The continuing economic crunch this year, combined with the usual craziness of at least a small percentage of the 300M people packed into our fifty states, has produced some spectacularly crazy tales of landlord-tenant grievances. We hesitate to call these "favorites", considering some are horrific acts of violence or instances of unadulterated racism, but they're certainly the most noteworthy. Plus, an old letter to Andy Warhol surfaced to add a little historical perspective. Kicking it off is an innocuous-looking London mansion that just so happened to be owned by a son of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi. Back when Colonel Qaddafi was alive and abusing his people, his son Saif had the house on the market for $15,792 a week. It didn't take long for anti-Qaddafi protesters to bust down the door and start squatting in the place. Click through the gallery above for the run-down.
· Curbed Awards 2011 [Curbed National]
Monday, January 9, 2012
Curbed Awards 2011: Feuds: the Five Worst Landlord-Tenant Stories of the Year
Saturday, January 7, 2012
The Absolute Worst: Our cousins over at Curbed National...
Friday, November 18, 2011
Horror Stories: Vote For the Worst Renter Horror Story in SF
Renter Horror Story #1: Bernal Heights Rental Came With Mice, Layers of Sawdust
"A shared bathroom (in between two rooms) that was the size of a closet and was complete with plywood doors meaning you could hear?everything that went on inside including the aftermath of your?roommates hookup's late night burrito feast, immediately following a?lengthy round of loud intercourse."
Renter Horror Story #2: Noe Valley Apartment Comes With Unmentioned Mold Infestation (complete with photos)
"After a couple of days of living there I was waking up with a sore throat and the dog was waking up swallowing really hard, something he doesn't do. I also noticed that the towels didn't dry, and when I hung the shower curtain on the wall to protect the sheetrock crumbled in my hand. Hmmm."
Renter Horror Story #3: One Bedroom Apartment is "One Event Away From a Major Fire"
"Two days before the wedding, with my grandparents' flight due to land at SFO in an hour, we lose power and begin to smell smoke. I try to replace the fuse, but it blows. I go through three more fuses and they all blow, too. A call to everyone's favorite landlord, and he's there in a few hours with his handyman #1. HM #1 looks at our old knob-and-tube wiring and says that the whole place needs to be re-wired. It's one event away from a major fire. He says we'll need to move out for about two weeks while he drills in through the ceiling and installs all new wiring. Our landlord insists we can live through it. "Just move all of your stuff away from the ceiling," he says."
Time to vote:
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Horror Stories: Disgusting Mold Infestation Is San Francisco's Best (Worst?) Renter Horror Story
· Vote For the Worst Renter Horror Story in SF [Curbed SF]
· Noe Valley Apartment Comes With Unmentioned Mold Infestation [Curbed SF]
Renters Week 2011: Polls Open: Vote For the Worst Renter Horror Story NOW!
At the tail beginning of the Renters Week 2011 hullabaloo, we implored Curbed readers to send their goriest Renter Horror Stories with brighter, rent-free days ahead promised to the person with the best tale to tell. We published the two finalists yesterday—Mandy in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, and Chelsea, in Syracuse, N.Y.—and now it's up to you to decide which of these lasses is in the running for one gloriously rent-free month—the winner will face the winner of all the city-site polls (concurrently running) right here on Curbed National tomorrow. Editor's Note: This poll will be open for 24 hours and voting irregularities will be strictly policed.
Here again, the semifinalists:
Renter Horror Story 1: Cockroach, Mice, and Wolf Spiders [link]
SNIPPET: "Yes, those were WASPS living in the wall right outside said balcony door. And giant wolf spiders stringing their webs over our BBQ and balcony furniure, rendering the lake view unenjoyable. Then those spiders found their way indoors. How? We never did find out. Plus [...] I found cockroaches under our kitchen sink. The last straw was the mice. I stored our cat's food under the kitchen sink. One evening I reached for a bag, tipped it over the pet food dish and out tumbled two mice."
Renter Horror Story 2: Bedbugs Ignored For Three Months [link]
SNIPPET: "It turns out, EVERY BUILDING in the complex is infested. [...] The landlord refused to pay for the extermination, and told us if we refused to pay the $1,400, we would be evicted. Livid, my boyfriend and I called the health department (who said they could not help us) and the town code enforcer, who, as it turns out, was friends with the landlord. The property manager’s husband, who is head of maintenance, got into a verbal altercation with my boyfriend, calling him a liar because the exterminator only found one bug in our place. We had bed bugs for three months. "
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Guy Creates Fake Orgy to Piss Off Neighbor: This may be the worst case...
? Previous: Massive Russian Manse Alight With That Super-Special Glow
? Next: Nothing But Net
Thursday, March 17, 2011
The Worst Places to Live in NYC: Today NYC's Department of Housing Preservation...
? Previous: Sex Toys Hidden in Lamps, and Other Stuff With Class, Not Crass
? Next: Miami's Record-Setting Spec House Behemoth Worth a Second Look
Thursday, February 3, 2011
2011 Could Be The Worst Year In The History Of <b>Real Estate</b>
2011 Could Be The Worst Year In The History Of Real Estate
Man, am I glad that I don’t rely solely upon real estate for an income. In fact, I’m really glad we began to diversify when we did. By most accounts, 2011 might be the worst real estate market we’ve seen in a long time…if not the worst ever!
In 2010, banks foreclosed on 1 Million homes. The forecast for 2011 is a 500% increase. The numbers are scary as banks are set to foreclose on over 5 Million homes this year. That’s devastating for the housing sector.
About 5 million borrowers are at least two months behind on their mortgages and more will miss payments as they struggle with job losses and loans worth more than their home’s value, industry analysts forecast.
“2011 is going to be the peak,” said Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at foreclosure tracker RealtyTrac Inc.
The outlook comes after banks repossessed more than 1 million homes in 2010, RealtyTrac said Thursday. That marked the highest annual tally of properties lost to foreclosure on records dating back to 2005.
One in 45 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing last year, or a record high of 2.9 million homes. That’s up 1.67 percent from 2009.
For December, 257,747 U.S. homes received at least one foreclosure-related notice. That was the lowest monthly total in 30 months. The number of notices fell 1.8 percent from November and 26.3 percent from December 2009, RealtyTrac said.
The pace slowed in the final two months of 2010 as banks reviewed their foreclosure processes after allegations surfaced in September that evictions were handled improperly. Under increased scrutiny by the government, lenders temporarily halted taking actions against borrowers severely behind on their payments.
Foreclosures are expected to remain elevated through the year as homeowners contend with stubbornly high unemployment, tougher credit standards for refinancing and falling home values.
Sharga said he expects prices to dip another 5 percent nationally before finally bottoming out. The decline will push more borrowers underwater on their mortgages.
Already, about one in five homeowners with a mortgage owe more than their home is worth.
The pain likely will be the most acute in states that have already been hit hard. That includes former housing boom states Nevada, Arizona, Florida and California, along with states that are suffering most from the economic downturn, including Michigan and Illinois.
Nevada posted the highest foreclosure rate in 2010 for the fourth straight year, despite a 5 percent decline in activity from the year before. One in every 11 households received a foreclosure filing last year in the state. In December, foreclosure activity increased 18 percent from November with a 71 percent spike in bank repossessions.
Arizona and California also showed sharp December increases in the number of homes banks took back, at 52 percent and 47 percent, respectively. Arizona, along with Florida, finished the year at No. 2 and No. 3 for the highest foreclosure rates.
One in every 17 Arizona households got a foreclosure filing last year, while one in 18 received a notice in Florida.
California, Utah, Georgia, Michigan, Idaho, Illinois and Colorado rounded out the top ten states with the highest foreclosure rates.
More than half of the country’s foreclosure activity came out of five states in 2010: California, Florida, Arizona, Illinois and Michigan.
Together, these states recorded almost 1.5 million households receiving a filing, despite year-over-year decreases in California, Florida and Arizona.
RealtyTrac tracks notices for defaults, scheduled home auctions and home repossessions — warnings that can lead up to a home eventually being lost to foreclosure.
Despite this news, I’m sure we’ll see the obligatory response from the National Association Of Realtors and their ilk that now’s a great time to buy a home.
The same old tired mantra is really getting old. Just yesterday, Pete Flint from Trulia said he thinks that the overall real estate market is coming back.
So while 58% of those polled don’t see a recovery happeneing until 2012 and 20% not expecting a recovery until 2015…just who is going to buy all of this inventory?
More importantly, which doesn’t seem to get talked about by the NAR. Where are the buyers, who are willing to jump in, going to get the mortgages to make these home purchases?
Well at least from an investment perspective, there’s going to be a whole lot of prospective tenants out there. If you have cash and buy right you’re going to be able to make a serious ROI.
Hmmm…buying and holding. Now there’s something one might want to look into over the next few years. Just saying.
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Barry Cunningham is one of the Co-Editors of iNEWS and offers a cutting edge and some may say an opinionated view of today's news and current events. Never one to be shy about giving his take on what's happening in the world of sports, politics and business.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
House of the Day: Tennessee Presents An Early Contender for Worst Room of 2011
Have a nomination for a jaw-dropping listing that would make a mighty fine House of the Day? Get thee to the tipline and send us your suggestions. We'd love to see what you've got.
Location: Knoxville, Tenn.
Price: $12,500,000
The Skinny: As one of the great Southern manufacturing cities, Knoxville is rich with architectural history, so it's a pity the builders of this riverside monstrosity had to cross an ocean for their inspiration. Villa Collina measures a cavernous 32,000 square feet, most of which is chock full of questionable design choices. For our money, the worst offender is the purple sitting room (above), which borders on the near-inconceivable. That's not to say the house doesn't have some impressive features—like a duo of heated swimming pools, an elevator, a seven-car garage—but they'd probably all look better in black and white.
· Villa Collina [Sotheby's]