Jeff Kelley ([info]slaunchaman) wrote in [info]umstudents,
@ 2006-02-08 22:46:00
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Current mood: amused

Haha
So I got this voicemail tonight from my landlord, Fred Nonnenmacher. Well, actually, it was his wife. Apparently she found this post and is upset about it. She asked me to take it off, saying that they "expected better of me." The First Amendment notwhistanding, what do you think? Should I take it off and be nice or should I let the truth stand as stated?


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[info]vsarto
2006-02-09 03:54 am UTC (link)
ehh. i think the old lazy comments are a bit unneccessary, even if you say theyre the truth. whatever.

gotta be careful with the internet. CMB harassed my buddy when he made an anti-CMB facebook group. haha.

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[info]erinemm
2006-02-09 03:57 am UTC (link)
did you re-sign with him?
If yes, then I'd at least consider taking it down for the sake of not causing future problems. In the end-i'd likely not remove it, but I'd at least consider it.

if you signed for somewhere else next year say all you were doing was giving an opinion, and it was one based on your experience with the company. If they are mad, it's their own damn fault for causing the problems.

Unless they expect a call returned, just ignore it completly. There are websites out there for rating landlords and apartments, this is no different than what appears there.

-Erin

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[info]physics_queen
2006-02-09 03:59 am UTC (link)
Agreed - if you're going to be with him for a long time yet (though that does sound unlikely) - you probably want to take it down so they don't make life even more miserable for you.

However, they don't have any right to force you to take it down. It's not like it's in your lease saying you can't say anything bad about them.

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[info]cokewithdrawl
2006-02-09 03:59 am UTC (link)
I'd tell him to eat shit and fix the house so posts like that wouldn't be warranted. You wouldn't post that kind of stuff if it weren't somehow true.

Keep the post up. Even though you're warning people about the particular landlord, odds are they're not going to suffer terribly because of the one post you made on one website.

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[info]trancendenz
2006-02-09 10:43 pm UTC (link)
The first sentence says it all.

Not only is the electrical problem a fire hazard and he could be shut down anyway, he should take this a compliment that the person DIDN'T turn him into the city.

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[info]mixophrygian
2006-02-09 03:59 am UTC (link)
If it were me I would clean it up to be more objective (take out the personal adjectives) but yeah definitely I would leave it up. It's fair criticism.

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[info]metamorphage
2006-02-09 04:02 am UTC (link)
Yeah, but you can't edit comments, so there's no real way to clean it up.

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[info]colintj
2006-02-09 04:45 am UTC (link)
you can delete them though...and add more appropriate stuff

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[info]metamorphage
2006-02-09 04:01 am UTC (link)
I'm going to assume you didn't re-sign with them...so leave it.

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[info]juliandrago
2006-02-09 04:14 am UTC (link)
they have no right to tell you that shit. if they did a bad job, they need to own up to it. imagine a policy at a restaurant claiming that you can't tell anyone about the quality of the food.

i'm assuming they'll find this post as well.

in that case, nonnenmacher: you can fucking deal with it.

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[info]trancendenz
2006-02-09 10:44 pm UTC (link)
hahahah nice

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[info]lanie_lou
2006-02-09 04:19 am UTC (link)
How's about this, why doesn't the person who made the post just friends lock it since I doubt Mrs. Nonnenmacher is going to create an account and join student groups.

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[info]missa_gorightry
2006-02-09 09:59 pm UTC (link)
I've actually given the link to that thread to my friends who aren't on LJ. It's useful information.

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[info]glass_half_full
2006-02-09 04:21 am UTC (link)
A similar thing happened to me last year when I had an apartment fire and wrote about the shitty lawsuit Campus Rentals brought against my roommates and I. They sued us for $40,000 when in the end, their insurance company only found $19,000 in damages. We're in Ann Arbor and rental companies are often bastards because this is a sellers market.

I turned the post I had made to private or friends only. But as it was such a long time ago, I wouldn't worry about it unless you're renting from them again or forsee having any battle with them.

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[info]bad_hair_week
2006-02-09 04:26 am UTC (link)
No, you should leave it up.

Students need to share this information with each other, and landlords shouldn't intimidate those students.

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[info]starzysky
2006-02-09 04:40 am UTC (link)
I personally think that the mature thing to do would be to apologize for the ad hominem arguments that really don't back up your case. You have legitimate complaints...but then you add that he's old, lazy, and drinks beer while working on the house (what's wrong with that...c'mon, unless he gets drunk or doesn't clean up his beer cans...), and none of those things really are relevant. Especially the part about his age.

I think you should return the call and state that YOU expected better from THEM regarding the certain issues you mentioned, and explain that the other remarks came from frustration and anger. You should say that you've edited the post to remove the personal jabs, but that your dissatisfaction regarding the more legitimate issues is still on the website.

That's just if you want to be remembered as an unhappy, but reasonable tenant, instead of "that asshole college kid" or something. Ya know what I'm saying?

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[info]slaunchaman
2006-02-09 04:42 am UTC (link)
I'd edit it if LiveJournal allowed editing of comments. That being said, however, I think that the beer thing does have some importance. It's not professional to bring a cooler to a home improvement project, especially when you're driving to and from other houses you own.

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[info]erinemm
2006-02-09 04:49 am UTC (link)
delete the comment you made, and re-post a new one at the bottom of that post.
It's like editing but more annoying.

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[info]starzysky
2006-02-09 04:49 am UTC (link)
True. I was just thinking about my boyfriend's landlord who bought her tenants dinner & liquor for help with painting one day...they all got drunk & had a bunch of fun. So I was picturing some old guy working on his house, chilling out, whatever...but I guess if he owns a bunch of properties & is driving around, then he's just another dude who buys a bunch of houses to make big bucks off of poor students, and I don't care much about him in that case.

I was thinking...delete the comment & post a new one. I think LJ allows that.

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[info]slaunchaman
2006-02-09 02:46 pm UTC (link)
It's the principal of the thing, though. If I delete the comment then I'm censoring my former self. I'm moving out at the end of April, so I'm not too worried about it.

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Beer and nail-guns are the perfect combination
[info]cherdt
2006-02-09 02:25 pm UTC (link)
It's not professional to bring a cooler to a home improvement project

I've helped several friends work on their houses, and there was always plenty of beer. If I was a contractor I wouldn't drink beer on the job, but if I was working on my own house or helping a friend? You bet I would.

Sure, it's a different case when you have uptight tenants present who hold a different standard for old fat men than they do for themselves. Maybe he should have considered that.

Basically, I think your last comments detract from the the rest of your argument. Stairs? Important. Removing mold? Important. Getting shit from a tenant because you like to have a brewski while you're mixing cement? Trivial.

If your landlord decides that it is libelous, he could take you to court in which case you would have to defend your statements. If what you said is true, then I say leave the comment up and let other people judge for themselves.

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Re: Beer and nail-guns are the perfect combination
[info]slaunchaman
2006-02-09 02:50 pm UTC (link)
The only part of my comments that could be construed as libelous is the word "lazy." And believe me, I have plenty to back that up should he ever decide to challenge it in court.

Also, he's not fat. You said that, not me.

Working on your friends' house is different. Then it's OK to drink beer. But when the landlord comes into my personal space (which, even though he owns the property, the house is during our lease) and decides he's going to be drinking, he's bringing alcohol into a home of 19-year-olds. Don't get me wrong, I like alcohol as much as the next underage guy, but any time when I could get in trouble if he, say, left a beer can in the house is a time when I think it's unprofessional.

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[info]colintj
2006-02-09 04:48 am UTC (link)
Don't some places call about your previous places of residence? If you list them as a reference, that could be problematic...but if you've got good on that, it wouldn't be an issue. In fact, I don't know why you'd list them as a reference. Ignore what I said.

Say whatever you want. Just remember than anonymity on the internet is a farce.

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[info]slaunchaman
2006-02-09 02:52 pm UTC (link)
I'm already on a lease for the fall, so I'm not worried about being blacklisted or anything.

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[info]witty_nick_name
2006-02-09 03:09 pm UTC (link)
"Mr. Nonnenmacher, I'd really like to take that post down, but my computer is so outdated that I can't connect to the internet. I want to replace it, but all of my disposable income goes towards rent right now... maybe if you were to knock, I don't know, 500 bucks off of next months rent to make up for all of the trouble that we've had with the stairs, the mold and whatnot I might be able to afford a new computer and take that post down."

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[info]slaunchaman
2006-02-09 03:14 pm UTC (link)
Nice.

All this being said, if he offered some cash I'd drop the post, no problem.

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[info]nallyo
2006-02-09 10:22 pm UTC (link)
Delete the ad hominem stuff at the end. If you really feel that people shouldn't rent due to the mildew, repost with examples and such.

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[info]trancendenz
2006-02-09 10:42 pm UTC (link)
It's not slander or libel if it's true and not malicious.

Have they heard of the BBB?

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[info]iateanapricot
2006-02-09 10:44 pm UTC (link)
the thing is, almost every single big rental company that rents to students here is somewhere in that post. if we think it's hard to find housing now, it would be even harder if no one rented from the "bad" landlords. point being, it probably won't hurt their business. i don't know... do whatever you want with the post, but i think they're being a little sensitive.

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[info]sajtboy
2006-02-10 11:38 pm UTC (link)
I've watched both of them work (those stairs did take a while) and also had them be angry at my housemates for various reasons. So their opinion of us probably isn't that good but they might be rather night people. I can't say.

Given that it's an opinion and you've signed elsewhere, I'd leave it up.

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[info]lindsandahalf
2006-02-12 10:16 pm UTC (link)
Don't take it down. Students have a right to know which landlords are terrible.

Check out www.michiganprogressiveparty.com to see what the MPP, a new Student Government party, wants to do about this issue.

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[info]sizzleshack
2006-12-04 10:17 pm UTC (link)
Can somebody actually tell me about this guy since the post isnt there anymore? We're thinking about renting from him and I'd like to know what I'm getting into...

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[info]slaunchaman
2006-12-05 02:54 am UTC (link)
Well, he lives outside of Ann Arbor, so you can't just walk into his office like other landlords. He owns several properties near the corner of John St. and Division St., and is often in town performing maintenance on them (and, annoyingly, parking in one house's driveway, blocking parking, while working on another house). Honestly, renting with him wasn't too bad, but he can be a little slow to complete large repairs.

If you're thinking of renting 336 John St., you may want to know that though it is listed as a four-bedroom house, the first-floor bedroom is actually what appears to be a converted patio; there are windows on three sides, an in-room bathroom, and a (fake) tile floor. It's downright uninhabitable without a space heater in the winter. The other three rooms are fine, though.

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