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Hello Pandas, Share Some Stories About Bad Landlords Or Slumlords (Closed)
We all desire our place of habitation to be as close to heaven as possible. Unfortunately, a few bad apples—like scummy landlords (aka scumlords)—can turn the experience into hell on earth for tenants.
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My first experience renting. Building was over 100 years old at the time (1990's) 8 units total. 4 on the top floor and the other 4 were two floors each cover the first and second floors. Almost immediately my roof began to leak. Landlord, Bill sent some guy up to patch the roof but the repair didn't last. The 1/2 the ceiling in my bathroom fell in. He had a guy slap up a piece of sheet rock. Leaks kept popping up he and there. The other tenants on the top floor had the same problem. Found out that not all of us were sending rent checks to the same company. There were four different companies all with a different po box. Strange. The building continued to deteriorate. Reached a point where Bill stopped doing repairs altogether. Then one day I got a registered letter from a bank saying they now owned the building. It had been foreclosed on. After having the place inspected the bank said we all had to move out because the place was in such disrepair it was likely going to be condemned. So I moved back with my parents for awhile. That should have been the end of the story but, wait, there's more. A few months later a multi-family a few streets over from my old building burned down. Same guy was the landlord. No one was hurt but the fire was deemed suspicious. A few weeks after that at another multi-family the boiler exploded killing two people. Same landlord. Huge investigation uncovered some disturbing facts. There were not just 4 companies involved but about a dozen. Bill ran a front for a group of local politicians and businessmen who owned about 40 different properties around the state. One was state representative, two were local mayors. There were also doctors, lawyers, insurance agents-guys you wouldn't think of as slum lords. People were pissed when the guy they voted for, or bought car insurance from, or took care of their medical needs was involved in something this shady. They all threw Bill under the bus and he got thrown in prison. I forgot how much time he got but he deserved every day of it. The bad press took it's toll on the others too. Some closed their businesses, the politicians were voted out of office (one didn't even bother to run for re-election). But there is a happy ending. They were able to save my old building. It was fixed up and looks fantastic.
My landlords were okay even in the worst apartment (Dallas, TX Lemon Oaklawn area). I have tons of laughable stories about tenants. I did find out that Chloraseptic will stun a roach long enough to flush it. I only lived in Texas for 4 years. Long enough to think nope not for me. I rented a wonderful house in Oregon.
Oh where do I begin...the one who kept going into everyone's apartments unannounced so that he could retrieve video footage of the gals (all ages) getting dressed/undressed or how about the one that was a paranoid delusional schizophrenic crackhead who would steal items from the tenants to pay for her habit or maybe the creepzoid owner of a rental house that had an outdoor hot tub and detached garage he allegedly was "using for storage" (he actually moved into the garage) while he was stealing electricity from his tenants and started a fire due to his electrical "rigging"...just to mention 3. There are so many more out there.
I had three landlords during uni. First was an old lady, really cool, no issues.
The second landlord said we couldn't have visitors and used to actually sneak around the building and look inside if he suspected anyone smuggled someone in to their rooms. When I left that apartment, they refused to give me my full deposit because "they need to find another tenant first", only ever got half of it. The third was by far the worst. Always trying to pry into the student's private lives. There was a flood on campus one time and I got mud on my jeans because I had to walk through the water to get home. She started shouting at me that I was dirty and would mess up the tiles in her year...so I took off my pants and shoes (she had guests at the time) and walked in to the building in my underwear...she was appalled to say the least lol. I didn't stay there very long.
When I was like 14 and living with my dad, we had a little condo that was part of a building that had 4 2-story sections, all closed off from one another. Because we took hot showers (Not together, of course!), the steam from the hot water would make the ceiling moldy due to the fan not working. We had this problem for two years, and each time the mold came back, we'd call the landlady to fix it. She claimed it was our fault that the fan didn't work, even when she KNEW it was broken before we even moved there. Instead of treating the mold, she just used white paint to cover it up.
TL;DR: Landlady painted over black mold and said it was our fault.
Told my landlord when I'd be moving out, and received a note *the day before* that I needed to get my things out or I wouldn't be getting my deposit out. AH couldn't even be bothered to knock and tell me; he just taped it to the door. I didn't find the note til late afternoon, and only when a friend stopping by to help pack mentioned it.
Needless to say I spent a frantic afternoon and evening getting my things moved. At this point I was more worried about the locks being changed than getting my deposit back; I had pretty much given that up as a loss.
I'd pretty much had it by then anyway; neighbors were excessively loud (I like Tool, but not at 2 am when I'm trying to sleep) and the folks in the houses either side of me (also renting from this dude) were nosy, obnoxious druggies (I suspect one of them tried to break in while I was moving things, but can't prove it.). Moved into a trailer owned by a coworker and lived there for more than 10 years--much better place.
Not the worst landlord I've had, but it still bothers me. My boyfriend and I rented an apartment, and the landlord gave us a box of old mugs, couple of dishes. They weren't new, or nice, but we thanked her and never really thought about it again. Anyway, we stayed there a year, when our lease was up and told her we'd be leaving. We told her a few months prior that we would be leaving. Well, lease is up, we're getting ready to move out, and then she flipped out. We 'didn't give her notice' and she 'has kids to care for' and her 'husband died', husband died 2 years prior. Very sad, but ultimately not our problem, and we gave notice. After the numerous visits for some bulls**t or another for 'inspections for next tenants', she was very aggressive and complained about everything. We were sure getting our deposit back was going to be an issue, and after how she was behaving, I would have been happy to cut our losses. We move out, and about a month later we get a letter saying not only were we not getting our deposit back, but WE OWED HER MONEY! Damages? Nope. $1500 to repaint the place, (if that's true she's getting ripped off), and she also charged us for the box of random dishes she gave us, or I guess borrowed 🤷, and my favorite, money back for her box fan. "Her" box fan was my box fan that I didn't steal from her. I remember this because I stole that fan from my mother after living there 2 months! She did not receive any reimbursement for her dishes or MY fan, ok my mom's but still!
