San Francisco Landlord or Sumlord? Chapter 1

Is the definition of a slumlord when your roof falls in and your landlords tell you to put a bucket under the hole? Then if this is true then I lived with landlords/slumlords in San Francisco for 5 years. Since there are very strict rental laws in the city tenants are protected from slumlords, but dealing with them can be another story. Rent control can be found in San Francisco, but you have to search high and low for these deals. I totally agree with my friend saying to me "Finding an apartment is like looking for a new pair of jeans."

When I moved to San Francisco, I planned to stay for only 6 months. I started looking for apartments off of Craigslist.org while I was still living in Los Angeles. It was difficult knowing what a good neighborhood or deal was. I started to schedule weekend open houses of the places that looked interesting and drove up to San Francisco from Los Angeles on the weekends to see them.

I started to learn the renting/roommate game. Looking for an apartment was like going on a job interview. You need to have the right paperwork, look the right way and be ready to apply on the spot. I decided to rent a room from a woman for 6 months and store my furniture so I could get to know the city and secure a job.

After 6 months, I started to again look for an apartment. I started to get so frustrated by the process that I posted an ad on Craigslist asking if anyone else was having a hard time looking for a roommate. I received a hundred emails. I replied to five and then met with three woman for coffee and "Sarah" became my roommate.

Now all we needed was a place.

The hunt began. Sarah and I looked for apartment. I would set up open houses and appointments for us to go to and so would she. On one sunny afternoon, she called me to say that she thought she had found the place. The apartment was in a centrally, located, neighborhood and on a cable car line. It had 3 1/2 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths, a kitchen, laundry room and the back bedrooms looked onto a garden. (I could hear the angels singing my head.) There was one catch. The apartment hadn't been looked after, was run down and needed a lot of work.

We decided to take a look. I first noticed that the apartment was apart of a two unit building and up two flights of stairs. I remember entering the front door to see shag Brady Bunch carpeting. I walked slowly up the stairs to see orange shag carpeting, dust filled, run down place with a '70's sparkly ceiling and funky caged skylight.

The landlord was waiting for us in the kitchen to show us around. She explained that this was her childhood home and after her mother had died the place had been left to her. She currently had a man living in the apartment for the past 7 years. It seemed that he had never cleaned the San Francisco apartment. I mean ever. Could this be my home sweet home? Have you ever dealt with a slumlord?