Strictly speaking from my perspective as a landlord: And what do they look for in a application? Stability. Not frequent movers/bailers. Ability to pay (and responsibility for) debts incurred. Are they going to do a background sheck, a credit check? Depends. Some don't do any checks. But housing conditions tend to be reflected in that (lower quality). Some do only credit checks. Some do credit and order full background check. I do credit check, call references, and check local court dockets or dockets from counties of prior residence if available online. (I'm looking mostly for evictions.) I also check sex offender registries. So although I don't order formal background checks, there are several ways to access info that's enough to paint a pretty good picture of an applicant. A tip re: references. Don't put a friend down as prior landlord. It's so easy to trace a prior address (which shows up on your credit report), track down the owner through tax records (almost always online nowadays) and contact owner. Too many applicants were offering cell #'s with friends playing landlord. I stopped that by insisting on landline phone #'s only, so that I can use a reverse directory and make sure phone # matches address of owner that I've confirmed via property tax records. In a nutshell: don't lie, you'll hang yourself. I have a misdemeanor charge from last year that I already paid and a couple of traffic tickets that are unpaid, but that's about it for my rap sheet. Misdemeanor criminal or traffic? If it's traffic I don't pay too much attention to moving violations. All depends on what it's for. Credit's another story. When I was 18 I got a credit card, and I only spent my money on three things, all of them under $20. Because that went unpaid for so long (I was living in that first apartment and only had money for rent and food) I now owe hundreds of dollars. Get those paid off, asap. Even if you pay interest and a little toward the initial charge. It will not disappear. I also owe $40 to a video store Not to be critical, but I've seen those occasionally and immediately mentally reject the applicant. Why? If a person can't be responsible enough to rent a movie and pay for it, they probably will have the same attitude toward rent. Get that charge paid off first! It's the smallest and it looks really bad. and over $700 to my old community college (I dropped out and asked my parents to use the tax return they received for claiming me to pay it off, but it "magically" didn't happen). Tuition deductions reduce their adjusted gross income on their tax return. It doesn't mean they get reimbursed that whole $700. So just because you incurred a school debt and didn't pay it does not make them obliged to give up their deduction to pay toward your debt. If it was agreed you pay for school, and you dropped out, tuition is still your responsibility. So debt-wise, all told you owe about $1,000? If you can't manage to pay it off in a year (about $83/month) then shoot for two years max ($40/month). You might have to sacrifice something (iTunes, internet, cell, those cute shoes at the mall, fast food, Starbuck's, etc.), but you're just getting your foothold in life and you've gotten off on the wrong track, to the point it's impacting your ability to get a decent roof over your head. Two years seems like an eternity when you're 19, but someday you'll look back and it will have gone by in a whirl. Frankly, from a landlord's perspective, you're a pretty risky tenant at this stage. History of racking up silly debt (video store), bailing out on school and not paying tuition (lack of self discipline, not paying what you owe) and letting a couple $20 charges add up to hundreds (irresponsible). Not trying to slam you, just laying it out. There are a lot of 19 year olds who don't have this kind of activity on their credit. But I've seen 19 year olds with much worse. My point: you are not too far gone. Back peddle now. Make it a priority. You're so young, don't let this become the pattern of your life. It will have far reaching and negative consequences. I feel bad that you are being booted out suddenly with little choices. I find that cold. Thirty days would be much more humane. (And you might find, from a legal standpoint, that you can show established residency at Matt's mom's house, and legally she can't just put you out on the street with such little notice. But I'm not a lawyer.) So first things first. Get a decent job. Or two decent part-time jobs if necessary. You're probably going to need help for a bit, which means as much as you like it where you're at, you might need family/friends to help get you back on your feet. Then go out and explore your options. Because as it stands, you've boxed yourself into a corner with few options. Higher education will open doors. Whether university, community, or 1 year business school. In today's world, it takes more to make it. Not everyone is cut out for schooling though, and I understand that. But if there's anything that interests you, for your own sake, get that education! Whether it be a bachelor's degree or a cosmetology license or a skilled trade. Something that will get in you in the door to a steady job with benefits. You might find (as many people do) at some point you will be heading back to school because what you have now is not enough to make a life for yourself. I'd encourage you to do that now, before you are tied down with the bigger responsibilities that come with age. Second, get those debts paid off. Top priority. If you applied for one of my houses today, you'd be declined. Too much on your credit that reflect small items allowed to balloon. Those should have been addressed. However: if you applied in a year or two, told me your story, and your credit reflected that you were indeed making regular payments to satisfy your outstanding debts, to me that shows maturity and willingness to be responsible for your own actions. I have given many adults a 'break' who screwed up much worse than you when young, but had a subsequent record of getting back on the right track. Turned out to be good, reliable tenants.

OK, let's be blunt here. You're talking a two year old appliance. Come on! It's not even under warranty! So the manufacturer isn't liable. The store? How on earth would they be responsible? Geez, if your car breaks down after warranty expires do you want someone else held liable? The dealer or you want the company to fix it just because it's not your fault? Although sometimes it's frustrating and doesn't seem right sometimes, the fact is that just because it's not your fault doesn't make it actionable. If your car breaks down, they don't pay the tow fees, they don't pay for your missed reservation or anything. Recourse against the retailer or manufacturer? No. You might have something if you truly had an extended warranty but you don't. You bought a service contract. And no, you won't have recourse against the service company either. Even if you did, there'd be a hassle back and forth on whether you mitigated damages which you've said you didn't. If you can prove a manufacturing defect, you might have a claim, but again, you're not under warranty so nothing against the store or mfgr. And service contracts cover so little so often that I'm pretty confident that's out too. Before getting too worked up over it, why not find out what the damage is and how much it'll cost to fix it? Then you'll know where you're at. If it's not a lot, eat it and save the stress. If it's going to be substantial then turn it in to your insurance. Weigh cost against deductibles. For something like this, most insurance companies wouldn't penalize your rates, but the fact is, your insurance will go up. Mine's gone up every year I can remember, and with no claims. I'm paying for others who rip off the companies and who live in high-incident areas, together with legitimate claims by people who were victims of an even through no fault of their own.

Do you know the source of the grant funding? I have cleaned up more than one mismanaged grant program in my life time, and I feel for the clients who suffered with the idiots who run many of these programs. They're all warm and fuzzy, give to the people, type people, with the business sense of flies. This leaves the people who should have benefited from the grant in a worse position than they were often in when they originally applied! Have your attorney request copies of your entire grant file, and if it's state or federal money, even county funds, you should be able to request the grant request (the application the entity used to fund the program) as well as the program specifications (rules and regs associated with it). While the grant director may be telling you that they made a mistake so umm tough luck...he probably is wrong. Most grant programs have an out that makes the entity responsible for the mistake, responsible for returning the funds to the grantor if the program does not follow the rules. The cost to the program when errors are found is significant, so most will step up to the plate to clean up their mistakes, but only when made to do so. If they don't clean up their mistakes (take care of you) they could loose all ability to receive funding from the grantor in the future, and to dispurse federal or state funds. But most of the time they are dealing with unsophisticated clients (that is NOT an insult...it just means that you probably don't have the same level of experience in handling funding as someone like me...but then again...I don't qualify). They bully you past their BS and hope you will go away, and 99.9% of the time...you will. But since you've hired the attorney anyhoo, and that program might have more money than your contractor, at least ask the attorney to carefully investigate the grant program and look for a loophole. I still want to spit on the street when I pass the woman whos' job I took....because she left me with significant programs to clean up. I cleaned them all up, but had to really push clients hard to get them to make it right for themselfs. Don't be like that :o) Please, for me :oP Push on this issue and see if there is anywhere to go with it!

meaning, it's not his fault the tiles were glued on the mesh incorrectly. everyone that commented up top said what a horrible job he did installing them because they were crooked. that's why I said, "Hang on". I was letting everyone know that these sheets of mosaics often come crooked. that's what I meant by not his fault. and for the fourth damn time, yes, the installer should have done a few of them by hand. However, should he have taken each and every tile off the sheet and done them one by one??? uh, no. That's the meaning of, "not his fault". Do you actually expect him to do that? Who is in charge of this project? Why didn't they pay attention to how screwed up the tiles were on the sheet? why didn't that person know enough to catch it, advise the homeowner or give instructions to the installer to do what needed to be done?? You're faulting the wrong person. OP hired a company to do the entire kitchen. they are using one of their 'tile guys' on staff. Sometimes you luck out and get someone who's good. Most times you get someone who doesn't speak English and only installs what they're given, without thinking outside the box. they just figure, "this is what boss gave me to put up, i put it up. not my fault if they were crooked". OP said this was a 25K job. how much of that went to the tile install, I do not know. I also think, overall, it's a decent job. there are a few tiles that are off and should be fixed, but if that's all there is, then I wouldn't do a tear out. The way everyone was acting about his install was a bit much. We've all seen horrible tile jobs on here and this is not one of them.