything that I don’t know. That’s why they give people plumber license to fix leaky faucets and drains me on the other hand a money collector but not both. My suggestion would be when you are trying to find a rent find a little problem in the apartment, talk to the landlord first and ask him to fix it. See what his response would be you will then know what to expect in the future.
I can really relate to your situation because I had a landlord would totally neglected the conditions of our building and of the leasing agreement. I would have to agree with Vince.Bringing in a 3rd party, such as a parent or a lawyer, would definitely spark some responsibility in your slumlord.
I am so sorry you had to go through and I can totally relate to your situation in regards to irresponsible and manipulative landlords . Our home is the place we spend most of our time, it is your right to make sure your living situation is hazard free and safe. I hope everything works out for you and you make the right choices. My landlord is actually, very much on top of her project management but to my disadvantage because she is trying to make me pay for “wear and tear” damages that I did not do. She sent two of her maintenance men to my apartment without my permission while I was sleeping to “fix” my dishwasher, when in actuality all he did was fabricate pictures to make it seem like I broke it. Additionally, she wants me to pay for the internal broken valve in my bathroom and is over charging me for a few carpet repairs. Landlords can be crazy and they think just because we are students that they can get away with it. Fortunately, since we have an excellent education from DePaul, we know better.
Wow, my deepest sympathies go out to you! It is a shame that individuals like the one described in this article have the audacity to scratch around legal and ethical issues such as this. I am weeks away from becoming a registered Real Estate Broker in IL and having worked with a lot of real estate professionals in the past, it has become more and more common with the downturn in the economy to see things like this happen. There are a number of questionable things that may have happened here. 1) your landlord can just be a deadbeat and not care to do anything but collect rent. 2)If he took out the loan in the last 3-5 years the chances that it subprimed where he had potentially financed 85-100% of the debt he can very likely be under water and it is simply not worth making repairs on a piece of property that he paid x00,000 when it is worth x0,000 now. or 3) he is waiting for a natural disaster such as a storm or something of that magnitude to collect an insurance check with a large enough margin to make other necessary repairs. Albeit, this is still very indicative of poor moral character. Charging rent for a poorly kept space is unfair but it is something that is common in todays’s society. Even worse though, the chances that someone gets hurt is just something he should feel bad about having on his conscious.