The Rental Nightmare Files: 41 Landlord Stories From Tenants

"There is no such thing as a 'good landlord.' The system of landlording is inherently unjust. Much like leftists will argue all cops are b*stards due to the system, we argue that all landlords are b*stards," one of the r/LandlordLove mods told Bored Panda how the community sees landlording as a whole.

"That being said, we understand there are Landlords out there that treat their tenants better than most, and there are Landlords who are exceptionally corrupt and greedy. The best way to get info on a potential landlord is going to be asking other current tenants. They will be able to provide insight when it comes to upkeep, responsiveness, etc."

According to the subreddit representative, having an active moderator team means that taking care of the community isn't as time-intensive as it otherwise would be.

Part of a moderator's duties includes "checking the queue for reported content (user-reported or flagged by automod) once or twice a day. This responsibility is shared amongst the mods."

The subreddit occasionally has actual landlords posting things. However, they're immediately banned because of community rule number 4 which prohibits landlords and "bootlickers" who defend them from sharing anything.

"r/LandlordLove is a tenant space in which Landlords and bootlickers are not welcome. Landlords hold significant wealth and power in our society—they don't need you defending them. Furthermore, this sub supports housing-for-all initiatives and subscribes to the socialist ideal that housing is a human right," the mod told us.

"We created this rule so that our sub would be a safe place for tenants. Landlords have many spaces on Reddit and other sites to share their opinions. They are not entitled to this space we've created. For the sake of transparency, we will often leave the comment up and make sure it has a proper response from a mod or user."

The mod shared what steps tenants might take if they find out that their landlord plans to raise their rent an unfair amount. "The first step would be getting familiar with local tenant protections/laws. These vary considerably from state to state, even more so, country to country. We would then suggest the tenant get to know their neighbors and look into starting a tenants union. This is a huge undertaking, but there are a lot of resources out there that can help. Many of which we try to link to through our sub," they said.

"Ultimately, collectivizing is going to provide the strongest position/leverage. Aside from this, tenants will most likely find they don't have very much leverage. Laws in the US and other Western countries are generally written to protect private property and heavily favor the landlord."

The r/LandlordLove subreddit was founded exactly three years ago, on October 18, 2019. The mods of the sub explain that the name of the community is ironic. The sub is meant to be a “tenant-friendly space” for people to highlight the problems of landlordism and the awful stuff that some landlords do.

From memes to personal experiences and more, the sub touches on a bit of everything. At the core of the sub lies the simple idea that housing is a human right. Which might sound like a no-brainer to many of you Pandas. But considering how bad the situation is getting, rent-wise, it seems like not everyone feels the same way.

CNN reports that rents are up double-digit percentages in some cities in the United States. “Meanwhile, buying a home is the most unaffordable it has been since the mid-1980s. Mortgage rates have surpassed 6% and home prices remain just off the record highs hit in recent months, pricing many prospective homebuyers out of the market.”

A while back, my colleague got in touch with redditor u/RIPNightman, the founder and one of the moderators running the entire r/LandlordLove subreddit. In the interview with Bored Panda, they highlighted the fact that the community is meant for tenants, and landlords aren’t allowed.

According to them, the members of the group are “politically conscious and versed in left theory regarding Landlords and housing.”

"Those getting into property management often do so with the explicit goal of being able to live off of this investment income. In most instances, the Landlord doesn't build the house—they purchase the property to rent out,” the moderator told Bored Panda.

"Successful Landlords contract out all labor which is required for upkeep. Many spend as little money as they can to maintain these properties, especially the smaller ‘mom and pop’ Landlords. What we have is a class of individuals that can be compared to societal leeches. People who live off of the money their tenants earn working for a living while doing as little as they can in return.”

Here at Bored Panda, we’ve covered intense drama between tenants and their less-than-stellar landlords time and again. A while back, we got in touch with financial expert Sam Dogen, the founder of Financial Samurai and the author of ‘Buy This, Not That,’ for a chat about how much we should be spending on rent. He stressed that we should be spending over 30% of our gross income on rent each month.

"Once you limit your rent to 20% of your monthly gross income, you'll free up a lot more disposable income to invest. If you want to achieve financial independence sooner, my housing expense guideline recommends keeping rent/mortgage to 10% of gross income each month," he told us that it’s always worth negotiating with your landlord for a reduction in rent.

"After all, if you never ask, you never receive. You just have to negotiate in a courteous way, not in a demanding way. As a landlord since 2005, all I want is great tenants who will take care of the place, pay on time, and be respectful to the neighbors. Plenty of landlords are willing to charge a discount to market if prospective tenants come across as responsible," the financial expert said.

"If your rental property has fewer people, that's another great reason to negotiate the rent lower. For example, my previous tenants were a family of four with a dog. However, my new tenants are a family of three with no pets. As a result, I was more than happy to charge them less due to less wear and tear. In a hot rental market, make sure to come prepared with all the relevant documents when applying. The more thorough, the better."

One of the most powerful pieces of leverage that tenants have is the willingness to move elsewhere. "Landlords don't want turnover. If you move, even in a strong rental market, a landlord might lose a month's worth of rent or more trying to find new tenants. So it's best if there's continuity," Sam, from Financial Samurai, said.

"However, if tenants can't find a better deal elsewhere and don't want to move, then tenants should try and negotiate. Landlords want self-sufficient tenants who never bother them. Therefore, tenants can highlight their on-time payments and care for the property, Tenants can also volunteer to do some cosmetic upkeep in lieu of lower rent. For example, you might offer to paint some walls or change some fixtures that cost less than the rent increase. Tenants can also volunteer to be a project manager for any larger work the landlord wants done on the house at the landlord's expense."

The ideal tenant/landlord relationship involved very little friction and is harmonious. The more mutual mistrust there is, the worse the situation is for everyone involved.

"Good landlords will want to take care of good tenants and vice versa. Landlords have been burned many times before with non-payment, damage to property, rent moratoriums, rising property taxes, noise disturbances, and so on. These past occurrences are one of the main reasons why there are bad landlords. Work together to make things work!"

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