Beat: Squatter

[ThomasPHoolery]

I get a call from my new landlord (scheduled to move in September 1st) telling me that the previous tenant has refused to move. Apparently he's a grad student who thought he was going to be doing research abroad next year, but his funding fell through blah blah blah and now he's going to be here for the year. He had told the landlord 2 months ago he was moving out, the apartment went on the market, July 2nd, I saw it that morning and signed for it that afternoon (it's ridiculously well priced for the area, about 30% below what similar apartments in the neighborhood are going for).

He decides middle of July he doesn't want to move out, and tells this to the landlord. The landlord tells him too bad, it's already rented, you will be moving out. Since this is in Massachusetts, and there are a [censored] ton of ways a tenant can try to delay leaving, he tries them all-- calls out the health inspectors, withholds rent for repairs, etc. Finally, the landlord informs him he's going to move forward with eviction. Normally that would be the signal for most people that it's actually time to move. Not for this guy apparently.

Landlord goes to court and starts the eviction proceedings last week, with the hope that this will get the guy to actually move (as an FYI, the landlord has told me about none of this at this point, thinking if he can get him out without me finding out about it, no harm, no foul). Finally, I get a call from the landlord last night telling me all this, but that he may still be moving out on time. Another call today saying he wont. He'll get the eviction notice on Tuesday, post it, which gives the current occupant 48 to move out before a constable removes the belongings and they change the locks. Then another day for the landlord to clean the apartment, and another day for me to move in (Next Saturday).

In the meantime, I've had to rearrange all the things that I had arranged to have happen for moving in: cable (which for Comcast in Cambridge will basically take a month to actually find a time), internet, heat and electric, moving belongings into storage now, a new moving time with the moving company, rearranging my work schedule to schedule these new appointments, parking permits for moving van, mail holds and forwarding and, of course, living arrangements. I've already done all of these things one time, now having to go through them a second time, and having to pay a second time for a few of them.

Cliff notes: When your lease is up, and your landlord says he's already rented the apartment to someone else, it usually means it's actually time to move.