Nightmare Landlord
What should have been an exciting start to a new chapter of her life, was now filled with sleepless nights, constant nausea, and unending stress.
The problem was she wasn’t able to just pick up and leave. She also couldn’t let this awful man get away with what he had done to her.
New Start
Nancy Dorison of Wolcott, Connecticut, had dreams of a cute house on a tree-filled property and a vast garden.
But since she was just starting a new life on her own, a small apartment would have to do. This is how she ended up meeting Mr. Hollard. As a landlord, he seemed fine at first.
Seemed Fine
Their brief interactions were pleasant and the rent was affordable. He was even willing to move the rent date to the 8th when she got paid.
She was nearly unpacked and already dreaming of a small herb collection in her kitchen window when the knocking started. Things went downhill quickly.
No Boundaries
Mr. Hollard poked his big belly through the door as she opened it.
The first greeting might have been “to make sure she was settling in okay” but when he tried to walk in, a deep, uneasy feeling settled in the pit of her stomach. She stood tall, and with a calm voice, reminded him he couldn't come in without notice.
Getting Worse
The skin folds around his eyes creased with anger. Next was a long rant about how had dealt with horrible tenants in the past and wasn’t going to make that mistake again.
He might have conceded one conversation, but she quickly learned he wasn’t going to back off. One afternoon, she heard the front door squeak open.
Need A Plan
Nancy couldn’t believe it! The guy actually had the nerve to try and come in with his own keys without any permission!
She fumed as he spouted off excuses of neighbors smelling smoke. She reminded him of how bad it looks for a grown man to break into the house of a young, single woman. It was clear she needed a plan.
Feeling Unsafe
Sadly, there was no option of just giving 30-days’ notice and leaving. Being a new renter, she wasn’t able to find a new place as quickly as she needed.
So, she started to write down and film every interaction. Every knock at the door came with a new, crazy excuse that left her stressed and feeling very unsafe.
Startling Discovery
One morning, while cleaning and blasting jazz through her earphones, she spotted something strange.
It was a small hole in the wall – nothing out of the ordinary from afar. But when she looked closer, she felt the bile rise into her throat. The sicko had put in a hidden camera! He had been watching her the whole time.
Hidden Camera
Nancy sat on the sofa, wrapped in a thick blanket, feeling utterly violated. Every part of her screamed to dial 911, but a small voice pointed out something very troubling.
It could end up a matter of “his word against hers”. He could also remove any trace of the equipment before she could act. She knew who to call.
Friend's Help
Her friend wasn’t a computer whiz by any means. But he was capable enough he could help her gather some evidence.
Under the front of “helping her clean” and then “watching movies,” he was able to get what she needed – the IP address source. Now she could call the cops.
Call The Cops
It was the sickening circus she had predicted. Uniforms showed up and Hollard denied everything.
He went as far as to say that she was the one causing all the problems! Her anger reached its pinnacle when he pulled out the contract and pointed to one line of small text that said he could come in without notice.
Caught Again
Despite her strong front, inside she was falling apart. The sleazy man was doing everything he could to make her look bad.
She was the innocent one in all of this! Nancy flipped through her contract and noticed something – it was her second smoking gun. It was time to take him to court.
Court Appearance
The weeks leading up to the court date might have been “quiet” but every day she felt like she was going to be sick. She had searched the rest of the apartment and found three more cameras.
So, with piles of evidence in hand, she finally stood before a judge. She pulled out her laptop and hit play.
Found Guilty
As the evidence unfolded, including the fact that her contract was different from his, she watched with extreme satisfaction as Mr. Hollard turned ghost white.
Each new tidbit built another layer of brick in his coming jail. In the end, even the judge commented on the depravity of the situation. As for the settlement? It was far more than she had expected.
Moving On
She now had enough for a small down payment on a tiny home and the gratification of seeing him taken away for jail time.
She would get her garden and a little piece of quiet heaven sooner than planned. She had to go through misery to get it, but she also ended up wiser for it. But she's not the only one who stood up to a nightmare landlord.
Kicked Out
Sandy was beyond furious with what she had just been asked to do. She stormed out of her house that she was about to be kicked out of in the middle of the pandemic to go to her friends. She could not believe the nerve of her landlord.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket. It was her friend Michael. "You need to see this. Your house is going viral on Twitter!" Sandy's stomach dropped instantly when she saw what he had done.
Aspiring Actress
Sandy Batchelor was a bonnie wee lass from Kinross, Scotland who was living in Catford in London. Sandy was an aspiring actress and she was naturally funny as well as being talented and beautiful.
She had always been the perfect tenant in her house and had never done anything to annoy her landlord. That was why when her landlord asked her to film herself for him she was left feeling completely disgusted and dirty.
Run Down
Sandy had moved into the run-down house in Catford as it was all she could afford. As an actress, she lived life on a tight budget as she never knew when her next gig would come along.
Her landlord knew she was desperate and had nowhere else to go. He had no respect for her and knew he could walk all over her in the worst way possible and that's exactly what he did.
Fixer Upper
When Sandy first moved in, the house was very badly run down. There was a bad rat problem in the extremely overgrown backyard and many of the appliances barely worked.
The place was damp and dingy looking but at the cheap rate she was offered it at, Sandy couldn't refuse. She had spent hours and hours improving the place and making it her own. This was why when the landlord gave her an ultimatum on what she had to do in order to keep her place in the house, she was so upset and felt betrayed.
Proposition
The COVID-19 pandemic hit in March and Sandy's work had completely dried up. She had some reserve savings to keep her going but after they ran out her income was uncertain.
This was why when her landlord texted her a proposition out of the blue, she knew immediately she was homeless. She would never degrade herself to do that for him.
Homeless
Sandy was utterly heartbroken. For the first time in her life, she was homeless. She knew to choose a life as a freelance actress was a risky life choice but she had never expected things would end up this way.
As her phone buzzed in her pocket, she saw it was her landlord again. As she read his next proposition for her, she felt sick. How dare he?
Disgusted
On top of the despicable ultimatum he had given her, the landlord had texted her asking her to film a video tour of the apartment for him. She was completely disgusted with him.
Was this seriously how he was going to treat her after what he had asked her to do and then making her homeless for refusing? She was outraged. She was going to make a video all right but she was going to turn every prospective tenant off the dingy dive.
Scathing
After filming a scathing video tour, Sandy was certain would ever willingly want to move into the dump after the verbal assault she had given the place. She was taking everything she had bought for the place with her and moving them to a storage unit so the place wasn't even furnished.
On top of that, she's had even dug up the flowers she had planted in the garden. The place looked awful without her touch. She sent the video to her friend Michael for a laugh. She wasn't laughing when she saw what had been posted about her on Twitter.
Downtrodden
Sandy had just had enough with her landlord. She was feeling completely defeated as she headed over to her friend's for a well-needed venting session and a few glasses of wine.
However, as she made her way over there she was stopped dead in her tracks by the text she had just received. "Babe, your house is going viral, you had better see this!" he texted. She clicked the link and saw what he had done.
Viral
After sending Michael her scathing house tour for her crooked landlord, she had sent it to Michael who had nearly given himself an injury with laughter. Michael was an avid Twitter user and he had posted on his account.
Before long the video was gone viral with thousands of people retweeting it and commenting more laughing face emojis than a human could count. Her anger had turned into a viral sensation. This still didn't change what the landlord had done to her, however.
Newfound Fame
Despite sleeping on her friend's couch with most of her possessions in a storage unit, Sandy was doing better than she had expected. Her newfound fame had even gotten her offers for small roles starting very soon.
Her anger and frustration had shown her hilarious comical side and she was being recognized in the local shops. This was only the beginning for Sandy.
A New Home
A month later, Sandy was working again and had enough money to move off Micahel's couch and to her new apartment. She was also regularly gigging at a comedy club and the stability of that ensured she could pay higher rent than before.
When her landlord gave her the ultimatum of raising the rent by three hundred pounds and subsequently kicking her out, she was devastated. However, looking back on it in her comfortable new apartment, she could see it was simply the beginning of a wonderful change for her.