the helpful landlord

The helpful landlord

I've never heard of it before. It doesn't ever happen, at least not to me. A helpful landlord. Almost like an oxymoron, the words do not go together. They do in Carlos' case.

In my recent experience, that of the past 6 years, landlords tend to be after money, anything to get their greasy hands on the deposits of their renters. In my case I've never had a full deposit back, even when the equipment broke in the house and it was blamed on the inhabitants (despite pre war microwaves).

In Portugal you pay for 3 months, that's the deposit. In my case I paid nothing. In fact I'm 4 weeks in and I still haven't paid anything. Further to this the rent is cheap. About 100 euros cheaper than other peoples' rent. What else? Free cable tv, free internet, no bills, double bed, massive room, s'pretty good deal by my standards.

I thought it bizarre that he'd pick me up from the hotel, with all my stuff and drive me to the house. That was day one, the first exhibit of his kindness. Then he toured me round the area, showing me bus routes to work and town. It's understandable that he was kind then, I was still a prospective money maker. Though read on dear reader,..

Since then we have had an insect problem, the shower had an issue and our grill was playing up, that was mid week. He came and stayed for 7 hours on Saturday, without me really noticing, and fixed everything. The house isn't perfect, but he fixes things when they need fixing.

This week I wanted to buy a punchbag, I did, but couldn't manage it on public transport.
Voila!Carlos to the rescue...

Some mention that the reason for his kindness has different routes. Who would do this sort of thing? They say he's lonely, has no friends, no wife, nothing. I don't know about that. In fact I don't care too much. So far he's been cool with me, and when my job isn't cracking up to be all that it said on the tin a helpful landlord, that will go out of his way for all of us, goes a long way.