h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You may recall a few months ago that I ranted about how the management company that bought this apartment complex earlier this year put my rent up by nearly a century a month, only to tell us two weeks later that they were closing down the laundry room to make a bigger fitness centre and clubhouse

Well, they've been working on the building for several weeks, and this morning I noticed some signs going up besides various doors for the aforementioned clubhouse, fitness centre... and pet spa

You took away the laundry room for a place where dogs are going to... well, I don't know what a pet spa even is. And I don't bloody care. I'm so annoyed I could smash a teacup

Sorry, but your "Brititude" is humorous.

I guess I haven't been American long enough yet

I suspect the answer comes down to what makes more money.

Struth.... I feel your anguish man! I mean... yeh.... - watchit though; maybe they'll revoke your US citizenship if you display much more sense of Britishness

I'm not sure if it's going to make money Bea. I don't know if it's simply going to be a room where people can take their pets (ie, dogs) and do... whatever it is that gets done in a pet spa, or if the management company will lease it out to a pet grooming business. Either way, the whole renovation (as well as installing washers and driers in all the apartments as they come vacant) must be costing them a pretty penny. Which is why my rent is outrageous now

Depending on who wins the next general election, I may revoke it myself

Good point... and well called

This isn't going well.

Two or three years ago, when I was still in Fort Gosho, my bill for water, sewage etc (essentially, my share of all the city services the management company pays for) was around $25 a month. Then it gradually crept up to $35. Last month it suddenly jumped to $44, and I'll be paying $45 come next rent day Having gone through the items, the gas portion has gone up $5, and so has the water.

I just called the company that prepares and sends out these bills, that we all have to pay with our monthly rent cheque. Apparently the water usage (I guess the water for the entire complex is metered, rather than individual water meters for each apartment) has jumped by nearly 20%, so everyone's water charge has increased.

My inclination is to believe that this is because of the people who've had washing machines installed in their apartments. Let's face it - when you have a washer in your apartment you're far more likely to use it often and with smaller loads than if you have to pile it all together and schlepp across to the laundry room. That means more water usage and more *hot* water usage, meaning more gas to heat the boiler.

So not only have I lost a laundry facility and won't get a washing machine unless I move to another apartment (and get another big rent rise), I also have to pay higher bills now because of the people who did get one

Bummer.


I had a friend who lived in a very small apartment complex in Houston. One summer she noticed her electric bill going up outrageously. The following month she basically lived without A/C in the Houston heat. And her bill went up yet again!

So, she called HL&P (local electric monopoly) and they found it fishy as well, so they did an investigation. They discovered her LANDLORD siphoning off her electricity and disconnecting only for the week they expected the meter reader to come through.

And, this being Texas, regulations are not needed. Naturally. Because they hurt business. Naturally.

You see in Germanland you'd get a reduction on your rent for having the washing facilities taken away, your landlord would not be able to increase your rent until the point they put a washer/drier in your apartment. So you would be paying less.

But you'd still - unless all appts were individually metered - have to pay the higher utility costs

They might say "But we have reduced your rent, effectively. If the laundry room was still here it would have gone up $105 a month instead of $95"

Austin's like London (and the whole of the UK I guess) in that there are too many people and not enough homes (despite the building boom along the road where I live ), so rents and property prices keep going up. The average price for a family house in Austin now is somewhere around $250,000 if I remember rightly. The former Mrs Gosho and her new husband are currently looking to get a house in Dallas. She recently had her eye on a place that she eventually decided not to buy. It was going for $80,000.

Yeah, $80k is exceptionally low, for anywhere. Sounds like it was a "fixer-upper".

I think so. The reason they decided not to buy was that the owners weren't prepared to put a number of things right.

>>They might say "But we have reduced your rent, effectively. If the laundry room was still here it would have gone up $105 a month instead of $95" <<

they might elsewhere - here they can't get away with it because rent, and particularly rent increases and/or decreases in the service you are paying for are seriously tightly controlled.

Not to say that there isn't a housing problem, because there is, but it is still controlled,

When I said 'They', I meant the people here. I didn't word that very well.