More on the 'laid back' lifestyle

We found out a couple of weeks ago that we have to move out of our rental at the end of January. This is a huge hassle, as it seems like we've just gotten settled in.

The tale of how this has come about reveals something about the 'laid back' Kiwi lifestyle.

When we first moved into this house, we were told that the owner, who had bought the property and completed the renovations on it himself, would be installing a heatpump and would have an electrician come around to finish installing the electronic controls for the front gate and the security camera system.

The electrician did come by a couple of times, but I'm not entirely certain what exactly he did, because neither system was finished. I finally broke down and went to the hardware store myself to buy a hasp for the front gate because it was secured with nothing more than a screw and a piece of scrap wood.

The heatpump ... well, *nothing* has been done on that front.

We should have realized something was amiss. When we moved in, we were given keys for the front door, but no key for the back French doors. For the first month we lived in this house, the back door remained unlocked. After several phone calls to the property manager, we were told 'the owner will be by today with the key.' About a week later, and several more phone calls and assurances later, we finally got the key. I myself spoke to the owner, who seems a nice enough fellow, about the heatpump and security system. I got some 'yeah, I'll give the contractor and electrician a call.' That was back in September.

So a couple of weeks ago we received a call from the rental agency. We were being assigned a new property manager, who happened to be the young woman who showed us the house in the first place, and she would be coming to do an inspection of the property to see if there were any unaddressed maintenance needs. When she came we told her about the promised security system and heatpump and the owner's inaction. She said she was aware of the owner's promises and recalls telling us about them when she showed us the house.

So, two days later we receive another phone call. This time, it was a real estate agent who wanted to come look at the house. We called our property manager, who called the owner.

The long and short of it (which involves a lot of he-said/she-said and outright lies) is that rather than fix the problems, he's selling the property.

Now, this isn't so much about boo-hoo for us as it is the attitude it displays. According to the property manager, the owner actually said to her 'Why can't you be more laid back like' the woman who was her predecessor.

If there were an isolated incident, I could dismiss it as just a story about a guy who bought a rental property and got in over his head. Or I could dismiss it as a story about ... well, someone who's just a jerk. There are jerks everywhere, right?

But unfortunately this isn't an isolated incident. I've heard similar horror stories about housing and landlord's promises from a lot of people.

And it goes beyond houses and landlords.

I've been directly involved in two incidents in which 'professionals' have acted like spoiled children when they didn't get their way. I can't go into too many details because I have to respect the privacy of the other innocent individuals involved. I can say that in one incident a question was asked about being paid in a timely fashion for work performed and the question was met with a threat of violence and has now turned into a lawsuit. The other involved an opportunity to bid for a contract we couldn't fulfill because the potential client had unreasonable expectations; when this was pointed out, the response from the Kiwi partner was akin to pouting and saying 'I'll take my ball and go home then.'

In my book, once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, and three times is a conspiracy. Of course, conspiracy isn't the right word in this context, but three data points allow you to triangulate and begin to form some hypotheses about the way things really are.

I'm beginning to question whether 'laid back' isn't just spin for a culture that really says 'don't rock the boat, don't pull back the curtain, don't ask questions.' Anyone who knows me knows *that* is not me.