Many of us have realized how big of an impact our landlords can have on our emotional wellbeing. Not to mention our wallets! Someone who’s empathetic and responsible can make you feel like you’re always supported. On the flip side, some folks who rent out their property seem like they clawed their way through the Earth’s crust from the 4th Circle of Hell.
The members of the r/AskReddit community spilled the tea about their most awful landlord encounters. We’ve collected their most candid stories to share with you, Pandas. Read on to see just how bad things can get.
Bored Panda got in touch with the team running the well-known and ironically named r/LandlordLove subreddit for their thoughts about spotting a good and bad landlord. One of the moderators walked us through some of the main landlord red and green flags.
#1
While deployed, my wife remained at our home in Texas. The A/C broke in the middle of summer. They told her that the temperature wasn't hot enough to constitute a repair. When she showed them pictures of the thermostat reading over 100 degrees indoor they finally said that they would send a repairman but that I needed to be there because I was the primary name on the lease although she had power of attorney. I threatened to sue. A/C was eventually Jerry-rigged (the repair guy told her that he was paid to do the bare minimum fix) near the end of summer.
Fast forward. I'm home, it's getting hot again, and the A/C breaks again. Same story as before claiming it wasn't hot enough. This dragged on for awhile and I finally had orders to move to a new duty station. Gave them 30 days notice and moved out. They tried to tell me that I couldn't leave the home with a broken air conditioner and wouldn't honor my military orders, I had to pay to fix the A/C, and wouldn't get my deposit back. I once again threatened to sue and contacted the actual owner of the house. He was a cool dude living in New York and said he'd take care of it for me. He flew all the way to see me in Texas, fired the property managers, sued them himself, said I was actually the cleanest/most respectable tenet he's had and eventually paid me double my deposit for my troubles. Nice guy.
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151points
One major red flag is that the property looks poorly kept. Specifically, if it looks like things have not been maintained or if the landlord appears to have done most of the repairs themselves rather than hiring a professional contractor.
Some examples of this include painted-over electric sockets, trim, and light switches, as well as “jerry-rigged electrical or plumbing work.” According to the moderator, this is a very common problem.
On top of that, you should look out for any bad online reviews about the landlord or property management company.
#2
We got along great with the landlord and we left the place in excellent condition. We cleaned like crazy and cut the grass. But then he tried to screw us out of our deposit by saying we had poured acid down the bathroom drain as a malicious act.
We sued him and he never showed up for court. In my state you’re entitled to three times your deposit back. That’s what we got. He paid us every cent.
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92points
#3
I never actually met him, but we nearly ended up taking him to court. We complained about a ton of broken things that he would never fix. When they did get fixed, it was by the unqualified worker that he hired from the Home Depot parking lot (no offense to those guys, but they didn't fix our roof correctly). Being college kids, we go to the free legal council out university offered, hoping we had some options to get things fixed. The lawyer found out that the house we were renting had been foreclosed on 2 months prior and the bank owned it now. Extremely pissed off, we decided to stop paying rent to this guy while we got our things in order (we never did get our two months rent back from when he didn't own the house). About 6 weeks later, he comes by the house furious that we hadn't paid rent in over a month. My roommate simply said, "We aren't paying you anymore, get the f**k off this property." This pissed him off even more and he started threatening my roommate until my roommate said, "We know you don't own this place anymore and we are going to sue your a** for the money you stole from us." He shut up at this point and left, never to be heard from again. We didn't sue him because each of us were only out like $600 dollars (rent was stupid cheap for 4 college kids in a big city). We made a deal with the bank to pay them the same rent we had been paying in order to stay until graduation in May. We were also responsible for cleaning up the yard and they would get someone out there to fix a few big issues (roof and plumbing) since they were going to sell the house anyway. We held up our end and enjoyed our last few months of college without a s***ty landlord.
80points
The r/LandlordLove team member warned tenants to look out for “arbitrary rules and guidelines that restrict tenants’ freedom.” For example, it’s not a good sign if your landlord forbids you from having guests over past a certain time, displaying items in your windows, or cooking certain types of food that have a strong smell.
Moreover, bad landlords tend to have “little to no tolerance for late payments.” Of course, tenants ought to pay rent and utilities as stipulated in the contract.
However, there are times when you might run late due to circumstances outside your control. If you’re transparent about this but your landlord loses their temper, it’s not a good sign.
#4
When I was living with an ex up in Massachusetts my landlord was this 90 year old man named Fred, who didn't care much about tenant laws. MA is one of those states that has some pretty strong laws, like one where you have to give a certain amount of notice to the tenants before showing their apartment to potential buyers.
Fred didn't give a f**k, and would bring people over with no notice, and expect me to let them into my apartment when I was chilling on a saturday afternoon. Once he came by, opened the door to my apartment and brought some people by, while my gf and I were having sex in the living room.
Not cool Fred.
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74points
#5
80 year old Landlady;
*came into my locked apartment uninvited the day I moved in and screamed at me for being naked in my own bathroom
* regularly took my laundry off the clothesline and dumped it on the ground so that she could use the line instead. It happened so often that I bought a clothesdryer so I wouldn’t have to use the line.
* would come into the apartment when I wasn’t home and reorganise the furniture on multiple occasions
* called me “Putana” (Greek for whore) every day I lived there
*tried to kick my dying dog in the stitches in his face after he had an operation. Then tried to fight me. Then I called the police, and she called the female police officer a putana too.
* pelted garbage at my boyfriend when he came to help me move out, until the police were called again
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65points
#6
Terrible, falling down house. Mouse infestation. Landlord heard somewhere that cat litter keeps rodents away. I enter the laundry room one day to discover 2 inches of scented cat litter everywhere. She (perhaps fortuitously) didn't realize that it's used cat litter that keeps away mice, not clean scented stuff. It remained there for a year until we moved out.
Same landlord attempted to drive to Ikea. Closest one was in NJ, about an hour away. She lived upstairs and after a few days I realized I hadn't seen her in awhile. Turned out she got lost in NJ, couldn't find her way out after hours, and ended up just booking a hotel and staying for 2 days until someone came and got her.
She believed that the house was overrun by squirrels and would illegally enter our apartment to look for them. She also had all of the blooming trees (the only nice plants in the yard) cut down because of "squirrels". Still not sure what was going on there. Any time I did anything she didn't like, she'd accuse me of letting squirrels into the house.
Back in the laundry room, I overheard her teaching her son how to do laundry. She warned him to never ever mix bleach and ammonia because it makes a toxic gas. She then proved this by purposely mixing the two. They instantly started choking and gagging and abandoned the laundry room to run back upstairs.
There are many more stories. It was a good day when we moved out.
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56points
It’s not like there aren’t any decent landlords out there. There are plenty! But we most often tend to hear about the ones that cause problems.
According to one of the moderators from r/LandlordLove, trustworthy landlords confirm all agreements in writing, demand below-average rent, and have a low turnover rate for tenants.
Meanwhile, some other landlord green flags include a “proven track record with responding to maintenance requests,” as well as an easy method of submitting these.
#7
I subleased a room from my friend one summer while he did an internship.His three roommates also were out of town the entire summer but paid rent and their portion of utilities for the summer. At the end of my sublease, I cleaned the house, moved my stuff out, and turned in my key. Three months later, I get served with a lawsuit for over $5000, alleging excessive damages and cleaning fees. I sent them back a letter demanding an itemized list of all fees I was being sued for. When I get the itemized listing, it's absolutely bs. For example, they'd charge me a $500 "chandelier cleaning charge" to clean the dining room overhead light, then a $300 "chandelier maintenance fee," and then a $700 "chandelier replacement charge." $1500 to clean, maintain, and then throw away a chandelier? Nope. They also obviously fluffed their expenses, charging me $25 to replace a lightbulb in the basement and charging me $750 for 2 hours of "lawn maintenance," which was the responsibility of the landlord in the lease anyways! It turns out they also filed a separate lawsuit against each of us, so they were suing us all for $25,000 total for what couldn't have been more than $1000 in expenses (covered by our security deposit). Anyways, I work for the Housing Department of my city and sent them a response on my office letterhead saying that I refuse to pay for the damages and that they could come and get me if they wanted to try. I never got a response, but the suit was dropped and I promptly advised the city to deny them any future city contracts for what I alleged was extortion of a college student. F you Jeanne, you cheap twat.
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56points
#8
I had to move in a hurry so I took the first available flat I could find. Really regret it now.
Here's a brief list of all the s**t the landlord did in that time:
Here's a brief list of all the s**t the landlord did in that time:
* sent his brother to do the initial viewing and negotiating. When I accepted and started to move in, the landlord finally showed up and quoted a much higher price for the rent. I was screwed at this point so couldn't do anything about it.
* refused to produce a tenancy agreement until I withheld rent.
* said tenancy agreement clearly stated that payment included all bills. IE: landlord would collect rent and bill money together as one lump sum. This will be important later.
* would routinely enter my flat and rummage through my stuff. I later discovered that a silver pocket watch my mum bought for my 18th birthday was missing...
* entered the house every day and stole the mail before anyone could read it.
* when told that the house was totally infested with rats and cockroaches, said that "this is normal in India". This isn't India pal...
* turned up every other week to collect money for "additional bills". Would not specify what these bills were or provided a breakdown of what each tenant owed. When I refused, he changed the locks until I paid.
* and the crowning glory of this walking sack of s**t: didn't pay the council tax.
As I said, he collected money for all of the bills along with the rent but apparently failed to actually pay this money on to the council. We (the tenants) were taken to court, sued and lost in our absence. When we failed to pay the entire outstanding debt and court costs, bailiffs were sent to collect. This is the first time any of us knew that there was a problem.
I convinced the bailiffs what had happened by showing them my tenancy agreement (which no one else had) and got them to back off.
Tried calling the landlord and his mobiles were both deactivated. When I finally got through to a member of his family, they said that he had moved to India and was never coming back.
I convinced the bailiffs what had happened by showing them my tenancy agreement (which no one else had) and got them to back off.
Tried calling the landlord and his mobiles were both deactivated. When I finally got through to a member of his family, they said that he had moved to India and was never coming back.
F****r.
So, at this point, most of the tenants dissappear except for myself and a student, who was exempt from council tax. At this point, I approach the council to explain the position and am told in no uncertain terms that:
* I was the only person listed as living at the property.
* the other tenant's names I provided weren't even registered as being in the UK. Which makes them likely to be illegal immigrants.
* this happens so frequently that the council no longer accepts the tenants as innocent parties.
* the landlords in these cases vanish without a trace.
* as the only person connected to the address who was eligible to pay, the entire debt was dropped on my head.
It took three years to pay off. If I ever hear of this landlord resurfacing, I will find him. I will end him.
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54points
#9
Two friends and I were moving into a house together. Before we moved in, the landlord wanted to meet us to sign the paperwork, etc. One of my roommates is Black, and he showed up to the meeting about 10 minutes before I did. He introduced himself to the landlord and took a seat. The landlord immediately excused himself to go to the bathroom, then went and sat in his car until I showed up.
He was quite upset that we didn't all show up together and kept saying, 'Was I just supposed to sit there with a person like that until you arrived?' He then spent the rest of the meeting making thinly veiled racist comments toward my Black roommate. Things like, 'Are you moving from an apartment? I don't want you bringing roaches and gangs with you.' To cap it off, when we were leaving, he spent about five minutes telling the teenage hostess how beautiful she was, and that he got her schedule from the manager, so he will be sure to be there every day she is. Racist, sexist, hitting on a child.
He was quite upset that we didn't all show up together and kept saying, 'Was I just supposed to sit there with a person like that until you arrived?' He then spent the rest of the meeting making thinly veiled racist comments toward my Black roommate. Things like, 'Are you moving from an apartment? I don't want you bringing roaches and gangs with you.' To cap it off, when we were leaving, he spent about five minutes telling the teenage hostess how beautiful she was, and that he got her schedule from the manager, so he will be sure to be there every day she is. Racist, sexist, hitting on a child.
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54points
Before you sign your lease, make sure to read it in full. Take your time. Don’t rush. If your landlord pushes you to sign it ASAP, they might be hiding something and hoping you won’t notice it. If they’re resistant to making any common sense alterations to the contract, that’s also a red flag.
Meanwhile, under no circumstances should you sign anything without first visiting the property in person. Sure, the market might be extremely competitive where you are, and you want to put in an offer ASAP. But you deserve to live in a clean, tidy, quality place, not an overpriced, unmaintained hole.
#10
I woke up to her kid running around my room, and her husband rooting around downstairs. They gave no notice and didn't bother knocking.
We had a bug problem since day one and she decided to do a 'surprise' inspection to prove it was our fault.
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47points
#11
It was an apartment complex, but this one stands out still.
They didn't pay the power.
Not, "they forgot to pay the power." Not, "they were in financial trouble." They just wanted to see if they could call the power company's bluff.
The power company killed and locked half the breakers in every building.
I dunno if you've ever seen a riot take shape, but try cutting off the AC and refrigeration for a few dozen Alabamians in the middle of June in a heat wave.
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44points
#12
I had a landlord that was taking my rent money then NOT paying his mortgage. He did that so long our place was foreclosed on and suddenly for sale. I figured this out on day when somebody hammered a ‘For Sale: Foreclosed’ sign in my front yard.
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42points
You and your landlord ought to be on the same page when it comes to the maintenance of the property. Ask them upfront about what would happen if there are problems with leaks or if one of the appliances breaks. One of the best things that a landlord can do is react quickly when there are serious maintenance-related issues.
Good landlords care about their tenants’ quality of life, not just the property. It’s in their best interest to have reliable and trustworthy tenants who rent for long periods of time, instead of constantly looking for new people. Bad landlords, on the other hand, only care about making as much profit as they can, while minimizing the upkeep costs.
#13
My first apartment when I was 18 had a rat and roach problem. My landlord refused to fumigate or call an exterminator. Instead, he just showed up one day and started opening up the walls looking for the pests.
I remember sleeping at night and I could hear the rats in the walls. I'd wake up in the morning and there would be drywall in the kitchen because the rats chewed through and got into the pantry.
I refused to pay rent until he called an exterminator. After 6 weeks or so he told me to move out and just up and changed the locks, holding all my possessions hostage.
Fortunately I took him to small claims court and won.
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40points
#14
Came in two weeks before my lease ended (I was in the process of moving out) stole all of my cleaning supplies, couch, and half of my w**d.
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39points
#15
Land lord found out I was a renovation specialist. With a long background in historic renovation and water/fire/storm damage. Asked if I would do little odds and ends around the place to fix it up. Took it off the rent or paid for materials to do the work. I did a lot for her. Refinished the concrete floor in the laundry room, replace ALL door knobs with new style knobs. (They were the old slide in glass knobs, so each door took about 6 hours to complete. Because of wood filling, sanding, and painting then resetting the new knobs.) Replaced the front door. Repaired walls all over and repainted the whole place. Hung new cabinets and installed a new dish washer after somewhat redesigning the kitchen to accommodate the dishwasher. Refinished the ancient front entry door. Rewired a few problem outlets/lights and switches. When I moved in the place sat for a year empty. It was in rough shape. When I moved out the place was awesome. So nice on fact it rented out for 300$ more a month then I had rented it for. It also rented out 4 days after I moved out. She did not have to do anything to move a new family in. So few weeks go by and I'm starting to wonder where my deposit is. Clearly I should be getting that back. Nope. Got a letter in the mail say she was keeping it because of a bull s**t list of stuff. So I took her to court and won. Her argument was basically that this is how she makes money. It's her only income. Judge looked like her was holding back laughter before he ruled in my favor
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38points
Which of these stories caught your attention the most, dear Pandas? What's the worst landlord you've ever had to deal with? How did you manage any disagreements with them? What, for you personally, are the signs of an awesome landlord? If you have a moment, tell us all about it in the comment section!
#16
Seemed like the nicest couple in the world when we first rented the place, they even invited us to dinner and we had a great time. 3 months in we found out that they argue quite loudly and curse like truckers, not that big of a deal. Then my wife stepped on a piece of blue glass that was on our kitchen floor (we didn't own any blue glasses). Sure as s*t I remembered that dinner, they had blue glasses on the table. I setup a camera in the living room and over the next week caught this guy in our apartment when we weren't home. Son of a b**ch was going through our dressers and playing with my wife's underwear, caught him red handed and gave him a nice beating and called the cops. He tried playing it off like he smelt smoke and wanted to investigate, then I played back the previous weeks video's of him visiting on 3 separate occasions. They locked him up, we found a new place really fast and never looked back.
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38points
#17
When I was a kid, our slumlord refused to fix anything that broke in our house or do any preventative maintenance. The house had already had an electrical fire from a leaky upstairs bathroom, but he refused to fix any further leaks.
When I was about 13, a family of squirrels moved in to the space between the ceiling & roof in my room. I could hear them scratching and running all the time. They eventually scratched through the ceiling and left a few areas with small holes. I was always afraid they would drop into my room and attack.
Then, my ceiling started leaking when it rained, first in just one area and then gradually across the entire beam that ran across the ceiling. We set up buckets and I would fall asleep to the music of raindrops hitting different containers. The sound of water hitting carpet would wake me up in a panic and I'd have to find another bucket to catch the new drips.
One night while I was staying with a friend, the entire ceiling collapsed directly over my bed. All of the soaking wet sheetrock (?drywall?) Landed on my bed, desk, etc. And the entire family of squirrels was released into my room. They hid in my closet, under the bed, everywhere, and it took three days to get them all out.
That bastard landlord took another week before sending someone in to "fix" it, and even then, it was only his son, who had zero experience/skill fixing anything.
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38points
#18
When I was 20 and living in my first apartment in Philadelphia, my 80+ year-old landlord was walking up the stairs behind me, and cupped my a*s with his claw-like hand. I took his hand off my a*s and said "Don't do that." He didn't even flinch. F U Mr. Hymowitz, you dirty bastard.
37points
#19
We spent some time in South America, and our landlord there decided he'd been charging us too little rent, so he attempted to up it. We kicked up a bit of a fuss so he backed down, only to try again under the guise of having someone in every week 'to clean cobwebs off the outside of the windows'. He wanted an extra $150 a month for this - the same amount he was trying to increase the rent in the first place by. The windows didn't have cobwebs on them.
In that house, we used to get stray dogs coming by to say hello. We are dog lovers and used to feed them if they looked skinny, give them belly rubs and so on. Landlord didn't like this, but as there were holes in the fence we couldn't stop them coming in the garden. One dog started coming every day, and then one day stopped leaving. She stayed outside our front door all the time, waiting for food or to be stroked. She was such a sweet little thing. Landlord noticed her and started complaining. We told him she never came inside, and wasn't doing any harm. We also mentioned the holes in the fence. One night when my husband was out at his regular gym class, I heard the landlord's car pulling up. I was already in bed so I assumed he'd knock on the door and realise I wasn't going to answer... but he didn't. I heard him open the gate, mooch around a bit, and then he started his car up again and left. In the morning the dog was gone. We never saw her again.
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31points
#20
Ooooookay. I have one.
I rented a 500acre ranch with an old ranch house from a 95 yr old man. He lived in town (small hill country town in Texas) where his live-in nurses cared for him, and the ranch was 5 min outside of town.
I was very thankful because the ranch was really pretty and peaceful and rent was only $400 month. The house had 4 large porches and the rooms were huge; lucking into that place is still a highlight of my life.
....I was in my 30's and I visited the owner in town to show him pictures of what I was doing to the house. I was allowed to do anything as long as it was an improvement. I planted a garden, some trees, laid slate tile (blue and cream 18" tiles, checkerboard pattern), etc
I seriously thought we had become friends, like grandpa-style, because he acted so dang happy to see me. My boyfriend and I would take him meals from Whataburger, we took him to eat in town, our families sang xmas carols to him, etc. This man was old but he had full use of his facilities.
So when I moved out and went to tell him goodbye.....it was sad for me. I was almost crying.
That man looked me straight in the eye and seriously said "I gotta have ya. At least once. I want to make love to you."
You can not believe how shocked I was. The man was 98 by then. "Mr.Oldie!! I have a boyfriend!!"
I walked straight out the front door. His nurse was sitting there outside having a ciggie.
"I......I........I.........can't believe what just happened.....I can't even say it.......I'm not positive it could be true...."
She said "Oh s**t, did he try to have sex with you, Texastexastexas??!!"
Of course I said "Yes?!....."
Then she told me that every time people came to visit she had to wrestle with him to put his pants on. And that part of her duties were to return the various vibrators and butt plugs he ordered.
And that was the last time I ever saw old Mr.Miller.
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30points