so as of mid-december, i will be free of my lease agreement for my townhouse. i am thrilled to bits to be out of the contract, but i am less than thrilled by the fact that i’ll be paying for the stupid thing through mid-january against my will. (better than paying for it through july, i suppose.) i suppose i’ve learned two important lessons from this subleasing experience: 1) craigslist is awesome, and i should totally use it more often, but i don’t need to be so detailed in my offers next time; 2) when dealing with foreign exchange students, clarify every last effing detail in writing before you go in to sign the lease. (yeah, that whole “devil’s in the details” thing came back to bite me in the rump. big time.)
so, in my craigslist post, i offered to pay the first month’s rent if the person signed on to live in the apartment before december 31st. to me, this meant that if someone wanted to move in during november, i would pay for november 1 – november 31 since i pay rent on the first of each month. same rules apply for december. i even explained this in person, but it apparently fell on deaf ears. so, i pushed back the signing twice to fit their schedule, and in the process i turned down at least two other people interested in the apartment. the future lessees show up, and they insist that they want to move into the apartment december 15. i said that was fine, but we’d set up the lease to start december 1 and i would be happy to pay december’s rent. ooooooh boy! that’s when the fireworks flew. they didn’t want it starting december 1, it must start december 15 and they wanted me to pay for december 15 – january 15. we went round and round, and i nearly threw the deal out (and in hind sight, i probably should have). i finally threw up my hands and said f@#$ it, i’ll pay the half a month, but i’m really pissed about it, and i think they were doing a really bad thing. they just stared blankly, completely emotionless which i find even more infuriating. so, i sign my paperwork and drive off while they are left to sign theirs. i get a phone call 2 minutes later from the leasing agent, and she’s telling me the future tenants are asking me if i would come back and sign something or post-date a check to insure that i would pay for the full amount! “SERIOUSLY? you mean we just went round and round, and i finally agree to pay it and sign my paperwork, and you’re going to ask me to drive back and do more?!” i actually called the leasing office back and started to scrap the deal again, asking how quickly the other two people we passed over could come in and sign paperwork. unfortunately, the leasing office was less than encouraging as to my prospects of luring the other prospects back and felt it would be a safer object to go ahead and sign over the lease today. after writing the check, i turned and looked at everyone in the room and said, “THIS SUCKS!” before leaving the room.
*sigh*
so anyway, i’m over it. it’s “only” $322.50, and i won’t have to sign a lease for an apartment again if i don’t want to ever again.