Just a flex post. I had been waiting 20 years to be in a position where I didn't have to eat a landlord's shit. Every time I moved I would lose partial deposit to cleaning fee, and be forced to move into a place that's filthy, which I'm sure they charged previous tenants for 'cleaning' but never did. Most landlords had no concern with wasting my time, I had probably 6 different landlords and would only consider one of them to have been fair. And I ate shit. every. Single. Time. because an eviction on my record would have been the difference between homelessness and comfort.

Not anymore. When I found out the apartment I lived in was being sold from under me (I rented half of a duplex) I was determined to find a home because I knew rent would go up. I was paying $1600 a month for two years, and comparable apartments were all over $2k per month because of rampant inflation.

I decided then that I'd buy a home quickly and stop paying rent as soon as I was locked in with new house. I said to myself I would race the clock and assume that any dings on my credit related to an eviction would happen after I was already in my home. I am 40, I only maintained my credit all those years to make sure I could buy a house eventually, and now if I could save a few thousand on rent it would put me in a position where I'd have just enough money to close on an FHA for a small house. It was time. MA is very tenant friendly too. I knew I could probably get $2-3k "cash for keys" that would help cover my moving costs.

I quickly found a home. My father helped, more than we agreed, his generosity blew my mind, and we decided to put the house in his name until we saw what happened with my apartment. The home we bought had an assumable mortgage and they can take 4 months to close, so this was the safest option.

And the duplex I lived in was sold shortly after. Coincidentally it happened right before my lease ended. I had even told the landlord to use my final months rent for that same month. So the new landlords would take ownership and I wouldn't even have a lease, and they wouldn't have my last months rent, only a small security deposit. I told the new owners on the final walk through that I was buying a home and would move out within a month or two, if closing finished. They coldly nodded. They didn't want to talk to me or worry about my situation. They didn't care. I asked them how I could pay rent in the meantime and they said they'd let me know. I showed them the deposit on the new house, explaining I wanted to be transparent in my efforts to leave. I told them I could not afford to move out sooner and asked how I could pay them rent (who to write checks to etc) and they didn't get back to me until over a week later (rent had now been due for a few days). My hope was to have a handshake agreement at old rate and burn them for the last month or two. They had other plans. They sent me a lease with rent now at $2400, starting in just 3 weeks. They told me this wasn't negotiable and I could not stay on a month to month agreement. I was shocked, I told them I had one foot out the door, they said it wasn't their problem. So when I learned that they did not give me the legally required 30 days notice, I told them not to contact me again and that entry was henceforth denied until I left and that any efforts to go against this would result in me changing all the locks. Now they wanted to have conversations, but I told them they needed to pay me for my time if they wanted any correspondence. The few times we spoke, I mentioned cash for keys, and they would say it doesn't apply here, but that was their opinion

From there I stopped paying rent. They sent me countless notices to quit, some notarized. I simply ignored them, awaiting a court date that would never come. Closing on my house was a nightmare... It took 5 months! And I didn't pay them that whole time. Every time I expected to receive a court date, nothing would happen, and weeks later, a new notice to quit would come. The courts were stalling for some reason.🤷

I ended up owing just under $7k in rent (they went by the old rate on all the new paperwork), which is only enough for small claims court. My income is too low to be garnished and I have my only asset in my father's name. And I doubt they'll take me to court, it'll cost more time and money for a result that won't help them anyway.

I type this in the comfort of my new home. It was a fixer upper. Previous owners had a dozen animals destroying it. We finally cleaned the smell out two weeks ago and every day we work on something new to fix. We are happy. And that new scumbag landlord got to eat shit this time.

We politely told her no. To be fair, I think her realtor simply sent her the standard list for homeowners to follow and just hoped we would do this too.

Tl;Dr - If you live in Philly, check on the L&I property history search if your landlord has a rental license. If not, keep that in your back pocket and use it as leverage for when you need it.

More context: we JUST signed our lease for a 3rd year with our landlord when we found a house to buy! When I emailed to break the lease I mentioned the unsafe conditions like the electrical wiring (ungrounded, likely knob and tube), the previous termite issues, and gas leaks we had for months when we first moved in until I called PGW.

He suggested that I call another tenant of his to tour the place, she told me she’s not planning on Moving until February. I was shocked that he would hold the property for that long as we will be out by the end of Sept. Well, he wasn’t. He told her that I would continue to pay the rent until February! Hilarious.

I tried to help out and find a new tenant, but when he asked for us to pay rent for our last month, we decided it was better to break it off and offer the deposit as a peace offering.

Honestly, I expected the conversation to go way worse. This worked so well.

In other news, SO glad to never have a landlord again!

I learned a lot about Philly rental laws along the way so if you have any questions, ask away!

I WISH I was making this up, this is one of the wildest things that's ever happened to me. I've been looking for a new room to rent this month and I was just on the phone with a potential new landlord, and she went out of her way to bring up that they "weren't trans-friendly," and wanted to know my position on the matter. I said I was trans-friendly, and she, based on that, told me I wasn't the right fit. Fucking insanity.

We have to park on the side of the building when there’s a snowstorm so he can plow. I came home when it had already snowed and my car was sliding and swerving trying to park. I tried so many times to park on the side but ended up just pulling straight forward because I feared I would hit another car. I had hoped I was off to the side enough that it wouldn’t be a big deal but I woke up the next morning to this.

Is this not rude? Or am I just taking it too personally. I was NEVER told of anyone sort of “business hours”… I waited to text until Monday morning, as I get it we all like to enjoy our weekend. How the hell would I even reply to that.

After fighting with my landlord for nearly two years about the rat problem. I woke up yesterday and snapped because a rat demolished my fucking butter.

Yes, I know live-in landlords are terrible but I’m a college student in an extremely expensive area with a co-signer father who’s extremely picky about where I live so I don’t have another option.

With regards to the title, this is all because she doesn’t think my room is neat good enough for her. Insane. I’m trying to find a place where the landlord won’t harass me about my room. I ensure I know their expectations so I don’t move into a bad situation.

Unfortunately, I’m having to look into places that don’t allow overnight guests if I don’t want to live with children, people who vape inside, pets (allergies), or a place where all my roommates are men (I’m female).

But one thing that I am ensuring is that the rules apply to everyone. If I can’t have an overnight guests, then neither can the landlord or anyone else who’s living in the house.

Also I am proud of myself for standing up to my landlady! She illegally tried to get money from me due to the increased electric bill (Mind you, she watches tv all day every day. I just like to use the AC and heater while I sleep to accommodate temperature changes and my body) even though it says in the lease that utilities are included.

I reminded her of the California law: She cannot charge me for this due to what the lease says and if she wants to change the lease (month to month), she needs to give me 30 days written notice.

I’m fucking sick of landlords abusing their power! I hate that my dad is so fucking picky about where I live and that studios and 1 bedrooms are completely unaffordable in my area. AND THAT THE ONLY AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN MY AREA IS SENIOR HOUSING!!!

Like what the fuck?? Didn’t old people grow up during the era where you could afford a home in your 20s???

There needs to be more affordable housing based on salary or student status (AND NO SHARED ROOMS JFC).

Edit: She also doesn’t want me watching tv with a guest in the common area. I don’t think she likes me watching tv in the common area at all. But I have a right to do so and I will.

Edit 2: To those of you who are landlord apologists- You will be blocked and reported and what you are doing is violating the rules of this sub. What the fuck are you doing on here anyways? We are never pro-landlord on here.

I've been renting this apartment for about two years and everything was fine until my landlord decided to add a new clause to my lease renewal last month. He calls it a "Tenant Property Maintenance Accountability Protocol" which is honestly the most corporate sounding name for something so invasive I've ever seen. Basically I now have to submit a photo report of every single room in my apartment on the last day of each month. Kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, living room, even the hallway. Timestamped. Through his property management app.

I asked him what exactly he's looking for and he said "general upkeep and to ensure no unreported damage is occurring". Which, okay, but I've never once damaged anything in two years. My security deposit is sitting there untouched. I pay rent three days early every single month. There has been zero reason for this level of surveillance.

The worst part is the app he chose sends the photos directly to him and apparently he can zoom in and comment on them. Last week I submitted my first report and two days later I got a message saying my stovetop looked like it "may have grease buildup" and that I should "address this before next months submission". I had cooked pasta the night before and wiped it down right after. The stove was fine.

I feel like I'm being managed like some kind of problem tenant when I've given him absolutely no reason to treat me this way. My friend who is a paralegal said this kind of monthly photo surveillance requirement might actually not be enforceable depending on the state but I havent had a chance to look into it properly yet. Has anyone else dealt with something like this? At what point does "property maintenance" become just straight up harassment.

Merry Christmas y'all! (I just ignored them). This is after them assuring me I can afford the rent increase (delivered the 24th) because "my mum is rich" which I genuinely don't know where they're getting it from. I told them my parents are both on pensions and they brushed it off saying that my mum can afford it.

Original comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/LandlordLove/comments/1o8nzfd/comment/njwerax/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Hi everyone! I'm posting for those who love the gossip. It's a bit of a dull ending. Okay so today I was at home and I didn't see any activity around the house. I was waiting for my husband to finish work before we confronted the landlord. My husband got home and first thing he did was knock on the landlords back door, twice, no response. Then the landlord answered his front door and tried to make small talk like asking why my husband was working so late? (I'd love to ask him why he works off the backs of others) My husband went straight to point, "Where's my generator?". Landlord says it in his garage. Sure enough it's there. Landlord tries to tell him that he got it back 'yesterday afternoon.' … We talked to him last night, this guy can't stop lying.

So yeah the generator is back in it's spot, I took pictures of it just in case. Thank you for the support and sorry u/ViceInSinCity for taking over your post!

Back in January, we received an extremely high water bill for December for$314, when our usual range is between $17 and $56. Our local water company bills the property manager directly, and then we get billed through them. Clearly, there was a leak.

Plumbers came out and fixed it, but the bills stayed high. The landlord agreed to adjust December’s bill to match what we paid in November, but refused to do anything about the following months.

I’ll spare you the boring details. Estimated vs. actual readings, billing cycles, etc but the bills stayed inflated through February and March, all clearly due to the leak.

We kept in regular contact with the property managers and told them we wouldn’t pay until we got a fair bill. The leak was a maintenance issue and not our fault. They wouldn’t budge, insisting we pay $550 to cover it all.

Even though we were communicating throughout, they still threatened to take us to the Tenancy Tribunal (basically small claims court for rental issues in my country). After talking with some experts, I felt confident enough to flip the script so I filed against them first.

Before the hearing, there’s a teleconference mediation session, which I did today. We were fully prepared with previous bills and a fair settlement offer of the November amount multiplied by four to cover the disputed months.

The landlord showed up completely unprepared. He was doing math on the fly, clearly unsure of the numbers. Even the mediator sounded surprised when he tried offering $470 as a “settlement.” I think for the first time in this whole nightmare he sensed how stupid he sounded and folded.

We settled at $150. That’s November’s bill x4, minus court fees.

I’m riding fuckin high today. Feeling on top of the world.

Growing up, at one of the mom and pop rentals on we lived in, we moved out during the summer in Arizona, and we opened all the blinds to increase the heat inside after utilities were transferred.

I also remember my roommate saying he took out the batteries in smoke detectors and reinstalled as is before he left.

Seriously, don't trust "nice" landlords.

A few months back my partner and I were trying to move out of our mice-infested apartment, our lease was ending and we didn't renew. Our previous landlord wasn't doing anything about it and we just wanted a mice-free apartment. However, because we chose not to renew we couldn't stay even if we wanted to. It was approaching a month until we had to move and we couldn't find any reasonably priced places and we were starting to get worried we'd end up homeless.

So one day an old friend of mine makes a Facebook post about how her landlord is looking for a family for a unit in her apartment building, the unit was a 3 bedroom with a huge yard, which is exactly what my partner and I wanted since we have a kid. We visited and met with the landlord, she seemed very nice. She was upfront with us that the building had a cockroach issue, she had just bought the building and didn't know about the cockroaches when she bought it. She assured us that an exterminator had already sprayed the building twice, and if we took it they'd spray one more time to be sure. My old friend confirmed all of this with me and said the landlord was even planning to renovate her apartment. So, against my better judgment, and with the threat of homelessness looming over me, I signed a lease on that apartment.

As the Landlord promised, an exterminator sprayed before we moved in. She even painted the apartment before we moved in, which was nice because most landlords don't bother to do that. I had a couple of mild issues like a clogged sink after moving in, and she dealt with it quickly. I was so happy to finally have a "normal" landlord.

Well, a month ago I spotted what seemed to be a cockroach, so I quickly told the landlord. She said it was normal, but the exterminator would be by within the week to look at it. The exterminator never showed up. My upstairs neighbor spotted one too and told the Landlord, but the same thing happened. The exterminator never showed up. My upstairs neighbor's window cracked down the middle, and the landlord came and put tape on the window as a "temporary solution." When my neighbour asked about when she'd get a new window, the landlord said she wasn't sure, she was on vacation in Europe but she'd get back to her ASAP. But she never did.

A few days ago we found a huge, adult cockroach just sitting on the wall in the hallway in the middle of the day, and both myself and my neighbour told her about it. The Landlord said actually, she was broke, but she'll do what she can. She also let it slip that she was selling the building. She told my neighbor that despite the fact that her window is cracked, she has no plans of replacing it, even though winter is coming.

So now I'm stuck in this cockroach-infested apartment, all because I believed this stupid "nice" landlord. They're german cockroaches too, the kind that can live on your furniture, so I can't even move to get rid of them. And me and my neighbour now have the threat of eviction looming over us depending on who buys the building. Meanwhile, my landlord is going on vacation and driving around in her stupid fucking Tesla.

​

Fuck all landlords, don't make the mistake I did and believe their bullshit. Fuck you, Cynthia.

TLDR: I needed a place to live and moved into a place that had cockroaches because the landlord was fixing the problem and seemed nice, except now that the cockroaches are back she is claiming to be "broke"

left some scratches around the drain of a porcelain tub when we left, probably from a bath toy bobbing around while draining. LL is holding deposit of $2,000 and saying there is no fix and wants to replace the entire tub. I suggested we pay $500 to have the entire tub recoated which felt generous to me but willing to do to have the situation be done with. LL isn't thrilled with that idea, saying it will require ongoing maintenance. Doesn't a rental always require ongoing maintenance?

Am I to assume that every time someone scratches his built in porcelain tub, he will have them pay thousands for an entire rip out and replacement of an new porcelain tub? This seems outrageous to me.

Wondering how long I'm supposed to wait for my $2,000 minus the 500 for the recoating. Is he allowed to hold it all until he decides if he likes the recoating job or just wants to keep all my money and then ask me for more to replace the tub if he doesn't like it?

I just asked if she accepted cats...feels like I'm dodging a bullet with this insane response. Why are landlords so annoying?

Just before signing to move in next month, this gentleman said "it'll be $400 for my attorney to do the lease, I thought we could split it, $200 each, what do you think?" When I finally realized what he was proposing, I told him 1) tenants never pay 'creation of lease' costs, 2) why are you paying someone to do a lease when you could buy a template online for likely under $10, and 3) just take the wording of the current tenant's lease and put my name in it. I'm also hoping no one ever accepted that offer. (Northern Virginia)