I have no idea what's going on

This whole apartment situation is about to make me scream. Out loud. Seriously.

We had just gotten everything settled on Option #3, getting back into our lease in our current apartment until May 31, canceling the U-Haul, etc. We were just waiting to hear from contractors about timing, and we were even starting to get optimistic, thinking maybe it wouldn't take so long after all. And, even if it did, it's ok - we can have the baby here and then move. No problem.

Then the landlord (LL) emailed me on Tuesday - basically saying they wanted out. It was going to cost them $30K to delead the place, and they most certainly won't be done by the end of May (I'm now questioning whether they will have it done by the end of June), and they don't have the cash to delead and be without rent for that whole time, so they wanted to cut out and give us $500 for our trouble. Seriously - $500. (The broker's fee on that place alone was over one and a half times that). So immediately (as in, right as I finished reading the email), we started looking at other apartments. Because, you know, we're going to need a place to live soon. Luckily, the market is pretty decent for renters at this time of year, so we found a place we really loved right away, and got a verbal agreement on it that night. It's a bit smaller, but it's much nicer, and it's in a much better location for us. The landlord seems super "with it" and reasonable, and he lives just downstairs. Plus it's brand new (which means no lead paint!!). Unfortunately it's also more expensive.

So, being the newly minted negotiator that I am, I emailed the LL back, telling them that while we understand they are in a difficult position, we also understand that the law is clear on this [what I didn't mention is that it's actually illegal in this state to refuse to rent to families with children under 6 because of lead...], and that we're in a tough spot here too. I added up the total cost of them breaking the lease (the difference in rent over the two-year term, the extra broker's fee, the utilities we've already started paying in the new place, the paint we purchased, etc) and then told them we would be willing to settle for significantly less than that - which was more than ten times what they offered. I told them that we can't afford to cancel the lease without that - reiterating that we are both students right now, and we're expecting a baby for goodness sake - and let them know we had a preliminary agreement with another apartment, so we needed an answer ASAP.

I didn't hear from them, so Wednesday I sent another email - please let us know ASAP, preferably in the next 12 hours (the new landlord wanted to finish up by Thursday). No word. Thursday (last night) I sent another email - this was more strongly worded. I said if I didn't hear from them by 8:00 am Friday our time I'd assume they were accepting our offer, and we'd go ahead under that assumption. Unsurprisingly that got their attention. I got an email this morning apologizing for taking so long - basically "we're both traveling on business and haven't been able to hook up to talk about it." OK, thanks for letting me know that when I told you it was pretty urgent.

In the meantime, we have a lease ready to sign at the new place - and we have to sign it or not on Monday evening. I kindly let the LL know that, and asked if they could at least tell us whether they were set on getting out of the lease. I said that way we could move forward on the new place and work out the details later. The response? LL said (as an indirect way to answer my question, I suppose) that they're still talking to contractors. And they're both traveling so it's going to be a couple of days until they can get back to us. There is no sense of urgency here. None at all. And all of my Type-A planning instincts (and my newly discovered maternal instincts to boot) are pretty angry about that.

GRRRRR!!!

At this point I have no idea what is going on. We could be stuck in this lease, we could be moving next weekend into a new apartment (that lease would start on 4/15), or we could be in limbo for who knows how long. Part of me (OK maybe most of me) wants to just give up on this LL and let them figure it out with new tenants - I'm sick of waiting around, being in this state of not knowing what the heck is happening. This LL is going to take FOREVER to get anything done on this apartment!! And the new apartment has definite pluses, in spite of the fact that it's a bit more expensive. What can we do here? I'm so frustrated!!

Sorry for the long, venting post. Usually this is not my style but Bryan is out of town for the weekend, Meg's in the hospital recovering from surgery, and I'm all alone right now in our half-packed apartment fuming about the whole situation. I just wish we could all get on the freaking phone and hash this out like grownups, rather than dancing around each other by email.

GRRRR!!!!