Summer Rental - Ocean Bay Park- A Cautionary Tale
by rab
(Long Island)
This was my first experience staying Mon-Fri joining a group of friends. $2000 5 bdrms 2 bth indoor ... on a Fire Island rental. Sounded exciting. Like paradise. The pictures of the house looked great. A good deal.
Included in the group was a young couple with a new born.
Sad to say... Arriving.... one encountered a filthy house. Garbage was strewn outside and under the decking. Used linens were left on the beds. Unclean towels were left on the floor.. some put back on shelves in the bedrooms as though they had been cleaned. Rugs needed vacuuming. Floors were dirty. There were dirty dishes, pots and pans one pan that had eggs fried into it.. was put away. The place was a mess. Old food was left in refrigerators. The upstair bathroom had a leaking toilet and shower thus a wet floor. The shower walls were covered with mildew and missing tiles. The water on the 2nd floor bathroom leaked down to the bathroom below. eventually, the owner did send out a plumber who made cursory repairs The TV remote did not work properly. At one point the TV itself went on the blink. There were large gaps in window / AC areas and other areas allowing mosquitos free entry try sleeping with mosquitos buzzing in your ear.
3 of our group decided they could not stay for even one night under any conditions and left for the mainland.
One would expect the minimal routine cleaning and maintenance of the house as the owner's responsibility in good conscience. Why not spend some of those rental earnings to keep the house clean and in good repair or falling short of that... perhaps fair warning to renters that this house was a frat "animal" house type rental...
The remaining people in our group had to do deep cleaning and straightening including small repairs just to have the house become liveable if we were to make a go of staying.
Although the owner was made aware of the deplorable conditions, he failed to make even a token effort to make restitution.
Again... I suppose this might be considered a frat house type of rental.. and we were given a "steal" of a price but it was a dismal disappointment compared to the experience we had hoped for...
So let the reader use discernment... inspect a perspective rental before signing on the dotted line.
Make assurances that close friends and relatives who join you.. are making a good investment for their time, money and aspirations.
Unlike the owner referred to above....
My applause goes out to those readers who are owners with integrity who rent out their properties in a responsible way and continue to make Fire Island an enjoyable experience.
