When Following the Rules Backfires: 39 Tenants’ Brilliant Acts of Payback That Landlords Didn’t See Coming

This happened a long time ago. I was young and had just come back from traveling in Europe. I wound up renting an apartment that I was not happy with, but it was in my home town, and was affordable. I was hoping to move out, and was able to do so once a better opportunity came along. The apartment was generally depressing, so I was looking forward to moving out. I talked to the landlord and building manager about moving out, and to see if I could move out mid-month to save on some rent. They said that was not possible, and I would have to wait until the end of the month to move out. Fine not a big problem. The building manager says I need to fill out some forms before I can move out, so I go to his office and do so. He was not a very friendly guy, but honestly I had not had any interactions with him prior to this, and had no hard feelings about him. One of the questions on the form was “Why are you moving out”. I left it blank. What business is it of anyone’s why I am moving out. The building manager handed me back the form and said “You have to fill this in”. I told him that I didn’t feel like giving a reason that I am moving out, and didn’t understand why it was mandatory. He insisted that I “HAD” to fill it in or he would not process my move out paperwork to end the month to month lease. I said OK fine, and filled in “I do not like the building manager”. He was shocked when he read it. I told him I didn’t want to put anything down, but rules are rules.

FuriousLafond , Dean Souglass Report

Back when I was in college, I lived in a 2-bedroom apartment with a nice German student. He was a nice guy, and he would often have his friends over. I didn’t mind it at all because I just moved to the are and needed new friends anyways. Our landlady though, she was a nightmare. She was this small grumpy lady who would complain over the smallest things. She doesn’t live with us, but tries to control everything – the color of our sheets, the scent of candles that we light, where we put our stuffs, etc. Needless to say, we hated her. We pay for our electricity and water, so it doesn’t matter if we have our friends / family stay over once in a while because whatever they consumer more of we will foot the bill ourselves anyways. My sister visits me once a month for one night, just whenever she’s in town. One day, my landlord found out and got so mad she wanted to call the cops on us for not respecting the rule of “guests cannot spend the night” at her property. The only reason she does this is because she feels if a guest would stay a night they would have to pay her the full rent for the month. THE MONTH. But que malicious compliance… When one of my German roommate’s friends was laid off from his main job, he was left homeless with only a grave shift part-time job. He asked if he could stay with us for about a week or two. I told him I didn’t mind but my landlady might mind. They told me not to worry. And she was fuming when she found out (easily, the day after he decided to stay with us because she checks on us unannounced every other day, and has security cameras outside our door). She threatened to call the cops on us again, and all my roommate said was: “But you told us explicitly no one can spend the NIGHT at your property. He is never here at night because he’s working, so there’s no rule broken here.” She had nothing to say and left. We could hear her screaming from inside her car that was parked right outside. Edit: I had to pull my copy of the contract out, and we didn’t have a specific clause on overnight guests, nor do we have a clause on visits. It did say at the end though that whatever isn’t explicitly stated, when questioned, will pivot on California state laws. So this was totally illegal. My roommate and I were just young, stupid international students who let her get away with it. But it definitely makes for a fun story though.

justgnnathrow , John-Mark Smith Report

Whenever I move into a rental, I replace the smoke detector with a brand spanking new one, and usually add a second battery operated one as well. I leave them in the units after I leave, but for my piece of mind, and because I have grown up with fire safety drilled into my brain, I want to be sure they will work properly, and that they will not fail. One landlord I had told me a certified fire protection company had to install the battery operated smoke detector I bought ([why?], it is 2 screws) AND that an electrician had to replace the other hardwired one. (I tried getting the maintenance guy to do it, but he wouldn’t.) Finally my dad (who owned a fire protection company at the time) came and installed it, not before asking if that was the detector installed in all units. When they said yes, he brought down the wrath of the fire inspector. (The smoke detectors were over 40 years old and beyond life expectancy). After that, they never asked me to get a professional to do anything. (I wonder why…) ETA: for clarification, an electrician is not required for an install since no new lines were being run, so no permits needed to be pulled. Also, a professional did not need to install it, since it was being installed in a residence. They are only required if it is in a commercial area. I tried to explain, and show them the codes, but they would not listen. So my dad the professional installed it for me free of charge, and then reported them. What happened was they got fined, and had to replace every smoke detector. Funny how when head office got the report and stuff, they bought all new detectors and had the maintenance guy install them since no permits are needed.

tdlm40 , Tom Hentoff Report

I am a small-time Landlord, with just 4 tenants. Earlier this year, I had two sisters that didn’t respond to my requests to add of the gal’s husband to the lease, though he was living with them. Not a BIG deal… but did I mention the pit bull they also brought home, without permission? I DO allow pets, and had previously approved their other dog. I asked nicely in person and by email in the months leading up to the malicious compliance… They also did not respond when I asked if they were happy there, and wanted to renew their lease for the following year. I asked again… Then I emailed them notice that I would start showing the unit 2 days later. I try to be a nice Landlord… I do. They had a newborn, as well, so I scheduled all of the showings within a 2 hour window on the same night so I could be in their space as little as possible. Also, because they had not responded, and it was now serious “crunch time” for getting another tenant and my spouse worked all the following two weeks during evening showing hours, I had the delightful inconvenience of bringing my 2 and 6 year old children with me to the showings. Because I’m not a corporation – I’m a small-time family Landlord with kids. Try to imagine how difficult it is to conduct business meetings with 2 kids, right? Then imagine staggering showings every fifteen minutes, with prospective tenants who are also bringing their own kids. Just to further clutter your imagination, this is an 800 square foot 2 bedroom apartment with a cozy entryway. So I arrive with my two kids, to find that my tenants are still at home, along with the husband, the newborn and the other sister’s boyfriend. So that’s 7 people in a small kitchen already. Then the first prospective tenants start arriving. Husbands, wives, with kids, and some showing up early so there’s two sets of them. That’s 14 people in a small kitchen… And I’m a mom. I have magical powers. So I’m holding my toddler, my daughter is safely under the dining table coloring, and I’m chatting with the prospective tenants and directing traffic while my actual tenants prepare to depart. If you didn’t know this already, it’s common practice in the US to leave the premises during real estate or apartment showings. This was their first apartment, so I actually emailed them ahead of time to let them know what is generally expected at showings (e.g. a relatively tidy apartment, and that they can leave, for their own convenience). They do eventually leave, after the boyfriend tells a prospective tenant that he, in fact, ALSO lives there. And I carry on with an exhausting scheduling of showings. And have my new tenants all picked out and lease signed by the next day. Awesome, right? The next night, I get a voicemail from the husband (who is NOT my tenant). I saved it, and just listed to it again, because it still gives me that same delightful shiver of malicious compliance.. In his voicemail, he told me how awful it was that MY children touched HIS infant’s things (they didn’t, because I keep my kids entertained with magical mommy toys, but prospective tenants also brought children), and how they had to sterilize everything to keep their infant from being sick, and how inconvenient it was to have showings with only 2 days notice, and how very unprofessional I was to bring my children, and asked if I could just be more professional in the future. You can hear it, can’t you? The deep shiver of malicious compliance vibrating through my offended being. The next morning, I started issuing professional Lease Violation Notices. One for the extra residents of the unit (hubby and boyfriend). One for the extra dog. And a few additional ones for building concerns I noted during the showings. They ignored the violation notice, which I sent by certified mail and, thoughtfully, also by email. I decided to be even more professional 30 days later, and issue a 5-day notice to vacate. And I called their mom, who is their emergency

nygibs , turkeychik Report

I had a landlord in the past who slipped a 90 day notice requirement into the rental contract after I had signed it. I was house hunting, so at the end of my lease I asked to go to a month to month lease to make it easier to leave when the time came. Landlord and I agreed on a higher monthly price to compensate them for the lack of security, and I signed the contract at the office of a business they also owned downstairs. Landlord wasn’t actually present, but one of their employees handled it. So, contract is signed and they go to make me a copy for my records, but are “having an issue with the copier”. After a few minutes they ask if they can text me when they get it to work. I naively agree, and head upstairs. 30 minutes or so later, they text me saying they got the copier to work, and I come pick up my “copy”. I didn’t think to double check everything at the time. So, for the next few months I just pay my monthly rent while I look for a home. Finally found the right place, and the closing date was about 4 weeks out, so I immediately notified my landlord that I would be leaving on said date. Landlord responds that it’s nice I found a home, but I would be responsible for the next 2 months rent after that as well due to the 90 day notification requirement in the contract. I’m totally confused, so I go check my copy of the contract, and sure enough, there is a stipulation in there about that. I also notice that my initials from the top and bottom of each page, verifying that I have read that page, have somehow mysteriously shifted to being doubled up at the top of the page after this stipulation, with none on the bottom of that actual page. This was because they had inserted 2 lines of text detailing the 90 day reporting requirement, after I had already signed the paperwork. They didn’t notice the formatting error it created, which was a dead giveaway of what was going on. I inform the landlord of this, and notify him that this is not a legally binding contract due to this issue, and state that I will not be paying any further rent beyond this month, and expect my deposit back without penalty. Unfortunately he persists with stating that this is a legally binding contract, and he will pursue it in court in addition to withholding my deposit if I fail to pay, blah blah blah… I know I am legally in the right, but I don’t want to have to deal with courts to settle it as that takes forever, so I come up with an alternative plan. The one thing he hadn’t thought about was the fact that the contract included all utilities, as the unit didn’t have separate meters, and did not have any language forbidding excessive use of them. It just so happened to be a particularly cold winter, so I informed my landlord that if he wanted to persist with his demands, I would be inclined to leave all of the windows open, crank the heat as high as it would go, open the refrigerator door, run the water 24/7, etc, and if he entered the apartment without my permission to turn any of these items off, I would report him to the police. I got confirmation that he would not pursue the extra month’s rent or security deposit within 20 minutes. 🙂 Edit: Just so everyone knows how the story ended, this happened around December of 2016 if I remember correctly, and I did get my security deposit back, etc. Didn’t pursue legal option because I didn’t think it would end up being worth the time and trouble, though I understand the sentiment.

feeshta , Mikhail Nilov Report

Due to some neighbors flying BLM flags, Thin blue line flags, and other opinion flags, our HOA decided last month that we’re only allowed to fly the USA flag, and nothing else. They day after the decision, we receive an email that someone reported our Pride flag (that we had in our house since 2016), and that we needed to take it down. We complied and removed the flag. Looking through our new rules, we noticed that removable lights are permitted without restriction so… we bought 6 colored flood lights, and we washed our house in pride colors. A little less subtle than our simple flag. A lot more fun for anyone complaining about the flag itself and what it represents. *edit to point out that the flag was displayed on the front porch, not inside the house. It was a typo when I wrote “we had in our house…”) *SECOND EDIT: JUST CLARIFYING THAT I DON’T HATE MY HOA, I DON’T THINK THEY CHANGE THE FLAG RULE TO ATTACK ME PERSONALLY, AND THAT I DECIDED TO DO THIS TO SHOW MY INDIVIDUALITY WHILE STILL FOLLOWING THE RULES.

memon17 , memonf Report

Apologies if there are any formatting issues since I’m writing this on mobile. Anyway, this grudge has been simmering for almost a year now and has only just come to fruition. It began with my nextdoor neighbor leaving me a passive aggressive note for having trash outside my door while I was cleaning my apartment. Two important points here: I was deep cleaning because the landlord sent a note saying the adjoining apartment (my neighbor’s) had roaches. I needed to clean so the exterminator could see if my apartment was infested as well. The trash was by my door for 30 minutes at most. I was trying to save a trip to the dumpster and doing a final sweep of the apartment before heading down. Now, prior to this incident, this neighbor had already [angry] me off by constantly blaring their loud music to the point where my apartment walls vibrated. Fortunately for them, I prefer to avoid confrontation so I never called them out on it. After the passive aggressive note calling me a pig though, all bets were off. She wrote that I should “read my lease” since I left my “nasty trash” everywhere. Ok [jerk], it’s on. I read my lease like I was snorting coke off it. Every time they played their music loud, I filed a noise complaint. When I got a whiff of pot coming from their apartment, I filed another complaint. The lease says tenants must comply with the state’s drug laws or risk eviction so, hey, another win for me. Finally, they brought a dog into the apartment despite the no pet policy’s exception only being for service animals. This was obviously not a service dog since it howled day and night betraying no semblance of training. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who complained after that final stunt since my landlord said the noisy dog problem was being taken care of through litigation and my next door neighbor’s lease would not be renewed. Guess she should have read it. 🙂

hrghprgh , Sven Brandsma Report

I hated my old apartment, needed to desperately get out and right when I was looking for rentals last year, coronavirus hit and everyone shut down. With less than a week on my lease, I had to jump at the first available home. Didn’t even get to inspect it.I ended up with equally horrible property managers. I didn’t have a key on day one, had to break in to move in, they didn’t tell me about the German roach infestation (it’s okay, I used to do pest control so I managed) and so forth.Right when I lost power during Christmas (also okay, I live in the south, I didn’t get too cold) I tracked down the original property owner and asked her if I could get out of the contract and just pay her directly. We investigated many options and the best way to get out of the contract was to just pay for the last remaining months and write a 30 day notice. They call me and tell me that I have to write them a notice, signed and sent and received on the exact date 30 days from the leases end to be accepted or I will lose my $1,000 security deposit. They really stressed it had to be mailed and definitely on time or they won’t be able to accept it. Cue my pettiness. I wrote a template letter, with a generic “this is a [number of days till lease end]- day notice …. I’m writing to terminate my contract and to receive my security deposit as stated…”.I sent one out on my 103 day notice. Then another one on 89 day notice. Then another one on 73 day notice and so forth, basically whenever I remembered about it, I would change the date around, print it, sign it and then mail it. They call me saying this is very unnecessary and that they got my message loud and clear. But they sounded pretty rude about it so I sent some more. I then received some passive aggressive emails that they will honor the contract and leave me the $1,000 deposit as I have sent them a 30 day notice. But they can be tricky and as I haven’t technically sent them an exact “30 days” notice, I have some more letters to send. Plus again, they sounded pretty rude over e-mail. Cue the final 15 day countdown till my 30 day notice letter. I upped the ante. I now have one letter per day to send and I have changed the fonts on each letter ranging from Papyrus to Jokerman to Comic Sans. My favorite one is the one where it’s all bright yellow and barely legible. It jsut hurts looking at. Oh and better yet, I got the last batch sent as certified mail so I get an email that they received it AND that they had to sign it. On my 34th day notice letter (now probably the 20th letter I’ve mailed), I received my cashiers check back. No message or anything.Fortunately I have four more letters to send. The best $43 on stamps I’ve ever paid. TL:DR I spam the lease office with 30 day notices till they gave up on holding to my security deposit

ccomplishedWardrobe , Sharon McCutcheon Report

My friend had a long-term lease on a home (5 years) which stipulated that he has to repaint every room the day he moved out. So he found popular neutral paint colors, hired a handyman, and had the place freshly painted the day before his moving truck showed up. Well, his landlord showed up waving their contract, yelling. The wording said the DAY he moved out, not the day BEFORE. The landlord was convinced that the movers would scuff up the walls. He wanted the house left pristine. He really was ready to take the case to court. My friend was crushed. Between painting, moving, and the deposit on his new place, he had no money to repaint or to go to court. I was furious with this landlord. I went to the house and saw the paint job was fine, not scuffed. My friend and I met that night at the old house. Per his contract, we repainted every wall. SOLID BLACK. We even did some ceilings. (Would’ve done them all if we had time.) I don’t know if it’s just me; I have a fascination with hidden images. I took clear glow in the dark paint and illustrated demons in the closet walls and in shadowy corners. (They were all pretty shadowy by the time we left.) We left a copy of the contract for the landlord. Walls freshly painted the day he left. He never specified the color. We also had before and after photos printed out. EDIT: This was over ten years ago, and there was no fallout. The same letter-of-the-law mentality that would’ve allowed the landlord to take the renter to court also allowed us to get away with this. The glow in the dark paint was fun, but didn’t work very well- so the pictures are just a really ugly black apartment. TL;DR: landlord made my friend repaint a day after he painted because of some specifics in the contract. We painted the house black with hidden glowing demons.

RandomRavenclaw87 , Malte Luk Report

I wouldn’t say our landlord is malicious, just dumb and lazy. I live in a condo tower where each unit is privately owned, and I rent from the owner of one suite. Recently, my bathtub faucet developed a small leak. I emailed my landlord about it, and he ignored it. A couple of days later, it had gotten bigger, so I emailed again. No reply. 3rd time, now it’s a constantly running stream of hot water. I texted, and he said he isn’t going to fix it. Awwrighty, buster, have it your way. So, I let it fester, and it keeps getting worse and worse. Two weeks in, I get an urgent call from the condo board that they need emergency access to my suite because a leak from my suite is coming into the floor below and damaging several areas. Of course, I say “yes 😈,” and they dispatch a plumber for the leak and numerous contractors to repair the rooms below that have been damaged. Eventually, my landlord gets the bill ($8,000) from the condo board for the repairs and finally emails me in a tantrum asking what this bill is for… So I reply forwarding him the original emails and text saying he was not going to fix it. I never heard back. (Half malicious compliance, half regular revenge?)

User , Anıl Karakaya Report

A long time I was working at a well respected and expensive consulting business who were renting an office. They’d spent good money installing air-con and making the reception area pretty decent and other work like interior walls, shelving, high quality decor etc. When the tenant company wanted to move out, the contract said they had to restore the building back as it was, but they asked the landlord to allow them to walk away and not return the building back to the more basic shell it had been, which would have meant leaving the aircon in and not having to remove the fancy reception area, (re)move walls, partitions, shelving, etc. This would have been a win-win for both parties. For some reason the landlord said no, and despite attempts to persuade them, they were adamant. The tenant said OK, and ripped everything out including 10’s of 1000’s of aircon, leaving the landlord with an empty shell again which proved harder to rent out and attracted lower rent. The building was empty for quite a while. About four years later I worked there when another company had leased it. The building was horribly hot in summer because of the lack of air con, and the reception looked cheap and nasty, nowhere near as nice as it had been. The offices were carpeted but obviously the cheapest stuff was fitted. I told my new employer that the building had been much nicer and with aircon and they were stunned that the stupid land lord had wasted the opportunity!

speculatrix , Jose Losada Report

About 20 years ago and I was dating the man I would later marry. He had an apartment that was a quad but wasn’t surrounded by the best neighbors. It was sold, but he was kept on as a tenant by the new landlord. He wasn’t a bad landlord per se, but he fancied himself a handyman. And he was cheap. So the washer and dryer (included in the rental) both break, and the landlord comes in to fix my boyfriend’s set up. It works, but only temporarily, and they keep breaking, over and over again. It goes on for months. Boyfriend (who is a model tenant) finally complains lightly, saying that he’s been going over to his mom’s to do laundry, but sometimes he has to do it late, so he’s been having to spend money at the laundromat. The landlord says that my boyfriend can bill him for the laundry, and the landlord will reimburse if things break down again and to make sure it’s all documented by time, date, and amount. Then the landlord says he’s going to take a look at it right now, confident, somehow, in the skills that he hasn’t shown. They broke again. I’m far less tolerant about these things, but my SO doesn’t like to be any trouble to anyone. Still, he’s really tired of not being able to do his laundry at home, but thought it was really good of the landlord to offer to pay for his quarters at the laundromat. Bless his heart and cue Malicious Compliance. This problem has gone on for 6 months, and I’m going to be solving it. I tell my boyfriend that he’ll then have to keep track of the quarters he spends, by date time and amount, and since there’s no receipt, they might have to fight it out over the amount. And I just know he hates conflict. Plus, there’s the time and gas he spends, which, while he could bill for it, any lawyer would argue that he would have spent time awaiting his laundry anyway at home. I tell him to send his laundry out for service because a service provides receipts. “But won’t that be expensive?” he asks. I grin inwardly and say: “It might be, but it’s the only way to provide adequate documentation he’s asking for. You can’t prove what you spent at a laundromat. But you can with a laundry service. You’ll include a copy of the bills with your rent, and a note saying that you’ve subtracted the amount that it cost to do your laundry this month, as a washer and dryer has been included in the rental agreement and hasn’t been working consistently properly for six months. Since there isn’t documentation for the last six months, of course, we won’t be retroactively billing him. Don’t worry sweetheart, I’ll write the note, and I will be SURE to thank him for providing this in lieu of getting it fixed. It really is nice of him.” “Ok,” he says, “that sounds good, but how do you even arrange for that? I know dry cleaning, but this is just laundry.” “I’ll take care of the details, no problem,” I reply. They charged by the pound and load, so I made sure to also include all the stuff he had put off washing since it wasn’t a top priority. He’d only been doing the essentials for fear one or the other would break mid-cycle, and because he felt he was taking advantage of his mother. And boy howdy, it really WAS expensive having a laundry service do all his laundry. I arranged for regular pick up and drop off that was convenient for my SO. They even folded his underwear. The rent check he handed over was substantially lighter by more than $200. But all receipt copies did have the time, date and amount. Faced with the prospect of such a “bill” each month, the landlord scheduled an actual repairman to fix the machines one day after rent was handed over.

spare_princess , m0851 Report

My own special passive aggressive revenge on our landlord after everything he put us through… was depositing our rotten Halloween pumpkins in the mulch of the beautiful tree he cut down… I’m gonna let him deal with the giant pumpkin patch in the front yard

_FizzeePop_ Report

Now, that story is VERY recent, and the “told you so” effect is never as sweet as this was. I have moved in an apartment with a roommate last summer. When we first came in, the biggest part of the sale was the fact that the apartment was freshly renovated, and soundproof (This one is important, and you’ll see why), so when we got in, my roommate immediately fell in love with it, and I was too. When we moved in, we were very careful not to bother anyone, as we wanted to quickly have a good relationship with our neighbours (“Oh, did you see the new neighbours? They only moved during the day, they don’t make sound during the night, what nice people!” kind of deal) and we can safely say it worked. What we did not know, however, is that we were only three renters when we first came in; us on the floor, another family upstairs on the opposite side, and another one on the 3rd floor, with one empty apartment between us. Turns out the ‘soundproof’ statement was accurate, but only in regards to the inside-to-outside situation. When our upstairs neighbours moved in, it was a [darn] nightmare. Sound from 5am to past midnight, five days in a row, dropping stuff, speaking loudly, yelling or walking in their apartment with shoes on. Out of frustration on the fifth day, I walk upstairs and meet my neighbour, at midnight. I ask them to cease their activities for the night. I have work in the morning, and I cannot be kept up all night. I understand they were freshly moved in, and they might have had a tight schedule, but midnight was too late to be moving stuff. He didn’t reply and closed the door on me. I go downstairs, and the sound starts over again. I notify my landlord, and he tells me he’ll handle it, and apologized for the situation, explaining to me my neighbour was just moving and that he probably didn’t understand what I was saying because of language barrier. The neighbours were extremely loud. I know a lot of Karen will use that as an excuse to shower their neighbours with hate, but when I say loud, I mean it. There was no stop to their loud noises, it seemed like they couldn’t be bothered to hold something without dropping it, or jumping up and down on the floor, or purposefully b****** the bed frame against the wall when having [intimacy]. I recorded the event, and even install microphones in my home jacked to my computer, activating and recording every time there is strong vibration in the house. Over 98 events on monday February 14th. I was livid. I send that to the landlord and explained this cannot continue. First the apartment was poorly soundproofed, which meant we were hearing every [darn] sound at all time. Second, we had notified the neighbours about the situation, and they have ignored it. I have notified the landlord to awaken them to our situation. I report the issues several time, and even advise my landlord that there were very heavy sounding thuds coming from upstairs, which worried me. He answered with “Stop complaining about your neighbours, already! I have other things to do!” I have answered. “Understood, sir. Please be advised this will be my last communication and action to help you in that regard.” You know when I said I head loud bangs? Turns out our upstairs neighbour was doing bench-press lifting in his living room, and the heavy thuds I kept hearing was him dropping his weights on the ground. I had warned my roommate about removing anything she didn’t want broken from the living room, and lo and behold; four days later, the first crack appeared. Then another. The floor was giving up. I moved the couch out of the way, and moved the TV and consoles into the bedroom. Fast forward to three days ago; after another series of loud bangs, I head a loud crack, followed by a “OH [darn]!”, followed by very loud noises. I went to the living room, to see my neighbour on the ground, with several actually gruesome injuries due to the fact he just went through the floor and brought his bench and weight rack with him. I called an ambulance, and the police. The police asked me if I reported the issue with my landlord, which I could confirm, due to my communications being made via email. I sent everything, and I am now, of course, filing to break my lease due to uninhabitable dwelling. The landlord came in yesterday, and just proceeded to explode. Told me I should have made him aware that my neighbour was doing dangerous things, to which I answered I had notified him about the very loud sounds and he never investigated, and that he also ordered me to stop complaining about my neighbours. It was not my responsibility to go out of my way to protect his assets if he is unwilling to cooperate with me. My neighbours, roommate and I are now residing in a hotel until we can find a new place to live. We are now also looking towards adding a bit more salt to the injury by maybe filing for criminal negligence against both our landlord and the neighbour, the first because the apartment was apparently having some flaws and the latter for endangering us (had I not caught up on what caused the sound earlier, me or, god forbid, my roommate could have been under that.) Anyway, it was a fun week. And I do enjoy the accommodations of my hotel. Never went to a four-star spa-included hotel before. Turns out the chocolate on the pillow is a lie and I am very disappointed about that. TL;DR: My neighbour was a noisy [jerk] that went through the floor with his weightlifting equipment, and my landlord ignored me when I complained about the noise. Edit: As I have advised to a few commentators, I followed up with my roommate, and she did not take pictures of the event. She got a bit mad I asked considering what just happened, and questioned my priorities. I then explained that our reddit story got a lot of attention and some people in the comments requested some visual proof. I will spare you her answer. I will just add that it’s okay not to believe the story based on my word alone. If people actually didn’t question it, I would be worried. When I posted this story, my only intent was to share my experience and I though “huh, malicious compliance, neat”. If there was a “horrible landlord” “bad neighbour” reddit I would have found prior to submitting this story, probably would have went there instead. I will also add that I am not an expert or an engineer. How and why something like weights and the like would cause part of the floor to collapse, I cannot say. Was there a structural damage prior? Was there water damage that never was addressed, just covered-up? Was the structure just not as sound as I believed it was when I got in? I cannot say. I understand some of you might have worked in construction and never have experienced such an event, or have actual reasons to suspect a lie due to personal and professional experience. Once again, you can, and should, question anything on the internet. I just hope you also apply that kind of skepticism (and I mean wanting proof or the opinion of an actual expert prior to making a decision) to more than just Reddit posts. For those who made us laugh and those who have spoken to us, who have been encouraging and constructive, people who actually gave us advice, I thank you very much. It was very nice of everyone, and I wish you the best. Update: My brother has agreed to take the case and look at the options. We are not feeling very vindictive and our insurance are going to cover most of the costs, so we might file for negligence. I’m not a lawyer myself, I don’t know the terms in english, but basically; the landlord should have had his building inspected before renting, which was apparently not done. Landlord has apparently calmed down after the events and has apologized for everything. He has scheduled a visit from an inspector to check the integrity of the apartment and the cause of the damage that would have allowed a human and exercise equipment to go through the floor and ceiling. In exchange for not pressing charges, he has agreed to reimburse all the money we have invested into the rent, our stay at the hotel and a little extra as an apology, and the guarantee to either repair the apartment and soundproof it properly or, if it is not an option to go back, he will relocate us onto another of his building (which are a lot better than what we had), reduce our rent quite significantly for as long as we stay (with papers to back his offer up) and a full year of free rent. This is actually quite generous, in the current rent market. I’m leaving the final say to roommate. On my end; I was not injured, she was not, and this could have been just a freak accident. Yes, the landlord is a bit of an [butt], but let’s be honest, we all had worse, landlord wise. Plus, even if we take him up on his offers, the upstairs neighbour might be looking for some severe reparation (he DID get injured, after all). But we would be happy to hear about your opinion; what would you say? Take this further or just take the refund, plus the full year, rent-free year and then low rent for the years to come? LAST UPDATE: (04/09/2022) After a long time deciding what to do, we have opted to take the landlord’s offer. However, we made it clear that we could not live under the same people if the soundproofing was not at the very least improved. We went to my brother’s office and met with a colleague of his who multiple documents for us to sign. One of them for the promise of low rent (Landlord wanted to offer 250$ off the market price, we negotiated it up to 300$) to be applied on all our leases. We have also agreed to the reimbursement of six months of rent, which will cover us for the next year and then some, plus the free year. We received about 5000$ each, and the landlord has agreed to cover all the costs of the hotel we and our parent had to pay. We might be moving back into our apartment by the end of the month. It’s a bit disappointing, as we kind of wanted to try another place, but from what I understand, there is a very good chance our neighbours are not moving back on their end, so it might just be back to the ideal scenario. There will be very heavy renovation done and a thorough inspection of the structure before we move back in.

TheAngryArcanist , EternalByte Report

Real estate agents kept getting permission from out landlord to show our apartment. We’re not moving out, but they’re renovating the building one apartment at a time, and they want to show a done apartment like ours I get it. The problem was that we would get a message to gist of “I’m a stranger with your landlords permission to bring a stranger to your house in 3 hours.” As any normal human, I’d imagine, would agree there are many reasons that might not be ideal or at least desired. So we asked them to give us more notice. Their response was “we only have to give you one hour, so we’re coming, but as a courtesy we will notify you 24 hours in advance in the future.” Weirdly this did not make me or my girlfriend any happier about the situation, so she called a friend who is a real estate lawyer! Turns out you can’t show my apartment with an hour’s notice, or otherwise, unlesse trying to rent my apartment. So we replied that they may not come, but they can call our lawyer if they want, and they didn’t even reply. Right now they’re downstairs looking at the unfinished apartment like good little elves.

User , RODNAE Productions Report

I lived with an entitled roommate and her brother for a year. Well, almost a year, before I was kicked out. Let me set this up a bit. She’s disabled with a chronic auto-immune disease. She’s on disability and doesn’t work. Her brother hasn’t worked a job ever as far as I’m aware, so he’s on welfare. He was a nomad for 9 years and came to live with his sister when she was diagnosed, a year before I met them and moved in. (I know, I’m honestly kind of an idiot for not seeing the signs.) For what it’s worth, I work full time. We got along quite well, in general. It didn’t really bother me that they would take my food – coffee, pasta, butter, milk, eggs, cheese, you name it – or that I was often asked to take care of the dishes even though 80% of them were hers and her brother’s, not mine. I felt for her, and was fine with helping them out. The problem was, I was happy. I was working hard, making money, writing music, and starting a new romantic relationship with an old friend. She wasn’t happy. I would give her gifts and food and friendship, but it wasn’t enough to counter her jealousy – and, I guess, something just snapped. I came home on March 20th and before the door had even closed behind me, she said, “plscanunot, you need to move out.” “Why?” “You just… do. This is my house (she paid the same rent I did and was often late), my brother works hard (at being her caretaker I guess?) and he deserves his own room (there were only two rooms – mine and hers, he lived in our living room) so you need to figure something out.” Here comes the MC. I knew she expected me to stay for April. She and her brother would really have to squeeze their funds to make it work to pay the upcoming full rent (her brother didn’t pay while I lived there). But was I about to stay in the home for 5.5 grueling weeks with someone who had randomly turned on me? Kicked me out of my home? And in retrospect, guilted me into giving them household help and free food? I don’t think so. I applied for 30 houses that day alone. By the weekend, I had signed a new lease. If you ask me to get out, no problem – I’ll be out ASAP. I got my security deposit back from my landlord, who passed that info on to my roommate. She stormed into the kitchen: Her: “So you just got your security deposit – do you have somewhere else to live?” Me: “Yeah. I signed a lease yesterday and have arrangements to move all my stuff two days from now.” Her: “So… You’re… Not paying for April??” Me: “No.” That was the last time we ever talked. She stormed out of the room, said a few choice words about me to her brother, and slammed the front door. I almost feel like she expected me to hand her $800 gift-wrapped, and still get out of “her” space. I didn’t stay in my room ever again, moved out quickly and quietly, and haven’t heard from her since. Don’t tell me to move if you’re not ready to pay the full rent. Bye felicia. TL;DR: jobless roommate tells me to leave our shared living space at the end of March without expecting that I’d be able to find a new place within a week for April – wasn’t ready to pay the full rent, had another thing coming.

plscanunot , Christian Erfurt Report

It looks like my bank returned my rent payment to me that I submitted to my landlord last Friday. I called the leasing office about this and it turns out this hasn’t appeared in their system yet; it shows I have a zero balance. So, I offered to bring in a money order immediately after our call so they could still receive their payment in anticipation of the ACH Return. Therefore they still receive the funds today either case. However, they told me to include an extra $100, since the system will classify the payment as late. Nope. Nevermind. If you’re deciding to charge me a $100 late fee, I’m taking full advantage of it being “late” and will no longer be coming in to pay today. I told them that. They can expect their payment on the “pay by” date of the eviction notice they file this month. EDIT: State law requires a seven day notice before an eviction is filed. Earlier, I meant waiting until the last day of this notice. Not the eviction. My intention is to pay before the eviction notice for the sake of my rental history. UPDATE: My bank gave me a courtesy credit of $130 for their system error, and then my landlord ended up waiving the $100 late fee! Free $100! Rent is now paid.

taylrbrwr , Phillip Pessar Report

This happened some years ago, I was reminded of it by reading stories on here. I’d just moved to Sydney, and had been living in a sharehouse for a few months, that I found though a flat-share website. We got on ok, would go out to parties together etc. Most of the stuff in the house was theirs, I only brought my fridge, and they had just thrown theirs out, considering it replaced. I’m about to get the week’s groceries and ask my housemate if she wants anything, no she’s good. I get lots of food to cook for the week and come home, to find her standing awkwardly with her boyfriend. She had “weird news.” They had decided to move out together! How exciting! Ok, so I guess that means I take over the lease? Nope, they considered themselves the last in a long line of friends who’d leased the house, and being the last to go, thought it fitting to terminate the lease. They had notified the landlord prior to speaking to any of us. They figured I could stay with my sister, jack was only in the country another month, and Sarah was hardly here anyway. Ok so I didn’t have a leg to stand on, legally, I wasn’t signed on the lease, so I had 3 weeks to vacate. Househunting is like a part time job, and I already had a full time job. No time to cook all that food I guess. Would have been good to know before the shop. I got lucky and found a house just down the road on the same day. Nice people, good spot, and close enough that I could move my things in by hand, immediately if I like! I slept in my new house that night, but I always like to think you haven’t really moved in until your fridge is in, and don’t worry I had that sorted too. The others in the house found new places quickly too, leaving the happy couple home alone. I came back to pick up a couple of loose ends 3 weeks later and got to see their fridge workaround in all its slumly glory. An Esky full of food floating in melted ice. The revenge was petty and small, proportionate to their actions.

User , Miles Goodhew Report

Let me (25M) introduce you to the key players in this story. First, we have my dog. She is a service animal, and as a result, is very well-trained. Up next, my annoying and petty neighbors. I live in a small duplex, with an even smaller front yard that isn’t fenced in. The only thing separating the duplex and the neighbor’s house is a very narrow driveway. It’s important to note that when I refer to “the neighbors,” I am NOT referring to the residents of the connecting unit of the duplex, but the owners of the house a driveway over. My neighbors have a history of annoying behavior. For starters, they are extremely socially awkward. They watch over us like hawks, have never been able to hold a conversation with us despite us being friendly and trying, and are some of the most passive aggressive people on Earth. Maybe it’s because we’re college-aged and they have something against the yutes, but whatever the reason, they have it out for us. The neighbors have called our landlords to tell them that we are partying at all hours of the night. The family (with infants) in the connecting unit… the unit that shares a wall with us… have never once complained. When the landlord asked them about these complaints, they always denied it. For reference, aside from me, none of the other residents of the house even drink. I drink on occasion (once every few months), but never at the house, out of respect for the sober people. The neighbors called the city over the course of several months and got one side of the street turned in to a “no parking zone,” because we have 4 cars in total (one for each person that lives in our unit) and have to park on the street. This obstructed their view. As a result, we started parking in front of their house on the legal side of the street. One day, while we were gone, they moved their truck from their drive way (that has ample parking) to the street to block us from parking there. Their truck didn’t move for ~6 months. Any time my dog goes #2 in the yard and it sits for more than a few hours, they call the landlord to report it. Because of my disability, I can’t always get to it immediately. My landlord understands this, and understands how the neighbors are, so she had stopped saying anything aside from laughing with me about how ridiculous/annoying these people are. This is just a short list of my grievances with our neighbors. I could go on, but by now you get the point. Well, yesterday morning, I let my dog out as per usual. I was in my underwear, which are thin and tight-fitting, as I had just rolled out of bed. Let’s just say that they don’t hide much of anything. I’m standing in the doorway where my neighbor’s house is blocked from my view. As my dog is sniffing around in our yard, I look down at my phone. A few seconds later, I hear our neighbor (the wife) shout “No! No! Don’t do that here! Get out of our yard! Stop that!” in a very panicked voice. Turns out, they were all sitting outside. By the time the neighbor had shouted, it was too late to call my dog back over, she was in the process of gifting them a big present. I shout “Hey, I’m sorry about that. I’ll come get it, give me a minute,” and call my dog back inside. Dead silence. About 15 seconds go by. I was on my way to my room to throw some pants and a shirt, when I hear a muffled shout from the husband, “COME PICK THIS UP RIGHT NOW!” I chuckled to myself, and shouted “OK!” with a huge grin on my face. I knew what I had to do. I dropped the pants that I had grabbed, I turn right around, picked up a doggie bag by the door, and made my way out of the door and in to view of the husband (who is standing cross armed near the pile of p**p with a rude expression and posture), the wife, and the daughter. Watching the look of anger turn in to shock was so satisfying. He was truly speechless, as was the rest of the family. I’m just happy to have a story I can finally share on here. I also think the family is LDS (Mormon) so that is proba

No_Push_5003 , RODNAE Productions Report

Ok so first of all I am not an English native speaker, so please excuse my errors, This happened quite some time ago, I was sent to SPAIN to a very small company to try and save it. It was during the financial crisis, so basically I tried first to spend less money, negotiating everything I could. First time I met the landlord, I saw this very old guy, shaking with all his bones, dressed like he couldn’t afford clothes from the 21st century… But after the typical chit-chat I tell him I am planning on moving out, because the rent was way to high (it was easily 30% above market), he then proceeds to show me one of his buildings he had an offer on that he just refused (17M€…), and basically told me to f.ck off, and that he would agree on “not raising the rent in the coming 12 month”. That was when I started looking for something more decent and better that the beaten offices we had, and I found quite easily. Here come the malicious compliance: When you exit offices, the landlord, especially where we had those offices, tries to fix everything with the deposit you put at the start of the lease. So knowing the piece of s**t of a landlord I had, I talk to a lawyer I had in my contacts, and explain him the situation, he then came up with an idea… The day comes when we have to leave the office, our landlord, as a smarta** he is, comes along his lawyer, to make sure we will follow the law, BUT what he didn’t know was we also had our lawyer on site, one contractor to fix any minor problem on the spot and a [darn] Notary!!! So we could redact the document stating everything without possibility to discuss later. He was furious… We could fix everything, the only thing we had to replace was an AC which never worked, so we ordered the worst possible one for 300€, and got 100% of the deposit. Icing on the cake or cherry on top (pick one), the guy maintaining the building told us it took him more than a year to find someone else, and apparently at a way lower price. [EDIT] some English fix [EDIT 2] ok I will curse (everything but the title, because I can’t change it)

User , Tima Miroshnichenko Report

We moved out of an apartment 2 months early (school housing contracts, blegh). Since we couldn’t get anyone to move in for only two months, we were on the hook for the 2 months of rent which was a fortune to poor college students. We were told by the on-site manager (also a poor college student being paid in free rent) that we’d be responsible for the electricity bills in the apartment over the next two months despite already doing our official move-out. No, they can’t be changed back to the landlord’s name. Fine. I’ll pay the electric bills, but I’ll make sure they’re zero. So when we left I turned off all the breakers. I still had the keys because we were supposed to mail them back to the property owner (at our expense) since I guess he lives far away and only comes in to town at the beginning and end of each semester. A few days later we realized we had forgotten some items in the bathroom, and since the apartment was on my way to school I decided to swing by and grab them before mailing the keys back. When I walked in, I was startled to find someone inside. It was the property owner with a box of tools looking very dirty. Apparently the hallway lights weren’t working (and in violation of building safety codes) and he couldn’t figure out why. The security system also seemed to be non-functional. It looked like something had tripped all the breakers, he said. I said yeah, that something was me since the electric bill was still in our name. He pointed out that not powering the hallway light was a safety concern, and also that having the power off would ruin the refrigerator. I pointed out that I couldn’t care less about the safety of an apartment I didn’t live in, I already had a signed move-out document saying all the appliances were in good shape, and also that him being there was technically a landlord violation since we were still paying rent and he hadn’t given us notice that he’d be entering the apartment. We looked at each other for a few seconds. I was wondering if I was technically trespassing or not since I had already signed move-out documents. He was probably thinking about how much time he had wasted for something like 13 cents worth of electricity, and how he couldn’t really stop me from simply dropping by any day after school to turn the breakers off again. Finally he said he’d take the electric bill out of our name. I grabbed my loofah, left, and didn’t hear anything about it ever again. Most importantly, I never paid another cent (except, of course, the two months of rent, but small victories!). TLDR: Was being charged for the electricity in an apartment I no longer lived in so I shut off the power, putting the landlord in violation of safety regulations and making him drive in from out of town to investigate it. This happened over a decade ago and I’m now a homeowner several states away. I’m not going to pursue any legal action. I’ve been relatively successful in life, and my time is worth more than I’d ever get out of it. I was surprised that the outside hallway light, which was a public area, was affected by the breaker inside the apartment. It definitely sounds like that’s illegal or at least against standard wiring practices. I did my final walk-through and sign off with the on-site manager, not the property owner. I’d actually never met the property owner before. We were moving to a newer, much nicer apartment on a long-term lease where we didn’t pay for electricity. We actually never ended up having an electric bill in that state in our name again. I’m not actually sure if the electric bill was in our name, or if they were just going to deduct any electric charges from our deposit, or some third option I don’t remember. I just remember I was going to be charged for electricity after we moved out and I thought it was stupid. There were multiple items left in the bathroom, including a towel that was part of a matching set. I just remember the loofah most distinctly, and it made for a great sentence. Yes, I could have just propped the door to the fridge and freezer open to prevent mold, but I didn’t think of that. I’m also not sure what I would have propped them open WITH, since the apartment was completely empty.

Erik_Withacee , Markus Spiske Report

Sorry for any typos, English is not my native language. This actually happened a few years to my mom’s neighbor. I talked to her this Friday and was amazed how people can be [jerks]. A few years ago she and her husband wanted to rent an apartment, as a newlyweds and somehow new in the country, they didn’t have lots of money so they ended up renting at a s****y town. The landlord wasn’t very nice to begin with, but the price was reasonable and the place looked OK. After negotiating about the price and terms they signed a contract with him. They’re good independent people so they thought they wouldn’t need to be in contact with him. Time has come to move in, they tried to meet him so he’ll give them the keys, but he avoided them for a few days, until one day he told them that the keys are in the mailbox. They got in and they were in shock. The a*****e left them with an EMPTY apartment. And by empty I mean. No lights/lamps, he took out the air-conditioners, he even took out the power outlets and switches. Left on tap in the kitchen. They spent huge sums of money just to be able to live there. Of course he could hardly be reached. If there was something wrong with the place infrastructure he didn’t repair it or stalling them for long periods of time so they will give up and pay for the repairs themselves. Nearing the end of the lease, the couple decided to give the man a taste of his own medicine. They met him so he can examine the place before legally releasing them from the contract and give them back their collaterals. Everything was ok, the place was painted and they took everything that the installed, it was fine by him. They told him that the contract is to be voided tomorrow they will spend the night at the apartment and leave the keys in the mailbox. He said ok and left. They spent whole night repainting his apartment. But this time in black, they literally painted every inch of the place black. By the time they finished the place looked like a bat cave. The contract said that the apartment should be given back painted. But it didn’t say what color it should be. Of course he called the next day, and of course they didn’t answer. TL;DR Landlord was an [jerk] by stripping the place completely and avoided the tenants all year, ends up with a black painted apartment that will probably need weeks to repaint.

avtothemu , charlesdeluvio Report

Tldr; basically the title. Brief backstory: A couple years ago, I was in an apartment with my friend and younger sister. My sister was violent towards my friend and I, and I ended up having to get a restraining order against her. She brought in a dog without permission, which caused some damage to the unit. I informed my landlord of the incidences of violence and the damage and sent him pictures. He basically told me to deal with it myself, which I did by getting the protective order. After this, my roommate questioned the legality of holding us responsible for her portion of rent (I told her it was, but she asked our landlord for a copy of the lease to show her uncle anyway, which admittedly was pretty stupid). Up until this point, our landlord had not asked us to leave due to my sister’s actions, but he did after the lease was brought into it. We were out by the date he specified on the notice to quit (the first step in the eviction process before the eviction actually occurs). My roommate was there until midnight making sure the place was spotless. We moved to an apartment across the street. Two weeks had passed since he was informed that we had vacated the unit, and we had not gotten anything regarding our security deposit. In our state, a landlord is required by law to either return the remainder of a security deposit within two weeks, or provide a letter itemizing what the deposit was used for. If they don’t, the tenant is owed the entire deposit. If the withholding is willful, the tenant is owed double the original deposit. The landlord had actually told me that he would be going on vacation immediately after we vacated, so I returned our keys to him and waited to see if he would send anything. He never did. After consulting with a tenant’s rights group to be sure I was in the right, I sent a pre-formatted letter 16 days after we vacated, which stated the specific laws regarding security deposits, and gave him our current address to send either the deposit or receipt to. The day after I sent this letter, I see him across the street, frantically running into the apartment for the first time since we moved out. I receive a text from him saying that he would return what’s left of our deposit “if he could get the apartment rented by the first of next month.” I respond by telling him that, as the letter I sent explained, he forfeits the right to keep any of the deposit after the two weeks is up. He responded saying that he would “see us in court” and that we were “nightmare tenants,” and that “this will be fun.” He said he would also be taking us to court for the costs to re-list and rent the apartment, which he claimed exceeded the amount of our deposit. After about a month or two of hearing nothing back, we decided to say “f*** it” and file a small claims suit against him, as he clearly wasn’t going to follow through on his threats. As the person who had almost all communication with him, I was the plaintiff in the case. He brought a “letter” that was dated for the day he texted me, where he arbitrarily wrote in what he used the deposit on, and claimed he sent us the letter. That obviously didn’t add up (which I thoroughly explained to the judge), as he had texted me that day saying that we would get some of the deposit returned, and that he had no proof that he actually sent that letter. He clearly just wrote it and printed it out for the court hearing. During the court hearing he also said a lot of false and victim-blaming [p**p], such as implying that I participated in the violence that occurred, saying we caused damages that were definitely there when we moved in, and just attacking my character in general. The judge ruled that the withholding of the security deposit was willful and awarded us double the deposit. But of course that wasn’t the end of it, and a few days before his deadline to pay us the money, he sends me a text just “letting me know that the decision has been appealed.” I didn’t answer and showed up

bripotato , wp paarz Report

Mid 2010s I was on a hunt for a place while crashing on a friend’s couch. I was checking out a place for 40% of monthly minimum wage and having arrived at the agreed upon time found an obese middle aged lady telling an agitated nephew that he can’t freeload in his room anymore. So I talk to her and always the marketer offer to do some free digital marketing tips (basic stuff that people just ignore) before checking out the rooms, it never hurts to offer something valuable and low-cost for free before negotiations. I found an amazing room that made me feel like a vampire count with thick ornate columns, high ceilings, velvet drapes, with the only light coming from the glass wall on one side that casted my silhouette towards the entrance and kept my face obscure sitting behind the desk. But I should scope out the place right? So the landlord tells me she was bad knees and asks the nephew she just kicked out to show me around and upstairs, specifically to the room that just freed up (his). Um what? That’s not wise… Not surprisingly he showed me the place flippantly, occasionally bad mouthing it, and let me know that there’s rats. Okay nope! I said my thanks, left the lying landlord. That should’ve been the end of it. Two days later, the landlord calls me in the middle of work and asks if I made a decision on the room and if I could show her the digital marketing tricks to which I gave her the benefit of the doubt and refused sternly. That should’ve been the end of it. Yet she kept on calling, even when I blocked her she found other numbers to call from over the next two weeks. One day I was in a foul mood so I finally agreed if only to get her out of my life, except she then directs me to the nephew she’s kicking out (as soon as his room is rented) because she’s not good with tech. Um what? That’s not wise, but meh its what she wanted. It turns out the freeloading nephew was a natural and he managed to rank landlord’s apartment on the top 10 search results complete with dead rats, dangerous fire escapes, fire hazards and all. The landlord was found in violation of numerous codes and I now had a capable and admiring digital marketer who eventually helped me get employed after CoVid layoffs.

CareBear177 , LinkedIn Sales Solutions Report