**To read part one of this story, click here**

Ok, we’re back.

Apartment rents are extremely high and they keep rising. Property prices are multiplying in a matter of one or two years and people are still paying over the appraisal. Inflation is eating up our salaries. Jobs are simply not paying enough. How can we make this situation even worse and even add a handicap to it?

Well, you add something you can’t control to the mix: Bad neighbors. 

This way, a third of your income not only goes in the pocket of a shitty landlord as rent expense (and you don’t build any capital towards your future), but you also can’t be happy in the refuge of your own home. You see? It can ALWAYS get worse!

Here’s a short description and story of a couple of them. Hope you appreciate your ‘good neighbors’ more after reading this. I’ll use nicknames to avoid calling them by their real names.

Evangelical lady: I moved to a new 1B/1B apartment with a small inner balcony (which I turned into the hammock, plants and reading area where I read all the ‘A Song of Fire and Ice’ series). It was a second floor guest house above a garage, way behind the main house. I was young, living with my 2-year-old rottie, making loud noises, inviting people to my apartment, it was great.

Ok… The landlady was kinda cool at first, but then she revealed her true form: a religious fanatic. Like, long skirt, covered shoulders, can’t cut my hair, bible under the arm, religious fanatic. She was trying to sell the main house for 8 years, and failing (asking price was WAY HIGH, and this was about 10 years ago).  So, because nobody lived there, the landlady was CONSTANTLY THERE ALL THE FREAKING TIME. She would knock on my door at any given moment before 6pm, and she would ask me stuff about the apartment, my dog, personal life, and always ENDED the conversation talking about the Bible and god. Literally trying to convert me. I’m guessing she would earn a badge at her church, and a fast pass to heave, some shit like that.

Oh, if I didn’t answer the door, and my car was parked outside, she would call me to see if I was there. “I’m at the main house, and want to say hi!” I received preaching and bible quotes after a 10-hours work shift, without any sleep, high, hungover… It was relentless. 

This went on for about a year, until I moved from there. I used her name as a reference and once I was completely set-up at the new place, blocked her phone number. The end.

Cat lady: After religious lady, I moved to this multifamily 2-unit building, four blocks from my old apartment. It was kinda weird because I lived on the ground floor to the right, and it extended to the back with a patio for my dog. That’s exactly why I picked it. More room for him to play. My neighbor lived on the top floor, facing the front of where our cars parked. She had a fat cat and 2 small daughters (maybe 6 and 8?). I moved in, met her, and AFTER THE FIRST NIGHT I STAYED THERE, she ambushed me outside when I was getting into my car. “Hey, hi neighbor. I need to ask. Have you seen the lock from the main gate? I think it got lost and I remembered locking everything when I came in from the hospital late at night”.

Context: she was a nurse working the night-shift, we shared the main gate to park our cars inside, it was closed with a padlock that we both had our own key.

“Hey, lady, hi. I literally spent my first night here. I don’t know what you’re talking about. I came in the afternoon and parked my car outside. No padlock.” She thought I was lying, insisted a bit but left it there because I needed to go to work. I came back from work in the early evening, and she was ‘acting’ like she was looking for the misplaced padlock outside around our parking lot. “Any luck”, I said. “No, you don’t really remember where you put it?” She replied. “Lady, I told you, I never say it. What would I gain from this? I also have a key to park my car inside. This also affects me”. I ignored her, yet again, and went to my apartment.

Things are still in boxes, only the bed is set-up. Mind you, this was my second night after moving to a new apartment. I’m beat. Shower, laptop time and sleep. 6am, I’m up and running for the first time in my life without any rush. Gonna beat all the morning traffic, and get to work like 30 minutes early. There’s a coffee shop next to the office. A big and delicious breakfast awaits.

I don’t even know why, but I checked the mailbox. Lo and behold, there was a padlock in there with a key. I thought to myself, it was probably one of the brats playing around. Not gonna do or say anything about it. This woman, not only was irresponsible, she was also a scheming liar. I was happy, so I brushed it off. Had my big breakfast, everything was great.

Before lunch, I received 3 calls from a strange number (which I ignored every time, and a very long voice message). There was screaming and crying. Then a voice telling me that my dog put her cat in the hospital. I was shocked. Couldn’t believe it. I started texting here. Apparently her cat went over to my yard, and my dog bit it. ‘Everything was bloody, she broke a leg, she needed emergency surgery’. A lot of stuff was happening.

Danzo was the noblest soul there is. He didn’t even hurt birds and lizards, and he was friends with other cats. I was skeptical, but this was a whole big deal. Needed more information. When I came back from work, this was my THIRD NIGHT HERE, I went to see the cat. It didn’t have a scratch on it, literally. Because ‘all the damage was internal’, she said to me while showing an X-ray with nothing to see in it. “This woman is bonkers” I said to myself. “This is bad and getting worse”.

That night I couldn’t sleep thinking about all this bs. The next morning I skipped work. In barely three days I was accused of losing/stealing the padlock, and my dog being a violent beast. Who knows? A week from now she could’ve said that I tried to break into her apartment or that I was peeping at her room (on the second floor, with me floating outside her window,  I guess.) 

Called my mom, and I decided to move out of that place. We did the whole thing with 2 SUVs in under 4 hours. It was exhausting, but worth it. Left all my stuff at my parents house, and crashed with a friend during my new apartment search. BEST DECISION I’VE MADE MY WHOLE LIFE. ABSOLUTELY NO REGRETS.