Replies

I was not physically or financially in a position to move at the time, or check with an attorney, so I couldn't force the issue. The manager guy was a former cop who seemed to have a reservoir of undiluted anger in him, and his wife was a bulldozer. They ran the place with an iron fist and I was very ill at the time.

I am almost certain the complainer was the old woman whose bedroom wall was contiguous to mine. She was a CASE. I am sure she wasn't mentally balanced. She regularly woke me up at 2 AM because she was ramming her closet door the full length of its runner, into my wall. Throughout the night I'd hear her in her room (waking me up) yelling at people who weren't there.

The apartment had a laundry room across the hall from me, with strict instructions not to start laundry before 9 AM. One weekend morning right at 9 AM, I started the washing machine, turned to go, and about had an accident when I found her blocking the door, as menacing as a Nazi SS guard. I can't adequately describe the evil coming out of her. She demanded to know why I was breaking the rules. I asked what rules. She said I couldn't wash my clothes. I said it was nine AM and waited for her to stop blocking the doorway; in my mind, the conversation was OVER.

She hated children and tried to get me evicted because I had a child. When I finally did move, several other tenants, nodding acquaintances, approached me in the hall and said how sad they were that we were moving. Every one of them said if they hadn't seen my son with their own eyes, they'd never have known a child lived near them, and commented on how polite and friendly he always was to them, respectful. Yet the managers did threaten to evict me on account of my having a son, even though I had stated it in the rental agreement. I don't know why they kowtowed to the old lady and bullied me. It really put me off apartment living, and reinforced every prejudice I had formed against it.