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darobin (1316)

darobin
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http://berjon.com/

Journal of darobin (1316)

Friday May 17, 2002
10:29 PM

On scaring rent agency people

[ #5035 ]

I have no idea how the people that act as middle (wo)men in renting (or letting for some of us) flats are called, hence the subject. I do know however that the one in charge of my flat is one I really don't like and am bound to get into more trouble with soon enough (unless I earn sufficient money in the month to come). Lets call her the landlady even though that's not really what she is.

There's an advantage to living in a free country: you're protected against the abuses of such people, and unless you do something truly wrong you cannot be kicked out of your flat. My main way of dealing with her attempts to bully me is to act as if I were slightly mad. And knowing that 1) there are chances that I won't be able to pay my rent on time next month (I'm crossing my fingers it won't be the case though), and 2) that she was coming with the plumber to check that it was indeed her responsibility to pay for the repairs, I just had to make my place look scary enough to a conventional and conservative mind as hers. Not evil, just slightly outside what she can deal with.

So I proceeded to prepare my flat for her visit. How exactly I set it up is hard to describe, there was a lot of pushing objects in the exact right place to make them look wrong without them being "wrong" enough to be objectionable. A list wouldn't do it justice, as you can guess: books, books everywhere, mostly poetry mixed with O'Reilly stuff, half of them open; some rope on the bed with just enough of a few knots to suggest bondage but not enough to clarify it; political literature all over, mixed with business contracts, and other such things.

In other words, I'm not quite sure how I could describe the setting but I know for sure that it had its effect. I'm pretty sure that next time I'm late for my rent, I'll have two extra weeks before she musters the courage to call me.

hmmmm, maybe I'm becoming just about evil enough to enter politics....


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  • hmmmm, maybe I'm becoming just about evil enough to enter politics....

    Piffle.

    The foul misuse of Feng Shui [aballantine.com] might daze the local rent collectors (if not, it at least gets points for creativity) but fiendishly pushing the ottoman into the hallway is a far cry from holding a warm smile and steady gaze while gesturing to an assistant to have the guy garroted after his accounts are cleared out.

    Sorry...

    -ubu

  • There's an advantage to living in a free country: you're protected against the abuses of such people

    It seems to me that in a truly free country, they would be free to abuse you ...

    • Well, no, that would put my safety at risk, and thus go against freedom. I did mean free, not wild!

      --

      -- Robin Berjon [berjon.com]

      • But ... you're restricting the freedom of others! Fascist! (Hey, if you can call me postmodern, I can call you fascist. ;-)

        • No I'm not... a place to live in is a fundamental right, which is logically placed above the right to property. Besides, they are middle-men that pay the real owner even when I'm late, and are insured against people like me that go through a few hard months. The definition of freedom that all kids learn by heart in primary schools here is (roughly) "one's freedom extends to the point where someone else's freedom starts". I always thought that that left a lot of room for floating boundaries and interpreta

          --

          -- Robin Berjon [berjon.com]

          • Eh, I'm just screwing around ... I certainly didn't mean that you are a fascist, and I don't support a system that allows what I noted is "truly free."

            It was a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States who said, "the right to throw your fist ends where my nose begins." However, I maintain that while this philosophy is a good one, and I share it*, that it is not representative of true freedom, but rather of the limits we must place on freedom in order to protect those fundamental rights and establi

            • A few notes in a free form way (I've got a terrible headache preventing me from putting two concepts properly one after the other):

              I get the feeling that you think a lot of room for intepretation is a good thing; perhaps you don't, but I certainly don't.

              Certainly not. The law should be legislative, not jurisprudential. Otherwise you end up with decisions taken by judges that should have been taken by the elected representants of the people. The law ought to leave no room for interpretation.

              --

              -- Robin Berjon [berjon.com]

              • I think your simple example is wrongly put into the context of dueling liberties, but rather has to do with dueling rights. You have a right -- not a liberty -- to have a place to live. You have the liberty to live where you wish (according to your means), but the right to have a place to live at all. I do think you are conflating the two.

                And no, you would not be "free" if we say only that he could kick you out at his whim, but if we are going to go that far and say that people can act as the please reg
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