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My horror story: Why I ran away from Nanawale
#1
I'm too nauseous at the moment due to being pregnant so I haven't been writing much. The short version is that the house we negotiated to rent was nothing like the photos. The photos, it turns out, were taken 10 years ago and presented as current.

The would-be landlady turned out to be insane, which didn't help matters at all. The house has moldy walls with termite nests on them. There were bags of trash all over the yard. The yard itself was no longer landscaped, the jungle was taking it back. There was a work area in the back that was full of rotting rusting junk. The stench was ungodly. The landlady had the audacity to say there was nothing wrong with her house. I didn't want her mad at me because she's just too weird.

We had things shipped to her house when we left LA. I'm pretty sure I'll take a loss on those boxes. I would pay to get her out of my life anyway, she's just too crazy.

When I came over we called her telling her we were in the taxi on the way to the house, that we'd be there in 5 minutes. She said she had to go and wouldn't be there. I talked to the neighbour. The really nice old man said that house was once a drug house and was never taken care of. He said the lady was incapable of holding a job so she ended up working in Kona while living in Nanawale. Her daughter is in jail and has drug issues which, I think, she probably has too.

Good thing we had not signed anything legally binding before leaving LA.

Just now she sent my husband this email:

quote:
Sorry you were disappointed in the house; I was disappointed you didn't honor our agreement. I reviewed all our correspondence and phone conversations and can't find any reasonable excuse for you to have had such outlandish expectations.

It seems you must have already had another rental lined up and made your choice when you arrived. If that's not the case and you honestly believe that the house is not exactly as you understood it to be, I think you'll find nothing but disappointment in Hawai'i.

The house is already rented to the next applicants, so don't worry about any legal action or collection process. There are no damages worth pursuing since your bad faith and character only wasted a day of my time.


I wish we had taken photos of the house and compared them to what was on her website. She wanted $950 for a house that was half eaten by termites, the walls were mildewy and moldy and full of termite/ant nestings, the yard looking like the garbage compactor in the Death Star...

I seriously doubt whoever rented the place, IF her email is true, saw it before signing. I tried to be open minded but I almost started crying when the cab left. I told DH I didn't want to end our hawaiian dream as a nightmare and had him call the cab back. He had to run to the end of the street to call since there was NO phone reception at the house.

NEVER sign anything site unseen...I'm glad we didn't.

--maggie
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#2
We looked a few houses in Nanawale, but the group of men going at each other with baseball bats in the middle of the street made us think it was not a place we wanted to live.

Sorry to hear about you house problem... keep looking there are some nice places to be found and some even nicer people to deal with.



Texan Moving to Puna on July 3rd 2008.
-----------------------------------------------------------
I do not believe that America is better than everybody else...
America "IS" everybody else.
The Wilder Side Of Hawaii
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#3
maggie,
I am deeply sorry that you had such an awful experience.
Houses go into mold and funk mold quickly here when they aren't vigilantly cared for, and all too many owners do not.

I have looked at many horrible houses in my search to buy a house and know what you mean.

I know you took my original post to you as very negative, but I was concerned you would run into this sort of thing in Nanawele, which you mentioned. I seem to remember John Dirgo lives there quite happily, so there must be nice parts to it. With all these areas, one has to visit them to know which sub-areas are blighted by crime and drug use.

As was said, you CAN find a nice house for that price. You can probably even find a brand new house.

Have you considered HPP? It has a lot of nice homes and the location is great for getting into either Hilo or Pahoa.
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#4
Aloha y'all...thanks for the replies. I know there's bad lots out there in more ways than one. We're still looking for a place. We're renting a car this monday and will go look at places. Feel free to suggest. If any of you are renting out your homes let me know, already saw one punawebber home for rent that looks very charming. Smile

--maggie
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#5
Here is a good starting point.

Good luck

-------
It is the way... the way it is.
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#6
I second craigslist. More junk to weed through than Punaweb non-classified, but because craigslist is free it's very attractive to people who want to advertise less expensive places. It's also easy to use.

At this point you might want to think whether you'd rather rent through professional management, after your experience with psycho landlord (who writes a good letter).

Both landlords and tenants have to be careful here about future issues over perceived damages and other junk. I have had the tenants from hell, who tried to set up a harassment case against us almost from Day One, nice until they got a lease and then turned nasty. Well, I'm sure there are also landlords who will try to make you out to have damaged their property, so do be careful. Take photos, etc..

There are lots of NICE folks with a place to rent, and there are some creeps. Unless you know them or know people who know them (like at Punaweb), you might be safer with a professional management company than taking a chance on getting tied to another wacko like the one you just escaped.
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#7
Kathy, she writes a good letter when not on ICE. You'd understand if you had seen that bathroom.

Ironically we did find her through craigslist.

We might be moving to a house in Keeau that I really liked in the photos, but of course I want to look around a lot first.

Our friend who rented us this room has a friend with a GORGEOUS 2-story 4 bedroom house in Ainaloa as well...which she would rent to us for about $1100...but she won't know for sure what is up with it for a few weeks. Her husband is deciding whether to take it off market and rent it, and he won't decide any time soon, too busy.

By the way, I wonder if only white people are on drugs on this island. I'm getting ashamed of my race! My friend who rents our room to us...is renting to another white couple elsewhere and she says she doesn't know how to get rid of them...she needs them out because they're on ICE constantly!

--maggie
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#8
I'm sorry to hear of your experience Maggie. I'm a landlord and would never rent a house I wouldn't live in myself.

Sorry for the sidetrack:
we are planning a vacation in March and plan on renting a house for a couple weeks. How will we know we're going to get a decent place? I'm looking at one in Leilani and have talked with the manager who seems quite knowldgeable and friendly.
Puna: Our roosters crow first
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#9
quote:
Originally posted by maggieblanchett


By the way, I wonder if only white people are on drugs on this island. I'm getting ashamed of my race! My friend who rents our room to us...is renting to another white couple elsewhere and she says she doesn't know how to get rid of them...she needs them out because they're on ICE constantly!

--maggie

Nope, we have all kinds, colors, and nationalities of people around here on ice. Equal Opportunity Addiction. So sad.

Cheers,
Jerry
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#10

You need to drop the 'white people' stuff. First off, there's only one race & that's the human race and we can all trace our ancestors back to a single female who lived in Africa circa 200,000 years ago and in that sense we're all African, even you.

JayJay
JayJay
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