Nope. This is not a ghetto in India. Its our old apartment in Athens, now belonging to my Aunt 1, which she had rented to the grot of the century.

I got the keys to place back today after trying to get the tenant out for almost a full year. Firstly I let him know we wanted the apartment for mom so she didn’t have to go up and down stairs. He basically said he’d been there 29 years and had no plans on leaving. Ever.

He hadn’t paid my aunt rent for 5 months so I chased him for it. Then I took advantage of the fact that he was always late with the rent, waited till he owed us another 5 months and went to court where they ruled in our favour and we got eviction papers.

I mean, the guy is an idiot. He knew I wanted to get rid of him, why didn’t he jump over backwards to make sure never to give me a chance to kick him out and pay rent in advance?

Not only did he not pay rent before the court order, he didn’t pay after either. But I’m a decent person. I gave him extra time to find a place (till after Christmas, way more time than was required by law) and said he could keep the back rent to put towards moving.

Then we went into lockdown.

And I knew he knew I couldn’t kick him out. So I gave him a bit more time. And then more time. But in the end I was sick of it. He whined and complained constantly. He was too old (he’s my age), too afraid of COVID19 to go looking for houses, he couldn’t afford anything else, that this house wasn’t worth more than 200e a month (yeah, he’d been paying 200e a month for 29 years!!!! And got my aunt to sign another contract for 10 more years at the same price), and that he was sick with stress since the day I told him he had to move out.

In the end I told him, and my lawyer told his lawyer in no uncertain terms that I’m a very NICE person and I’ve been way more than reasonable about this, but if I had to resort to getting the court to order the police to throw him out on the street the day lockdown ended I would also go to court for the rent he owed us PLUS court costs. If he was gone before lockdown ended he could keep the 10 months rent he owed. I wasn’t giving him more warnings, I was sending the police around first chance I got. Over and out.

Even then he asked for 10 more days. And that was 5 day ago. So he managed to drag it out for another 15 days past the ‘end date’.

When I met him today to get the key, he verbally attacked me. Telling me how the house was a wreck and that he only stayed in it despite the condition it was in cause he was ‘part of the family’ and he would never forgive me for causing him such stress during a time of pandemic, that my cruelty had made him sick, and that I ruined his reputation cause he never planned on not paying rent, he was a professional and his reputation was everything, and that the house wasn’t even worth 200e a month in its condition.

Uhuh. Like… who’d lived in the house for 30 years and let it get to that stage? Did he ever once clean or open a window to let in fresh air? It was in the condition it was in cause he never wanted anyone to do any maintenance on the place and he never lifted a finger to maintain it himself. We lived in that place for 7 years and never had issues with damp and sure as hell never let it become so disgusting. Four of us in that tiny place. But then again, we opened windows now and then.

Anyway, here are some photos of the house today. Warning: Not for the squeamish.

I’ve already organised for a friend to go in and rip out the bathroom, the kitchen and all shelves and cupboards. Our family painter had a look and said he can rescue the door frames, window frames and doors and windows…

The place needs to be fumigated and disinfected and demolished and everything has to be done over. Its beyond disgusting. How anyone could live in that filth is beyond me.

Its made me sick to my stomach but I can’t say I wasn’t expecting this. Now I start another house renovation, hopefully with better people and better results than last time.

Wish me luck.

z