There is a strong
chance we will move soon
|
May 3
|
|
||
|
||||
Tanya –
Oksana and I have been looking for a house to rent in
Russanovsky Sad. We need more space and we want to be close to the house
we are building. On Monday we made an offer to rent a house on Sadovaya
34. We said we needed to give you one month’s notice. We could move
on May 15. They would prefer if we moved earlier.
The timing could be good for you. This apartment should be
worth several thousand dollars for Euro 2012. If you are interested in
renting it short term, we should work with you to help you profit from this
event.
I expect we will get a counterproposal from Alexander and
Larisa, the owners of Sadovaya 34, today or tomorrow. I will let you know
how the negotiation proceeds. Meanwhile, please let us know your thoughts
on the matter.
Thanks,
Graham
Followup
on our unfortunate conversation today.
|
Inbox |
x |
|
May 8
|
|
||
|
||||
Dear Tanya,
I was vastly disappointed in our conversation today.
Last week we told you of our intent to move. We gave you a
maximum of notice – two months – in order that you could take advantage of the
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of Euro 2012. It would have been most convenient
for us to move at the end of June, but because Euro 2012 starts in early June
we proposed that we might be able to move earlier.
We met today with the landlords of a house that we propose to rent.
We needed to fix the dates of the rental in the contract, so I called to ask
you which date you prefered for our move. You
said as early as possible. I assumed that we would prorate the rent, so you
would return the unused portion of our rental deposit. At that point the
conversation turned sour.
You went into a litany of all the damage we have done to the
apartment and how you were not going to give us any money back. That absolutely
astounded me. If we were not going to get anything back, why should we move
early for your convenience? I was going out of my way to optimize things for
you, and you are now going to do nothing for me?
I told you I was in a meeting and I needed a decision. When
would we move? I needed a date. You did not whatsoever respond to what I
needed, and you instead went into a harangue about damage we had supposedly
done to the apartment. Something about a painting, which I don't even think is
in our apartment. Something about marks on the wall.
We were in separate universes. I told you that I had to get back to the meeting
with the agent and the other landlords. I could not talk about that subject at
that time. I was trying to end the conversation, but you would not let me
say goodbye.
Oksana came out to find out where I was. I handed her the phone.
You went into the same tirade, not letting Oksana get a word in edgewise. Like
me, she tried politely to end the conversation and you would not let it go. She
finally said goodbye, saying she was giving the phone back to me, which she
did. Now you accuse her of being rude and hanging up on you? No, it was
the other way around. You would not let her either talk or gracefully end the
conversation.
When you start talking about damage we supposedly did to this
apartment you are making a legal claim against the deposit that you hold. I am
certain that you do not know how weak your legal position is. Let me give you
my view, and ask that you talk to Sergei.
Common sense tells you that anything in an apartment wears out
over time. That applies to refrigerators, stoves, washing machines, paint,
wallpaper, and every kind of furniture. The term we use is that household goods
are subject to "normal wear and tear."
Accountants make provision for this. In English we call it
depreciation; in Russian it is called
амортизация.
Ukraine generally follows the guidelines established by the the International
Accounting Standards Board. According to the standards most household
furnishings have a useful life of five years. For the purpose of computing the
value of items in interior of the house, you would write off 20 percent of the
value every year for five years, after which the residual value is considered
to be zero. The rules for depreciation vary. Some schemes
depreciate by different amounts in different years, and sometimes there are
different schemes for tax reporting than for financial reporting. But a
five year useful life is pretty standard.
In order for you to make a claim against us for destroying
anything in the apartment, you would have to have the original invoice to
demonstrate what the item cost when it was new, dated to show when it was new.
You would then have to show that some action of ours had reduced the value of
the item in question below its depreciated value.
I see no way you could do this. There are three things in the
house less than five years old: the stove, the washing machine, and the by the
small cabinet by the telephone. They are all in good shape. Everything else
should be fully depreciated.
Several chairs in the dining room set have fallen apart,
starting shortly after I moved in. I asked you to fix them, but you did not
want to do it. You asked me to look into it. I found that they were not
economical to fix. By mutual agreement I have been throwing them away. For you
to now claim that we destroyed your furniture shows bad faith on your part. I
would expect you to acknowledge the verbal agreements that we have made over
the years.
I feel that I have tried to do everything we could to help you
regarding this move, and you have slapped me in the face. We would have been
smarter to simply keep the apartment another month and rent it ourselves to
football fans in the knowledge that you could not make any claim against us for
the damage they did.
Without a decision from you, we decided not to conclude the
contract for the other house. We are meeting next week to discuss it further.
My inclination is to stay here until the end of June, since our rent is paid
until then.
You have asked for a meeting to discuss damages. Please tell me
what date is convenient, and plan to bring invoices and amortization schedules
for the items you claim we have damaged. Otherwise let's have a civilized talk
about this and come up with the best solution for both of us. I think a
lawyer’s advice would be useful to you. Please ask Sergei as well.
|
May 10
|
|
||
|
||||
Hi Graham,
I really very occupy
now, I have a big and urgent service for our chirch.
You can stay here according
to your own money interest. You can also be very sure that to broke and to soil our privacy - it is your sacred right.
You invited, as you
said me, about 40 guests to this appartment, - it was not in our agreement.
This appartment is not for such a crowd.
We subscribed
agreement with one person, now - there is three person, the second lives here during two last years. It was
not in our agreement.
I allowed you
averything beyond our agreement because of my respect and
understanding of your life, your life circumstances. And also because of
allknown fact that the last (October) payment practically is DEPOSIT for all
kinds of damage you could do in appartment.
According to our
agreement you had to mouve May 31. October payment - this is your payment for
all kinds of damage. You did not pay for rent, you payed deposit for possible
damage. Your rent finish May 31. There is no payment for June. You payed DEPOSIT for damage.
Just now I spoke to
reeltor with whom you came first time in this appartment. He explained me this
allknown rules, and laugh very much that American citizen does know this
rule.
Certainly I could
allow you to stay here a few days in June. But we will not have time to prepair
appartment for Euro. It will finish that time. According to your proposal
to mouve before Euro I hoped that I could have some money to pay expenses for
necessary repair, including that broken and soiled equipment, though it is much
more expensive.
If you decided to do
everything only in your money interests, without conscience, beyond agreement,
- it is your choice. Some people, ssome astrologists can be in ignorance
about spiritual laws, but nevertheless they work. You do your
choice.
In every case my peace
in God and my conscience according to you is much-much more important for
me as this damage. My life depends from God, not from broken
furniture and soiled falls, and a few green american
papers.
God bless you.
Tatyana
---
Оригінальне
повідомлення
---
Від кого: "Graham Seibert"
<grahamseib@gmail.com>
Кому: "Tetyana (new email) Klinchenko" <kl-tetyana@ukr.net>
Дата: 8 травня
2012, 21:11:00
Тема: Followup on our unfortunate conversation today.
|
May 10
|
|
||
|
||||
Tanya, your arguments make no sense to me.
Your claim about 40 people is absurd. Any person with an apartment
has a right to invite guests. I do not think we ever had 40. You
have known about Oksana since 2009 when I introduced you. If you wanted
her included in the agreement, we could have done it at any time. Even if
I were to agree to paint the whole apartment it would be less than the $1500
deposit.
I am sure there was a better arrangement to be made if we could
talk about it civilly. Please bring the realtor along if we meet; perhaps
he can add to the discussion. We will see whether the problem is with the
stupid American or the Russian peasant.
In any case, the date is the end of June. We will meet on
that day and I will give you the keys. Which, incidentally, are to a lock
that we paid about $100 to buy.
==========================================================================
|
Jun 10 (7 days ago)
|
|
||
|
||||
Hi Graham,
could we meet somewhere in Metro station? Please
write or call.
Today
we where in appartment until 4 p.m.
Tatyana
|
Jun 10 (7 days ago)
|
|
||
|
||||
I'll be passing through Teatralna tomorrow at 13:45. Can
we meet there?
|
Jun 11 (6 days ago)
|
|
||
|
||||
Yestarday we wanted to
use vacuum cleaner, but did not find it. Where is it?
See you,
Tatyana
---
Оригінальне
повідомлення
---
Від кого: "Graham Seibert"
<grahamseib@gmail.com>
Кому: "Тетяна
Клинченко" <kl-tetyana@ukr.net>
Дата: 10 червня
2012, 22:01:43
Тема: Re: Keys
|
Jun 11 (6 days ago)
|
|
||
|
||||
I told you about the vacuum cleaner two weeks ago. The one
you had was very old and it broke. Instead of asking you to replace it,
we simply bought a new one, a better one, and took it with us.
The situation with the locks was similar. When the thieves
broke in, it was clear that we needed new locks. Instead of asking you to
pay for it, we simply did it ourselves. The keys I am giving you are to
locks which cost about $150.
Also, the extension cord to the refrigerator shorted out. We bought a new one and
are leaving it. The new stove needs an extension cord. We bought it
and are leaving it. But the vacuum cleaner is something we need here, so
we took it.
I'll see you at 13:45 on the platform.
|
Jun 11 (6 days ago)
|
|
||
|
||||
What platform?
1) There are 2 of it; 2) Every
platform is very long.
Do you like my
proposal for meeting?
I propose you also to
take the mattress from the bed (we can not use it now and we must to throw it
out after divan and chairs).
Refregerator was
broken because unfortunatly you often left it open.
See you,
Tatyana
---
Оригінальне
повідомлення
---
Від кого: "Graham Seibert"
<grahamseib@gmail.com>
Кому: "Тетяна
Клинченко" <kl-tetyana@ukr.net>
Дата: 11
червня 2012, 08:27:40
Тема: Re: Keys
|
Jun 11 (6 days ago)
|
|
||
|
||||
I don't know whether Stalin himself or Khrushchev made
that refrigerator. It has
served its time. The door never did work especially well, but it is still
adequate. I assure you we did not intentionally leave it open just to
keep our food warm. It voluntarily refused to shut unless we talked
sternly to it. You can try the same.
Let's meet by the bottom of the escalator going up to
Khmelnitskovo.
Graham
.
|
Jun 11 (6 days ago)
|
|
||
|
||||
Electrolux was made in the USA. All your guestions to American presidents in the end of 1990-s.
---
Оригінальне
повідомлення
---
Від кого: "Graham Seibert"
<grahamseib@gmail.com>
Кому: "Тетяна
Клинченко" <kl-tetyana@ukr.net>
Дата: 11
червня 2012, 12:00:46
Тема: Re: Keys
|
Jun 11 (6 days ago)
|
|
||
|
||||
It's actually Swedish. In any case, it is far from new.
We treated it well and it served us adequately. We didn't want to trouble
you with spending money to replace something that was not completely broken.
Our relationship is ending badly, and on account of very small
matters. You have won the big battle. You are keeping the full
month's rent. Please let the small things go and let us be polite to one
another at the end.
|
Jun 11 (6 days ago)
|
|
||
|
||||
Unfortunatly
everything you and Lady touch - is broken
and "It has served its time"...
I don't want to offend
you or her, but really I am very much surprised such an attitude to environment...
We are O.K. and no
problem! But really for our family it is very strange attitude...
Good luck!
|
Jun 11 (6 days ago)
|
|
||
|
||||
Tanya, I don't want to look at you again. I will drop the
keys in the mailbox when I come by that way.
Please consider our appointment today cancelled.
|
Jun 12 (6 days ago)
|
|
||
|
||||
Dear Sergei –
I made a $1,500 mistake. I paid Tanya the rent for June (May, actually), trusting that she would
treat me fairly with regard to the deposit. She did not. She
invented a fantastic series of outrageous excuses for refusing to give us back
our deposit. Among them:
· We put holes in the wall (fewer than 5, compared
with perhaps 100 holding up her works of art)
· We put a huge black mark on the wall (untrue)
· We had 40 people in the house (untrue)
· Oksana was not on the lease (I told her about
Oksana in 2009; she could have changed the lease at any time).
She used every possible justification for stealing the money,
claiming that we broke everything in the apartment. Everything was old
four and a half years ago when I moved in. Much of it dates from Soviet
times. Some of it did break. Tanya does not even admit that old
things break; it is the nature of things. She adoped the
classic Ukrainian Баран negotiating
position. She made outrageous claims and was not open whatsoever
to compromise. She had the power. She had our money and was not
going to consider giving any of it back. We could not talk, for instance,
about the cost of patching the supposed holes in the wall. She insisted
she was keeping the entire deposit.
Tanya made a $20 mistake. Although I was already disgusted
with the process, I was ready to give her back the keys. All she had
to do was to say nothing, meet me in Teatralna, and accept them. But her
conscience did not give her peace. She had to keep making excuses for
stealing our money. She accused us via email of breaking the
refrigerator. It is a fabrication. The door did not work exactly
right for the four years I lived there, but it works adequately. Or it
did when we moved out. And, she insulted Oksana one more time, for no
reason. Your mother has often insulted Oksana. I think Tanya is jealous
seeing a younger woman find the happiness that has escaped her.
At any rate, Tanya made me so mad that I told her I did not want
to see her face ever again. By stealing our deposit, she has destroyed
whatever trust once existed between us. Adding to that the lie about the
refrigerator and the hypocrisy of her quoting scripture to justify her theft is
despicable.
Her $20 mistake is that she will have to make some duplicate
keys for the new tenant. I paid for the keys I have and will keep
them. If Tanya had not been so intent on lying about the refrigerator and
insulting Oksana to cover up her stealing, I would have given them as a
gift. Now I will not. Whatever relationship we once had is beyond
repair. I want no more to do with her.
I rather like you, but I cannot come between mother and
son. I must say goodbye to you as well. I hope that, as a Christian
lawyer, you take notes on how people behave when money tempts them beyond what
they are able.
Please do not contact me again. It is done.
|
Тетяна
Клинченко |
|
11/30/11
|
|
|
|
12/18/11
|
|
||
|
||||
Tanya -
Thanks for the offer. Let me bring you
up to date. Oksana has decided that she doesn't have a strong desire to
look for a new apartment after all. We want to stay here until we build
our own house, which will take quite a while.
This table is really quite useful. The
problem is the broken chairs. They are not very well made, and one by
one, each chair seems to be
losing a leg. It is not a problem because there are more chairs than we
need. If you are going to be replacing the furniture in any case, I'd
like to ask your permission to throw out the chairs as they break.
Thanks,
Graham
|
|
12/18/11
|
|
||
|
||||
Hi Graham,
I am very glad that you stay here. The big and closed space in
the garden in the "dvor" will be very useful when your
child begin to move, there is also special place to play for children.
It is now rarity in Kyiv.
And you can do everything you want in the appartment, including
chairs.
Good luck, enjoy your baby, 
Tanya
---
Оригінальне
повідомлення
---
Від кого: "Graham Seibert"
<grahamseib@gmail.com>
Кому: "Тетяна
Клинченко" <kl-tetyana@ukr.net>
Дата: 18 грудня
2011, 10:56:07
Тема: Re: Big table
|
|
12/18/11
|
|
||
|
||||
Thanks very much! One of the nicest
things about being here is having you as a landlady.
|
|
12/18/11
|
|
||
|
||||
Thank you! 
---
Оригінальне
повідомлення
---
Від кого: "Graham Seibert"
<grahamseib@gmail.com>
Кому: "Тетяна
Клинченко" <kl-tetyana@ukr.net>
Дата:
18 грудня 2011, 11:32:41
Тема: Re: Big table
|
Jun 26 (9 days ago)
|
|
||
|
||||
Tanya --
You have not answered my email of three days
ago, below.
Christian Ethics only comes into play when
there is a difference of agreement. It is a methodology for resolving
differences. Most differences in the realm of business involve, like this
one, money. You should be familiar with mechanisms to resolve differences
such as ours, and I would hope you could propose something.
With regard to the trash, we cleaned the
apartment and took the trash out before we left. We were unable to
vacuum, as we had already taken our vacuum cleaner to the new house. Our
departure would have been more orderly if you had not suddenly, surprisingly
decided you were going to withhold the entire month's rent you held as a
deposit.
I carefully left the Bible you had given us on
the corner of the bed. As you know, I had several Bibles when you gave me
that copy and I accepted it only to be gracious. I certainly did not
leave it in the trash.
Disputes between Christians delight
nonbelievers. I hope that you can propose a way that we can resolve this
within the Christian community.
I look for your response.
Graham
(from June 23, 2012)
Tanya –
I have put your claims into a table.
The major items in your list, the divan and
the three chairs appear to date from Soviet times. The values you claim
are excessive, even for when they were new. Do you have receipt showing
how much your mother paid for them? Can you give the source of your
estimates?
The mattress is the one your mother
used. It is also many years old, perhaps also Soviet era. Even when
we moved in it had a mattress pad, the kind one puts on a bed to protect it in
case an incontinent person urinates in the night. It was already
soiled. Do you have a receipt showing how much that mattress cost?
You replaced the faucet in the kitchen and the
washing machine during our tenancy. Repair of such items is a landlord’s
responsibility. We always called such problems to your attention, and you
sent your man Denis or an appropriate master to fix them. Both the
kitchen faucet and the washing machine were working well when we left. If
they had not been, we would have told you.
You took the picture in question to your
apartment more than a year ago. It was not in our custody. We had
discussed it before. The streak in question appears to be part of the
painting. In any case, we never had or used heavy oil in the apartment,
and that picture hung safely in the guest room opposite the piano. We did
nothing to damage the painting.
This is a business dispute between
Christians. Surely Christian ethics provides a mechanism for resolving
such matters. What references do you have which would suggest an
approach?
Graham
|
Item |
Damage |
Claimed
Amount Hryvnya |
Dollar
Equivalent at 8.07 |
Documentation |
|
divan
- |
broken |
8000
hrn |
$991 |
|
|
3
chairs |
broken |
4200 |
$520 |
|
|
mattrass
- |
broken
and dirty |
1400
hrn |
$173 |
|
|
crane
in the kitchen - |
broken |
260
hrn |
$32 |
|
|
picture |
restoration
of the soiled by black dirt (fuel oil?) (the same was on the fall) - |
400
hrn |
$50 |
|
|
washing
machine |
|
|
|
|
|
Total |
|
|
$1,767 |
|