Makes me wonder why I’ve had so many landlords who treat me like crap, when I am at worst leaps and bounds beyond some of these folks.
It makes life hard for us tenants that are decent. I’ve frequently had landlords that just assume the worst, and assume that everything said is a lie to conceal what must certainly be a child-slave-smuggling pitbull-deathmatch meth-lab operation.
My favorite was when I was blamed for the sunlight-faded portions of the curtains. I was told that I should have regularly deployed, undeployed, and rotated them so that they wouldn’t fade :rolleyes:
I swear I had these tenants. They kept the basement door locked, let the dogs down there in the morning and let them up at night. Never went down there. After they moved, we got a contract on the house, and the home inspector went into the basement :eek: . We had to get special suits to clean up down there.
I have stories you would not believe. People who clog pipes and insist it’s the pipes fault, people who say their heat is not working when the apartment is 75 degrees, tenants who after their electricity is turned off run extension cords from the common lighting to their apartment, etc. etc. One tenant who was evicted for non-payment and called the police when the sheriff was at her door.
Tenants can and do ruin places and make your life a hell.
“Tenant” is one of those words that is almost impossible to type correctly. After 20 years, I still have to really think about it.
Thanks for the compliments.
Well, the fact that you didn’t notice that English is not my mother’s tongue sounds like a compliment to me. The other choice would be to think that you are being petty, but I am sure you are not.
We had one lady who called to complain about her drains being clogged. When they were rodded, the techs invariably found panty liners, condoms, kid’s toys, tons of grease, and socks. She even called the health department one time about her kitchen sink drain being clogged. When the tech dumped out a bucket full of half-solidifed grease mixed with coffee grounds and egg shells (there was no garbage disposal), he dismissed the complaint.
My last tenants were college students who I inherited from the previous owner of the house. Only one of them was on the lease, and it’s really only big enough for one. They wanted to get out of their lease early, and I wanted them out because they never paid their rent on time, so I told them to clean up the place so I could show it, as a favor to them. When I went in with a prospective tenant (announced visit, of course), there were piles of trash outside and inside, pornography open and all over the house, etc. It was vile. Not to mention the wrecked car leaking oil on my driveway…
I did find someone to move in and kept their deposit. They said they’d put their trash out before they left, but actually, they stowed it in the garage in an unused can in the corner. When I opened it, it was covered in maggots, some of which got on my hands. :eek:
I hope my current tenant lives here until one of us goes to the Great Rental Unit in the Sky. He’s great.
I’m a renter, and I agree! This thread shows why I’d not be a landlord. You just don’t know what kind of tenants you’re going to get. And as a renter, alas, the cheaper the apartment, the more you have to fear from your fellow tenants.
In defense of landlords/building managers, I rent a very nice flat in a nice apartment complex, and I really like the management. But I pay for it.
I think the idea of a national landlord/renter database is great. I assume it would work rather like credit bureaus. But how to fund it?
I’m currently looking for an apartment. I’ve rented for years, and this is the first time I’m finally able to rent a place without a partner or roomate. I HATE bad tenants, because they make my life more difficult. I wish there was a common respect clause built into rental agreements.
I work as an insurance broker, and it is very difficult (read = expensive) for LL to get tenant vandalism coverage. I’ve often thought that it would be a good idea if the third party liability in a tenant’s own personal insurance was required to respond, and we could require all tenants to carry insurance. Failure to secure insurance could be based on prior liability vandalism claims, and insurance companies could monitor these records instead of landlords. In this case, there could be a sub-standard renter market, just like there is for a sub standard home owner.
Just because you don’t own the property doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have pride in it.
In one of the best cases we ever had, the tenants left owing five months rent and they trashed the place, including coating the interior of a large walk-in closet with grease–walls, floor and ceiling. Then they demanded their security back, took us to court, and tried to get a sheriff’s sale of the house!
We also have had two tenants who tried to claim they were the OWNERS of the property.
We had one of those. They decided to counter-sue for damages because the home was “unlivvable” - due to their trash and crap they left all over the place. They had no idea what was actually required to file a countersuit, and just did it because they thought they could get away with it. They were demolished in court - the didn’t bring ANY evidence!
How about the tenants who caught the house on fire and didn’t bother telling us? The only reason we found out is because they’re receiving housing assistance, and the payments have been halted because the house is unlivable.
Because they don’t call 'em tenants in the DR? They’re inquilinos, IIRC.
Another good one …
One of our contractors (Bob) visited a property yesterday to finish up some drywall work. He knocked and knocked, hollering “maintenance” all the while, but didn’t get an answer. So he walked in … and found a naked man on a couch getting a blow job not 10 feet from the front door. (There were two cats sitting on the couch as well, completely non-plussed by the activities.) Bob was a bit surprised, but the man just gave him a lazy wave and said, “Hey man, it’s cool.”
Bob also noticed two pit bull-type dogs in the house, neither of which was housebroken. The drywall he was working on was along the staircase, and he had to push turds aside to have a flat standing surface. Bob also noticed 3 or 4 mattresses in one of the upstairs bedrooms (the lease is for 2 adults only).
Bob was there for two hours, and said that nine people knocked on the door during that time, looking for the tenants. No one is that popular. They don’t have gas service turned on in their unit, which is a requirement in the least. And, according to Bob, it appears as though they have a little girl living with them.
The last time they came in to pay their rent, they complained about “suspicious activities” across the street. :dubious: Now we wonder if that’s because it’s their competition. 
Even though their rent is paid in full, we’re evicting them as quickly as we can.
We learned something with our last tenant. Live in the same town as your rental property.
We lived in Florida, and were renting our house out up in South Carolina. We had a property manager screen the tenants and collect the rent for us.
Last year we got our property tax notice that our house had appreciated in value considerably, so we decided to sell. We notified the tenant that we were giving her 30 days notice to move, if she was fine with that, and we would not consider it a breaking of the lease.
She was fine with that, she moved out, and we drove up there to do what we thought were minor repairs and sprucing up.
Our realtor warned us about the bug problem, but it was horrendous. Bugs bugs bugs everywhere. We set off six bug bombs on two separate occassions and still had to have the exterminator come in three times to spray.
We found out from the neighbors this woman owned neither a lawn mower nor a vacuum cleaner. The screen door was torn off. The gate to the fence was tossed in the back yard. One of the back windows was broken. The dryer vent hole in the laundry room was ripped apart. Did I mention the bugs?
The property manager knew nothing of the damage. Needless to say, we took plenty of pictures and the tenant did not see one dime of her deposit.
Now, I drive by monthly to pick up the rent check. This saves the tenant a stamp, and gives me the opportunity to survey the property for any damage.
There are good tenants (like me); quiet, pays rent on time, doesn’t destroy any property. Then there are bad ones, like the bitch across the hall from me. She has loud parties with her stupid-ass drunken friends several nights a week. They’ll clomp up and down the stairs laughing at 600 decibels at 2am. One night they came to my door repeatedly ringing the bell after midnight. Thinking one of them had died of alcohol poisoning, I answered the door, but they just asked me in slurred tones if I had a corkscrew they could borrow. I told them to fuck off and let me sleep. “Uhhh, rude!” One of them blurted thickly as I slammed the door.
Dumb bitches.