I have no idea if this will ever be read, but I have to get some advice from somewhere. My husband and I are divorcing. My daughter and I couldn't continue to pay the rent where we were and I began looking for a place through newspaper and Craig's list. I emailed and text, call left messages. No response. Finally, I received a reply to an email I sent. So I called her and arranged to go see it. It was lovely. It was an upstairs 2br/1ba open concept living room/kitchen/dining area. I was impressed. It is in an affluent neighborhood with a view of the bay. Beautiful. So my daughter and I made deposit and this is where things immediately turned a very quick corner. The woman told us that once we had given the deposit, we could have the keys and MOVE IN WHENEVER WE WANTED. Her exact words. So we did. I would take boxes over and by the 29th, we were bringing the beds. Mind you this was over a 9 day period of time. Once we had the beds upstairs and set up, the woman comes to the stairs and says that her husband wants to talk to me. He then went into a near furious speech about how we were moving in early and wanted pro-rated rent for 29 and 30. I stated to them that maybe I misunderstood what she had told me. And I apologized. I agreed to pay the pro-rated rent along with my regular months rent. I wasn't disagreeable or hostile. But it gave me a bad feeling. And that feeling was right. My daughter and I were getting settled in and I had gotten some of the wax cubes to melt and make the apartment smell good. Just so happened, on this day(only been there less than a week)the DISH guy came to install our satellite. Already okayed by the landlords. The wires he needed to get to were behind this huge, heavy desk, a leave behind from last tenant. The wax basin was lit on this desk. Just as I went to blow out the tealight, they moved the desk and ended up with wax all over the wall! I apologized profusely. The man said, "don't worry about it. Things happens." But when the lady came up (less than a week remember)she went into this thing about having more problems with us in the one week that we had been there than she's had in the 16 years that she's been renting the place. She said she actually regretted renting to us. I was shocked. I told her I would fix what was my fault. And I did. But since then it's been how they were having trouble adjusting to the noise. My daughter is due to have a baby in March. This woman had the audacity to try to assign our rooms to us. When she showed us the place she explained that where the living room is, directly beneath it is her husband's workshop. Double insulated. He couldn't hear us, we couldn't hear him. I get complaints about my grandbaby running around the living room, but from what she told me, he shouldn't be heard at all. Over the workshop, double insulated remember? But now if anything happens I get a "well that's never happened before". We can't run the water at night at all after 10:15. But even if it's before that time, I'm so scared to run the water. That's not the only thing. She said that we were very loud walking around and it's worse when my grandson comes over. So began a very anxious living situation, I'm in the middle of a divorce...which doesn't help. I dread having to talk to her. I'm afraid to walk from one room to another, do my dishes, take a shower, walk down the stairs, go to the bathroom, get into and out of bed, get into my closet. Constant fear. We are on a month to month lease because the house is for sale. I think she is going to give us notice on 11/1. But I feel she's being unrealistic. Her previous tenants were men. And she makes sure I know that.The previous tenants were both men. One in the military and deployed a lot. The other one was just a regular guy. What bothered them about him was his GIRLFRIEND. I feel discriminated. Uncomfortable in my own home. . Any advice?

Well, I just went through a frustrating similiar experience and here is how it played out: My neighbor has 5 unlicensed dogs that she barely cares for. They are constant barkers. The neighbor to her South gets the honor of dealing with the barking mostly. Last week, I am home, and notice a animal control truck in front of the barker's house. The dog owner was not home. The officer left a message that the owner must contact AC. Much to my surprise, the owner called AC., Subsequently she brought back one of the dogs (the second most vocal of the lot) to the shelter from which it had been purchased. NOW GET THIS!! She called the Mayor and pleaded her case to keep all four remaining dogs because they are old....need medical attention...too ugly to adopt.... etc. The major said no. Now she is in cahoots with the South neighbor (the one who originally called) to lie to animal control that the fourth dog actually belongs to the neighbor - in the likely event AC comes to her door again. Moral of the Tale: #1) Owners such as your neighbors are mentally and emotionally unstable people that you want to limit verbal contact with. #2) You cannot let bad owners ruin your quality of life. #3) Involving the authorities may be the best thing for the dogs - whatever the outcome.

"The home is still listed with the agency but with another agent after I called her manager and had her taken off the listing due to her unprofessional behavior." Seems odd that the agency hasn't 'talked' to this agent to ask her why she is trying so hard to sabatoge this deal. What does the present agent think of this? linda117-"You could also call the police and tell them there are two cars parked on your property that arent supposed to be there. Let them go an knock on her door, Im sure she'll move them in a hurry." Good idea. I wouldn't want to have to waste the time and money getting a certified letter either. linda117 is right. I'd ask the police to stick around when the tow truck arrives as well.

Good points from everyone for both listing and waiting. With interest rates expected to rise, there might be a brief stir of activity in the local market (it is quite dismal here). We had planned to price the house very, very aggressively (based on studying actual sales we would list at 10-12% below the competition, turn key condition and professional staging) On the other hand, if anything happens that alerts agents or buyers to the fact that there is a dispute going on with the city and neighbors (word travels fast among the politically connected real estate agents here) then I agree with sylviatexas that it may become very difficult to sell this house. There are just too many choices out there to take a risk. (I know I would run from a situation like this if I was a buyer). I guess we'll finish everything up here as quickly as possible and then see how things stand over there. Unfortunately, most of the students aren't even back in town yet as classes don't start until the beginning of September. One other thought: could we have any civil legal recourse against the owner if his illegal use of the property prevents us from selling? I would certainly not want to go this route if possible, but if we had a case it might be worth threatening the owner. By the way, we do not have a problem with the owner renting his house to a single family (we have a pretty liberal and inclusive definition of family in this city). The problem is the multiple unrelated people with vehicles, friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, etc. There is one small driveway and in they are already parked all over the place and people come in and out of the house all day and night every weekend. I don't know how a buyer wouldn't wonder what was going on over there. In my state, we don't have to disclose, but we must be truthful if asked. Anyhow, thanks for all your helpful ideas.