Worst place you've lived/almost lived in?

drillyeye · 02-04-2018 01:34AM #1

I've come across a few gems in my time.

One time I was in bandcamp another European city, finding it very difficult to find a place to rent, and not for lack of money.

Saw a local ad, arranged to go see it. I was led into this VERY old mansion-like gaf by a 12/13 year old boy, all the way down to the basement. The interior looked like it hadn't been touched since world war 1.

There, sitting on an ancient, mouldy yellow couch was this geezer who was just as old as the furniture. Already this place is out of the question, but I go through the paces so as not to be rude.

The geezer asks me, in quite terrible broken English, "how long you want?"

I tell him what I'm after, then he starts, out of nowhere, telling me that my English is very bad. Now I speak very clear English, as you tend to pick up when around foreign places. So this question is weird.

I tell him that I'm from Ireland, and that English is my mother tongue. But no, he insists its terrible, while hes speaking barely understandable English. He also insisted that his own English was "perfect". The fooking irony. He kept this up long enough that I wanted to slap the cobwebs off him.

So, feeling fairly peeved already, the boy leads me down another set of stairs (bear in mind we were already in a basement). There, in the weak light of a bare lightbulb, is a manky mattress that filled most of the floor. I forget the exact price of it now, but the clown was looking for at least a grand a month for that shythole. It was a kinda surreal experience!

Plenty more dodgy experiences. But what about the dirty fookers here on after hours? Worst place you've seen/stayed in?

bodhrandude · 02-04-2018 01:56AM

Probably when I stayed in Duke St in Glasgow, the gaff itself was great, my mate owning the place, a top floor attic flat but the area was fecking scary. Just at the start of the East end of Glasgow coming from the city centre and surrounded by grotty housing estates and marauding gangs with chibs. It could be tricky and freaky getting back from the town at night. I remember watching an Orange march through the streets one Saturday from the gaff and these nutcases running up through the centre of it with crowbars and axes. This was back in the late eighties and early nineties. Having passed through it a few times now since on holidays to Scotland its very much cleaned up and is apparently popular with the students and hipsters now.

Cutie 3.14 · 02-04-2018 02:28AM

Waterford

Graces7 · 02-04-2018 10:37AM

Cutie 3.14 wrote: »

Waterford

... and?

ELM327 · 02-04-2018 10:39AM

Graces7 wrote: »

... and?

I think it's pretty self explanatory tbh

Katgurl · 02-04-2018 11:00AM

I've stayed in or viewed some very dodgy places when I was younger but a more recent one is sticking out in my mind -

I was a bit shocked when presented with an immediate and dramatic rent hike in my accommodation as I'd only been there a couple of months and it was already high for the (not great) area. I said I'd give it a couple of days thought and in the meantime decided to check out some neighbouring rentals to see was I being taken for a ride.

I went to view an owner-occupied place on the next road. The rent was slightly less than mine. The owner turned out to be a woman mid-thirties. She told me as soon as I arrived that she was glad I was female as she has a ten year old daughter and she has been uncomfortable leaving her with the male tenant. When I walked in the house was spotless so I breathed a sigh of relief. She opened the door to the living room - no couches and filled with camp beds. Air bnb she explained. Then she took me to my 'double room'. I have no idea how she got the bed in as it filled the width of the room entirely. There was no other furniture and maybe a foot to spare lengthways. She told me I could keep my things under the bed.

I knew already it wasn't a runner but she was nice so I stayed for a chat. It turned out she worked night shifts and slept during the day. Her daughter (all of ten years old) was 'out and about' all the time but it would be great that I was a teacher as I could help her with her homework. The last male tenant had made her very uncomfortable and the air bnb guests were usually male so she wanted a female around to keep an eye on things. I wasnt allowed any overnight guests myself either.

I told her the truth that I didn't think it was for me but I left out my feeling that it was her that should have been offering to pay me to look after her daughter instead of charging rent.

garbo speaks · 02-04-2018 11:00AM

Raqqa.

timthumbni · 02-04-2018 11:12AM

Bundoran. I believe the devil sends bad people there as punishment.

heldel00 · 02-04-2018 11:13AM

Lived in an "extension" on the back of this old witch's house in Ranelagh. She controlled the heating and regardless of weather it didn't go on until November.
Bedclothes riddled with mould, clothes stank of damp.
Entrance was through her front door and every time, EVERY fooking time I'd come in the door you'd hear this witchy old voice panicking - "who's that? Who's there?"!!!
Accused me of tampering with the meter because i wasn't buying enough tokens - eh no i was just hightailing it out of there at every opportunity.
Bought myself a new car and was moving out at the same time. She refused to take the rubbish bags that i had filled when packing up. It exceeded her policy of one small binbag a week. Seriously wanted me to bring the rubbish with me in the back of the car. Needless to say it was left sitting at her gate.
Oh I'm actually getting vexed here even thinking about the old bint.

bear1 · 02-04-2018 11:13AM

Charleroi.
I can't even begin to describe the hatred I have for that place.

FizzleSticks · 02-04-2018 11:26AM

This post has been deleted.

LirW · 02-04-2018 11:39AM

The first apartment I ever rented was a bit of a trainwreck.
It was back home in Austria, they come unfurnished and standard would be a 3 year lease. Damp issues wouldn't really be a problem, especially in the cold season because it's quite dry there.
Anyway, the apartment itself was actually quite neat and beautiful, it was under an old roof with exposed beams.
The building was bought by a solicitor who renovated the whole thing, having the office in the ground floor and the first and second floor are apartments.
It would have been so fine if they wouldn't have cut corners at every occasion and put the cheapest finish for literally everything in.
The whole 3 years I lived there the heating was a constant issue, winters over there get REALLY cold and the heating would have constant issues leaving the house cold for countless weekends.
Suddenly I started having a severe damp problems in my bathroom, that had insufficient ventilation. When the lady below me started to report damp issues they sent a plumber in who never told my anything of what's going on and I only heard from her that they covered the old walls with cheapy plasterboards and didn't mount the pipework properly, leaving one of the pipes of my rads leaking and all the water ran down the wall into her apartment.
Same reason why my bathroom was so damp, the walls were just soaked.

At some point my neighbour got so upset over the non-working heating, he was absolutely losing in and giving them hell.
There were a couple of dodgy tenants in one apartments, they never were lucky getting grand people into that one, but then the landlords were dodgy af too, so not feeling too sorry about them.
After moving away from the area, even though being super posh there were a lot of break-ins in the time I lived there, I never went back for a walk or so.

McMurphy · 02-04-2018 11:43AM

Redfern in 2004.

That is all.

KatW4 · 02-04-2018 11:44AM

I lived in Forest Gate in London for a year. The flat itself was okay, good bit of mould but we got on with it.

It was the area that was a problem. We had to walk down a tiny alleyway to get to the flat which wasn't nice when you were alone.

We were on the ground floor. The corner of our flat was obviously used as a drug dealing corner because we used to get offered drugs through the window. We also saw countless people get arrested outside our window. One time some kids got bars and smashed all the windows of the cars. It was a horrible place to live.

Lived in Ilford too which was okay until I saw a guy get a glass smashed into his face at the train station. An old drunk man screamed at me to "**** off back to your own country" there too.

Billy86 · 02-04-2018 11:56AM

Katgurl wrote: »

I knew already it wasn't a runner but she was nice so I stayed for a chat. It turned out she worked night shifts and slept during the day. Her daughter (all of ten years old) was 'out and about' all the time but it would be great that I was a teacher as I could help her with her homework. The last male tenant had made her very uncomfortable and the air bnb guests were usually male so she wanted a female around to keep an eye on things. I wasnt allowed any overnight guests myself either.

As much as this kind of thing is an eye roller for you, the absolute bang of sexism and misandry off that woman is already nauseating.

Katgurl · 02-04-2018 12:07PM

Billy86 wrote: »

As much as this kind of thing is an eye roller for you, the absolute bang of sexism and misandry off that woman is already nauseating.

Yeah I agree. She had met me for ten mins. I could be a sociopath, not safe to be left alone with a child.

Billy86 · 02-04-2018 12:16PM

Katgurl wrote: »

Yeah I agree. She had met me for ten mins. I could be a sociopath, not safe to be left alone with a child.

You see them quite regularly - where I work we share the building with HSE Primary Care and only a week or two back a woman had to go to the bathroom badly during an appointment her daughter had, and was losing her rag because she insisted someone find a female staff member to 'supervise' while she was away in the toilet as she did not trust the trained child psychologist because "you know what men are like."

Lord only know what she'll do if that daughter ever gets given a male primary school teacher. :pac:

Graces7 · 02-04-2018 12:26PM

Billy86 wrote: »

You see them quite regularly - where I work we share the building with HSE Primary Care and only a week or two back a woman had to go to the bathroom badly during an appointment her daughter had, and was losing her rag because she insisted someone find a female staff member to 'supervise' while she was away in the toilet as she did not trust the trained child psychologist because "you know what men are like."

Lord only know what she'll do if that daughter ever gets given a male primary school teacher. :pac:

I would not leave a child alone with any man, or woman. The rules re a child being accompanied for these visits are there for a reason.

Specialun · 02-04-2018 12:52PM

dublin

full of druggies and jackeens. dunno which one is worse

rosmoke · 02-04-2018 12:55PM

Citywest.

Cars burning, knackers doing doughnuts regularly, houses getting broken into often, guy on a gta spree caught in citywest shopping centre, lidl taken down and seif brought in my estate, another guy shout in my estate, I was once asked by a 6 year old If I wanna get stabbed, I'm almost 30 and not a small guy .. imagine ..

Tommybojangles · 02-04-2018 01:08PM

Ballyfermot. Bad enough to be there but I realised after moving in one of my housemates was a local. Moved out sharpish after the landlord had to be called to break up a cocaine party

Duffy the Vampire Slayer · 02-04-2018 02:02PM

I went to see a room in Chapinero Alto, which is quite an expensive area of BogotThe house was huge with about 8 rooms but just one small kitchen and the room I saw was in the basement with only a tiny window for light.

I later met a Scottish girl who had lived in a similar house in the same neighbourhood and the owner used to rent out the living room for meetings and lectures on Saturday morning. On her first weekend there she came into the room and found loads of strangers taking notes while somebody recited stats from a whiteboard he had brought along.

chopperbyrne · 02-04-2018 02:16PM

A bedsit in a house at the bottom of Howth Road (Fairview end).

Moved in in November.

I was on the ground floor, and there was a shared bathroom on the middle floor with no working lock.

We were supposed to pay each time to a meter to heat the water, but the existing residents had already rigged it to not be required.

The boiler for the sink in the kitchen area of my room didn't work, and was never fixed when I reported it.

When I moved in the fridge had been left unplugged and was manky inside.

The only window in the room was an old style pull down window.

It was held closed with nails, but they rusted and broke so it was stuck open by about an inch.

When nothing was fixed after the first month, I didn't pay the rent, found somewhere else, told the landlady I was moving out and when she could come get the key from me.

She never turned up, so I closed the door behind me and never looked back.

heldel00 · 02-04-2018 02:31PM

Graces7 wrote: »

Billy86 wrote: »

You see them quite regularly - where I work we share the building with HSE Primary Care and only a week or two back a woman had to go to the bathroom badly during an appointment her daughter had, and was losing her rag because she insisted someone find a female staff member to 'supervise' while she was away in the toilet as she did not trust the trained child psychologist because "you know what men are like."

Lord only know what she'll do if that daughter ever gets given a male primary school teacher. :pac:

I would not leave a child alone with any man, or woman. The rules re a child being accompanied for these visits are there for a reason.

Seriously?
When the male ed psychologist visits our school he works alone with the child. It's not an issue.

(Oh god but i do worry for the future ...)

duffman13 · 02-04-2018 02:40PM

I'd one when I was in Australia. Rent in Melbourne was astronomical for people on Working Holiday Visas so a lot of what was available was through gumtree. Myself and my missus seen a room share for $380 a week in the city in a new block of apartments. Two bedroom, all mod cons etc.

Rang the guy who said there's two others living there and thought cool sounds good. We got to the apartment and went in. Turns out it was a one bed apartment with the sitting room converted to a bedroom. 3 sets of bunk beds in the sitting room. Brings is into "our" room which is pitch black as the blinds are pulled because the the people living there are asleep. There is two sets bunk beds in the room so when he said sharing with two he meant sharing the room. So 10 people living in a one bed apartment paying 190 dollars each a week. Absolute joke.

The other one is kinda funny and kinda scary. Me and my other half had gotten a job in Queensland doing regional work for our visa. An English guy (Josh) I lived with decided to come along with the hope of landing a job on the way. We'd a 5 day drive and we set off early in the morning. At the end of the first day Josh had found a job on gumtree which wasn't too far away from where we'd be finished for the night on the second day.

We got directions and he was about 8 miles from a town we'd be passing through. We pulled up and the house looked a little run down to say the least. Met the farmer who seemed ok but had lived alone for about 15 years just employing seasonal workers.

My mate thought it was grand so we left him there and went on to the next big town about 80 miles away to stay the night before setting off. Got a phone call at about 6am the next morning to come back, apparently when Josh got up for work the next morning the guy was sitting there in the nip playing with himself in the kitchen. The guy had refused to drop him into town and when we met him he'd walked about 6 miles towards town and was totally freaked out. Some of the pictures of that place were scary.

Graces7 · 02-04-2018 02:44PM

heldel00 wrote: »

Seriously?
When the male ed psychologist visits our school he works alone with the child. It's not an issue.

(Oh god but i do worry for the future ...)

Standard child protection rules that I thought applied beyond the church .

the purple tin · 02-04-2018 02:45PM

Moate. What a fcuking inbred dump, the kindest thing they could do is dig a deep moat around Moate.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 02-04-2018 03:24PM

Graces7 wrote: »

Standard child protection rules that I thought applied beyond the church .

Not at all! Teachers (male and female) take children on a one to one basis for learning support every day of the week. Speech therapists work one to one with children as well.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k · 02-04-2018 04:06PM

I wouldn’t leave a child with a priest, but a Garda vetted male/female teacher/she worker there’s no issue
I wouldn’t be mad about the thoughts of leaving them with nuns either to be honest.

Worst place I lived was probably when I lived in a house that resembled a poor mans geordie shore. Only girl with five boys, house parties from Thursday night til Sunday. Threesomes, riding in the hot tub, riding in the jacuzzi bath, putting bubbles in jacuzzi and flooding the downstairs hall, snorting coke off the kitchen worktops, an oven so dirty it went on fire when someone put on the grill, infested with mice every year, one of my housemates was dealing coke and benzos, a female husky locked up and used for breeding, a housemate who stole from everyone from money to the dealers drugs, there was one girl who’d come over and leave her three year old downstairs while she was having sex with one of the lads. Nobody would contribute to buying oil so there was no heating, house was so damp the clothes on a clothes horse wouldn’t dry, the bathroom was absolutely filthy, and after the kleptomaniac got thrown out for stealing he came back a few weeks later and robbed the house

heldel00 · 02-04-2018 04:09PM

Jimmy Freezing Anger wrote: »

Graces7 wrote: »

Standard child protection rules that I thought applied beyond the church .

Not at all! Teachers (male and female) take children on a one to one basis for learning support every day of the week. Speech therapists work one to one with children as well.

Exactly.

Anyway, my Ranelagh story earlier pales in comparison with some of the dunkels the rest of ye have had to live in!

badtoro · 02-04-2018 04:11PM

An estate in Galway, neighbours wouldn't have been out of place in a Dickens novel, shower of scum. Only answer in the end was to move.

Worst place you've lived/almost lived in?

Comments