68 Horrible Landlords Who’ve Made Their Tenant’s Life Miserable

My landlord was caught creeping without my consent or knowledge, and when I confronted her about it, she gave me a 30-day notice to move out. How can I legally be the most ANNOYING tenant ever in the next 28 days?

My landlord posted this in the hallway that connects all of our units. Can’t he deny us A/C? And our lease said nothing about that. Where can I report him? He’s usually never here, and we have long-time tenants. But he’s being very unreasonable.

Does anyone actually unplug their TOASTER between uses?

We pay the utilities separately from our rent! Our landlord doesn't handle the electric bill in any way, shape, or form.

They gave us 24 hours' notice before the inspection, which is standard in the US. From my understanding of the lease, I don't think we are allowed to decline inspections.

Our lease does not state anything about unplugging appliances when they are not in use.

Our landlord uses a company to manage everything. So we get hit with a double whammy of our landlord's feelings and the company's rules.

Thank you all for your input and recommendations! I have learned SO much. After hearing all of the horror stories/general fear about house fires being caused by rogue toasters, I will unplug it between uses (BUT only because I feel like it and not because my landlord told me to).

I wanted to check if this was allowed and what recourse I have. I’m on fairly good terms with my landlord, but I know she is extremely paranoid and harasses other renters in our building. Recently, she installed new cameras throughout the complex, one of which faces directly into my living room. I often keep my windows open to get fresh air, and if my bedroom door is open, you could even see into my bedroom slightly. I live within the city of Los Angeles and haven’t done a ton of digging yet, but this feels like it has to be illegal, right?

I'm aware of the concept of blinds, and will be putting them up. I am a little upset that my nighttime access to cold, fresh air is being obstructed, but I’ll be looking for a new apartment. It seems like folks are saying that if I can be seen by other tenants in the building in my living room, then I can be recorded by the landlord. Something about that feels very weird, but I guess I get the logic.

What I’ve learned the most from this post is that my wife and I are weird for not minding other tenants and the landlord being able to see our living room when they walk by.

Not seen in this picture is another newly installed camera that is pointed directly at our door by the exit sign. This camera also captures stairs leading up to our unit, so I’m not claiming the intent was only to watch us, but it does have that effect. I’m less concerned about that camera than I am the one pointed at my window.

So my building is painting the doors today and tomorrow, and said they’d prop the doors to let them dry. I asked for mine to be done all in one day, so my cats don’t have to spend two days in the bathroom. I came back early, and it was propped open like this, with one around. When I saw someone, I asked what was up, and he said he wouldn’t let people in, and I didn’t have to worry. I asked him how he’d know who lives where, and he didn’t have an answer. This is absurd, right? Anyone could have walked in and out and just lied about living here!

This isn’t the first time he’s done this. When I was in a deep sleep, I didn’t think much of it, rolled over, and went back to sleep. Five minutes later, I was awakened by my landlord inside MY apartment hallway yelling, “Hello? Hello?” I opened my bedroom door and immediately asked what was going on. His reply was, “Just wanted to let you know we are here,” and he immediately walked out of my apartment with no time for me to ask why he couldn’t have just sent a text.

About a month ago, the outlet in my bathroom stopped working. I asked him on a Friday if he could come by to take a look at it. As I’m in the shower, I hear him in my hallway AGAIN, yelling, “Hello?” There is absolutely no way he didn’t hear the shower going from where the hallway is, but still decided to stand not even 3 feet away from where I was revealing. I yelled at him to get out and that I was showering. He said he would wait outside my front door. After I got dressed, I let him in and asked him why he let himself in while I was showering. He said he didn’t know I was in the shower, but that didn’t answer my question!

Today I came home from work around 8:30 PM and noticed that my trash can, which I keep propped up against the back door, was moved out of place, as if someone had let themselves in through my back door. My heart immediately sank. I thought someone had broken in. I sent the text attached, where he admits he was in my apartment while I wasn’t home. He sent no text message stating he would be here. No form of communication that he was coming by. Nothing.

I’m a single female living alone. I feel uncomfortable, unsafe, and extremely creeped out that she has invited himself into my apartment without any sort of permission or notice multiple times now. At this point, I’m wondering how many other times he’s done this.

To nobody's surprise, my landlord sucks. Just got this text today from an automated number and had to verify it was real (It is!). Talked to a few neighbors, and apparently, this is pretty typical for them to do around the end of the year. No other correspondence, just a text, and then if you don't pay by the new date, which is two weeks before the original due date, you get sued.

This thing has the key inside for showings, but my lease isn’t even up until May… It’s just really annoying because it’s hard to turn the handle with that thing on, especially since the handle is partially broken and they won’t fix it, so it jams… And now they’re saying a reasonable notice for someone to walk through my place WITHOUT the landlord showing the place is a 2-hour notice… Ready to buy a home soon.

Moving out of my apartment in 3 months, and my landlord immediately started showing my apartment after getting notice of vacating, occasionally with less than 24 hours' notice. The realtor couldn't answer all the questions, so they deferred to me for some questions. Everything I said is factual. Got asked about bugs, being a basement apartment, I showed the spray I had to use, and said the landlord only offers pest control once per lease; otherwise, they state it is the tenant's expense. Sometimes I make note of things unprompted like, "I have a recycling can, but the landlord does not have recycling pickup," when asked about the garbage fee, or "just be aware, this apartment is right next to the machine room for the elevator. It's not constant noise, but if you are sitting in the living room, you'll know when someone uses the elevator," or "there's a light above the side entrance door that needs to be kept on at night for safety reasons, and that light comes straight through the door window and into the apartment. If you have a guest sleepover, you might want to look into a curtain."

The landlord was unable to lease the apartment on the first day of showings and hit me with a "Please keep commentary to yourself if possible. The longer we are not able to lease the apartment, the longer we have to keep showing your apartment to your inconvenience."

I've lived in 10 different apartment complexes in my life, and I've never seen anything like this before.

I’m looking to transfer to a different unit (due to noisy neighbors), and my property manager did a walk-through and claim because of these scratches and the flooring being discontinued, they have to replace the whole floor. They decided that the estimate is going to be around $8,000. My apartment is 885 sq ft. I've been here for a little over two years. I think this floor is laminate, but I’m not sure. It has a glossy look. The scratches came about when I first moved in and moved my couch. The point is, I want to know if my property manager is trying to scam me, or if the pricing sounds accurate.

Here’s what happened: Workers came in without any updated notice. Walls were dismantled in the kitchen, removing the sink and oven. All my appliances, utensils, cups, and food were not covered with protective measures, hence all were covered in dust from the work. My apartment is now completely uninhabitable. They removed the only toilet, leaving an exposed sewer drain in the bathroom. The kitchen wall is also torn down, pipes are exposed, and there’s debris and dust everywhere. Workers wear masks, which makes me concerned about air quality.

No one offered me temporary accommodations, access to another bathroom, or even explained how long this would last. I spoke with the local health department today, and they confirmed this is a serious issue. Called the DOB, the apartment did not get a permit for this. This whole thing is not just involving my apartment; it's the whole line of apartments from the basement to the top floor. I can literally see the downstairs neighbor's bathroom (also without a toilet) through the hole where the toilet was removed.

There is a lot more stuff next to the house out of frame; it wasn’t safe to get a better picture yesterday.

There is a lot more info in the post I will link in the comments. I figured I‘d ask here since you guys are the specialists. Who owns the tree and the branches that fall off it? Is it us or the landlord? According to him, it’s his tree but our „garbage“.

She promised me she would NEVER sell it, and if she did, it would be to me, and I believed her, putting my maximum into the land. It was going to unalive me seeing something to the effect of “Rare fruit paradise! One-of-a-kind garden! In the real estate listing, I removed the in-ground trees and transplanted them to my new place.

This all began during the first two months of my tenancy when she called me and knocked on my door millions of times because "the windows must be closed when the AC is on and they must be open when the AC is off." She would monitor the windows and expected me to as well... Then one time she came into my apartment for an "inspection" and screamed at me because the bed wasn't made and there was dust under the bed.

She does a monthly inspection with her grandkids, and I record everything... She harasses me, calls me mentally ill, saying "what is wrong with your brain?" and "you are 30, you shouldn't be living in a basement, I know guys your age with 3 kids" or my personal favourite "cleanliness is next to godliness...

And she keeps claiming I'm suffocating her with all the smoking I do in the house? I have never smoked in the house... I smoked one time outside, and she looked it. She came to my apartment at 6 pm, right after I made dinner with her grandson for a "monthly inspection," and berated me about oil on the stove and dishes in the sink... like, yeah... I JUST made dinner. She's constantly telling me I'm the worst tenant she's ever had, calls me "disgusting" and "nasty".

Then she actually CALLED MY WORK and harassed my boss. He said she asked him "a million questions" about me. He didn't care, and I tried to explain to him that my landlord is nuts, and he just shrugged it off, saying "she's just old school," but no, like she's actually crazy. She comes to my apartment and thinks the walls are yellow because of all my smoking... They are completely white...

Imagine my surprise to encounter this at 5:30 AM while attempting to enjoy my morning coffee. I thought I'd somehow wandered into the wrong backyard.

Ever since I’ve rented here, I’ve noticed my landlord cuts corners every chance she can. When she decides to take something up for herself to do, she always does it most weirdly, using the wrong materials, etc. Now I have to wait till it dries up so I can dig all of these large rocks out, so I don’t get my tires popped.

This is not gravel, and I’d rather it had been left full of mud dirt. I have a four-wheel-drive, so it’s not really a problem. I don’t know why she did this.

I've received a lot of comments on “why don’t you stop pulling through the yard...”, etc. For some context: I used to stack the cars in because our driveway is slightly not wide enough for two cars, but it became such a hassle when one person needed to leave, they had to move another car just to get out, so we began to double them up. This was mentioned to my landlord, and she didn't mind at all. Been doing this for 3 years, and I didn’t request her to fix it in the first place.

I live in a tropical region, meaning freezing temperatures are an extraordinarily rare occurrence. It may seem stupid to people in colder climates, but here it's a special event people get excited about. Leaving water outside to see if it freezes is a very common thing people do. I know many people who are doing the same thing, and my landlord most definitely knew what it was for.

That looks like scraping and painting materials. He disappeared for like an hour, so we haven’t been able to ask him what is going on.

The maintenance man came back. Says the mixture is something to get rid of the mold. He said if it were his house, he would be taking it all down. Basically, it’s the landlord's fault, and he’s just doing his job. The neighbor came out and said if it were his garage, he’d go to the board of health about this, and the maintenance man agreed. For the time being, the maintenance guy put fans out and said to keep the garage open, and he’s going to treat the mold for now.

Yes, the landlord lady is up in arms that we are using the fridge. We are humans. We need food.

And yes, she blew up and demanded that we move out because we aren’t accommodating her ever-changing attempt to access the apartment at any point in the weekend day (esp in the evening) that she wants.

I’ve been renting a basement apartment in Dorchester, Boston, since June 2025 for $1,500/month (month-to-month, no lease). The unit had its own entrance, kitchen, bathroom, and bedrooms, and I’ve been living there normally. Recently, my landlord told me that neighbors complained about someone living in the basement and that it might not be a legal unit, so he got worried about an inspection.

After that, things escalated really fast. While I was out, he went into my unit and started packing my belongings without telling me. He removed the thermostat (so now there’s no heat, and it’s been around 32°F), took out my stove, dismantled my bed, and moved my mattress. The basement basically became unlivable, so I was forced to stay in an empty room upstairs in his unit.

Then, while I was out of town again, he went back in and packed the rest of my stuff, including taking all the food out of my fridge and freezer and boxing it up. He also refunded my rent for this month and told me I should start looking for another place. He never gave me any formal notice or went through court.

I still have my keys and never agreed to move out — I just couldn’t stay there because he made it unlivable. I have texts, photos, and videos documenting everything.

Not sure what my rights are here or what I should do next, but this whole situation feels really wrong.

She gave her forwarding address on time and left the place spotless. He claims the 100+ day delay was from his "bank account getting hacked" and hands her this with a check from the same bank listed on the lease.

My landlord sent this last night at 8 PM. Is this even allowed? I am getting back into town on Thursday after being gone for months, and I am essentially moving back in with what I have. Not to mention there’s no time specified, and I have a virtual interview that day. I am fuming, especially since they didn’t even clean it well before we moved in & now expect us to clean for them?

Hi, I’m a college student, and I accidentally spilled some water and left it overnight, resulting in this. My landlord says I need to pay for an entire floor renewal because of this damage. I find that hard to believe.

Yup, you heard that right, that was the opener of this June. And while we went out to get some errands done and had a cute pride flag posted on the lawn, it was miraculously unposted and thrown into our dumpster upon our return.

Not only is the caulk all over the place, but the tiles are the wrong size and somehow THE WRONG COLOUR, all of which would be fine if they just did the whole floor.

Had to stand outside at 11 PM downloading an app to get into my own place. It needed an account, email verification, a 6-digit pin, location services on, and 47 pages of terms and conditions. My phone was at 12%. I was holding a rotisserie chicken.

Called him this morning and asked what happens when my phone dies. He said, “The app rarely goes down.” That’s not an answer, Kevin. My keys never crashed.

My response: “Oh ok, yes, I'd prefer if we stick to the agreement in the lease and I get the remaining $45 owed. Thanks for explaining!” Also, the only carpeted part of the unit was the living room, and it was so threadbare that it should have been replaced entirely. I know for a fact it wasn’t even cleaned, because I left for the last time at about 8 PM on my move-out day, and went back to the building the next morning because I had lost an earring during the move and thought maybe it had come off in the driveway when we were loading the truck. The new tenants had already started moving in. I don’t know if anyone even looked inside the unit at all before they gave the new tenants the keys.

Moved in about a month ago, and yesterday he threatened to evict us over a few pieces of dog poop in the backyard. I cleaned it up, and his crew came in today to dispose of any junk the landlord has let build up outside (old toilets, boxes full of trash, etc.). I taped a sign to my grill saying not to throw it out. I come outside to grill some drumsticks, and she’s gone (along with all my utensils). I’ll never get to say goodbye, and it makes no sense. Rest in peace.

I leave you with some great memories I have with my grill.

Wanted to add that he dumped all the ashes out in the yard, but still threw away all my utensils.

Hi! Our landlord just emailed saying we cannot have things by the outside door of the unit because we do not have permission to put things in the common area of the building.

We have a human and rat skeleton by the door, and people even leave clothes on the human one from time to time. We change up the outfit if it’s Valentine's Day or if there is a Celtics game or something. Someone even left a smaller one at one point. It is fun!

Other people in the building have shoe racks and coat racks by their doors (for the past 2 years that we’ve been there). The guy who takes care of the building stuff, like handling the trash and calling maintenance for the elevator and stuff, lives a level higher than us. We see each other frequently, and he never said this was not allowed.

Long story short, but an ambulance had to be called to my apartment when I was not present. A friend was there, and the cops took my keys from him as they did not want anyone to enter until the medical examiner was done. Spoke to the police and they said. I would have to retrieve my keys from this person, who is saying they don’t have my keys. My landlord is refusing to give me keys: I'm offering to pay for them, what do I do? This is insane.

I came home from work today to find a note from my landlord, "ABSOLUTELY NO CAMERAS ON THE PREMISES!" (no spell check, I guess). A security camera I had set up in my bedroom was missing as well. Do I call the police to report the missing camera? I can't prove it was him, but it seems highly likely.

Today, I found my security camera in the mailbox, destroyed. Along with a cassette tape (couldn’t care less what’s on it).

On Sunday, I got a notification that my security cameras picked up motion in the bedroom. When I checked the footage, I watched someone step out of the closet and smash a camera with what looked like a hammer. I immediately sent the video to the police and filed a supplemental report. Blink Camera Footage

On Monday, my coworker drove me over to the house to help grab the last of my things. While clearing out the closet, we noticed part of the carpet wasn’t fully tacked down. We pulled it back and found a small trap door underneath. It was too dark to see how far down it went, so we decided to leave it be and tell the police when we left.

On one of our trips out to the truck, the landlord’s son approached us. He told us his father had passed away. It caught us completely off guard. We offered our condolences, he thanked us, and walked back down the street to his house. It was brief and calm, which honestly surprised me.

When we went back inside to grab my bed, we saw a brown paper bag sitting on the closet shelf (definitely had not been there earlier). Inside was what looked like a severed foot. I called 911 immediately and waited outside until officers arrived. They took the report and secured the place. I’ve since spoken with a lawyer, and I’m continuing to cooperate with the investigation.

We live in a top-floor apartment, and have evidence and belief that our neighbor is going up to the building's attic to spy on us.

We got the police involved. Some officers believe in signs that we are being watched. We put a camera in the attic. We can't keep it up there all the time because it's not tall enough.

The other day, I was in the shower, and my sister came in and told me to get dressed because there was a camera flash. We see an unknown device on our camera going into the floor in that location, with a chunk of the floor carved out. We called the police again.

The landlord joined them. He is known to the law and calls tenants crazy. He is now evicting us in 2 weeks because of our "disturbance." Is this legal? And what can we do? He cannot explain what the device is and is unwilling to look (North TX).

I didn't mention how long this problem's been going on, but it started when this visiting neighbor moved in 9 months ago.

I’m a wildland firefighter, and I’m staying at a place that charges 900 a month (the average around here is 600). Last year it was 700, and he increased it by 200 when I got there this fire season. I paid him the first month's rent and told him I found a new place for 500 a month and I am leaving. He exploded at me and said well how am I supposed to rent out that room now, I said I’m not sure. He is l asking me now for another 900 dollars for not just the first, which I paid, but last month's rent too. I’m not sure what to do. The other firefighters said that because he doesn’t have a contract with me means he’s doing this under the table and basically is using me to pay his property tax between the other guy and me. The other guy who’s rooming with me is also leaving because of the price. Should I pay him? I haven’t even stayed the full month. I took all my stuff out in case because he was full face red when I talked about leaving.

I didn't know what flair to use; I just came home after the landlord sent the new building handyman to fix the grout in my bathroom wall. I have a couple of years in the field, and when I saw this after work, I was told it was the fault of the new handyman, who had no supervision in my apartment.

Less than 10 minutes later, I got a "please disregard" email, but it still kicked me.

I want to assure everyone that the landlord confirmed it's an automatically generated email created from the app we use for everything, and to please disregard it. I am uncertain how many people got this email, but I've been having issues with rent payments (meaning I pay on time, but they don't see it for some stupid reason, and I have to go back and forth with screenshots; it's been a massive headache), so this email made me roll my eyes and laugh, not panic over the supposed threat.

Also, I'm not American, so US law doesn't apply to me.

I never promised them anything. All I did was apply and ask about lease flexibility. Did I do something wrong, or are they out of line?