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I work in the leasing office of the apartment complex where I live. One of my residents had her boyfriend move in with her about 6 weeks ago. I was not thrilled when this happened because he'd been a resident with us before some years ago, and was just a crazy drunk who was a pain in the butt with his neighbors. His girlfriend's window was shattered a couple of weeks ago, and we're all pretty positive that he broke it in a drunken frenzy (can't prove it), but he and his girlfriend at least paid for the repair. He came into the office today to use some of our office equipment and inquired about renting a studio on his own, confiding that his girlfriend was beginning to drive him crazy.
So we talk about move-in costs for a studio. He tells me that his credit is rocky so I tell him that we can probably still work with him, but that there is a good chance that he will need an extra security deposit. I explain that we can break this up over the course of a couple of months to make things easier for him, though. He still balks at the cost of the first couple of months, since the deposit will probably be an entire additional month's rent, so I let him know that he can talk to the manager about possibly breaking the deposit up over a longer period of time.
Then he goes on and on about how he always picks up trash he sees lying around the property. (It's a pretty nice-ish complex and the service techs constantly pick up everything they see whenever they are out, on or off duty, so it's not, like, strewn with mounds of litter. I pick up trash whenever I see it and I end up getting _maybe_ one or two cigarette butts or drink lids every two or three days, and I live here!) I see what he's getting at and gently explain to him that under the Fair Housing Act there is only so much wiggle room we have with our rental policies, since we have to treat EVERYONE equally. (The FHA actually gets extreme to points that I think are utterly ridiculous sometimes, but that's a rant for another day.) Nonetheless, he continues to go on and on about how he picks up litter. Why, he even reminds women he sees smoking outside to extinguish their butts and throw them in the trash instead of on the ground, he's that conscientious!
I later found out that he did the same thing, making a big deal of how much he picked up garbage, when he was talking to the manager quite recently.
Is it unfair for me to find that annoying? Seriously? We will give you lower rent because you claim to pick up a couple cigarette butts every now and then? It just irritated me because he thought he was being so subtle. I repressed my urge to roll my eyes and sent him on his way with as much information I could give to be helpful. I wonder whether I'm being too touchy. It's not like he was being a jerk at all -- he was actually very nice to me. It was just stupid.
So we talk about move-in costs for a studio. He tells me that his credit is rocky so I tell him that we can probably still work with him, but that there is a good chance that he will need an extra security deposit. I explain that we can break this up over the course of a couple of months to make things easier for him, though. He still balks at the cost of the first couple of months, since the deposit will probably be an entire additional month's rent, so I let him know that he can talk to the manager about possibly breaking the deposit up over a longer period of time.
Then he goes on and on about how he always picks up trash he sees lying around the property. (It's a pretty nice-ish complex and the service techs constantly pick up everything they see whenever they are out, on or off duty, so it's not, like, strewn with mounds of litter. I pick up trash whenever I see it and I end up getting _maybe_ one or two cigarette butts or drink lids every two or three days, and I live here!) I see what he's getting at and gently explain to him that under the Fair Housing Act there is only so much wiggle room we have with our rental policies, since we have to treat EVERYONE equally. (The FHA actually gets extreme to points that I think are utterly ridiculous sometimes, but that's a rant for another day.) Nonetheless, he continues to go on and on about how he picks up litter. Why, he even reminds women he sees smoking outside to extinguish their butts and throw them in the trash instead of on the ground, he's that conscientious!
I later found out that he did the same thing, making a big deal of how much he picked up garbage, when he was talking to the manager quite recently.
Is it unfair for me to find that annoying? Seriously? We will give you lower rent because you claim to pick up a couple cigarette butts every now and then? It just irritated me because he thought he was being so subtle. I repressed my urge to roll my eyes and sent him on his way with as much information I could give to be helpful. I wonder whether I'm being too touchy. It's not like he was being a jerk at all -- he was actually very nice to me. It was just stupid.
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