r/LandlordLove

So when we went to look at this apartment the landlord was super nice. Of course he was he needed to fill a home. He said a lady with 3 kids will be moving above us. Come to turn out she moved 10 people in. I told the landlord this and he said I was crazy. But yet they have 3 cars and so much proof there is a lot of people up there. In the lease we have the basement and the door connects to my kitchen next to my bedroom. And the lady above has the attic which they use as a bedroom. So my problem is they blow a fuse all the time and they need to go into my basement because the box is in there. The landlord gave her the code to my basement we don’t have keys it’s digital. So now with the warm weather they keep blowing a fuse causing them to just let themself in my basement. I don’t like it I have expensive collectibles down there and I feel like someone is breaking in because if I’m napping I can hear them down there. What should I do moving forward?

Adding : thank you all so much. Gonna get a door bar after work and a wireless camera. Also for some clarity I know I made this confusing. There is also a door on the outside that leads to the basement. And from the basement there is a door that goes to my kitchen.

🚨 WARNING TO ANYONE CONSIDERING SKY PARK APARTMENTS 🚨

This apartment complex allowed children to terrorize and abuse community cats for MONTHS while management looked the other way.

Cats were:
- chased
- kicked
- threatened
- poisoned
- disappearing one by one

Over 20 cats are now missing, dead, or suspected poisoned.

I personally documented children on camera threatening cats, harassing my service dog, screaming racial slurs, and making violent comments. My service dog is now fearful because of the constant harassment.

Want to know the worst part?

When I tried to raise awareness using screenshots from security footage, management told me I was committing “child abuse” by exposing the behavior instead of addressing the abuse happening to animals.

Meanwhile:
- rescuers had to remove 30+ cats from the property for their safety
- tenants complained repeatedly
- management allegedly continued protecting the families involved instead of the animals

Animal abuse is illegal. Defending it is disgusting.

If this happened at your apartment complex, would you stay silent?

Sacramento deserves to know what has been happening here.

Please help bring attention to this situation because animals kept disappearing while management failed to act.

If you believe apartment management should be held accountable for ignoring animal abuse and tenant safety concerns, make your voice heard. Public pressure is often the only thing that forces situations like this to be taken seriously. Share this, report the property to the appropriate agencies, and leave honest public reviews so future tenants know what has been happening here.

I moved to a new apartment, everything seemed totally fine. I sent the old landlord a 60 day notice as per our lease, they told us it was done, we coordinated a time for me to go drop off the keys to the old apartment and everything. Seemed like everything was totally fine!

Now, 5 days into this month. I get an email saying that old landlord is charging me late fees on my unpaid rent. But of course, I shouldn't be paying them rent anymore! I figured it was just a mistake and attempted to reach out. A few days go by with no response, i message again. I've now sent several messages through both email and text, clearly stating im trying to contact them regarding this charge. They're just completely ignoring me!

So, does anyone know anything I can do about this? I'm worried they're going to begin an eviction if we don't pay, even though we've been out and everything was handled. There's nobody else for me to reach out to with this particular property group. I'm feeling so frustrated and helpless with this! Does anyone happen to have any advice?

Someone hit and ran the mailbox of the house my wife and I are renting. Maintenance responded after 3 weeks, left a 4*4 post in the ground and screwed the old box on the post. No concrete, no new box, just kicked the dirt back in the hole and called it a day. The rental company is now expecting us to pay $180 for their handy work, why am I responsible for this situation? All I did was report the accident to the rental company, should I have bothered making a police report? Are they tripping or do I actually have to pay for someone else’s damages to someone else’s property?

Location: Waterville, Maine

Do I have any legal ground to stand on? I rent in Maine and have lived at this property for three years now, I don’t have the physical letter that stated my rent ended June 1, but the property manager does agree that it was on the original letter, I’m worried if I “break my lease“ I won’t get back my security deposit, or if I just give in and pay a month worth of rent when I’m not going to be there is going to be the same thing as just not getting my deposit back.

This is unexpectedly put me in a very hard spot because as you all know, moving in somewhere requires you to pay an arm a leg and your firstborn child. I guess on just wondering if i’m out 1200$

Attached is an email thread with my property manager;

Thanks Sophia, Your lease does go to the end of June incase you wish to change your vacate date from the 1st.

-
Hi ,

We will be vacating June 1, the note attached to our door did say that the lease ends on June 1, but I do appreciate the extension! 

Thank you, 
—

Sophia, The date on the letter was a misprint. Non of our leases would end on the 1st of the month. I have attached the renewal summary from your last renewal. It clearly states in the top left the start and end date of the lease. It also shows monthly payments due through the end of the lease.

The biggest reason for this move was the timing and convenience of my lease being up, It’s about 2 weeks away from my move IN date to my new place and this has just caused a big wrench in all of these plans, I don’t know anything about renting laws in Maine but any help or answers would be appreciated, thank you for reading

I know i’m preaching to the choir here but honestly every landlord i’ve had has been a total sleeze. Even the better ones still don’t do anything unless they absolutely have to or unless you mention the contract.

I have lived for a few months with the latest landlord and from the get go it was obvious they only cared about the money like all landlords however this one made sure i also knew they only cared about the money by being downright rude and disrespectful lmao.

Literally ignoring me for weeks, asking way too many personal questions, always wanting to come and “check on me” despite being extremely clean and respectful of peoples property i must admit i have been worn down by this pos.

Now i usually have at least a common middle ground with most of my previous landlords but this one there is just nothing to like. I quite literally only stay here because i need to otherwise i would have left which is more about the inflated housing market than about this specific landlord but i digress.

Hi, California renter here. My two roommates and I recently moved out of an apartment owned by a corporate landlord. There are a few things that we knew we were going to be charged for (namely, the carpet that my roommates dog destroyed and a cleaning fee) and we’re fine with that, but they’re also trying to charge us for replacing the toilets because they were “stained” and they’re charging us for our last months utility bills, which would be fine except the total is wayyyyyyyy more than we payed when we lived there, and we weren’t even living in the apartment the last week of our lease.

For the toilets, they’re arguing “heavy staining” but it’s really not? The toilets are both fully functional, they just don’t look brand new. Wouldn’t that be considered normal wear and tear?

And for the utilities, they’re saying that because they’re billed “in arrears” it’s correct but again we never paid that much when we were living there. For example, I can see on our itemized bill that we paid $70 for trash on April 1st (we pay rent and utilities on the 1st of the month, and then our lease was up on April 8th but we moved out and cut utilities on April 1st) and then on April 10th there’s a $100 charge for trash. Their argument is that it’s “in arrears” but did we not already pay that in April 1st? It’s the same with all the utilities billed through the property; we paid our normal rates on the 1st and then got charged again on the 10th at a higher rate.

We’ve tried speaking to the landlord and sending letters and emails but they keep doubling down and saying if we don’t pay by May 22nd they’ll send us to collections. I’m tempted to just let them send it to collections because this seems ridiculous? Am I just not understanding something?

Also, if it does go to collections, will that impact my ability to qualify for other apartments in the future?

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

My landlady loves doing them.There's something humilating about being nearly 30, with a career, and having some granny come check if you keep your room clean. Also, my mother died recently and THIS is when she decides to show up. Like, really, you weren't here for months and somehow you figured this was the perfect time to think about your flat?

She also wants to only come mornings-"I don't want it to be dark when I'm outside". And likes bringing those fugly plastic tablecloths to "prevent surfaces being damaged". I don't keep them on when she's not aorund, so I have to remember to put them back on when she comes-it's obnoxious.

I do try to keep the place(altough I immensly resent the pressure of having to do it for someone else to be satisfied and not for me), but I can't help but ask-if I didn't keep the place clean, so what? Just hire a service from my deposit and clean it after I leave.

I haven't bothered her with any kind of repair/maintenance request in one year and a half, and you'd think she'd return the favour by giving me some peace, but alas. When I finally get my own place, getting rid of those visits will be the no.1 reason.

So I recently moved in with my boyfriend and his brother who are staying in a place for cheaper rent. The cheaper rent because they cleaned the house up after the previous tenant who neglected it. They even had to remove structures put up by the previous tenant that had mold collecting inside (they also mentioned that the previous tenant was a drug user and they had to clean that as well). Even recently, months after cleaning up and properly moved in asked for us to remove another structure that is connected to a neighbors house because the insurance company deemed it unsafe and won’t give him the insurance until it is removed. When my bf told the landlord that it was connected and the neighbor ignored him on the matter, the landlord said that it was okay for him to basically trespass and just do it. Nothing was done about the structure and the landlord hasn’t mentioned it since. But there are still other issues about the house that I believe is the landlord’s responsibility but has not and may not taken care of.
\- majority of outlets are faulty/broken and do not work
\- most lights do not work
\- broken window
\- corroded shelves in master bedroom bathroom under the sink and throughout the entire kitchen
\- fence falling down in backyard

Most recently the bathtub in the master bedroom’s bathroom. The tub is peeling a lot. So much that I can’t even clean it. The tub was painted by I’m assuming the previous tenant or landlord. I asked multiple times if my bf did it, in which he did not paint it. We asked the landlord if he can get someone to remove the peeling paint and have it redone, which he replies asking if we can just do it. He told us that we could just find a youtube video and he’ll reimburse for the materials.
To me, I feel this is wrong and not something that should fall unto us, especially after they worked so hard cleaning and fixing up the house when the landlord didn’t. Now, i’m very new to renting, but isn’t this stuff that should be taken care of by the landlord? All these issues were cause before my bf and his brother moving in, and they even stayed this way without complaining because they had a place to stay that is affordable. Now that i’m moved in, i’m trying to make sure that they aren’t being taken advantage of, which is what I feel like is happening.

Am I overreacting or should we report him? We have videos of the house’s condition before they cleaned up, texts about the owner asking him to trespass, and asking to repair the tub ourselves.
Any advice or info would be very helpful 🙏

I moved to a new city and went to a shelter. I was looking to rebuild my life but had nothing. No money, no car, no family, no friends, I knew no one in this city, I wasn't familiar with the city, and no partner. I was completely lonely with nothing. I had tunnel vision regarding employment, I had a desire to land a job. I made that known to the staff at the shelter and they said they'd help me with bus passes to work. Also, I had no clothes and one pair of shoes. Anyhow, they helped with nothing. When I did go to clothing closets from people who donated clothes I had to carry all of the clothes on the bus and was the only one doing this as I pay attention to my surroundings. When I moved the home was furnished with used items, then I got a bed voucher and my case worker and I had to get the bed into the apartment ourselves. My problem is that I wasn't set up for success. Ideally I would've gotten my place, then the case worker would say here are two 30 day bus passes for you to get what you need like clothes, food, find a job and get to work.

Then provided me with resources for work or even shared some places I could apply for, basically actually help me secure a job. Instead everything was made harder for me and I'm dealing with mental health issues on top of all of this. No therapist helped, no psych wards either., no generic medicine they kept giving me. Imagine suffering 24/7. Okay so, I ended up having to constantly worry about food, this looked like walking from food pantries with as much as I can carry or take on the bus as much as I could carry. Which means I'm not really getting the food I need. Once I even went hungry for 5 days and literally almost died, still no help. They are so cold saying they can't help. I was without lights and got water more than once in the cold, once for 3 or 4 months. They moved me to a new apartment but I'm still having trouble, I can't grocery shop because I have brain fog and am scatter brained. I do what I can to feed myself, though.

I have no energy and am trying to figure out what to do or what I'm missing. I've worked at the airport, dominos,as a Direct Support Professional and Dunham's Sporting goods store since I've been here but all of those jobs were short lived because of my mental issues and I just can't do the job. One job I didn't look presentable enough for. When I worked at Amazon here I took the bus, then walked 30 minutes up a dirt road with high grass and no side walk just to get to work. Just so people wont call me lazy. I suffer at home everyday just wanting to call it quits. I don't how many days I can say I didn't know what id eat or only at chips. My apartments have been broken into. My case worker won't move me by the way. Once I came home from work all of my items that were folded at the top of my closet were no longer folded and scattered across the shelf, with my bag on the opposite side of the closet. I had asked the manager and the manager said it was pest control then checked the list f units pest control visited and mine wasn't there. Then the manager called pest control and they said it wasn't them, so I called the police. When the police arrived they asked maintenance and maintenance said it was them because a company randomly showed up and they had to check wires in my unit.

I had just talked to the manager about 10 minutes before the police arrived and the manager said nothing to me about this. They didn't give me proper notice. I recently received a package and I checked the delivery on the website and the worker took a photo when they delivered it, the package was closed, when I got to it the package was opened with the item still inside. I have gone months without clean clothes or covers because I had no money and no way to wash the things and when I did they said take the bus to do laundry. My hair hasn't been presentable enough to land a job either. My case worker is now playing games? She gave me the number for her coworker who works at a different office than she does for bus passes if I needed them, I used to be able to walk to his office to get them but I moved so I can't walk there anymore and lost his number. She gave me his number again.

Then I told her id need her to bring me the bus pass, as she brings small bags of mostly canned goods (don't have a can opener so I use a knife to open the cans) and paperwork she needs me to sign. She then says "as you know we don't give out bus passes." So I call the office and her coworker says shed bring me one, then said I'm throwing her coworker under the bus because I said how I'm confused about if they have them or not. She then goes back on her word saying she can't bring it and she doesn't "think" they have any right now. Made me call her back instead of calling me back after finding out if they had any or not. I have absolutely no help and wanted to see if someone here would tell me what to do. If you have questions I'm willing to answer them. Location: Lansing, Michigan.

Why I highly recommend this book:

Power and the public's "mental real estate"

Before reading this book, I already had a good understanding of how power works, at least in the abstract.

One way that power works, is that the powerful do what they can to control and limit the public's thinking, understanding, imagination, power, options, solidarity, etc.

Because when the public are dumbed down, atomized, subjugated, unimaginative, and believe that they're powerless, those are the conditions that maximize exploitability, and accordingly, profits.

But despite understanding how power works in the abstract, whenever I find a specific example of how my own thinking and understanding has been constrained by power, it's still a revelation and a breath of fresh air.

That was my experience reading Abolish Rent by Tracy Rosenthal and Leonardo Vilchis, two co-founders of the LA Tenants' Union.

Obviously, the landlords have (and have had) incredible influence over the media, politicians, and the economics profession over time, and that has allowed them to constrain the public's thinking, understanding, and options when it comes to housing/unhousing systems.

That's a big part of how they've been able to steamroll the public and force people into conditions of maximum exploitability under the guise of the so-called "free market".

This book is a powerful and enlightening reminder that the housing/unhousing system and housing relations are products of power, and of class struggle, and are not just due to abstract and impersonal "market conditions".

That's exactly the power and understanding that the landlords don't want the public to have, because they want to create and maintain conditions of maximum and frictionless exploitability.

Which is a great reason for the public to gain exactly that power and understanding.

Abolish Rent is an excellent resource for the public to reclaim mental real estate, and to gain/reclaim power, understanding, and perspective that the landlords don't want people to have.

The book is worth reading even for just the breath of fresh air from all the reclaimed mental real estate.

The value, power, and necessity of tenants' unions

Abolish Rent also opened my eyes to the value and revolutionary potential of tenants' unions in building working class power, community, and solidarity.

Whereas labor unions and trade unions tend to be split up by companies and industries (Wobblies aside), tenants' unions naturally have broad appeal and fewer barriers to entry, because everyone needs housing.

I believe every major city would benefit from having a powerful tenants' union, both as a structural, renewable, scalable source of public/community power, and as an excellent and necessary community resource.

As I said above, landlords want the public to be stupid, because that maximizes the public's exploitability, and accordingly, profits and rents.

But landlords also want the public to be atomized, and to think that they're powerless individuals unable to resist or fight against their own exploitation.

As a practical example of the collective power that landlords are scared of, when tenants in NYC realized they were in the majority, they helped elect Mamdani to freeze the rent and control housing costs.

Power and imagination

Do you feel that fresh breeze of renewed possibility from Mamdani's election?

It's because people's imaginations tend to be constrained by political power.

People tend to think about what's possible in terms of what's possible right now.

But by building out and gaining political power, a lot more becomes possible, and easier to imagine, over time.

To create a more just future, the public needs to build out countervailing power to the landlords' political power, and their total domination of the public's thinking around housing, and housing/unhousing systems and policies.

Building out powerful tenants' unions, city by city, is an effective way for the working class to build power over the long term, and accordingly to imagine an increasingly better and more just future for themselves and future generations.

As AI and technological unemployment become increasingly real concerns for millions of people, it will become all the more important for the public to build out real, sustainable political power, to lower the so-called "cost of living", and to create more just and equitable housing systems for everyone.

Many thanks to Tracy Rosenthal, Leonardo Vilchis, and the LA Tenants' Union for writing this book, and Haymarket Books for publishing!

Do yourself and everyone a favor, and read Abolish Rent!

https://tracyrosenthal.com/