COMMON SENSE WINS -- Part Two

“WEI?” Ou~ The landlord’s voice was so loud and crackly it hurt my ear. I could almost smell the alcohol in his breath.
“May I speak to Ms. Liu please?”
I listened to the flopping sound of his flip-flops on the floor and him passing the phone to his wife. It took a while until I barely heard a weak aspirated “Wei? Xin-hua (my first name in Chinese)?”
What’s wrong with her? Is she sleeping? “Hi, Ms. Liu. I’m on my way to the apartment. We’re still meeting at 9:30, right?”
She cleared her throat. “9….okay….9:30….. yes….” The same weak aspirated voice. I wondered if she was ill.
“Alright! See you there then.”
Something’s up or she’s up to something. Why can’t she just be normal for once? This woman really annoys the shit out of me.

When they showed up, her left ankle was wrapped in pungent Chinese medicinal goo and she shuffled her left foot on the floor. She stopped in front of us, looked down at her foot, looked up and gave us a “what can you do” kind of smile, half-expecting us to ask about it. We didn’t.

They walked around the empty apartment for a bit, and she said (still in that weak voice), “Okay, you have the keys? Why don't we make a note in the lease that you’ve received your deposit back. Let's write on the kitchen counter.” As soon as we got into the kitchen, she took out some money from an envelope and said, “I took the liberty to deduct $4,000 for the few days you overstayed…..” then she went on telling us what a rarity she is as far as landlords go. I tuned her out and, judging from the rising corners of her thin lips, I could tell she was really enjoying talking about herself. I turned to look at Bill. He was shaking his head beside me with a “Don’t be ridiculous” smile on his face. “No!” I said firmly, cutting off her self-indulging speech. “As far as we’re concerned, we don’t owe you anything.” There began the dispute.

She tried to blame us for the flooding.
We told her we had asked the plumbers for their names and phone number in case we need their statements.

She told us the amount the plumbers charged her.
We simply replied, “It’s none of our concerns.”

She told us the amount of money she spent trying to fix the roof.
We simply replied, “Yet it’s still not fixed.”

She tried to claim that she was honest about the ceiling from the beginning, so we can’t blame her for the leak.
We reminded her exactly what she said to us when we asked her about the ceilings before we moved in.

She suggested that we should be grateful because they didn’t have to come and help us clean the water.
We reminded her that they didn’t have to help, but they had the responsibility to make sure it wouldn’t happen again. And it did, four days later.

She wanted us to know how very tolerant and generous she was because we broke the contract and, by law, she could keep the deposit.
We told her that she was the one who broke the contract and if she really wanted to talk about losses, we have dated pictures of the leaks and floods, as well as a detailed list of the damage.

She raised her voice and said she wasn’t born yesterday and she had never seen a tenant like me. My behavior was no different from a thug. She said I might as well be robbing her clean while I’m at it (This is a very typical melodramatic Taiwanese thing to say).

Bill told her we’d not continue talking to her if she didn’t calm down and, in a flash, snatched the lease away from the counter. Ms. Liu didn't see that coming. She was left dumbfounded.

I told her that obviously we couldn’t reach an agreement so we should follow the legal process. I then informed her that she could expect to receive a formal legal letter of inquiries.

Then we headed out the door.

“Wait!” she came into the elevator with us and shut the door.

“This is why I don’t want to rent to foreigners,” she mumbled while we were on the way down.
I raised my voice and looked straight at her, “Ms. Liu, we will not tolerate comments like this. If you say another word along those lines, we’ll see you in court. End of discussion.”

She led us to her house to get the full amount of the deposit, but she forgot her keys. So we waited outside for her pickled husband to find his way home while being eaten alive by vicious mosquitoes.

After she waited for a while, she walked to the alley entrance to see where the hell her husband was. That’s when Bill noticed that she wasn't limping anymore. She was walking normal! Bill and I could only shake our heads. We just wanted the whole thing to be over.

She didn’t just give us the money without putting up a fight. Eventually, I made a note in the lease for the amount of money we received from her and the copies of our IDs. She signed in the lease for the return of two sets of keys and that the apartment was intact when we returned it. When we asked her to make a photocopy of that page with our signatures on, she folded the lease into thirds, trying to hide the record of our rent payments. We insisted that she photocopy the whole page, but she still folded away the dates. Something's fishy. This woman is so terribly frightened to face the law.

Well, little did she know, I had already made a photocopy of the lease. Her attempts to hide were simply a waste of time and energy.

It’s over. No crappy apartment and evil landlords. No more leaks and floods.