Help Urgently Needed: Forum Expat Gone Nuts In My Apartment

[ghost]

where is Kate101?

 

[Somewhereinba]

[background=rgb(252, 252, 252)] [/background][background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]Last Active Today, 08:23 AM.[/background]

Hopefully it all got sorted out and cooler heads prevailed.

 

[GS_Dirtboy]

I popped all of this popcorn for nothing?

 

[WhenInBsAs]

What a telenovela, so much drama! So many peole waiting to find out the outcome... Where is OP? No update but his status shows as recently active? Post has not been deleted either, so no resolution? Drama turning into mystery! Can hear the Psycho movie shower scene tense music in my head!

 

[glasgowjohn]

No reports in Clarin or La Nacion of unsavory incidents?

 

[homeinbuenosaires]

Guess what, guys (you know who you are, it is not everyone and I appreciate the genuine concern and support from many corners)? This is not a television show that I produce ahead of time so I can have the latest episode ready for you at 9am on Monday when I said the showdown would be occurring. I still have clients arriving today and have more work to do - as I have maintained since I posted the first time (and, indeed, that is WHY I posted here the first time at all!) Had I not done so, I am 100% positive that I wouldn’t have had had a chance in hell of showing the apartment yesterday or delivering an acceptable apartment to my clients arriving this afternoon).

My strategy, which was rooted more in compassion for others - both Kate by using tough love and my clients arriving today and later this month - than myself, brought me the exact results I wanted and even some that are better than I could have anticipated in my wildest dreams! My faith in my ability to gauge situations and react appropriately is more or less unshaken. The ONLY mistake that I made here was to reach out to someone on this forum to try to help - and of course this probably wouldn't have happened had I made the same offer to just about anybody else on here - which is how I ended up in this situation in the first place.

Yesterday was a very long and exhausting day, and I don’t use a smartphone so I have no idea how people think I could have been in two places at once - posting here and doing what I needed to do simultaneously in a completely present and mindful way. This is my real life, not a reality show! Some people here - NOT all, and certainly not those who were genuinely concerned and helpful - might do well to take a larger lesson from this episode about their own habits/ lifestyle/ mindset and where it is taking them. I look at the world in my way, they look at the world in their way… and we both end up being right! Life gives all of us what we expect from it. I offered help to my tenant and ended up getting help for some of my own, unrelated, issues via serendipity as a result.

As it turns out, the only champagne corks that will be popping will the be bottle(s) that I open for myself and those who helped me deal with this situation IRL yesterday. That help did NOT come from this forum, though my post obviously spurred my tenant into action in a way that would not have happened any other way. Again - mission accomplished. I’ll always prefer diplomacy to the nuclear option, but I finally learned that this means that I sometimes have to genuinely be able to threaten mutually assured destruction in order to achieve my objectives (even though I never want to come this close to seeing combat again and will be much more choosy about what kind of person I devote my resources to in order to avoid it). This incident taught me how to really stand up for myself, perhaps for the first time ever! In this regard, this tenant actually taught me a massive lesson that I will carry with me for the rest of my life, and I can only be grateful to her for this.

Through an extremely serendipitous series of events, including help that came from as far away as Holland and Belgrano (in that case, on a moment’s notice and at the behest of a stranger - me! - with my tenant’s best interest in mind until the end), I was able to have her out by about 1 or 2 pm. The angel from Belgrano (who I’ll likely be seeing more of but would probably not have met any other way) helped her move into a nearby hotel - she had asked him for help moving out after seeing my post because she finally understood she had to go, but that certainly doesn’t mean the apartment was left in good shape! I actually had also serendipitously received the details of a backup hotel in San Telmo that costs $10 USD per night, just in case she had nowhere to go. I could not leave someone in that condition on the street, regardless of what she had done to me and my property, but that doesn’t mean I was going to let her stay after our contract expired.

It was extremely messy and undignified, I had plenty of wild accusations and epithets hurled at me, even in the public areas of the building (which could have real-life consequences for me and my livelihood). All of my high quality Egyptian Cotton linens (see other posts of mine on here where I make reference to the fact that this is how I furnish my rentals) were soiled beyond usability and I even had to leave a note on the bag for the cartoneros telling them not to open anything for their own safety.

My high quality feather duvet and pillows - and we know how expensive those are because someone started a thread about them very recently! - will also probably have to go in the trash. Unless this person tries to cause trouble for me in the future, I will absorb all of these very high costs myself, but you’d best believe I took some pretty shocking photos of EVERYTHING, emailed them to myself and others and can get testimony from witnesses who were present if need be. I’ve learned a lot from all this and won’t be caught unprepared for any reprisals!

The cleanup was gruesome and involved face masks, copious quantities of essential oils in a burner, and an air purifier that I had to buy just for this that is still running and will continue to run until check-in this afternoon. Fortunately, I had been serendipitously warned about the state I'd find the apartment in by her previous landlord in an email in Spanish that I have made reference to in this very thread - I wouldn’t had time to buy the air purifier etc otherwise and still get everything done.

As we all know, the water was out yesterday from the morning until early to mid afternoon, including in the apartment in question. Had she actually left at 9am, the cleanup would have been slightly more expensive because I would have had to do it with bottled water! Again - miraculously - everything worked in my favor in unexpected ways!

Naturally, I had to postpone the showing of the apartment until the evening, but - of course - that actually turned out to be better for the lovely couple from Berkeley (! I only found out after they arrived) that I had to show it to. They loved the apartment, of course! It really does look a bit more enchanting in the evening. It sounds like they may even end up becoming repeat visitors, but let’s see what the future brings. Today I am focused on the clients arriving this afternoon, and I’m putting the finishing touches on my list of suggestions of things for them to see and do. In order words, I am back to business as usual.

I regret nothing - can everybody here say the same?

Besos,

homeinbuenosaires

 

[Chet]

Good to hear everything worked out in the end.
Mistakes are always chances to learn and grow.

 

[Rich One]

The OP deserves a Pulitzer Price for Short Stories....! (Porteño Landlady in distress) Soiled Sheets and a ruined Duvet .... 108 postings later

 

[homeinbuenosaires]

Rich One -

Believe me when I say that it was MUCH worse than you are implying and will be very expensive to remedy! Luckily, I was also a 'rich one'* when I designed, remodeled and furnished this apartment and could afford the very best, so the paint on the walls and everything besides the soft furnishings can be cleaned and made hygenic once more.

My time on this forum has been most illuminating indeed - I see that my posts are like something of a Rorschach test, and I am also able to see how this corresponds to my interactions with people in real life.


*Actually - as a direct result of this incident, in fact - I'm a 'rich one' again today as well in all senses of the word, including in the economic sense, believe it or not!

 

[ajoknoblauch]

This sounds like the reason landlords require damage deposits.