The next hurdle

Why is it that when I need the rental manager of my building she's either sick or on vacation? The rental company sure gets their money out of her.

I'm sick of dicking around with this so we called her boss - her "team leader". Sweet Jesus. I hate that corporate world we're-all-working-together speak. Just say boss, okay? Boss Woman said that she's had the Louds in a couple times before, sans Herr Loud because he can't be bothered with such things, and each time it degenerated into Frau Loud crying and saying "We'll be better.". Her promises carry about as much credibility with me as Osama bin Laden would have addressing the graduating class of Bob Jones University and without fail the whole shitting match starts again whenver Herr Loud decides he will do what he wants to do no matter what. Boss Woman also said that she suspects that Frau Loud hasn't been always truthful with her side of the story when she's been summoned into the rental office. I have to admire Boss Woman's ability to crank out an understatement.

I got out my rental contract today and there's a specific paragraph about excessive noise. It states that all TVs, stereos, radios, etc. are to be kept at a room volume only and care is to be taken that it does not disturb your neighbors and this rule is in effect 24/7. It also states that when a tenent is very ill (as has been with the man living above the Louds - he's been quite sick and the very hard-of-hearing man has had no trouble hearing the blaring TV even when he's not wearing his hearing aids), reasonable care is to be taken not to disturb that person. There are no specific rules about screaming while taking a shit in the middle of the night but I'm going to risk a guess that it's not considered a reasonable and customary living noise. The occasional baby crying, yes. Dog barking for a minute or two, yes. Screaming so loud for ten minutes straight at 4:30am while taking a crap that it can be heard on the street and by tenents living seven floors up from you, no.

Tomorrow we troop back downtown to meet with Boss Woman. We'll give her the third set of peace infractions and we're making the demand that something be done once and for all. Boss Woman did say on the phone that something would be done because this can't keep going on and while I agree with her, she is holding about as much credibility with me as Frau Loud is.

I am so fed up with this that my idea of taking care of things will amount to two things - either the Louds are evicted or I will move and the rental company will not charge me any money for stripping my apartment down to the original state nor will they charge me rent for three months if they don't have a tenent lined up to take this apartment. I don't know if I'll get my way, but that's what I want. I do know this much - if the Louds stay, I'm still at this point planning on moving. They have poisoned the atmosphere in this building and I can't stand the thought of them living over me for the next God-only-know-how-many years. B's already searching for apartments and if we move, my MIL will move out too. So as far as the rental company goes they have the choice of losing one bad tenent or losing two longtime, reliable tenents.

I don't have a good feeling about any of this. I have a suspicion that tomorrow's meeting will be about as fruitful as a UN Security Council resolution.