When I moved to Nashville in the aftermath of the 2010 flood, apartments were hard to come by. I happened to find an (kinda crappy) apartment in a really fantastic neighborhood at a spectacular price, and have been using it as my base of operations ever since.
The middle of last year, I started getting junk mail addressed to my landlord, indicating that maybe he was in some sort of financial straits. Refinance companies, lawyers, banks—all offering services to somebody behind on their mortgage. Then in early January I had a note on the door from the landlord, ASSURING ME that everything was under control and we were to send in the rent as normal. And in the mailbox a letter from the bank, saying that we were to send the money to them directly. Two weeks ago, a letter from the bank’s lawyer, saying I should send the rent to him at the peril of being evicted.
I tried calling the landlord (who rarely answers his phone if he knows who’s calling on account of we only want something fixed), and was informed that his voice mailbox was full. So I sent a text message asking where to send the rent, and yesterday he finally responded indicating it should go to him.
As he’s the only person with whom I have a signed lease agreement, the check’s on its way to him, but it’s a little disconcerting to thing there’s really only a one-in-three chance of putting the check into the non-eviction hole.
On the other hand, I can afford a nicer apartment these days. It would just be nice to have another year or so of really low rents and convenient ice cream and coffee shops.