well, NYState laws are interesting, but our poster is from Maryland. Try the Maryland's Peoples Law Library and the Housing section thereof You will find stuff like this: A lease for a term of 1 year or less is valid whether it is written or oral, but any lease for more than 1 year must be in writing and signed by the person creating it if it is to be enforceable. (Md. Code, Real Property, Sections 5-101 and 5-102) From their summary: n month-to-month or week-to-week tenancies where there is no written lease and no code requirement, state or local, relating to notice from tenant to landlord, the common law requirement is that the length of notice must be equal to the base period of the tenancy, such as one week or one month. The Maryland Code is silent on this issue, and the few reported cases do not give clear guidance. If there is any question at all about the actual term of the tenancy, tenant should give notice for the longer period of time. Oh, and---she owes you money!! (Maryland Code, Real Property, Sec. 8-205) Whenever tenant makes a rent payment in person, the landlord or landlord's agent shall give tenant a receipt if the tenant makes payment in cash or requests a receipt. In addition to any other penalty, if the landlord fails to provide a receipt as required by this section, s/he is liable to the tenant for $25.00. (Maryland Code, Real Property, Sec. 8-208.3) Every landlord is required to keep records showing the dates and amounts of all rent paid to him by each tenant, and also showing that a receipt was given to tenant for each cash payment of rent. (if you're in Anne Arundel county, the receipt for cash must indicate what time period the cash covers. Also, re: the smoke detectors. How did you notify her? bcs you can point out, to her and her lawyer, that she can face civic penalties of $1,000. (Unless the place was a 1, 2, or 3-family dwelling built before 1975, in which case YOU would be responsible for the smoke detectors) (Maryland Code, Article 38A, Secs. 12A and 13) ...the landlord is responsible for installing the smoke detector and, upon notice in person or upon written notice by certified mail from the tenant, the landlord is responsible for repair or replacement of the detector. If tenant personally notifies landlord of a mechanical failure, landlord must give tenant a written receipt acknowledging the notification. ... A person who knowingly violates this law or any regulation promulgated by the State Fire Prevention Commission will be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned for not more than 10 days, or both. Each day that a violation continues after knowledge or official notice that it is a violation, is a separate offense. You might draw up a nice, formal letter detailing these events--"In a phone conversation in the two weeks after we moved in, we notified you verbally that the smoke detectors were not working. Maryland law requires you to have provided us w/ written acknowledgment of this. and says that violators of this law will face these penalties..." Then say, "All this information will be certain to come before the judge, and it seems to us that you run a real risk of paying more in penalties than you would collect from us--and it is quite possible that you would not collect from us at all. We wonder if perhaps it would be in your own best interests not to pursue this matter." Let's see--$25 per month paid to YOU for the 9 months of not giving you a receipt is $225. $1,000 for one single day of not installing smoke detectors. Plus her lawyer's fees. Go get 'em, tiger!

RC in Vermont: ... you'd like to see it in person? How about calling a store and telling them you want to see it plugged in and operating! If the zoneless AEG you have been writing about is the AEG 98001 KF-SN then I'm sure you can get it in one drive to Montreal this summer. The AEG 98001 KF-SN is stretched out, three rectangles in a row. E.g. http://theinductionsite.com/buy-induction/buy-98001kfsn.php I've seen it twice at two different showrooms: (Bachand on Decarie, and at JC Perreault on Highway 30 near Chambly Road; a bit closer to you). I always email and call beforehand. I call stores, distributors, master distributors, competitors, you name it. No way I'd drive over to see what they have, without knowing I've got their attention first. And a few answers before even showing up. The guy who I came across was good. Paul Simpson electrosth AT jcperreault.com; 450-462-7211 ext. 4425 . According to www.signaturebachand.com/service/service.html it's imported or serviced by Impora (not EuroLine). I've called the Impora guys too. Frank and Marc. As for the Ikea, their web site tells you if the articles you want are in stock that day. I once spent an entire day in that Ikea and I think it caught the attention of their security manager; mid or late afternoon someone who didn't identify himself came charing up to me asking if he could help me. No uniform. That was a fun conversation. On another thread I can tell you what I was able to find out about side opening ovens; I've even seen the Fagor. And I have exchanged lots of email with several Fagor people in Florida. Call before showing up. Bachand has one AEG induction cooktop plugged in. Why not have it be THAT one on the day you are coming to see it? It's numskull simple to twist wires on, twist wires off. Warehousing may be off site. Make sure they know you will take a new boxed one away if you are satisfied. I'd use a Canadian address to activate the warrantee and then move to the US. Nobody can prevent anyone from moving. All my family has stuff either from Canada in the US or from the US in Canada. It all works on the same electricity and/or phone system.

Good suggestions Laura12. They have been easy to work with up to this point. I think that's what threw us for such a loop when we started reviewing the addendum. I'm typing up a letter right now requesting a face-to-face meeting asap and am outlining the changes we are requesting and the issues we would like to discuss before signing. Dekeoboe, we did not put a specific completion date in the contract. Our builder is paying the interest on the construction loan so it is in their best interest to finish sooner rather than later (they told us four months - I'm assuming it will be five months and will be pleasantly surprised if we close earlier). I see your point about the other subs needing to be able to start on schedule so maybe rather than striking that completely we can ask them to rewrite it giving us a couple of days grace before the fines begin. That seems like it might be a fair compromise. DH is just annoyed that they are already a week and a half behind the schedule they initially gave us so he had to rearrange a business trip once and now it looks like he is going to have to do that again. Since he had to change plane tickets and hotel reservations he was mad that they would try to charge him for causing delays that may be beyond his control. That's the part of it that bothers me the most - being penalized for weather delays or etc.

I think the reason people talk on forums like this about celebrities is because many of us have seen the t.v. show, movies or attended a concert etc. of that celebrity, so we have had the chance to form an opinion about them, right or wrong. If I were to tell you all that my manager's cousin who has 3 young children just found out her husband was cheating, some people would post to express good wishes for her in the struggles she will face. Additionally, all the people directly related to my manager's cousin (family and friends) are no doubt discussing their opinions, but that may only be a few hundred people in total. However, when similar news about a celebrity occurs, you must multiply the discussion by millions, since more attention is obviously generated by someone whose face is familiar to millions of people. They are not any more WORTHY of attention, simply more likely to get it, because of their occupation. So if discussion is considered 'gossip' then we are all guilty of it, whether or not it is one of us discussing the breakup of a friend's marriage with one other person, or millions of us discussing the breakup of a celebrity's marriage. It's just a difference in numbers, not importance.