I really miss blogging but it seems like whenever I am getting into the blogging mode, something comes up and I get distracted.
Guess what?! We are moving again. Moving to a better place within Sweden, Uppsala. The reason is that we have found out that our current Landlord is a clever yet crazy person. So the sane thing to do is to move out of here before things get ugly. Here are some examples of what he has done.
1) When we moved in, the apartment was in an unacceptable condition so my husband wrote down all the things that had to be fixed before we started the tenancy. So this way, when we end the lease, we will not be blamed for things that were not damaged by us. However to our surprise, we found out that the Landlord actually charges and accuses his tenants for the damage that was not done by them and does not return the security deposits. He does that to every tenant and obviously never fixes things in the apartment. To our shock, we also found out that he owns a few houses in Uppsala and carries on this scam.
2) In the contract/lease, he is to pay for the heating and water. So we were happy to know this, as heating can be very expensive as it can get cold quite often here in Sweden (at least for me). There were a couple of days when it was so cold (even for my Swedish hubby) so you can imagine how it was for me. The heaters in our apartment were not working. We told the Landlord about this and guess what he did, he gave us a portable heating element. Consequently, we have to pay for the heating instead. How smart! Till today, he has not fixed the apartment's heating elements. From what we gather from the other tenants in the house, he has been avoiding fixing the heater since last year. Do note that last year, the winter was one of the worst in Sweden in 120 years! Temperatures dipped down as low as -30. Poor guys! To be very honest, I am not looking forward to this winter. I get so depressed when it's cold and dark. Without heating, it's going to be torture!
3) In the attic, there were 3 students living. So we can hear them walk, jump, talk and all you can imagine. The floors are so darn creaky and in the middle of the night when the students come home, we wake up because of the noise. So since the time we moved in to this apartment, we have had no proper sleep. The Landlord lied to us about the number of people living up in the attic. He said it was only 1 student and that he was a 'good' boy. We don't care what kinda boy he is, we just want the jumping and banging to stop.
4) We found out from an organization that offers legal advise and aide to tenants that there were 10 complaints against him just this year and that he is the only Landlord in Uppsala with this kinda record. All the above incidences were confirmed by the organization as the other tenants have had similar complains. Their advise was for us to end our contract asap.
Fortunately for us, we got an apartment much closer to the city and my husband's work place. The price to pay for this upgrade is 3 months of double rent as the move in date for our new apartment is July 1st and we had to give 3 months notice to the crazy Landlord. However I think the new apartment was meant for us as 7 other people who were interested turned it down as they were not able to move in immediately. I really think God heard our prayers. Now I get my own sewing room just like I had in Singapore! I am so happy for that!
So now I am busy packing and I really hope I can get my sewing, beading and makeup mojo on soon. I am missing it so much. I miss dancing around in my room with groovy music on. Just want to get my life back together as I was back in Singapore, who was always motivated and full of creative energy.
Now who says moving across half of the world is easy? I have finally realized that it is not so! Now I really appreciate my spoiled life in Singapore. I miss my family and friends very much!
I hope to be back real soon and share with you guys my new sewing room and makeup set up!
Love Love!