The Rude Landlord and His Rules

Have you ever broken a rule and was not aware of it? Did you attempt to protect your opinion about it? Well, my family did. It all started out with complete family kindness, became an enormous fight, and resulted with us moving out.

In the beginning, it happened 2 years ago on a rainy day in November. My family lived in an apartment in South Chicago, near Midway Airport. Everything was fine until my uncle got divorced. Our lives literally turned upside down. Everyone revolved around him. He was extremely depressed, and needed someone to help him through this, and needed a place to live until he got his own apartment. And so, as you might predict, after a continuous discussion between my parents, he was going to stay with us. Nobody thought that this would be against the landlord’s rules, but it was.

In brief, Uncle Jay stayed with us for about a week until the landlord started to suspect that someone else was living with us and began to spy a little on us. His suspicions were proved right when my uncle’s cell phone bill came in the mail. The landlord constantly checked the mail, and he did not remember renting an apartment to anyone that name was Joseph G. He got extraordinarily mad and ferociously pounded on our apartment’s doors. I opened it and looked at him in curiosity. Mr.X demanded: “Let me talk to your parents.” I told him to wait, and went to get my mom. She asked him “What’s the problem, and why were you pounding on our doors?” “Is there anyone else living with you right now?”-he responded in a soft tone to get the answer. “Yes“, my mom said, “my brother is living here for a while”. The landlord fired with fury. He started almost yelling that we can’t have anyone else living with us, even if it’s a guest for a couple of days. My mom mentioned that we pay for this apartment, and we should be able to have guests anytime we want. “But this is not your house and what I say is done“, the landlord bursted , “and either you will follow my rules or move out!” I looked at the landlord like he was simply evil. My mom tried to keep calm: “Dobrze (which means fine), she said, “we will move out if it is necessary” and gave him a look that showed him that she had more pride and wouldn’t get into a fight with as he almost tried to. The landlord also said “Fine”, and went to his own apartment.

Later on, my mom tried to stay calm but she was extremely mad at the landlord. She talked about this situation with my dad and my uncle, and they decided that we were going to look for a house. Uncle Jay said that he would start looking for an apartment. My parents, though red from anger discussed the rude behavior of the landlord calmly and analyzed what they could do to show their point, even if we were going to move. They decided that we weren’t going to clean the apartment, as we were going to, when we would move out, and he wouldn’t even know when we would move out. My feelings were a mixture of anger, disappointment, and madness toward the landlord, and I realized that we would just let it go. I couldn’t do anything about it , and neither could my parents. This pride was in their blood, that they would not be anywhere where they were not wanted. And so, while we looked for a new house, which took some time, we tried not to talk to the landlord. After about 2 months of searching, we found a house in Franklin Park. We didn’t clean the apartment, and the landlord never knew when we left.

At last, after the big fight between us and the landlord, moving out and finding a new house, I realized that you should never give something up if you are sure that it is right. You cannot let go, no matter what because there are going to be many experiences similar to this one in life where you just have to stand up and defend your rights. Do not let go easily! I came to the conclusion: Never ever give up on yourself and what you think.