Payback Time
I love the fact that my landlord: (1) never turns on the heat, even in the winter, and (2) often never turns on the hot water. Well, I’m not exactly sure if he never turns it on—though I suspect this is often the case—but I know that sometimes it’s because the heat breaks or runs out of oil. Whatever, it’s not my problem. There should be hot water in the apartment, and there should be heat on when it’s cold.
I know it’s oh-so-not-green, but when the hot water’s off (like now), I just let the shower run cold. For like half an hour. Water here costs about $2.30 a cubic foot. I installed my own pretty decent shower head that runs 2.5 gallons/minute—which is about 1 cubic foot three minutes. That’s 10 cubic feet in half an hour, which will cost my landlord $23. It’s not much, but it helps me feel a little better that I’m screwing someone.
(Now that I think about it, I should probably just run the tub instead. More efficient landlord-screwage. And run the shower for an hour.)
I know that it’s within my rights to withhold rent, blah blah. So let’s say I withhold $1,000 a month, claiming that my apartment is worth $1,000 less without heat and hot water a few days a month. But once he fixes this—i.e., turns back the heat back on—then I have to cough that withholding up again. No skin off his back, really.
So I have to do my own silent sabotage. The next step—the one never taken—would be to post a sign up telling everyone to do it. Let’s say 20 people do it. That’s a good ol’ $460 FU. That’d send a little bit of a signal.
