Landlords and other Surprises

 If you want to become a millionaire, the easiest way is to start off with a capital of a thousand billions. - If you are looking for a house to rent or buy, be prepared for many surprises. There is no legal maximum for rental charges, it is usual to charge 5 % increase annually, but any increase must be stipulated in the lease. Non-Tunisian residents from lets say a European country, who need their permit, carte sejour, extended annually, require a newly issued lease contract every year. They may be interested and have perhaps  been promised a long term contract, but the need to submit a fresh contract to the Tunisian authorities, puts them in a week position and for all I know quite a few landlords won't hesitate to make use of this.  Motto: what do I care for my silly prattle from yesterday. Don't relay on promises, gratitude or recommendations. People usually take money for recommendations so they don't care, happy to name unreliable, unsuitable persons who will give them money for this - our experience ever so often. Even a man we dismissed for stealing had the cheek to ask money from the next guy, as he took "his job". Some folks like to spend their money on enjoying life, travelling, celebrating, etc, others on furniture, decorations, trying to make their flat or house "their castle". If you belong to the second type, be careful whom you invite as you may be giving the impression you are rich and envy is an ugly feeling. This can easily also happen when your landlord views the rooms he rented to you and have an unwanted impact on your relationship. Hopefully your landlord isn't greedy and doesn't want to trick you, e.g. overcharge you for electricity, gas, water, etc. There are more tricks under the sun than you most probably imagine. Quite a few old-age pensioners leave their country because their monthly income is too low for a country with high costs of living and they don't want to live on social security or money from their children. There is a choice of countries in various continents with very much lower costs of living and perhaps as an additional bonus lots of sunshine, good for old bones. Yet it is not all that easy, the mentality of the folks and possibly language problems have to be taken into account apart from bureaucratic hurdles. An acquaintance of mine looking for a suitable flat or house was once offered to live in a family "like a family member, we look after you", she felt they wanted to make her a rich auntie, a bottomless source of income. The house she finally chose she tried to convert into a little castle while at the same time living rather modestly as she isn't exactly rich. Her landlord told this elderly widow that when she dies, he will lock the door and not allow her family to even remove a sheet of paper, everything that's there would automatically belong to him. Prior to that he declared a special armchair to be "his", hoping she would fall for that "evil eye" trick (if someone lays his/her eyes on something that belongs to you, something evil will happen, if you don't hand this item over). Bad luck, she never heard this before and isn't superstitios anyhow. Instead she offered this armchair to him at a reasonable price but he refused, stating he'll get it for free one day. While he and his wife were friendly in the beginning they later on changed and gave they impression they feared she may live longer than they anticipated and made her life difficult with all sorts of tricks. When she just couldn't take more of this and moved out, he managed to keep all her plants (exchanged the lock before her tenancy expired), an expensive table with 4 chairs "disappeared", nothing on camera, "she must have switched it off for the theft....." Judging by the amount of money this landlord made her pay for various bills I am sure she paid for the consumption of his family as well. Other landlords she had the misfortune to encounter I certainly wouldn't recommend as honest. Those who are honest may on the other hand meet tenants who are not. Life often isn't fair. After we bought our house an unknown person wrote in Arabic for sale on it. Having spend a lot of money, time and energy to make it look nice (neighbours were surprised to see me decorating), we had all sorts of reactions, from compliments to kids throwing stones and various damages. We often felt that some are perhaps trying to make us give up and sell the house cheap - maybe to them. The sad story is that several expats left Tunisia again, feeling they can't coope with the new mentality here. It is time for the silient majority to speak up and demand the neccessary changes. Make Tunisia a great country to be proud of, solidarity and support for the poor, don't waste the existing intelligence, why are so many with a university diploma unemployed or have to do accept jobs well below their qualifications? They could on the other hand help to forward this beauitiful country.