A few months back, my husband and I decided to rent a small house after spending a few years in an apartment and something odd seems to be going on here. This is our first rental ever so maybe I’m overreacting, but this doesn’t seem normal…
We really wanted a backyard to have a green space, and found a perfect, cute, pre-furnished rental house with a beautiful backyard in the middle of both of our workplaces. The landlady is this sweet elderly woman named Kathy and she gave it to us relatively cheap because she said we seemed like good people, plus the house has minor ongoing renovations, but now that we’ve lived here for a while we’re starting to have some concerns.
To start at the beginning, she had us come by in person for a short in person interview (and took notes), before she decided if she’d rent to us or not. She asked how close by our families were, were we on good terms? After we said not close by (mine), not on great terms (his) she said she was sorry to hear that though she seemed pleased as she jotted down our answers. She asked about our diet so she could recommend local restaurants and when my husband mentioned we’re both vegan she said “oh how quaint”, but she wrote down something that looked suspiciously like ‘grass-fed’. She also asked about our health history and if we had any history of bloodborne diseases for what she said were liability reasons.
Once she decided to rent to us, she wanted proof that we could pay for a year of rent and asked for two months rent up front. That may be fairly normal, I guess? But she also required us to set up an automated monthly transfer directly to her account as part of our rental agreement. It made us a bit nervous but we figured we could always cancel it if we needed to move out. Our contract also has a an oddly specific clause that requires we be at the house at exactly 9:30 PM on June 25th because she wanted to bring her children by for dinner.
A few other weird things have happened lately and we’re a bit freaked out.
We still get mail for the prior tenants, and I’ve seen at least 10 different names now on mail addressed to this house. We tried to drop stuff by the post office but they didn’t have forwarding info for anyone. One day I called her because one piece of mail looked like it contained maybe some sort of time sensitive check, in case she knew where they moved to. I handed her that and all the other mail for prior tenants that had come since our post office trip, and she said she’d take care of it. Later I saw her on the garage camera footage and before she got in her car, not only did she walk easily without her cane, but she slowly looked over each piece with what looked to be a strange smile on her face. She threw it all in the trash bin, except one thing (the check?) which she opened and pocketed. She also let herself in one day while we were at work and was going through our belongings, which was a creepy.
The ongoing renovation is something related to the hall closet. Since we first saw the house, that door has been nailed shut. She said not to worry about it but that the repair people would need access to the house at any given time – which was another reason for the steep discount. It was weird and meant we had less privacy, but the discount really helped us out. We can only use workers from a special company she works with. They tend to come and go without any warning but whatever they are doing in there usually occurs while we’re at work and then they close it back up. It doesn’t seem to be going well either, because now there’s some sort of oily black liquid and sour smelling sort of breeze coming from underneath. I’ve tried mopping it up but it just keeps coming… One time, when I got closer to the door to mop I heard this sort of squelchy sound followed by crunching that really freaked me out and now I avoid that whole area.
I happened to catch part of the most recent ‘renovation’ because I came home sick from work, and it involved painting weird symbols on the outside of door in the same color paint as the door itself. Trying to make conversation with the guy painting, I asked him how repairs were going. He wouldn’t make eye contact with me and his response was a cryptic “It’s almost time”.
After that visit, I now hear what sound like whispered voices coming from behind the door and occasionally what sounds like scratching and gurgling. When I told our landlady about these new developments and that I was worried, she just said she had a friend she was looking forward to introducing us to and not to forget to be home on the night of June 25th. I swear sometimes it feels like the living room wall near the closet feels like it’s gently moving now, too – like a rippling.
But, what really creeps me out the most, is that as far as she knows, we are planning on leasing indefinitely. Due to all the aforementioned happenings, though, we’ve been looking online at other rental houses in the area in secret since something is clearly wrong here. But…the house we’re renting came up in our search results. It’s listed as ‘Available June 26th, 2022’.
Do you think we should talk to her? Or just try and leave before June 25th?