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Worst place you've lived/almost lived in?

drillyeye

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?

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facehugger99

In Melbourne a long time ago.

Lovely city but we rented a really cheap ( and ****ty) place in a neighborhood full of prostitutes and drug dealers.

Only became apparent to us after a couple of days there. Never had too much trouble other than regular propositions. We didn't have anything worth robbing which probably helped.

fullstop

Johnny Dogs wrote: »

Redfern in 2004.

That is all.

It's actually a nice enough area these days, same as Newtown and some of the other suburbs have been regenerated.

Big Nasty

Worked in an Irish Pub in Germany 20+ years back. There were two long term rental apartments that staff used to stay in, lads in one, girls in the other. Apartments themselves were fine apart from the fact that every inch of free space had a bed in it meaning there were usually about 10 people living in each two bed apartment. To be fair that kind of happened organically as new staff were taken on and the landlords weren't aware of it.

As tends to happen when people are working abroad the sessions were unreal. There was very little drugs involved, mostly just drink. 14 hour work days followed by marathon drinking sessions. One lad ended up in hospital burned out. Anyhow the riding that was done was unnatural. Staff literally paired off and some nights there could be twenty staying in the one two bed apartment. It was like an orgie in every room with couples openly riding the hole of each other bareback as others went about their business.

Good times!

Stonedpilot

Big Nasty wrote: »

Worked in an Irish Pub in Germany 20+ years back. There were two long term rental apartments that staff used to stay in, lads in one, girls in the other. Apartments themselves were fine apart from the fact that every inch of free space had a bed in it meaning there were usually about 10 people living in each two bed apartment. To be fair that kind of happened organically as new staff were taken on and the landlords weren't aware of it.

As tends to happen when people are working abroad the sessions were unreal. There was very little drugs involved, mostly just drink. 14 hour work days followed by marathon drinking sessions. One lad ended up in hospital burned out. Anyhow the riding that was done was unnatural. Staff literally paired off and some nights there could be twenty staying in the one two bed apartment. It was like an orgie in every room with couples openly riding the hole of each other bareback as others went about their business.

Good times!

Haha.

Germany was always very Gay friendly .

Big Nasty

Stonedpilot wrote: »

Haha.

Germany was always very Gay friendly .

Maybe I explained it wrong but nobody was gay. Although given the chance I'm sure a few of them wouldn't have said no! :eek:

Stonedpilot

Big Nasty wrote: »

Maybe I explained it wrong but nobody was gay. Although given the chance I'm sure a few of them wouldn't have said no! :eek:

Ha was joking BN.

FakePie

Some shuddering stories, but - I have, the grand-daddy right here.

Wait'll you hear this:

In a highly populated city, where it was very difficult to find accommodation, let alone good accommodation - I was like, two months living in this 24 bed dorm hostel.
Folks getting their valuable lifted, nightly; the majority there to use drugs.

To be honest, most of them were so disengaged from reality on narcotics, that that atmosphere itself was quite tranquil.

I eventually find this place I can afford.

What, a dump - but I had a large room all to myself.

I'm talking, smell, uncleanliness, everywhere. On the walls, on the ceiling.
The curtains in the kitchen, they were so soaked in grease fat, that they had basically become rigid.
We're talking, more than a couple millimeters pure filth, on the floor.
Mouse infested, needless to say; though surprisingly I didn't see any roaches.

The dude that lived there, basically a social recluse.
Alls he did was sit on his computer - I kid you not - all day, every day.
It seemed he had become delirious via isolation.
He was also morbidly obese.

Anyways - this is the truth.
I thought I was pretty tough, so I could handle anything that might transpire in this depraved cesspit....

Cont. next post

FakePie

So I take the place.

Now, the guy had made some effort at tidying the room I was renting (2 bedroom flat), so, whilst the living quarters were obscene, the bedroom itself - for sure squalid, but not yet at "crack den" levels of unsightliness.

Give me - 4, maybe, 6 weeks.

I kid you not.
I had the place strewn with crumbs and "run off" effectively, from my binge eating of junk food in there.
Somehow, the mice never found their way into my room - which was a miracle.
We're talking, the bed, the floor, in couch.
I had basically accumulated this array of beer cans, stood upright and side by side, just beside the couch - which had began to take up a fairly hefty portion of the floor space.

The obese guy that lived that, had pretty much immediately began to blame me for the filth and depravity of the domicile; by example - there were food stains on the walls, probably dating back 10 years; pretty much part of the fabric at that point.
No cleaning material stood a chance against them.

The first week I was there, he started yelling at me for the awful mess in the kitchen.

So, naturally - I wasn't about to do this dude any favours.

The smell in the place already bad - but even he began to complain about the stench from my bedroom that materialized after my first few weeks there.

I had basically decided that washing bedclothes was not an option.

In addition to - being an absolute broke cheap skate - the guy would only allow me to use his wash machine on "eco-wash", which basically damped the clothes, but never cleaned them or took the smell out.

The upshot being, opening my bedroom window, would result in birds falling out of the sky.

Cont....

AllForIt

....Cont. The End.

FakePie

So you've got a clear picture.

Heinous already - I move in, and somehow, manage to accentuate the immoral level of filth.

I had acquired the habit of smoking these fcuk-off cigars, and decided - just as minor pay back, among other things to my obese living mate - to use his glasses as ash trays.
So my bedside locker was strewn with several glasses, containing cigar butts and ash - corresponding odours, etc.

Anyways - one fine summers evening, two or three months in, I was feeling peckish - so stuck on a pot full of pasta - on the gas stove in the kitchen - beside the grease soaked curtains.

I then retired to my bedroom, where I promptly fell asleep on the couch - given the warm sticky heat of the day.

My housemate was out, for once - basically not present.

I woke up maybe, 40 minutes later, and decided to go into the city center, have a mooch, leer at some hot girls etc.

So, some hour and half later, it was like - "I've forgotten something".

I realize in a panic I've left the dudes stove on full blast under a large pot of freaking macaroni.

When I enter the building upon my return, after having rushed back immediately, I can smell the smoke from the bottom of the staircase.

When I enter the apartment, I'm engulfed by a cloud of smoke.
I make my way into the kitchen - to see the entire cooker blackened, the wall half charred, and billows of black carbon smoke wafting out of the cauterized pot.

So, I handle the situation from there.

As you can imagine, in any normal environment with normal people, someone being so absent minded as to quite possibly almost take out the building via pyro-carelessness, will normally spell "walking papers".

Some time later when my housemate returned, he seemed to indulge himself initially in some yelling, and then when I offered to join him for something to eat - gladly accepted, and all was forgotten.

The reason being, he was so chronically socially withdrawn and malcontent, that anyone, offering to share time with him, let alone sit over food with him, would be so appreciated and valued - that it would transcend the possibility of a his apartment going up in a raging inferno.

FakePie

To surmise the rest of my time there:

The apartment would also be used to house stolen goods.

A temporary abode for prostitutes coming into the country from eastern europe.

A cocaine addict stayed over one night, and vomited all over the floor.

Yeah - we had some good times.
Good memories.

deisedav

ELM327 wrote: »

I think it's pretty self explanatory tbh

Please explain id like to hear. I Live in Waterford and think its a great place to live.

Big Nasty

Think I'd rather live with him than you tbh

Church on Tuesday

Went looking at a room in Galway one time.

The pictures on Daft looked fine, I was a student at the time and the rent was cheap.

Turns out there was a reason for that.

The house was owner occupied, it would only be me and him. Was welcomed at the front door (when It was eventually answered) by a fairly fidgety chap.

The front room was full of rubbish and clearly had not been cleaned in some time. The kitchen was knee deep with rubbish, I mean you could barely walk in.

All the time the owner is getting more and more nervous. Think he mentioned something about knocking down a wall in the house too.

Was shown the bedroom which had a load of his things strewn around and a not so new mattress.

My skin and hair was starting to get itchy at this stage, I assume from the less then hygienic surroundings, and at this stage I just wanted to get out and have a shower.

drillyeye

Another place I viewed was in Fairview/drumcondra. A "2 bedroom apartment" was the advertisement.

The reality was a dingy downstairs flat. And that's being generous. The living room was so narrow that the couch took up half the width, like, if you stood up from the couch you were practically face to face with the wall.

The 2 bedrooms are hard to describe. It was like someone put up a flimsy divide "wall" of plasterboard or something. The entrance to both bedrooms were beside each other, and the jewel in the crown was that the dividing wall between the bedrooms had a pane of glass/plastic at about shoulder height.

In other words, if you stood right next to the wall, you could look straight into the other bedroom.

Didn't even bother looking into the jacks, it was an "i'll call you" situation

Kip. This was back before the true boom took off in rental prices. There must be some pure, dantes inferno's out there now. You can only imagine!

ToddyDoody

Cutie 3.14 wrote: »

Waterford

I was on to Waterford and they told me to tell you... 'Go f*ck yourself'

ArnoldJRimmer

At the height of the Celtic Tiger, rented part of a house in Ranelagh. It was extremely difficult to get something at the time, and the rent was semi-reasonable. It looked like it was a fine house at one stage, but in typical Irish landlord fashion, zero effort was put in to make it habitable, and he cheaped out on everything

The carpets probably hadn't been replaced in 30 years, or at least it was impossible to make out what colours they originally were. The window frames were rotten, which became very evident once winter came. I had to tape up the windows in my bedroom to keep out the cold

Like a previous poster, the heat was controlled by the landlord. Only went on at certain times of the day and night during the winter which was fine during the week if you worked 9-5, but it was absolutely baltic when sitting in during the weekends.

The tiny bathroom had a leak in the ceiling coming from upstairs. I pointed this out to the landlord who blamed it on the tenants upstairs 'not using their shower curtain' which was kind of missing the point. We watched as the damp patch on the ceiling spread throughout the floor.

When we eventually had enough, the cheeky fcuker tried to bill us for the state of the jacks (all flood related). But did so before we had paid final rent which was cash in hand so I told him where to go. Left on amicable enough terms though and a few months later I was passing by so decided to check if there was any mail for us. To my surprise, the landlord answered the door, saying he was doing some work upstairs. Turned out the tenants on the second floor had a new years party, and the ceiling (very water damaged) collapsed into our old apartment below. No one injured thankfully, but our place was still vacant at that stage. Even after all this, the landlord was fixing it up himself to save a few bob

corks finest

Israel in the 86

drillyeye

Church on Tuesday wrote: »

Went looking at a room in Galway one time.

The pictures on Daft looked fine, I was a student at the time and the rent was cheap.

Turns out there was a reason for that.

The house was owner occupied, it would only be me and him. Was welcomed at the front door (when It was eventually answered) by a fairly fidgety chap.

The front room was full of rubbish and clearly had not been cleaned in some time. The kitchen was knee deep with rubbish, I mean you could barely walk in.

All the time the owner is getting more and more nervous. Think he mentioned something about knocking down a wall in the house too.

Was shown the bedroom which had a load of his things strewn around and a not so new mattress.

My skin and hair was starting to get itchy at this stage, I assume from the less then hygienic surroundings, and at this stage I just wanted to get out and have a shower.

A real professional landlord

Sounds like renting a room was an afterthought, but putting up an ad would take more than 5 seconds!

corks finest

After Israel, kilburn,then leafy cricklewood

drillyeye

ArnoldJRimmer wrote: »

At the height of the Celtic Tiger, rented part of a house in Ranelagh. It was extremely difficult to get something at the time, and the rent was semi-reasonable. It looked like it was a fine house at one stage, but in typical Irish landlord fashion, zero effort was put in to make it habitable, and he cheaped out on everything

The carpets probably hadn't been replaced in 30 years, or at least it was impossible to make out what colours they originally were. The window frames were rotten, which became very evident once winter came. I had to tape up the windows in my bedroom to keep out the cold

Like a previous poster, the heat was controlled by the landlord. Only went on at certain times of the day and night during the winter which was fine during the week if you worked 9-5, but it was absolutely baltic when sitting in during the weekends.

The tiny bathroom had a leak in the ceiling coming from upstairs. I pointed this out to the landlord who blamed it on the tenants upstairs 'not using their shower curtain' which was kind of missing the point. We watched as the damp patch on the ceiling spread throughout the floor.

When we eventually had enough, the cheeky fcuker tried to bill us for the state of the jacks (all flood related). But did so before we had paid final rent which was cash in hand so I told him where to go. Left on amicable enough terms though and a few months later I was passing by so decided to check if there was any mail for us. To my surprise, the landlord answered the door, saying he was doing some work upstairs. Turned out the tenants on the second floor had a new years party, and the ceiling (very water damaged) collapsed into our old apartment below. No one injured thankfully, but our place was still vacant at that stage. Even after all this, the landlord was fixing it up himself to save a few bob

Reminds me of a place I actually stayed in way back. There was a two bed flat above mine (and to the left) and there were constant complaints about leaking water and such, just watching the stains grow across the ceilings and walls.

The real gem were the bin bags though. The provided bins outside were always overflowing, there needed to be three times as many bins to hold it all, at least.

That went on for a while, until the landlord copped on that there 14 (fourteen!) people living upstairs, hence the bin situation. They were quickly given the boot. I went up to see the empty flat afterwards and I was amazed that so many people were able to live there, it was very small even for 2 people. They had been working shifts all the time, every inch of the floors taken up with makeshift beds.

Crazy stuff. Like those trains in india with half a million people hanging off the side! But in Dublin city centre.

FakePie

drillyeye wrote: »

Reminds me of a place I actually stayed in way back. There was a two bed flat above mine (and to the left) and there were constant complaints about leaking water and such, just watching the stains grow across the ceilings and walls.

The real gem were the bin bags though. The provided bins outside were always overflowing, there needed to be three times as many bins to hold it all, at least.

That went on for a while, until the landlord copped on that there 14 (fourteen!) people living upstairs, hence the bin situation. They were quickly given the boot. I went up to see the empty flat afterwards and I was amazed that so many people were able to live there, it was very small even for 2 people. They had been working shifts all the time, every inch of the floors taken up with makeshift beds.

Crazy stuff. Like those trains in india with half a million people hanging off the side! But in Dublin city centre.

This in turn reminds me....

That place with the fat dude?

Well - years before I moved in, like way back - he described how there was a crack den/brothel upstairs.

I'm reminded of that specifically because, how you describe every inch of the floor being covered in mattresses.

That's how he described it also.

He also told a story of how he nailed one crack-hore, who was strung out on the stair case one time - in exchange for, I guess money.

Apparently the upstairs operation was raided and shut down after some dude jumped out the window in a hallucinogenic fit; obviously he didn't survive.

Some landlords - they're only concerned about the money.
Humanitarian decency goes by the board.

[Deleted User]

I think that village in north Down where a bunch of teenagers behind me started sniffing incessantly when they heard my Irish accent talking to the person behind the shop counter must rank near the top of the greatest shítholes in this country.

Skedaddle

We had a three "bedroom" apartment. In reality it was two bedrooms and a converted utility room which was making do as a single room.

I was doing an internship and had no money, so it had to do. We had:

Bedroom 1: A couple from China.
Bedroom 2: Two single beds : Me and a guy from Germany, an inflatable mattress another guy from France and sometimes another inflatable mattress with whoever was in need of a house who we happened to know.
Bedroom 3: Insane, grumpy woman who used to appear now and then to have huge fights with people for no reason.

I basically worked all day, ate out, and stayed in the office (overnight if I could) to avoid going home.

And for this I was paying £700/month.

I eventually found something better, but at that time, London was just off the scale nuts.

FakePie

I think some of the farmer types that rent property in Ireland have real primitive values.

Like, they think dirty is trendy or something.

FakePie

Skedaddle wrote: »

We had a three "bedroom" apartment. In reality it was two bedrooms and a converted utility room which was making do as a single room.

I was doing an internship and had no money, so it had to do. We had:

Bedroom 1: A couple from China.
Bedroom 2: Two single beds : Me and a guy from Germany, an inflatable mattress another guy from France and sometimes another inflatable mattress with whoever was in need of a house who we happened to know.
Bedroom 3: Insane, grumpy woman who used to appear now and then to have huge fights with people for no reason.

I basically worked all day, ate out, and stayed in the office (overnight if I could) to avoid going home.

And for this I was paying £700/month.

I eventually found something better, but at that time, London was just off the scale nuts.

Where?

drillyeye

FakePie wrote: »

I think some of the farmer types that rent property in Ireland have real primitive values.

Like, they think dirty is trendy or something.

Squalor is so hot right now!

Casey78

Dublin

Skedaddle

FakePie wrote: »

Where?

Well, it was partially my own fault for booking accommodation really too quickly and being somewhat ripped off. It was way too close in - London W8 on border with W11.

I arrived in London having been in the US and without anything booked. I was stuck in hotels, hostels and all sorts of stuff for days and running out of money fast, so I just took whatever was going via a recommendation from a friend. It was supposed to be a flat share, and I assumed I was getting my own room.

Whole thing turned into a complete mess and I just ended up having no time to sort it out as I wasn't staying long enough to make it worth while singing a long lease, so I ended up in just diabolically bad accommodation for several months.

The internship was extremely worthwhile, but the accommodation literally made me sick. Most of the time I got very little sleep or was couch surfing.

An utterly ridiculous industry too - working full time and getting paid token amounts as an intern. It didn't even cover lunch. I basically blasted through all my savings but got a worthwhile job out of it.

Jeju

Myself and a buddy lived a few months in a squat in Holland. We intended to work there for a year, but instead of going over and finding accommodation with the money we saved and then work, we spent 3 weeks in Amsterdam partying. Anyway, when we ran outta money we moved out of The Dam and moved to a large town south, we were sitting on a bench sizing up a bush to sleep under when I looked behind me at a large disused office block with a person going in its metal door. We followed in and met up with a heroin junkie from London who let us crash in his pad; a large office on the 13th floor. Turned out he was a heroin dealer. We met some very interesting people over the following months. Some people who gave up all for the skag, some had respectful jobs, others were hopeless and helpless. I remember one night he took out a guitar and there started to jam, only problem was there was only 5 unturned strings on the guitar. Us, we never asked for or were asked to try heroin, we fairly quickly learned some tricks on survival. The stench of the place was terrible and a sign saying "don't **** on the stairs" greeted you in the evenings from work. There was no water or electricity we showered at work and keet our valuables at the train station in a locker. We had 250 guilders left for 2 weeks unpaid when we got sorted for work 2 days later. We stayed until December; 3 months before heading back to Ireland.