: this is austin's blog :

There was a woman blocking the exit from our parking stall today after lunch. She apologized and promptly moved her van so we could back out and my dad made mention that this woman didn't recognize us, but we knew who she was. She was Mrs. Wagner, one of our old landlords from a previous house. Now I knew that we had had some issues with these people when I was younger, but I had no idea the extent of them. Today I asked and I got the story.

It started with their son moving home from Germany. They wanted to give him the house we were staying in so they wanted us out as soon as possible, giving us only a months notice instead of the contracted minimum 2 months. When we refused to be out by one month they took us to court, and lost because they were clearly violating the contract. Even more fortunate for us was that the 2 month minimum started AFTER the court proceedings concluded, which themselves took about 2 months... So because of their whole fuss, they actually enabled us to stay a total of 4 months from when they first announced they wanted us out, 2 months longer than if they had just stuck to the contract in the first place.

Anyway, the final two months were hell. They were always coming over and trying to find reasons to evict us sooner. Of course, they were trying to screw us out of the damage deposit. And our final rent payment: We payed 5 days earlier instead of on the regular date (which was automatically withdrawn from our account at the bank) and they tried to accuse us of not paying it...AND THE BANK SIDED WITH THEM. (this is why my dad hates TDCanadatrust.) Anyway, after many calls/visits to the bank to show that we had proof that we made the payment, the bank eventually agreed with us, (but with no apology for the error) and the Wagners just said well, the reason they brought it up was just to "make sure" that we didn't miss it. Dude, if you're getting a deposit in your account from us, in the exact amount of our rent a few days earlier than normal, what is there to make sure of???

Finally, after a visit in one of the final weeks, as the Wagners were leaving, Mr. Wagner made a comment to his wife in german saying something to the effect of, "These people are so dirty, they need to be out of here." Up until this point, my dad hadn't ever disclosed to them that he actually speaks german rather well, so he responded to their comment (in german) with something like, "Well it might seem that way to stupid landlords." They both looked at him with shock and then Mr. Wagner called my dad a "Schweinhund" (pig dog) and my dad retorted with "If I'm a pig dog, you're a pig's ass."

My sister and I both were laughing pretty hard at this point. But my dad had one more punch line up his sleeve. He said, "So we moved out and a few years later I found out that Mr. Wagner had died. So I won. Not that I keep track of childish things like that."

I love my Dad.