housing

for the last month, our housing has kind of been up in the air. our lease was up, and idaho housing was having a difficult time getting a hold of the landlord.

10 days before everything was supposed to be in to idaho housing, he informed us that he was going to be raising rent $125 a month. (WHAT?!) needless to say, we were a little concerned. and then we discovered some things that made us first frustrated, and then upset.

by law, in idaho, a landlord must give WRITTEN notice 90 days in advance of any rent increase. appropriate causes to raise rent are tax increases, or hoa fee increases. (he was raising rent to cover the costs of the linoleum and carpet he replaced. not to mention that when he originally set rent, he didn't set it high enough to cover his mortgage...)
idaho housing wants a 60 day written notice of intent to raise rent. (and in my mind, $125 monthly, is excessive.)

he gave us a 10 day, verbal notice. and didn't run any of it through idaho housing first. as they are the the ones that currently pay the rent, that's the important part.

then, the landlord went away for a week to some medical conferences. and then refused to answer or call idaho housing back.
he had a deadline of 12 noon today to get everything in, and then we were scheduled to sign and receive a new voucher for another residence. we would have the rest of the moth to find and get another house approved. (neither of us were looking forward to moving...)

shaun camped out in the landlords doctor office this morning to try and make sure that things got taken care of.
at one, we headed down to our meeting to learn our current housing fate detailed to us. the landlord decided to use one of idaho housing's lease agreements, thereby bystepping all the other problems we were having (WHY didn't he do this in the first place?!).

assuming, (and i know that's a lot to ask) that he got them signed and faxed back, we are safe at the moment for housing. it's a month by month lease, so we or he could decide at any time to terminate, but that's far better than worrying for 3 months whether he'll get all his stuff back in.