Two months ago, when I was moving out of the apartment I had previously shared with T, I had a little misadventure. Y’see, a couple of days after I vacated the apartment, and one day before the new tenant was to go in, T and I went over to clean it and throw out the last of the garbage. Unfortunately, one of us left the back door open when we left and the pipes froze.

The new tenant did not move in the next day as planned, but several days later. By that time damage had been done to the pipes, and even the water in the toilet was frozen. A flurry of communications ensued between the new tenant, the new landlord (yep, the place was sold at that time too) and T and I, to attempt to determine responsibility. There was the plumber’s bill to pay, and the new tenant was making noises about having us pay for her inflated Hydro bill as well. We stressed about eventual structural damages too.

Now, it’s the landlord’s responsibility to ensure things work properly. It’s the tenant’s responsibility to inform the landlord of any problems, and she took more time than planned to move in. Her name was on the lease at that time, so she was the official tenant. As for us, we were most probably responsible for causing the damage. In the end we offered to pay the plumber’s bill, as long as we would not be held accountable for anything more.* And we all lived happily ever after.

Well, it’s now months later, and I came home tonight, quite cross about a situation at work with a difficult client. There was a letter in my mailbox from the landlord of my ex-building. “What now???” I thought as I pulled it open right in the vestibule.

It was a note saying that after examining the receipts, they realized they’d made a mistake in the amount of the plumber’s bill, and were sending us a check for the difference! I know, it’s basic honesty at work here, but they could have so easily pocketed it.

It’s easy to use a blog as a soapbox for general bitching and moaning, so when something positive like this happens, I feel I have to blog about it too.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go enjoy a warm fuzzy feeling.

* Sidenote: this, kids, is why you want to take rejection like a man, take breakups with philosophy, and stay on good terms with your exes if possible. Having T with me through this took considerable stress away, stress that would have been much heightened, had I instead had to fight with him as well as the other parties. There are many other advantages to staying friends, but I think that’s a topic for an entire post. End sidenote.