Like we at Bored Panda have already shown, some landlords seriously neglect their tenants. A few even deliberately take advantage or abuse them. To counter their ill-treatment, people are uniting under the hashtag #VentYourRent. They are using it to call for better protection, highlighting the housing crisis that has made them fall prey to exploitative property owners.
The hashtag was started by Generation Rent. The organization is dedicated to improving life for renters while promoting networking and campaigning by the renters themselves. And even though the hashtag was intended to draw attention to the rental crisis faced by predominantly young and low-income people, it's open to everyone who is being bullied by their landlords.
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And that ladies and gentlemen is when you call the Police. This is not legal.
Courts - not police. The police can only help if the person won't leave.
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This exact same thing happened to me. They assumed i was at work, but i had the night shift and was sleeping when someone was viewing the apartment
at least you weren't with someone at the time, like I was. I chased a realtor out of my bedroom and into the street totally naked and still interested, if you know what I mean. He, the realtor, later claimed I traumatized him. Your damn right I did. lol
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I had a landlord that didn't change the locks or get the keys back from a previous tenant as we found out when a guy was in my laundry room and there was ZERO sign of break and enter reported by the police. Same landlord that said it was our responsibility to change the locks after at our own expense. To top it off after moving out because this had been going on for months with the no repairs ect the "home invasion" was the last straw so we left as soon as possible and he is still coming after me for a damage deposit!!!
Don't know where you live but in some countries you have the right to change the locks yourself. You can then bill the landlord.
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Yep something similar for me. My landlord was really shitter I had water dripping from the ceiling right on my stove! I called him many times to have it repared. 1 week later a plumber got inside my appartment without knocking, without any advice, without the landlord himself... The plumber had the keys to my door!! I was naked in my bedroom sleeping. Me and my cat we had a really rough wokeup when I saw a f*****g dude drilling in my kitchen ceiling.
what kind of idiot prospective buyer would agree to see a currently occupied property? I wouldn't want to buy from a dodgy seller like that
Our landlords have always had to give at least 24h notice. I also change out the locks at every house, so I know exactly who has keys. I give a set to the landlord of course.
Tenants' unions are in some american states, you could probably contact them and get info on how to change this. There are some tenants' unions in Australia. Some will help you go through the small claims courts. Good luck. And yes i had this same thing. ONCE. the union gave me the words to take to the landlord.
we were not allowed to change the locks, so "managers" or "maintainance" could come in any time
You sir, are exactly why the 2nd amendment should be repealed.
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Rents in England (the country where the hashtag originated from) eat up household income and push people into financial hardship. According to reports, one in four private renters in England lives in poverty.
Also, more than half of the families with children living in private rented accommodation are below the poverty line. "We need rent controls that bring rents down to 30% of median local income, following the accepted yardstick of affordability," This National Renters Manifesto, created by Generation Rent and a few other organizations suggests. "Rent controls should be introduced incrementally, to prevent negative consequences for current tenants, and should be accompanied by a massive increase in public housebuilding."
A serious problem is that the majority of renters lack basic control over their home environment, even though being able to make decisions relating to one’s home is important for their well-being. "Private renters should have more control over their homes, including the right to install aids and adaptations to make their homes accessible, to redecorate, and to keep pets." The manifesto also says that tenants should be able to carry out anything short of structural changes that will improve their quality of life and allow them to flourish in their homes.
However, whether or not the tenants will be heard relies heavily on how well will they be able to organize themselves.
Your friend (and probably the rat) has great taste in cheese though! I like snowdonia cheese 🙂
Call your local Health Departmen, then Human Services. Make complaints then file reports. Make sure to get copies of the complaints and reports. Also find out if other complaints have been recorded and get copies of those, or at the very least the report numbers then call the best attorney you can find. They've made your life miserable, why not return the favor?!?
GET YOUR KIDS OUT OF THERE!!! You are risking so much more than their health. You're risking their physical growth, their mental growth, let's put it this way, your retarding everything in their young bodies!
Its just as bad in America! Hubby and I are both disabled, lived in our rental 18 years. Spent our own money to keep the place healthy for us, because landlord nor owner would. Still paid exorbitant rent (last increase was $135 a month) then the place was sold under questionable circumstances and we've been homeless since mid Sept. SLUMLORDS OUGHT TO BE DRAWN AND QUARTERED AFTER A PUBLIC STONING!!!
Can we start an international slum lord data base? Just list the country, city, the property and name of landlord or holding company? Would that be legal?
Read SHELTER's advice on this issue. Plus new Fit To Live In regulations apply to some rental agreements now and will be covering all the others soon. If you rent, know your rights.
Note: this post originally had 83 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
While in university I took in a stray cat and our landlord was adamant that we could not keep it in the house. There is a companion law that allows tenants to have a pet, so long as it is not damaging the owner's property, which our cat was not, and no other tenants in connected units with shared air ducts had allergies that would create an issue. There was a group of girls in the basement, so the landlord tried to tell me that they were allergic and that the cat would have to go. I told him we could go downstairs and talk to them and see if it was an issue, but he told me I was not allowed to talk to them. Little did he know we were good friends with the girls, and they loved the cat. Needless to say, I just ignored him and kept Butters (the cat).
No hate, just pointing something out. That cat could damage the property eventually, and it could be hard to fix.
Load More Replies... I live in the U.S. I have had issues in the past, but this, this is really bad. What type of protection do you have as a renter in the UK? It sounds like none. Place can be completely uninhabitable it sounds like.
There are actually a lot of controls and regulations. But in places like London where rents are at least half of your salary you don't rock the boat if you got a roof over your head you can actually afford. Landlords take advantage of this, it's something that really needs sorting
Load More Replies... I lived in a flat which had exposed bricks on one wall which would have water seeping out of it whenever it rained, mushrooms growing in the bedroom and bathroom, and black mould on the lower level. We constantly had the windows open and extractor fans on in the kitchen and bathroom. One time a fire alarm went off in the building and the firefighters came through and literally said our flat was a death trap because of the kitchen positioning. When we moved out, the landlord took our entire bond because we forgot to empty the (tiny) fridge of a few items and replace 2 of the light bulbs... the rest of the house was immaculately cleaned. So many greedy landlords out there.
It's very easy to tell these people to leave or call the police but a lot of people have to take what they can get. It is too easy to lose a place because you're a difficult tenant. I rented a place where the water pipes kept bursting, my landlord was quick to fix but then had to sell because it was costing her too much.
This makes me very thankful for the lovely landlord we had when we rented for 5yrs. He would always ring my husband to make an appointment with us if he was bringing someone over to fix something that we mentioned to him. He would always apologise for the intrusion! Jacob, thank you for your courtesy and consideration.
Renting in the UK can truly be horrendous, we own our home now, but remember how awful it could be. I still remember Olive from Rex Gooding telling me it my fault for not removing everything from our (unfurnished) flat with one days notice when it was replumbed after the old boiler finally broke beyond repair. (Our items were damaged in this process and we literally had to spend hours fixing our bed that night) To make matters worse, the plumbers came back the next day to ask us for all the landlords/letting agents details as they were refusing to pay them
25 years ago, the fire brigade had to break my window to get access to the main tap - I was on holiday and in another flat was a water pipe burst... The landlord took the amount of the window from my deposit "I know it is not legal, so sue me..."
I know there are rental problems in the Us, especially in more urban areas. But there must be a shortage of rentals in some places in the UK. Also structures can be quite old. This was a problem in NYC- it's expensive to maintain older buildings. If people resort to renting these places, there may not be many to choose from...
Too upsetting, I couldn't even read it. A story: My sister had her third child, and three days later, the landlord was showing her house. She had two in diapers, was hursing, had had a hard delivery, her husband was in the military and worked 16 hr days, so she was basically a single Mom. (No family around because they were stationed in another state.) And the landlord thought it would be cool to have people come view the place while she was still in bed with a 3-day-old baby nursing every 40 minutes.
I had a landlord that refused to do anything about a very big wasp nest stuck to the outside of my spare bedroom window. It was a basement apartment and the wasp nest was right next to the door of the building. I was worried a kid would get stung but I had no idea how to remove it so it stayed there. Eventually the wasps attacked the landlord as he was cutting the grass and the idiot ran his weed eater in the nest, making the situation even worse for himself. During that time I was just on the other side of the window laughing my a*s off. Now I own my own house, I don't have to deal with this kind of idiocy anymore.
My issue isn't nearly as bad as this. They just won't replace the dumpster for our complex. It has multiple complexes around a park. Every other one has at least one if not multiple. Ours has none.
Unbelievable! Don't you have some laws guys? I mean these are horrible stories. Well one thing is that you in UK probably can't build up a good houses. I've been living there for a while, and it was horrible, weak walls, horrible heatings, even the mould was there. Cold everywhere. Air circulation was like none. But we (we were all czechs there) made our landlord do things, fix things. Happily we were probably lucky ones with a decent landlord. But than again, houses in UK or Ireland really sucks. In both countries I had a water on windows, walls, humidity level like rainforest o_O I feel so sorry for you guys.
Could we do a post about great rental stories and great landlords? These sucks for sure, but I wish we could share the happy stories as much as we share the crappy ones.
Julie, here is a good one. Landlady didn't raise rents when she could have. Gave us wine for Christmas each year. Paid my out-of-work (temporarily) husband to make repairs on our apartment.
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https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-10/documents/moldguide12.pdf
Load More Replies... I think if you have a choice between being homeless and renting a place like that, you take the mouldy flat with the caved in ceiling. It's still better than living on the street. And those landlords know it!
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It would take suing them, and who has money to sue?
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"Oh but it's expensive to make sure your renters don't inhale lungfuls of black mold and to stop the ceiling caving in" Jog on mate. If a person can't afford these repairs and maintenance, they should sell up and invest their cash somewhere else, where people won't suffer from their greed.
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It's more likely that people have had enough and given the lack of protection for tenants in most countries, venting/exposing them is the only thing they can do.
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While in university I took in a stray cat and our landlord was adamant that we could not keep it in the house. There is a companion law that allows tenants to have a pet, so long as it is not damaging the owner's property, which our cat was not, and no other tenants in connected units with shared air ducts had allergies that would create an issue. There was a group of girls in the basement, so the landlord tried to tell me that they were allergic and that the cat would have to go. I told him we could go downstairs and talk to them and see if it was an issue, but he told me I was not allowed to talk to them. Little did he know we were good friends with the girls, and they loved the cat. Needless to say, I just ignored him and kept Butters (the cat).
No hate, just pointing something out. That cat could damage the property eventually, and it could be hard to fix.
Load More Replies... I live in the U.S. I have had issues in the past, but this, this is really bad. What type of protection do you have as a renter in the UK? It sounds like none. Place can be completely uninhabitable it sounds like.
There are actually a lot of controls and regulations. But in places like London where rents are at least half of your salary you don't rock the boat if you got a roof over your head you can actually afford. Landlords take advantage of this, it's something that really needs sorting
Load More Replies... I lived in a flat which had exposed bricks on one wall which would have water seeping out of it whenever it rained, mushrooms growing in the bedroom and bathroom, and black mould on the lower level. We constantly had the windows open and extractor fans on in the kitchen and bathroom. One time a fire alarm went off in the building and the firefighters came through and literally said our flat was a death trap because of the kitchen positioning. When we moved out, the landlord took our entire bond because we forgot to empty the (tiny) fridge of a few items and replace 2 of the light bulbs... the rest of the house was immaculately cleaned. So many greedy landlords out there.
It's very easy to tell these people to leave or call the police but a lot of people have to take what they can get. It is too easy to lose a place because you're a difficult tenant. I rented a place where the water pipes kept bursting, my landlord was quick to fix but then had to sell because it was costing her too much.
This makes me very thankful for the lovely landlord we had when we rented for 5yrs. He would always ring my husband to make an appointment with us if he was bringing someone over to fix something that we mentioned to him. He would always apologise for the intrusion! Jacob, thank you for your courtesy and consideration.
Renting in the UK can truly be horrendous, we own our home now, but remember how awful it could be. I still remember Olive from Rex Gooding telling me it my fault for not removing everything from our (unfurnished) flat with one days notice when it was replumbed after the old boiler finally broke beyond repair. (Our items were damaged in this process and we literally had to spend hours fixing our bed that night) To make matters worse, the plumbers came back the next day to ask us for all the landlords/letting agents details as they were refusing to pay them
25 years ago, the fire brigade had to break my window to get access to the main tap - I was on holiday and in another flat was a water pipe burst... The landlord took the amount of the window from my deposit "I know it is not legal, so sue me..."
I know there are rental problems in the Us, especially in more urban areas. But there must be a shortage of rentals in some places in the UK. Also structures can be quite old. This was a problem in NYC- it's expensive to maintain older buildings. If people resort to renting these places, there may not be many to choose from...
Too upsetting, I couldn't even read it. A story: My sister had her third child, and three days later, the landlord was showing her house. She had two in diapers, was hursing, had had a hard delivery, her husband was in the military and worked 16 hr days, so she was basically a single Mom. (No family around because they were stationed in another state.) And the landlord thought it would be cool to have people come view the place while she was still in bed with a 3-day-old baby nursing every 40 minutes.
I had a landlord that refused to do anything about a very big wasp nest stuck to the outside of my spare bedroom window. It was a basement apartment and the wasp nest was right next to the door of the building. I was worried a kid would get stung but I had no idea how to remove it so it stayed there. Eventually the wasps attacked the landlord as he was cutting the grass and the idiot ran his weed eater in the nest, making the situation even worse for himself. During that time I was just on the other side of the window laughing my a*s off. Now I own my own house, I don't have to deal with this kind of idiocy anymore.
My issue isn't nearly as bad as this. They just won't replace the dumpster for our complex. It has multiple complexes around a park. Every other one has at least one if not multiple. Ours has none.
Unbelievable! Don't you have some laws guys? I mean these are horrible stories. Well one thing is that you in UK probably can't build up a good houses. I've been living there for a while, and it was horrible, weak walls, horrible heatings, even the mould was there. Cold everywhere. Air circulation was like none. But we (we were all czechs there) made our landlord do things, fix things. Happily we were probably lucky ones with a decent landlord. But than again, houses in UK or Ireland really sucks. In both countries I had a water on windows, walls, humidity level like rainforest o_O I feel so sorry for you guys.
Could we do a post about great rental stories and great landlords? These sucks for sure, but I wish we could share the happy stories as much as we share the crappy ones.
Julie, here is a good one. Landlady didn't raise rents when she could have. Gave us wine for Christmas each year. Paid my out-of-work (temporarily) husband to make repairs on our apartment.
Load More Replies... https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-10/documents/moldguide12.pdf
Load More Replies... I think if you have a choice between being homeless and renting a place like that, you take the mouldy flat with the caved in ceiling. It's still better than living on the street. And those landlords know it!
Load More Replies... It would take suing them, and who has money to sue?
Load More Replies... "Oh but it's expensive to make sure your renters don't inhale lungfuls of black mold and to stop the ceiling caving in" Jog on mate. If a person can't afford these repairs and maintenance, they should sell up and invest their cash somewhere else, where people won't suffer from their greed.
Load More Replies... It's more likely that people have had enough and given the lack of protection for tenants in most countries, venting/exposing them is the only thing they can do.
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