This is a 24/7 job: Emergencies such as busted water pipes, the occasional storm damage and medical emergency will get us mobilized pretty quick, and we accept that it is part of the job.
What is NOT part of the job are knocks on the door or window after midnight because you need quarters for the laundry room!
Yes, I fell asleep on the sofa watching TV one night and a tenant saw that light, so she banged on the door looking for laundry change.
Why would anyone even think to knock on my door after midnight, or anyone’s door? I have another job. I also freelance at home. I do need to sleep.
Now I know that this tenant was hanging out all day with her buddies, she doesn’t work, so schedules are a foreign concept to her. But her boyfriend works two jobs and would be coming home soon and expecting dinner and his uniforms ready: She was in a jam.
She wasn’t embarrassed when I answered the door in my jammies.
She wasn’t embarrassed that I was downright snarky about the hour and the non-emergency.
She wasn’t going away. I caved. I gave her the quarter.
I was now wide awake and wondering, “What the heck was now playing on that TV?”
Tenant moved a year later. Yeah.
Sadly that is not the only time a tenant has woken me late at night or very early. The early morning risers all excuse themselves by saying, “Well, I have been awake since 5 a.m. and waited until your blinds were open.” Well, thank you for your consideration and the expectation that I must be up, dressed and ready by 7 a.m.
When I am up at 1:30 a.m. because of a busted pipe, let me bang on your door, park myself uninvited at your table and just share my problems.
Often when these rude (and thankfully only a few) tenants ask, “Oh, did I wake you?” I very simply reply, “No, it’s okay, I had to get up and answer the door.” Sometimes they catch the sarcasm.