בס''ד
Goodman Family Moves part 2


Welcome back!


Our Challenges………..


When I ended part 1 [blog below this one] of my blog last week, we had found an apartment in a haredi building, received permission to install the YES satellite dish on our balcony and signed the lease. We called YES made the arrangements and they said no problem. Everything was working out beautifully…..


Two days later, Yaffa, our landlady, called to say that if we give her 2800 shekels we could stay until August 1st. She was going to rent an apartment in Beer Sheva for 6 weeks. We told her that we were moving on July 1st.


I should note that we offered her 2500 shekels, the rent we were paying plus an extra 100 shekels for the month of August when we told her we needed the apartment for 1 more month and she refused to even discuss the matter.


This was Wednesday, a week before we moved. My daughter Devorah and I decided to go to the apartment Sunday morning and see what needed cleaning and get the apartment ready for our move on Thursday.


We also wanted to bring some things over to the apartment since we would be moving a couple of days after the three weeks started [from the 17 of Tammuz to Tish B’Av with the first day on Tuesday. We were told by the Rav that if we wanted to move during the three weeks, we had to start the move before the three weeks.]


While we were cleaning the technician from YES came to the apartment to see where he could install the dish. Our nightmare was about to begin……..

Our lease was very explicit, the dish must start on our balcony and not go on the roof. We told this to the tech. but he said that even though we have 2 balconies, they both face the wrong direction for the dish to work.

He said that he has experience in haredi buildings and usually if you tell the people on the top floor what you want to do, there aren’t any problems. He said that he could put it up between the dudes [solar tank for hot water] and it won’t stick out.


With that, before we could say anything, he went upstairs to knock on doors. Two minutes later he was back telling us that the building has a rabbinical ban that there can’t be any televisions.


We called our agent, and he said that there wasn’t any ban on our street and the tech should put the dish on the roof. The tech said that he can’t because they told him if the dish goes up they will cut the lines and throw it off the roof.


Devorah called our owner and spoke to his wife. She said that she and her husband had no problems with us having the television but told the agent to deal with the neighbors before anything gets installed. The agent never spoke to anyone in the building.

I said that I didn’t want the apartment because the agent knew that we wanted YES and only agreed to sign the lease after we got the issur [permission].


We stopped cleaning and went home to discuss what actions we were going to take. On our way home we met a very respected Rav in our area and Devorah told him what had happened. He volunteered to go and speak to the person who was the most vocal.


An hour later, the Rav came to our house and said that they use the roof for ‘events’ [whatever that meant] but they had no objection if we put in HOT. [cable company]. Avraham agreed to call HOT and see if they would be willing to give us service since there wasn’t any infrastructure on our street.


After speaking to a fellow at their customer service and explaining the problems, the agent said that he would have to check with their technical department to see what can and can’t be done and said he would get back to us with an answer.


Two hours later, the he called us back and said that since our address is 26..the last house that had cable in the building is across the parking lot at 22, it would not be a problem to pull a line and give us service. He said that they do it all the time. He then proceeded to take the cable order and installation date and tried to also sell us telephone and internet service. He went so far as to give us his cell phone number and said if we had any questions we should call him directly. So far so good…...


We called the rental agent and the Rav and told them that we made arrangements with HOT and asked the Rav to inform the person he spoke to in the apartment building.


Thursday, moving day finally arrived. The movers were supposed to come between 7:45 and 8:00 and when they didn’t arrive by 8:20 we called the company and spoke to the owner. He said his workers didn’t show up for work and he was trying to get other workers. I can’t start to tell you what was going on in my house. Here we were packed and ready without any movers.


Twenty minutes later 2 men showed up at our apartment and said they were movers and that the truck would be there in 10 minutes.


The movers turned out to be terrific. They treated our furniture with such care. Every piece of furniture was wrapped with blankets and clear wrap and carried carefully out of the apartment onto the truck.


As they brought our furniture to our new apartment they were just as careful. They unwrapped the furniture and placed it where I asked them too. They certainly earned the tip we gave them.


With the movers gone we preceded to start to unpack and make our new apartment our home. We were expecting Bezeq [the phone company] and HOT.


Devorah came over with 2 of her daughters and brought us lunch.


Feeling exhausted, I was not prepared to have the phone company tech. tell me that he could not install a telephone outlet where I wanted it. He wanted to drag wires all over the walls. I just lost it and told him to leave. He opened the existing outlets and left.


Half an hour later HOT was supposed to come and install the cables on the televisions. When he was an hour late, we called HOT and they told us there was a slight problem and we would have service in 1 week.


This day was just getting too much for me.


That evening our other daughter, son-in-law and grandson, Naomi, Eliezer and Yoni came over to help us unpack and brought us supper and an entire Shabbos meal.


Day 1 in our new apartment was finally over.


Friday, day 2 went a little better. We unpacked a lot of boxes and the house was actually getting a Shabbos look. That evening, when I was washing the Shabbos dishes, I felt my feet getting wet. The drain pipe from the sink was blocked and it was backing up, leaking and we had water everywhere. By now, I was starting to hate this apartment.


Sunday morning, we called the agent and asked him to send us a plumber. Although the plumber said he would come that afternoon, he didn’t show up until the next day. Our plumber turned out to be a moonlighting handyman.

We decided to call our HOT agent and see what was happening because we didn’t see anyone working in the building to put in the infrastructure. The HOT customer service agent assured us up and down that the work order had been approved and it would take a week to 10 days and we would have service.

Back to the apartment. We have 2 balconies. Our upstairs neighbour has her air conditioner dripping water on the balcony off the living room. The balcony is unusable. We asked her to attach a hose and direct the drippings in another direction. She said she would call a service man. It is now 1 month later, my balcony is flooded and we have pigeons bathing in the pail that I put outside to try and catch some of the drippings.


As I write these words, I am so fed up, I am actually laughing.


I love pictures hanging in the house. Usually, one of the first things we do in a new apartment is hang up the pictures and curtains. This personalizes the apartment and makes it our home. This time I didn’t feel I could hang up any family pictures. The one exception was a ceramic picture that said Shalom that we hang outside our front door with a Bracha [blessing] for our home.


The shalom picture has special meaning to me because it was a gift from Naomi, the first time she came to visit Israel with my mother a”h. One morning a week after we hung up the picture, Avraham opened the front door and he called me. The picture had been stolen. Just the nail and the Bracha were left. I felt disgusted.


Back to HOT. Three days after being assured of service, Avraham called to see what the progress was even though we knew nothing was happening and was told that they didn’t want to pull the cable wire like they said they would to give us service. They didn't have the professionalism to call us and advise us they couldn't give us service, they waited for us to call.


I won’t bore you with the details, but you can just imagine the flurry of phone calls I made to managers. I was furious because we believed them and took this apartment. Had they not guaranteed service, we would have not taken the apartment, but waited for the apartment that was available in August.


HOT claims that they came to the building 5 days after we moved in to install the infrastructure but someone in the building threw them out. All I know is that no one from HOT ever knocked on my door to say that they weren’t being allowed to install their cables.


My son-in-law Hagai knows someone in management from YES. He asked him to go and see if anything could be done for us. Eli came and said short of putting the dish on the roof we would have to turn the building around to get service.


HOT and I were still battling and when I told them I was going to the media to say that they were dishonest and would say anything to get an order the strangest thing happened.


It was 9:45 in the evening three weeks later. The phone rang and the woman on the phone asked for me and said that she was from HOT and that the manager wanted to come to speak to me in person and when would it be okay. I gave her a day and time and she told me she would confirm the time with the manager and get back to me the next day.


The next morning when Avraham checked his e-mail, there was a 6 page e-mail from HOT saying that they were going to install HOT in our apartment and gave a time and date. The women never called me back and HOT never showed up on the day or time they chose.


Bottom line….we called the rental agent and told him what was going on.


He said that he would speak to the district manager of HOT [who was his friend] and try to get him to give us service. This past Sunday, our rental agent told us they gave him their final answer. To much work for just 1 family……….They don’t want to get involved in Haredi buildings.


That afternoon, we met with the agent and he agreed to break our lease and help us find another apartment.


Epilogue:
HOT is not a company to trust. They proved this to us by lying, cheating and will say anything to get the order. I am going to go to the media as I told them I would.


YES agreed to cancel our new 1 month old contract with them without penalties because they couldn’t give us service. In our next apartment, we will only use YES.


And oh yes, the water is still dripping, drip drop, drip drop……………..


So it is now back to the drawing boards and the classified ads …………………


I am sorry this blog is so long and I got carried away. In some ways, writing this blog has been good therapy for me.


Until next time [and I won’t be so long winded]
Miriam

בס''ד

GOODMAN FAMILY MOVES part 1


This title sounds simple enough………

1] You check the newspaper for rentals or get a rental agent

2] Go and look at some apartments….

3] Find the one you like…..

4] Sign a lease…..

5] Order a moving truck…..

6] Pack up and move………

Very straight forward, something that shouldn’t take more than a couple of weeks, you would think.

Now let me backtrack a little. We live in Netivot and we were living in our previous apartment for 5 years and were very happy. We had great neighbors, a super location with good public transportation and close to shopping, our medical clinic, and shuls on very corner including one in the building next to ours. So why did we move, you ask?


Our landlady [Yafffa] told us that she was not going to renew our lease as she wanted to move back into her apartment. In Israel, except for not paying the rent, this is the only reason an owner can not renew the lease.


The problem was that she told us on May 25th which gave us only 5 weeks to find a new place to live. Most landlords give 60 to 90 days notice. Our lease was over June 30th. I said to my husband, “no problem. I am sure we will find something in our neighborhood in few days.” Boy was I wrong!

So started the search. In Netivot, as in many other communities in Israel, each Friday, the local magazines are available and they advertise everything from A to Z including several classified sections. Both private people and agents list what rentals and for sells they have. We had decided to find an apartment on our own and not use an agent because agents take a months rent for their service.

Week 1 in the search proved to be unsuccessful. The tenant living in the only apartment that we went to see told us that the drains in the bathrooms were blocked and that the shower in the master bedroom couldn’t be used because it flooded the bedroom. She told me that she has to pour bleach into the drains daily to control the smell.[we could smell the bleach] When I asked her why the landlord didn’t fix the drains, she said that he didn’t want to because it was an expensive job. Scratch that apartment.


We decided to place our own ad ‘Looking for an apartment’ in the largest magazine for the following Friday. Anxiously, we waited for the calls from people who had apartments for rent and were looking for good tenants. The only calls we got were from people who didn’t read the ad correctly and thought we had an apartment for rent.


Week 2 was back to the drawing board. We decided to speak to other people and ask them to keep their eyes opened for us. We take a lot of taxis, and taxi drivers in Netivot know everything. We asked the drivers if they hear about an apartment in our area to let us know and gave them a cell phone number to call. We also placed our ad in the magazine once again hoping for better results.


My daughter told me about an Israeli site for rentals. http://www.yad2.co.il/ We checked out all the rentals but there wasn’t anything in the area where we wanted to live. This site became our ‘favorite site’. Several times a day we would check to see if anyone posted a new apartment listing.


That Friday, the magazines came out ….. we called several ads only to be told that the building didn’t allow internet or televisions. These were haredi buildings. Now I should tell you that we were living in a haredi area…..The project that we lived in had 10 buildings with 6 families in each building. The majority of families in the project were haredi, with some of the buildings totally haredi.


In our building there were 2 haredi families, 2 dati leumi families like us and 1 cholini [secular] family. We all got along very well. Another owner didn’t want any young children in the apartment at any time. We have B"H 12 grandchildren………….


Once again, our ad didn’t result in any calls.


We were now entering week 3. Our computer repairman called us and said that his aunt had an apartment for rent in our project [the building with the shul] and it was available immediately. This apartment was 100 meters, [good size] had the amount of bedrooms we wanted, rent was reasonable. The only drawback was that it was on the 3rd floor. My husband and I are not spring chickens but we decided to go and see the apartment.


We know this building very well and knew that it had problems with the roof when it rained. I had heard that the top floor apartments had a lot of rain damage but I didn’t realize exactly how much damage rain can do.


When we walked into the apartment it looked like a bomb had hit it. The previous tenants destroyed the entire apartment. We were told that they lived there for 2 years but didn’t pay the rent and it took 18 months for the court to evict them. They broke all the trisim, torn the screens made holes in the walls and ceilings, totally broke the 2 toilets and shower hoses, broke the doors of the kitchen cabinets and left the kitchen double sink hanging by one bolt. The floor looked like it hadn’t been washed in the 2 years they lived there.


When we went to see the laundry room, we saw the damage cased by the rain. The apartment had a beautiful layout and I could picture it clean and furnished. The landlady was asking 2000 shekals a month to take it as is and we could fix it ourselves or 2200 shekals a month and she would fix and paint.


We agreed to go and speak to the landlady and arranged to meet her a couple of days later. Our children were very unhappy that the apartment was on the 3rd floor. They told us to remember that we had to shlepp heavy groceries. They and my husband were very concerned about the rain and the damage. My son-in-law said, “who is going to pay for your damage when it rains. You are moving into a freshly painted apartment and when it rains, you will be back to square one.” In the end we decided that this apartment was more trouble than it was worth.

We then saw another apartment where the laundry room was outside on the balcony and since there was a built in stove in the kitchen, I would have to put my stove outside. Since both my appliances are electronic, any dampness would have ruined them.


At the end of week 3 we were not any closer to finding an apartment. We now enter week 4 and we see an ad on yad2 for an apartment on our street. We called the owner and made arrangements to go and see the apartment.

This apartment was just what we wanted….location, number of bedrooms, rent etc. It had a beautiful kitchen with a breakfast nook. The balcony was small and off the master bedroom, [not good], but the master bedroom had a walk-in closet [very unusual in our area]. The apartment needed to be painted but basically it was in good condition. The only drawback was that it was only available for August 1st and we needed it for July 1st.
 
I really wanted to rent this apartment. We spoke to Yaffa [our landlady] about giving us an extra month, and she went bonkers. My husband told her that if she didn’t stop screaming he would hang up on her. She only screamed louder and so he hung up. Five minutes later, Yaffa called back threatening to show up on the 1st and throw all our furniture of the balcony. My husband just hung up on her. 

We broke down and called an agent that we knew and asked him if he had any apartments for July 1st. He took us to see the dirtiest, smelliest and the most expensive apartment that we ever saw. Scratch this apartment. I still wanted the August apartment.

The next day, when Avrham went downstairs to get the mail, who did he meet coming into the building….you guessed it, Yaffa and was she ever ‘hot’.  My husband invited Yaffa to come upstairs and talk quietly but once again she had a screaming fit and then threatened to have her friends come and beat him up and throw our furniture in the garbage.


Finally I just opened the door and said to her “Shalom Yaffa”, wow did she get angry at me. She told that this was her apartment and I can’t throw her out of it. I told her that I paid the rent, so it is my apartment until the lease is over so get out.  When she finally left, I told my daughter about Yaffa, she said that since this was her second threat, she would call a police detective that she knows and asked what to do. He advised us to report her threat to the police and so this is what Avraham did.


Later that day, Yaffa called Avraham to tell him that she just spoke to an agent that she knew and that he had an apartment available for July 1st.


Avraham called the agent and we went to see the apartment. The apartment was a large 2 bedroom apartment, freshly painted and really in move in condition in a haredi building.

As I mentioned before, haredi buildings don’t allow televisions, internet or dogs. We had all three. We told the agent that the apartment was very nice but that we had a television with a contract from YES, the satellite cable company and a dog. [The dog has since passed away] We wanted permission from the owner to put up the satellite dish. If we got permission we would take the apartment.

He told us the dog wasn’t a problem but he would ask about satellite dish and would let us know the next day. We spoke to the agent early the next day and he told us that the owner gave his permission and agreed to write it in the lease as a clause.

That afternoon we signed the lease. Everything seemed to be coming together. We ordered our moving truck for the day we wanted and finished up packing. Little did we know.................

Until next time….. Im Yirtzeh Hashem next week part 2.......
Our Challenges [an unbelievable story]


Miriam