This morning I bumped into who appeared to be the landlord of the rental apartment unit next door. His attitude was incredibly dreadful and loathsome. Can’t help but feel an infuriating sense of powerlessness afterwards, especially coming from a serial tenant like myself.
For some context, we’ve been renting an apartment unit to be used as classrooms a bit over a year. Next door there’s also an IELTS class. It seems like they have been there way before us, probably over 3 years. Their business seems to be doing well; there’re always students coming in and out throughout the day. They seem to run a test preparation service for students about to study overseas. I’ve never really spoken to them or asked what their business name even is. We just mind our own business.
Last week I noticed they had moved. Abruptly. The door was locked from the outside, and there was no-one frequenting the place. We had to wonder what had happened? It can’t be that they’ve gone out of business. Perhaps they’ve expanded and decided to move on to greener pastures?
Well this morning I had my answer. I ran into the landlord next door. What happened is that the guy kicked the tenants out because he wanted to sell the house. And then a week later, he changed his mind. Now he wants to put the house up for rent again. Asked me if I was interested in renting.
That is fucking infuriating. He kicked the previous group out on a whim, and a couple of days later his whim has changed?
What’s even worse is that he keeps boasting about how much “lộc” (luck/blessing) his house has. As he shows me around the house he points to a bigass altar in the middle of the place. Says that the previous tenant’s business has been flourishing thanks to the lộc of his house, almost gleefully oblivious of the damages and hassle he has caused them.
I feel incredibly sorry for those guys, and nervous about our own situation at the same time. The “headquarter” we’re currently renting at ngã tư Sở is not much different. The tenants before us were kicked out because the owner wanted to sell the house — per the advice of a fucking fortune teller. The tenant had only been living here for 9 months, after having invested some tens of millions VND in renovation. Shortly afterwards, the homeowner change her mind and voila, we became the new renter.
And now we’re heavily renovating the damn place ourselves. What if the landlord gets all fickle and moody and religious again and tells us to go fuck ourselves? We will have no other choice but to move out.
I understand that landlords have the right to terminate contracts anytime they wish, but it’s only understandable if they have a legitimate reason to. If they’re doing so because of some bullshit superstitious beliefs then fuck them. I’m not sure for what the reason the male landlord kicked the IELTS group out, but I’m willing to bet it’s another superstitious advice. Now I’m kind of regretting not having asked the next-door teaching group’s number sooner.
I’m also beginning to understand why many companies only want to deal with professional office leasing services even though the cost per square metre is much higher than renting a private house. Way less of a headache and fewer risks of volatile landlords.
I really wish superstition will die off along with the future generation.