MH or Bobo, i would appriciate it if you would post this in the marketplace thread about me and the tranquil seas house (this is senjitsu btw). I feel that its pretty one sided, that a lot of background got left out and that it was assumed from the absolute get-go that i was out to scam everyone. Also posting this will help everyone get in touch with me to get their money back (i dont have my computer and literally all my contacts are on there)
I wanted to clear the air regarding this rental house, what happened, what did not happen, why there was such chaos and how everyone is going to get paid any outstanding security deposit or rent money that they are owed. I want to stress that this was never intended to be a scam, it never was a scam, and rent/SD was never collected from anyone absent the intention of them living there.
I moved into the house in january, and took over the lease in march. In retrospect, it was a mistake, both because im just not organized enough to manage a house that big and be the lease "goto guy" and because it was a far bigger financial committment that I expected it would be, esp with regard to utilities (which ended up in the 2K/mo range) and unoccupied rooms (which i was covering myself). All told, i ended up with about 2.5x the financial committment i was originally bargaining for.
This,added to another hiccup in my personal finances caused me to be late with rent in april. It was mid may before i was finally able to get current with the rent and late fees. Needless to say, this strained the relationship between the landlord and I quite a bit but my hope was now that he had all the outstanding money and late fees that things would normalize.
However, there were additional non-financial problems in mid-late may regarding my relationship with a couple of the roommates. The last straw, at least for me came on the sunday prior to memorial day. It was a confrontation which i learned two of the other residents of the house planned out in advance. One of them ended up advancing on me screaming. At the time (though the roommate in question denied it later) i felt that physical confrontation was iminent. Regardless of wether it was likely to have ended in physical confrontation, that is not the sort of environment i am willing to live in, especially at the price i was paying. I told him i expected him to leave the next day. He told me he wanted me out of the house.
I honestly had no idea what i was going to do about the situation. The next day, the rent was due, and i told the landlord that i would not have it until very late that night, or he could pick it up the following morning. He was kind of pissed about this because of the earlier situation and kind of concerned that i was financially over my head with the house and approcached me and basically said he wanted me to sign a paper to terminate the lease so he could rent it out to some other clients of his during the wsop.
I told him that i agreed. tbh, i wanted out because of both the financial issues, the conflict i described above and because the new roommates who moved into the house generally had a much lower standard of clenliness than i was comfortable with. However, i told him i couldnt do it even if i wanted to as there were others in the house who wanted to stay there and would not be able to if i took myself off the lease.
He told me that if i signed the paper, we could stay until the seventh, and that he had another comparable (but smaller) house empty and single rooms available in a few other house and that he would provide rooms through the series to anyone who wanted to switch. I was given to understand that we would not have to pay rent for june, as that would come out of our deposit and the rest of the deposit could go toward the rooms in the new houses. At this point, i felt that this solution was the most viable and preferable thing for everyone involved. I signed the paper and planned to tell everyone that night if i could catch them or the next morning if i couldnt.
Had this gone as planned, everyone would have suffered a mild inconvienience and we all would have been much happier, imo, for the rest of the series.
Unfortunately it did not go as planned. In early may, i had written the date and time of a court date (long story, but unrelated to this mess) down incorrectly thinking it was in mid july rather than mid may. I missed court and the judge issued a warrant for my arrest. The police showed up about the warrant at the exact worst time possible -- like 30 minutes after i signed the paper terminating the lease and before i could tell anyone about it or make sure proper arrangements were made so that everyone would have rooms and not be out money. The warrant was easy to take care of, but since it was a failure to appear i had to sit in jail without bail until i could get heard by the judge (for over a week).
I realize that this is my fault -- and that "hey i had a warrant for my arrest that i didnt know about" is no excuse, but it should be incredibly obvious that my plan wasnt to sign away our lease then get taken to jail... if i was really out to scam as everyone here seems to think i was i had a much easier option that would have pissed a lot less people off. I could have told the landlord to bugger himself, not paid the rent, and waited out the eviction, which would have taken us through the WSOP.
The only _ONLY_ reason i had to sign that paper was to make sure I could get out of my committment to the house and the other people in the house who wanted to do so would be able to get rooms.. Also of note, the very day this all went down, i bought 20% of one of the roommates in the 2500 td. A good investment and one i was happy to make -- but would this make sense if i was planning to screw everyone over that very day?
Is it a ****ty situation? Yes. My fault? yeah definitely. Poor management and incompetance on my part -- for sure. But it was never a scam, it was never my intention to scam and up until i spoke to ppl from the house when i got out i assumed everyone was in rooms and set, and that the proceeds from the deposit had covered that as per my discussion with the landlord.
As should be acutely obvious from my history on this forum, those individuals who still either have an outstanding deposit or paid rent for which they didnt recieve the room will be reimbursed as quickly as possible. I will be able to pay via bank wire, WF or BOFA xfer or cash in person. Right now, i have no records whatsoever, as my computer turned up missing left the house, so if you paid money and are owed it back, email me.... provided everyone does (and i expect they will), everyone should have what they are owed by midweek.
You can email me at sigmajin AT gmail.com -- dont expect immdiate answers to your emails at least for the next day or two because i still dont have my computer back.
Or you can call me at 702-506-7894
these payments come With two caveats--
1.. The landlord has informed me that there were significant deductions made from the deposit for damage and cleaning While im not out to charge the people who were there when everyone had to leave for pre-existing conditions, my expectation is that at least some of this relates to how the house was left, and some damages that i know were done by specific roommates (a broken tv for example)
I have asked him to get back to me with an itemized list and he is getting back to me with that and pictures. The things related to how the house was left will be split 6 ways (between me and the 5 people who were at the house after i left). Damages that can be attributed to a single individual (the broken tv for instance) will be taken out of that individuals deposit. Things that were pre-existing, or generally wear and tear related im going to eat.
when i hear back from the LL about this i will share it with anyone who is interested.
2. Its come to my attention that the people in the new house have my computer. Initially they told me they had it. They also told the landlord they had it and another one of the roommates who moved out. When i demanded it back, however they changed their story, claiming they dont know where it is. Its pretty clear to me that this is a lie, that they took the computer out of tranquil seas without my permission. Obviously, something like stealing my personal property is covered by the security deposit. The value of the computer and monitor (approx $500 its a pos) and the value of the data stored on the computer (my approximation is $2K) will be deducted form their security deposits. However, if they want to turn over the computer to me, i would frankly rather have it than the money. Your choice guys.
I am very sorry and totally mortified about this situation. Anyone who reads my "main" forum LVL knows that my main concern has always been trying to help people coming to visit las vegas
also of note:
regarding the speculation about my accounts. While i understand some of the concerns noted here, they are entirely suppositious. The fact is that i have had dozens of successful trades over the past three years without any problems noted whatsoever. While im sure that many look down their nose at MAing and whatever else they think im doing the fact is i have never had a trade go bad -- and no just MAing does not make me a scammer.
regarding augie -- youre just jelous of my gingerdom.
regarding disses about my appearance -- you all wish you had this kind of sexy. Seriously though -- ugly jokes? pretty lame.
regarding the jake also being a jason and concern about ppl mixing us up -- you can start calling yourself "jason the less" if you wish like james son of alpheaus did during biblical times to distinguish himself from james the greater.
jason