Running Life Theme It Seems.... Promises! Promises! And No Follow-Through
Scene from a Jerry Seinfeld episode....
Jerry is at a car rental place wanting to pick up his reserved car...
Jerry: I don't understand. Do you have my reservation?
Rental Car Agent: We have your reservation, we just ran out of cars.
Jerry: But the reservation keeps the car here. That's why you have the reservation.
Rental Car Agent: I think I know why we have reservations.
Jerry: I don't think you do. You see, you know how to *take* the reservation, you just don't know how to *hold* the reservation. And that's really the most important part of the reservation: the holding. Anybody can just take them.
The above scene is humorous because it's TRUE... we see so many incidences in our life of unkept commitments made by folks... and it's all overlooked and just accepted... "Oh, well... " is the usual response, "such is life." BULLSHIT! What ever happened to accountability? If you say you're going to DO SOMETHING, then DO SOMETHING... don't just say it, then NOT do it! Am I the only one who gets her panties in a wad when promises aren't kept, when reservations are ignored, when what's said as truth isn't honored and becomes a lie?
What burns me up are the people who get fucked over and don't call someone out on it. They just roll over. It's as if we've become a world of the lowest common denominator and nobody stands for what is right and good any more.
In the past week, I have several incidences to tell you about.
First... "the reservation". My sister's family/kids and my family/kids and gramma went to dinner and made "reservations"... only there was no table held for us when we arrived at the restaurant. We had to wait about 30 minutes. And I was mad about that.
Then while waiting, I saw a sign posted at the hostess station which said the following... "NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR SLIPS & FALLS" Actually, I'd like to make this a discussion point as to accountability... I took a photo of the sign with my cell phone because it's bloggable.. Here it is. Let's discuss the implications here...
Then while waiting, I saw a sign posted at the hostess station which said the following... "NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR SLIPS & FALLS" Actually, I'd like to make this a discussion point as to accountability... I took a photo of the sign with my cell phone because it's bloggable.. Here it is. Let's discuss the implications here...
It's absurd. First of all, this note is in a cheap frame from the dollar store... glass is broken. It's so offensive. More importantly and from a legal basis, The message holds no weight. If the restaurant spilled a bucket of grease all over the floor and didn't clean it up and we walked in and slipped and cracked our butt bones... they'd pay dearly for our medical bills. You can't just post a sign like that! And the thing is... it's been posted there for YEARS... people just accept and walk on by. Bunch a cattle we all are... accepting this mediocre bullshit.
On a larger scale... I want to talk about "Rental Leases"... here's a commitment made by a landlord and a tenant, both agreeing to a monthly rent amount for a year. But what is happening in these hard economic times (and you've probably read stories in the news)... Landlords are having trouble paying their mortgages and many are collecting rent (pocketing the rent monies while NOT paying their mortgage) and going into foreclosure, unbeknownst to the renter. My next door neighbor (the new ones) received a visit from the police last week... They were told to leave the premises within 24 hours because the bank now owned the property... the landlord foreclosed and too bad/so sad for the renters. They and their little kids had to pack up in the middle of the night and leave. I'm not exactly sure if there are legal protections for renters, but this family didn't have the resources or wear-with-all to get an attorney to block the take-over.
This got me to thinking about "renters"... if you are renting from a private homeowner, better make sure he/she is current on his mortgage or not in foreclosure so this doesn't happen to you.
I'm really feeling icky now about being a renter... as if it's a lower class status and not stable. Housing prices have declined greatly and so have rents and I asked my landlord if he will be considering going to "market value" rent amount when my lease is up because I'm paying significantly more than what other leases are within this community now. My rent is $1,250 per month. Landlord is "thinking of selling"....
Well, Geeze. I don't want to be "showing" the property to prospective buyers... I live here and enjoy my privacy. We may have to move, dammit. AGAIN!
SO... I'm working on getting my post-divorce bad credit fixed. I'm considering buying something and realizing I'm probably not going to qualify for a mortgage despite good, steady income and due to credit blemishes, I'm seeking an owner-finance property or rent-to-own scenario.
Anyway... I've just been pondering the annoyances that you really can't count on anything long-term. Anyone can take a reservation or make a commitment... it's keeping them that really matters. And what a disappointment it all is...
This got me to thinking about "renters"... if you are renting from a private homeowner, better make sure he/she is current on his mortgage or not in foreclosure so this doesn't happen to you.
I'm really feeling icky now about being a renter... as if it's a lower class status and not stable. Housing prices have declined greatly and so have rents and I asked my landlord if he will be considering going to "market value" rent amount when my lease is up because I'm paying significantly more than what other leases are within this community now. My rent is $1,250 per month. Landlord is "thinking of selling"....
Well, Geeze. I don't want to be "showing" the property to prospective buyers... I live here and enjoy my privacy. We may have to move, dammit. AGAIN!
SO... I'm working on getting my post-divorce bad credit fixed. I'm considering buying something and realizing I'm probably not going to qualify for a mortgage despite good, steady income and due to credit blemishes, I'm seeking an owner-finance property or rent-to-own scenario.
Anyway... I've just been pondering the annoyances that you really can't count on anything long-term. Anyone can take a reservation or make a commitment... it's keeping them that really matters. And what a disappointment it all is...
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4 comments:
i'm a landlord and my tenants have no right to know my credit records, if i pay my mortgage, or to know wtf i do with the rent they pay me. that's the way the business works. i don't ask the A&P wtf they do with the money i give them for food and they don't ask what i do with the food.
sorry about your neighbors, it sucks for them, and if they want to stay out of that situation, they need to buy their own place and then make the payments.
here, when the forclosure rate went up, rates did too. it's very expensive to rent now, and that makes sense to me. people desperately need places to rent, which makes demand go up, and prices soon follow. i charge slightly less than FMV, because i'm awesome. my tenants allowed the lease to expire, so i could, in theory, jack the price up, but i won't.
where i live, a 1BR/1 bath is around $1200 a month, so your rent is really CHEAP.
Jilly
i agree. that sign at the restaurant is BS and i would like to see them try to hold to that in court if someone did slip on something they were responsible for. i don't think so. maybe i will try that with a sign in my car... i am not responsible if i hit you. please watch out for me.
on a personal level, i try to always uphold a commitment and it annoys the hell out of me when those around me don't. they know this and so i rarely am disappointed.
if i had a reservation at a restaurant and my table wasn't ready in a reasonable amount of time, i would leave,and have done so.
they are trying to bring in a law here that if a rented house is repossessed then the tenant has the right to remain in the property for 7 weeks after the repossession to enable them to have time to find soemwhere else. I personally think this is fair enough.Its all very well Jilly to say buy a house but life is very unforgiving and in the current financial climate in the UK mortgage approvals are at their lowest ever even people with perfect credit but just not quite enough wages are being turned down when last year they would have been offered 100 or 125%.I pay my rent in advance every 6 months Id like to think that my landlord is using that to pay the mortgage not go on holiday to marbella.I pay him money to keep a roof over my head thats the deal
Jilly Bean, where do you live that Rent for a 1 BR - 1 BA is $1200? You must be in Virginia or well up into a NE state...
If you think about it... Rent or a Mortgage should be no more than 1/3 of one's monthly income. I'm not sure if that rule of thumb is NET or GROSS income, but if it's NET income, we're talking about an average income of about $80,0000 per year for that kind of a rent/mortgage amount.
The average household income in America is somewhere around the mid $40k range, according to the Census... That said, someone getting a 1 BR/ 1 BA earns twice that and either must be a professional or live in an area where ratio of income is significantly higher than say, in the Southern States.
Anyway... I have begun house hunting for purchase and working through the credit blemishes. It will be good to call something my own and not be a transient.
Thanks always, Jilly, for your insights and comments.
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