January 09, 2013

(Possibly) Minor (Possible) Emergency

As I along with the other tenants in my building have been aware was possible, this property and the one next door have now been sold. I just received a letter (dated January 7) informing us of the change in ownership and management.

At the end of the letter, we're told that all rent payments -- beginning with the January rent (!!!) -- should be made out and mailed to the new management company.

Which is swell and all, but since the last thing I want is any trouble with any management company and having to move (which would be an impossible nightmare for me at this point, for many reasons), I always make sure to send the rent payment for the next month at the end of the previous month. So I sent the January rent payment to the old management company at the end of December. I always send a money order. I still have a checking account, but I never use it for transactions in amounts greater than a hundred dollars or so. The reason is simply that, if there were substantial funds in my checking account ... well, let's just say that other parties would almost certainly claim a "right" to them. (See the previous post, particularly the part about Thoreau and related matters, if you want to connect the dots. This is one of the costs I incur because of my "disobedience," but it is a comparatively very minor one, one of inconvenience more than anything else. Some of the other costs are far more substantial.)

I've called both the old and new management companies, telling them about the payment I've already made and asking them to figure out what's happened to it. In the ordinary course of things, my payment would simply be transferred to the new management company in one way or another. But very little in my life has been "ordinary" in the last few years, and given the general level of competence one is likely to encounter these days... (And I am not favorably impressed by a letter dated January 7 instructing me how to pay January rent, when rent is almost always due on the first of the month.)

So my concern at the moment is that I may have to get a new money order, while the various parties involved figure out how to handle the old one. Again, I just don't want any problems with the new management company, including trouble resulting from what they might consider, wrongly in this case, a "late" payment. I'll do everything possible to make certain that I get credit for the payment already made, or a refund for the money order if necessary, but who knows how quickly that will happen, or not. Since I only have a few hundred dollars after paying the rent (yes, I paid it, dammit!) and other first of the month bills, I can't get a new money order. So I guess I better put out a low level alert now, to try to gather together around $1,000, just in case. (I don't need all of the $1,000 for rent, but food, etc.) If no problem with the rent payment materializes (I can hope, and it shouldn't unless the world has gone mad, but then...), I'll need some additional funds all too soon in any case (and both cats need to visit the vet, too, so there's that).

I'm very sorry to have to ask for donations so early in the New Year, but circumstances conspire against me. (For the details of my general situation, please see this from a few months ago.)

My very great thanks for your attention and consideration. Now, I must return to my work eviscerating the foreign policy views of Mr. Hagel...