The Best of Intentions

I had every intention of blogging tonight. About what? I had no idea. In the future, I must try to prevent letting my mind go blank because that's when fate seems to stir up trouble. As I was sitting at the computer struggling with writer's block, the phone rang. Whoever could it be? It's kind of late. Hmmmm...it's a strange number from a California area code. Cue the sirens & flashing lights! Our foreclosure is scheduled for next week. Our scam artist landlord lives in California. Who else could it possibly be?

We were close. It was a woman named Adrian who identified herself as our landlord's wife. Excuse me? Now, for the record, our landlord is not married. Anyhow, Adrian the "wife" is calling to find out whether we've mailed our November rent check. Yes, against our better judgement we did. What's that? Adrian said they didn't receive it and wants us to send another check, but instructs us not to send it to the regular P.O. Box. Instead, we should send it directly to their street address.

Given that the foreclosure is scheduled for next week and that we have no clue who the heck Adrian really is, we tell her that we'll need to speak directly with the landlord about the matter. Adrian tells us that he's sick, but she'll do her best to get him to contact us. We hang up. All of 30 seconds passes and the phone rings again, same California number. This time it's the landlord, and he really doesn't sound sick. He asks us about the rent check, and we tell him it was sent. Like Adrian, he asks us to send a 2nd check to the new street address.

Goodness! There go those pesky sirens & flashing lights again. We tell the landlord that we'll have to look into the matter tomorrow because it's late and the whole situation seems kind of sketchy. The landlord seems confused as to why we're hesitant to agree to issuing a new check. Gee...I don't know....could it be the fact that he's calling us late at night almost exactly 1 week before he loses the house to foreclosure and claiming to have not received our rather large rent check. Never mind the fact that he only called us after he had some strange woman posing as his wife call. No, that's not the slightest bit fishy.

After hearing our point of view, the landlord promptly handed the phone over to "Charleston." Who's Charleston? That's exactly what we asked. Actually, I think we first asked whether Charleston was the gentleman's first or last name. He told us it was his first. When we asked what his last name was, he hesitated and then said "Carl" in very slow and uncertain manner. Okay, Mr. Charleston Carl, who are you? A lawyer? No. An arbitrator? No. Evidently, he's just a person trying to help our landlord through his difficult situation. Okay. If you say so.

Charleston went on to explain that our landlord has filed for bankruptcy and therefore, all of the court notices we've been receiving were issued in error. Our landlord is absolutely not losing the house to foreclosure next week. Charleston then went on to deny that they ever received copies of the notices we were issued. Never mind that the legal notices say otherwise. You're right, Charleston, we should totally believe you even though we have no idea who you are.

Trying to keep things civil, we told Charleston we'd look into the matter tomorrow. He seemed happy so we hung up. Thirty seconds later, the phone rang for the 3rd time. Same number, but this time the landlord was back on the line. Again, he wanted to know if we were going to send a 2nd check. We explained to him that we were going to have to investigate the situation tomorrow.

Obviously, we need to track down the original check first. Plus, as your "associate" Charleston just explained to us, you've now filed for bankruptcy, and our attorney has explained to us that if you in fact file for bankruptcy, a trustee will be appointed, and all rent should be paid to the trustee. So even if I agree to resend the check, it sounds like it shouldn't be made payable to you, my oh so trustworthy landlord!

For the 3rd time we hung up, only to again hear the phone ring. Big surprise! It was the landlord from the same number asking us yet again if we were going to send another check. WE WILL LOOK INTO IT! Click.