Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Why I Fear for the Olympics

Remember my post about the ceiling in Julio's and Juan Carlos' room?

That was 2 weeks ago today. Would you like to see what it looks like now?




The main problem area is larger, a lot of the drywall has fallen off; the red arrows are pointing to areas that are now bubbling up (down?) and dripping water.

What has been done to fix this problem?

Ab-so-lute-ly NOTHING.

Let's review timeline of events, shall we?

Three weeks ago:

The problem starts.

Many calls were put in to the owner of the apartment, as she, under Brazilian law, is to have a say in who fixes her property.

She doesn't answer her phone. Her husband doesn't answer his.

Two weeks ago:

Guapo has someone at his office find a reputable company to come out and take a look at the problem. They come out the day of my last post about it, and tell us they will send someone the next day to take the measurements to do the estimate.

Guapo finally gets a hold of the apartment owner. She is irritated with us that we have "waited" so long to call her, implying that it is now our fault that this is such a big problem. She insists on sending out her guy to check things out. But of course, he can't come until the next week.

He finally comes and says the same thing the first guy said, basically that the whole apartment is falling apart and it needs to be redone. It's raining the day he comes and he says he has to wait until it's been dry a few days to see if it drips when it hasn't been raining, even though I already explained to him that it had been dripping for 2 weeks rain or shine. I mean, who am I to know about such technical issues as dripping water? He tells me he'll come Monday if it is dry over the weekend. It was dry.

He NEVER came back.

1 week ago:

The landlady and her husband are once again unavailable.

The estimate guy from the "reputable" company finally shows up. He promises the estimate the next day. Although Guapo's secretary has called every day since then, they still don't have an estimate for us.

Today:

No Landlady. She knows we have a serious problem and she won't answer her phone or call us.

No Estimate.

Noth-ing.

We are now in the process of looking for another "reputable" company, but we will just be starting over from square 1 (or -1).

The rent is being withheld from the landlady. She'll eventually call as we pay a lot every month.

My blood pressure is now up from writing this. I have to go find my happy place now. All I can do is laugh, right? I can't believe I was ever worried about having workers in the house.

9 comments:

Betty W said...

$8000 per month!!! That is insane! Where do you live?
What a "Geduldsprobe" (German for ordeal)!! I´m so sorry you are having so much trouble. I thought Brazil was a little more "civilized" than Paraguay, but your story sounds like something that would happen here too.

Head Nurse or Patient- you be the judge said...

Depending on how long you expect to be there- I would cinsider moving- although it may not be worth it. And I though repair men in the US were bad after my 8 month washer ordeal

Kari said...

Aaahhh...memories of Mexico City, they're flooding back right now. Then we left, and the owner was unavailable and did not return calls on our $3000 deposit we were to receive back? Our realtors down there kept calling him, for 6 months AFTER we left. Our Realtors found out he wasn't claiming the rental income, to avoid paying taxes. Once they mentioned that small detail to him, he was quick to return our deposit. Hang in there.

Janice said...

My mouth is wide open reading the $8000 a month. What the crap?!

Anyway, I am so sorry about your ceiling.

Fabiola said...

I am so sorry you are going true all this ordeal.
One thing about living from São Paulo and down... the people are much more reliable than from RJ and up.
In Bahia, things were REALLY BAD, don't get me started on the comercial hours only (from 9:00 to 11:00/ 2:00 to 5:00). Even people from RJ complained about :S

Hang in there.

Fabiola

Awesome Mom said...

Just don't bang your head against the wall in frustration, you might knock a hole in the wall and cause worse issues.

andalucy said...

That is terrible. I don't understand the landlady's approach. Does she not really care? I'm interested to see how that turns out. And I'm sorry you are having to deal with such a headache!

This is the first time we've rented since college (oh, and the 6 months we were in Venezuela, I guess) and it's been interesting. We are also renting our house to someone. Our landlord is pretty good, but he wasn't very forthcoming about a few things, we realize now. Not a huge deal, but it makes us wary. (And also makes us resolve to be great landlords!)

Ballerina Girl said...

I got it....
they can't get you your quote or work done, (and maybe even the landlady is involved, too), because they are ALL so busy getting ready for the Olympics

;) BG

Lynne said...

So where do the boys sleep? Are they still in there room and if so, do you just have pots and pans underneath?