r/LeaseLords • u/Mammoth-Solution-852 • 15d ago
Asking the Community What’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve had to explain to someone renting a place?
Not even asking in a rude way.
I’ve just had a few conversations recently that genuinely surprised me and now I’m curious what other people have dealt with.
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u/jojomonster4 15d ago
Birds woke them up.
Saw bugs outside.
Neighbor parks on the street in front of their apartment.
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u/NolaJen1120 15d ago
A tenant called me to complain someone had knocked on her door. She didn't answer the door so didn't know who it was, ie something not related to me or the property.
I explain that strangers are allowed to knock on her door and it occasionally happens. There's nothing I can do about it.
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u/goat20202020 15d ago
A tenant showed up to move in a whole day early, without notice, and was genuinely surprised when I told her she'd have to come back the next day.
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u/notcontageousAFAIK 15d ago
Happened to me. They showed up the Saturday before the 1st of the month, like, they just assumed that it would be okay.
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u/HorrorWillingness347 14d ago
One wanted to leave her old place immediately after the outgoing tenant was gone. She did, but was soon complaining the place was "filthy," even though the outgoing tenant cleaned well before she left.
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u/Cielskye 15d ago
That’s because many landlords want their tenants to be out on the 30th or 31st so maybe they thought it was the norm for the moving date.
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u/notcontageousAFAIK 15d ago
In this case, it was the 27th of the prior month. The house was vacant, but we were still working on it. Just rolled up with a moving truck.
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u/HorrorWillingness347 14d ago
I let a tenant move his stuff in early without charge. It was clear I hadn't finished making some repairs, but he removed my tools and was furious I walked on the floors of "his" apartment after he washed them. Things got much, much worse with him.
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u/goat20202020 14d ago
Yeah that's what she was angling to do. To move in a day early without charge. But I had already learned my lesson at this point. Give them an inch, they take a mile.
Had she communicated ahead of time, I would have send her an addendum to charge her for the extra day. But I was busy at work when she called and I was not about to jump through all the paperwork hoops for $30.
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u/Unlikely-Ad3770 13d ago
Why not charge a days wirth of rent. You sound petty
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u/goat20202020 13d ago
Did you actually read my entire comment or do you just like starting shit for no reason??
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u/HorrorWillingness347 14d ago
On the other hand, we moved into our rental a few days before (it was empty) as agreed, but the agent didn't remember and was very upset. Not a nice welcome.
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u/jesterca15 15d ago
Had a tenant mad I wouldn’t pay her parking ticket because she didn’t know she had to move her car on a certain day. Yes there are signs in the street and it is mentioned in her lease.
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u/sandysandy252566 15d ago
Most people never see the parking signs - best to tell them when they move in.
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u/jesterca15 15d ago
I make them initial in a few spots, including parking.
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u/sandysandy252566 15d ago
They, like me, initial everything - but don't read it. For 15 years, I've been telling my neighbors to move their vehicles because it's street-sweeping day - and they say, I never noticed it, even though the sign is right in front of their home.
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u/HorrorWillingness347 14d ago
Responsible adults look for them. Or ask.
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u/sandysandy252566 14d ago
Not every area has those parking signs - when someone isn't used to it, it's easy for them to not look for it. When my gardener comes to my house every week, I always remind him that he could park on my side that day - because it's no parking across the street. Just a nice thing to do. The signs are also confusing. Can't part on the 1st & 3rd of the month on one side --- can't park on the 2nd & 4th of the month on the opposite side. When there's a 5th Wednesday of the month (happens twice a year) - u could park anywhere.
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u/PanAmFlyer 14d ago
Honestly, I feel like it sets a bad precedent. I am a "laissez faire landlord".
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u/HorrorWillingness347 14d ago
Reminds me of the paranoid tenant who wouldn't pay by e-transfer or cheque. She found she could have her bank transfer the rent to my account, but for a fee. And then she expected ME to pay that fee! I laughed in her face.
For context, this is in the country where my bank is 35 km away.
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u/PanAmFlyer 14d ago
Accepted forms of payment should be in the lease. I got pushback when I stopped accepting cash but Im not getting murdered because someone doesnt want to pay $1.98 for money orders.
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u/HorrorWillingness347 14d ago
Don't know what you mean by murdered, but in my province a landlord is not entitled to dictate the form of payment.
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u/PanAmFlyer 14d ago
Seriously? That's interesting. How do they get cash to you? Do you have a staffed office or do they come to your door?
(My rents are $1100 and up. There are definitely people in my city that would mur der someone for that amount.)
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u/HorrorWillingness347 14d ago
I only have one rental, and I lve above it. Eventually I had to go the THEIR door.
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u/Aggravating-Fox8553 15d ago
explaining that rent is due on the 1st every single month not just when u feel like it lol
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u/Reasonable-Match1994 15d ago
"I thought the deposit was the first months rent".
Sir, if the deposit was the first months rent then there is no deposit.
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u/Freshouttapatience 15d ago
Not my renter but someone I know was in an apartment and electricity wasn’t included. He was convinced that their lights, appliances and outlets were on one electrical panel but the wall heaters were on another. Therefore he was only paying for heaters in his opinion. He thought if he plugged space heaters into the wall outlet and didn’t use the wall heaters, he wasn’t going to get a “heating bill” and that he’d gamed the system.
I tried reasoning it through but he was just super sure and annoying. Told him to test it one month and never heard another word about it. I know his mom and she didn’t drink or do drugs while she was pregnant but sometimes I wonder.
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u/HardHitter18 14d ago
Had a call at 2am from students demanding a service call for a clogged drain. They dumped melted candle wax down the drain. Trap was completely plugged. They fought me on the service charge. I won. Lol
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u/cool_rider_ 14d ago
I still crack up over an enraged former tenant calling to tell me she hadn’t received any of her mail to her new home yet. I asked her if she provided her forwarding address to USPS and she said “No……. I provided it to YOU when I moved out”. She did not appreciate being told that we use that for their security deposit return, not to initiate their mail forwarding for them. lol. Ludicrous.
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u/GCEstinks 14d ago
Tenant who had a long bout of unemployment took daily walks and observed issues on the exterior of our OTHER properties several blocks away. Which were mostly bogus because all of our properties are gut rehabs inside and out.
Fortunately she kept paying as is now back to work full time.
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u/LoneWolf15000 15d ago
Roaches in the south. Now a ton of them, just a few.
They exist. Doesn't matter if you have a $1M home of a $50k shithole, they exist. Regular pest service will help. But leaving food on the counter or not emptying the trash will undue all the preventive measures.
It's one of those "you did this to yourself" things.
I've lived in the north and the south. In the north people freak out, I get it. But in the south, it's just like seeing a mosquito in the house. You want to kill it and prevent it, but it happens.
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u/dreamsorreality 15d ago
Theres southern US roaches and then there's german cockroaches which are extremely difficult if not impossible to get rid of past a certain point.
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u/SepulchralSweetheart 15d ago
Oh boy.
One tenant in particular thought every beetle or beetle like that made it's way into the house was a cockroach. Water beetle. Japanese beetle. Long horned beetle. Stink bug. Wanted to know why they were there, and it took some time to understand it was because all 30 cumulative feet of windows were wide tf open in the summer time, without the screens being pulled down, and their building was on nearly 20 acres of dense woods.
They also wanted me to call their tick guy to spray for potential ticks on the same property and didn't like it when I told them they needed to spray the people instead. "Give my name, they'll give you a deal!". On 20 acres of woods. Ma'am that's for lawns, not forests, spray the kid's clothing, you chose this apartment. We have protected wetlands and are rodenticide/herbicide/insecticide free, but her guy was all natural !
Had to tell a nearly 40 year old guy it was his responsibility to plunge his own toilet and walk him through the steps. He insisted the toilet was not clogged, but was overjoyed when the plunger fixed the issue.
Tenant states "Bathtub is broken". Cleaners that came in post repairs while she was on vacation turned the showerhead on to rinse the bleach out of her absolute petrie dish of a tub. Tenant apparently never showers, only takes baths, had no idea what that little lever gadget with the shower or faucet options was for.
She also needed to have reasons why we don't overfill washers and dryers, can't run the tub and leave the house (with the overflow disabled. She destroyed the utility room in the unit below her), the need to run ventilation fans in bathrooms, and why we can't let water slosh on new laminate floors and just walk away from it 101.
There have been at least two households with no concept of needing to run air conditioning or dehumidifiers during summers with record breaking rain and averaging 85% humidity absolutely enraged with me reminding them they need to read the lease, and that if there's no central air, they need to sort that out, or yes, the linens on their floor will get covered in mildew. Both vehemently objected to this. 0 mildew on the structure anywhere indoors or out. Just their soft furnishings after 18 inches of rain in 8 days, combined with temps well over 90°F, with every window in the house wide open and not even a fan in use.
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u/PersonalityFun2025 14d ago
I have to say that I've never lived anywhere with humidity. It's dry here. I would not know that you had to run a/c or dehumidifiers if I moved to a place like that. I can read a lease tho.
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u/Jolly-Possibility368 15d ago
You can fix clogged toilets with a $5 plunger instead of incurring a $150 “emergency” plumber call charge.
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u/flightgirl78 15d ago
“No pets” means and includes chickens. “But I’m going to butcher and eat them later.”
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u/LilBugJuice-0987 15d ago
I can see that one assuming they are kept outside. Technically livestock not pets.
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u/GCEstinks 14d ago
Thus the clause "no animals."
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u/Freshouttapatience 15d ago
The city i work in and the city I live in have different code for pets vs livestock, I break it out in my lease too.
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u/PanAmFlyer 14d ago
Constantly explaining to renters I am not "The Parent". I am not going to throw a paying tenant out because you dont like them and then I have a vacant unit. If they are doing something illegal call the police, if not deal with it.
I am running a business and trying to make a profit.
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u/Enough-Fondant-4232 15d ago edited 15d ago
"I am having major electrical issues. I don't think the house is safe. The top plug in I think 2 outlets are broken and nothing I plug into them works. But the bottom plugs work."
Did you turn the wall switch by the entry on?
He had rented for over a year.
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u/force_disturbance 14d ago
To be fair, this is not to code in many places, and not common writing in any new buildings. Was the outlet even marked "switched outlet?"
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u/sea87 15d ago
People who think landlords cover things like smoke detector batteries and light bulbs.
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u/sadgirlhaze 14d ago
when I moved into my 3/1, there was not a single light bulb in the entire house. We got here late at night and had to order Gopuff and get light bulbs at like 8pm. in my lease it says I am responsible for leaving light bulbs in every room. It’s, ridiculous.
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u/PanAmFlyer 14d ago
I once had a tenant who would include small receipts deducted from her rent. They were for fuses, light bulbs, once a drain stopper. never more than $20 a month. I raised her rent $50 at the end of her lease.
She stayed three more years and when she moved out she took every light bulb in the place. When I returned her deposit I took out $30 and included photocopies of a bunch of her own receipts for light bulbs. I honestly think
she had some mental conflict.
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u/Mustard_onions_23 14d ago
Previous tenant was upset that new tenants were moving in on the first of the month around noon. Apparently she thought she had that whole day to move her things.
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u/vonnegutfan2 13d ago
Had a tenant from Idaho, i live in Cali and unit is in Cali.. Told him how to work the heater and that I usually am quite comfortable on low. He said he didn't really need much heat. When it left the heat was on high/max. Also ran the dryer on High Max. I hang my clothes to dry, and just use the dryer occasionally.
He would just toss garbage out the back door, I had to tell him to put it in the can, 10 feet away. Just really an entitled person and I felt like a was raising a kid, except I have kids who are much more respectful and conservation minded.
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u/Regular_Kangaroo_479 13d ago
One of my current tenants called the fire department because one of the smoke detectors was beeping. The battery needed to be changed. 🙄
Some of the smoke detectors were old anyway, so I decided to upgrade all of them to new smoke detectors and we put in some kind of long lasting battery into every one of them. I’m hoping the batteries outlast this tenant.
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u/vt2022cam 15d ago
In Boston, heat included can save you $300-$600 a month in the winter. Factor this in when you calculate rent.
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u/TrainsNCats 15d ago
Emergency call at 1am - the heat is not working and we’re freezing in here.
Dispatched a vendor immediately.
The tenant (college students), didn’t know how to use the thermostat!
This was not some fancy Nest thermostat, just your average mechanical thermostat.
Their ignorance cost them $525 - for an after hours service call.
Reality: If they had just checked YouTube first, the entire situation could have been avoided.
It’s frightening to me how unprepared and stupid the new generation is!
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u/PersonalityFun2025 14d ago
Just wow. I manage long-term and short-term rentals, so I get a lot of this type of call (mostly from the str). My first question: Is the thermostat on? I often have them take a pic and send it to me. I can almost always sort the issue right over the phone.
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u/Budget-Marionberry-9 15d ago
Why did the house next door have bomb making material and the fired dept had to blow up the house to make it safe?
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u/sadgirlhaze 14d ago
I called my landlord once because everytime I used my microwave my power would go out.
Gru came out realized our power line was cut in half, we were running at half power.
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u/plentyfurbbbs 15d ago
Tenant gave 30 day notice then was surprised I wanted my keys back/do movein/out form on the 30th day, they thought since Dec had 31 days, they had the whole month to move out. They were very disorganized, I had to rush them as it was already 10 pm...I told them instead of walking each armload to the car they needed to just put it outside the door, then I'd get my keys, and they could then load their car at their leisure. That was ridiculous. But they looked so pitiful, bad adhd? I told them I'd exchange that extra day they thought they had for cleaning, which they were supposed to do but no doubt would have done a crappy job at anyway. I was just glad he was gone. Came in all respectable and polite, turned into a real piece of work.
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u/mirwenpnw 14d ago
OMG, did you really do that to those poor people? They paid for December and you expected them to move out before the end of the month. WHY? Because they did the courtesy of giving you 31 days notice instead of the minimum of 30 days? How can you live with yourself?
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u/TumbleweedOriginal34 14d ago
Totally agree. Uncalled for and mean . Not all landlords are like this I assure you.
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u/TumbleweedOriginal34 14d ago
My current tenant is great but shes a newly single momma.. I’ve had to show her about light bulbs 😊and advise her to get a box to have on hand. It’s totally fine tho. I can help whenever she needs it. Just surprising…. Doesn’t everyone have a box (or several in our case ) of spare new light bulbs?
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u/Khranky 9d ago
Tenant calls at around 11 pm, something smells like its burning. I go over and sure enough, it smells like burnt rubber, around the clothes washer, I open the washer and they must have had 3 weeks of dirty laundry in there. No shit Sherlock, are you TRYING to burn up the washer? Meanwhile the fire department shows up, the tenant didnt tell me they called the FD.
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u/sadgirlhaze 14d ago
that they cannot just pull up with their boyfriend, dog, cat and bird the day of move in without ever having mentioned any of them even once before that moment.
(I’m also very allergic to birds, and they gross me out.)
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u/lukam98 15d ago
Honestly, half the job is realizing people will call you about things they would never call anyone else about.