Icy relationships

On Monday, my wife called me at work to tell me that the pipes had frozen. While she went in search of the cell number to call the landlord that fixes things, I called the landlord that has people skills. About an hour later, I got a call back and was told - in a rather gruff manner - that the landlord that fixes things had been contacted and would be working on it. My wife, however, gives a different account: "He told me that he'd get around to it later."

Lovely. Apparently "his time is money," which explains why he spent all of a half-hour trying to correct the problem. Half an hour. In that time, he set up a (lukewarm) space heater by one pipe, and put a work-light under another. There was a blow-torch nearby; I can't say with any degree of certainty if he used it or not. In any case, the pipes are still frozen - we have no cold water in the bathroom, and (oddly enough) no hot water in the kitchen.

I guess this annoys me because we're spending a rather large chunk of change on this apartment, and we've had nothing but hassles from them for the past few months. This is just another twist of the knife - we let them know that there was an issue; one that could potentially cost them hundreds of dollars, and the response we got was "we'll get around to it."

In addition to the frozen pipes, we have a hole in the wall from the thermostat that they moved several months ago. They pulled it off of one wall, and moved it to the wall shared with the back apartment's kitchen. Obviously, this will make it warmer and affect the reading. Result? Our apartment is constantly five to ten degrees colder than what the thermostat says. Meanwhile, at the house next door (which our landlords also own), people are opening their windows to try to cool the apartments down. After a couple of weeks of me doing it, they've finally started to shovel the sidewalk and steps. I also recently found out that they jury-rigged a power cord to the outside by wiring it into the main circuit breaker in the basement. I found this out after they took down the Christmas lights and tripped the breaker for our kitchen.

What annoys me the most is their lack of attention. This is a business; people are paying you rent to make sure that they have a safe, warm, and functional place to live. If you can't provide that or don't have the time to provide that, then don't. Sell the place to someone who does, and who can properly maintain the property. Someone who can keep the place together without creatively using duct-tape.

Rest assured, I will be grilling the landlord(s) of the next place we live before I sign any lease. I'll also be thoroughly inspecting the property, and hopefully be able to talk to the other residents.

This is not a mistake I plan on making again.