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Hi, my flat’s annual contract is ending this month, unfortunately I recently lost my job.

I Just want to know whether the landlord (he is a bit difficult to deal with) will ask for a 2-month rent penalty if I inform them that I do not intend to renew the contract once it ends this month.

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?

Our ceiling collapsed in the master bedroom, the entire ceiling every single piece of it. A majority of my clothing got destroyed along with a lot of durable medical equipment that was super expensive. Our tv and mattress too and all our bedding.
Everything is covered in fiber glass, and I have severe chronic illnesses so attempting to salvage stuff at the risk of me getting contaminated with fiber glass can’t happen.

Our landlord is having the ceiling fixed but so far that’s it.

The renters insurance is asking us to provide proof and receipts of everything that was damaged… a lot of my clothing is old and I don’t have receipts.

I guess I’m just asking for advice and trying to figure out how screwed we are. We already had to spend a ton for me to get new clothes cause fiber glass hit everything in my closet, I don’t even have underwear. I had to get new everything just to go to work and even cheap Walmart stuff costs money when you need every single piece of clothing to function in society.

We also have a brand new mattress that I do have the receipt for, and a tv that got broke but no receipt for that.
I am very frustrated cause I know they aren’t going to just hand us a check but also, I have to replace thousands in medical garments along with our mattress, tv, blankets, pillows, and almost all my clothes cause very little didn’t get hit (and what didn’t get hit is winter items and it’s 90 where I’m from so it’s not usable for the near future).

We aren’t trying to play the system or get more than what we’re owed, but I also buy expensive clothes and I’m out a large portion of my wardrobe, and it already seems like based off my call with the adjuster that they are already trying to pay as little as possible.

What can I do here? I’m feeling really defeated and our whole lives are turned upside down now. We can’t even touch anything until an in person adjuster comes which is frustrating as well.

I’m not sure if I put the right Flair. I just need to vent because I feel like I’m being completely dismissed by my housing authority after everything I’ve dealt with.
I lived in a unit for about two years with a termite infestation. Termites were actively coming through my bedroom walls, kitchen walls, and laundry room walls. it was visible, ongoing damage inside the home.
An inspector even came out and stated that the walls needed to be replaced.
Despite that, the housing authority is now claiming the unit was still “safe, clean, and habitable,” and they are labeling my relocation as “voluntary,” even though I was moved because of the condition of the unit.
We also had a grievance hearing to address all of this, but the experience made me feel even more unheard. The panel consisted of three people who appeared to personally know the landlord, and I felt there were clear signs of bias during the hearing. They were smiling, smirking, and even chuckling at parts of my response, which made it feel very dismissive and unprofessional.
On top of that, the housing authority presented incorrect facts during the hearing, so I feel like the decision wasn’t even based on the actual situation.
They also kept framing a lot of their arguments around “what if” scenarios that didn’t reflect real life. For example, they suggested that even in the original unit I would have still had to go to a laundromat if I didn’t have a washer and dryer, or even suggested things like carrying wet laundry to the laundromat after washing it, which felt completely disconnected from reality and what I was actually dealing with.
At the very end of the hearing, the landlord also made a comment along the lines of if I don’t like the new unit, I could “move back in” to the old one with the termites. They also mentioned that there were laundry units at other locations I could use, but those were never offered or discussed with me before the hearing.
Because I was relocated, I’ve also been dealing with a lot of unexpected financial strain:
My new unit does not accommodate a standard washer and dryer, so I now have to use laundromats regularly
I had to pay someone to move my furniture because I wasn’t able to move everything myself and my husband works nights, so he wasn’t available during the day
The new unit was not properly cleaned when I moved in
The refrigerator provided didn’t work, and I lost all the food I had stored inside it, and I’m being told I won’t be reimbursed
It’s frustrating because I feel like none of the actual living conditions or my experience are being taken seriously. I didn’t choose to move—I felt like I had no choice because the unit was no longer livable in my experience, even though they are now describing it differently.
Now I’m left dealing with all the financial fallout while also being told the original unit was perfectly fine, and that my relocation was “voluntary.”
I’m just exhausted and feel completely unheard.

Ive tried calling every legal aid out there and most of them claim they only help disabled individuals or eviction cases😭

[US- CA]

Hey all,
Landlords have workers doing some outside repairs and decided without warning to remove all the "dangling cables" which turned out to be our unit's internet. We lost access for 2 days which affected my work, cost me phone data and put a friend I look after remotely at risk. The landlords are refusing to pay anything for the damage saying the cable was damaged (I doubt it, I got fiber installed maybe 6-7 years ago).
Is there anything we can do to require them to pay for the damage incurred?
We installed and pay for this internet ourselves, it's not part of the rent.

[This is a rent controlled unit in San Francisco]

[US - IL - Chicago]
The last day on my lease said May 22nd. I communicated with my landlord that we would be moved out by May 18th, and all he said was “sounds good”. On May 1st, I sent a prorated rent for May 1-18. I left the keys locked in the apartment on the 17th, and texted to confirm we were out and the keys were there. Again, I just received a “sounds good” response.
On the 19th I get a text from him claiming that they don’t prorate rent once a tenant has begun the month. I was a little unsure about prorating the rent to the 18th, but figured I would do it until he said something. It seems fishy that he waited to mention this until after I returned the keys. Otherwise, I would have kept the keys longer if I was paying for the entire month. But do I have to pay the full 31 days of rent even if my lease expires on May 22nd? My lease says nothing about them not prorating rent once the calendar month begins. I’m not trying to be difficult, I just genuinely need some advice. I’ll pay what I legally owe, but this is not the same experience I’ve had when moving out of previous apartments. Thank you in advance 🫶🏻

EDIT: I actually just realized I did pay rent prorated till the 22nd, not the 18th. But he’s telling me I owe for the entire 31 days even though my lease ends the 22nd.

I can get into specifics, but figured I should keep it vague for the sake of my safety.

US. so we moved into this apartment in Schenectady New York, it’s a basement apartment in a house . We found a camera under the table in the public laundry room , only found it because I was in a wheelchair temporarily. We weren’t told about it and you absolutely can’t see it when you walk in and do laundry . After our lease ended ( 6 months), they switched to month by month without giving us a new lease in writing ( even though they said we would renew for another 6 months ) . We also have been paying in cash and haven’t been given any receipts . We asked for receipts but they are just ignoring us . It’s getting to the end of the month and we don’t know what to do.

[US-PA] My lease is up on July 1. I told my landlord earlier this month I’m “not planning on signing another lease contract” and plan to move out. I haven’t found a new place to live, however I knew I had to give them a heads up if I don’t plan on moving out. I actually really love my apartment but it’s just too small for me and my cat who I didn’t have when I moved in. The price is affordable and I’m looking at the apartments in the area I want to move to and the prices are kind of outrageous. My current place is 450sqft and $1050/mo, that’s including water and pet fee. Places in the area will have a the same square footage and be $200 more. My rent only increases by $25 a year. Financially, I can afford $1300/mo and still live comfortably. But what’s the point in moving if I can’t even get a much bigger space.

I actually like my landlords, they’re a really nice couple and I don’t want to screw them out of a tenant. They’re having an open house for my apartment this week. Is it acceptable for me to tell them I may be resigning when I’m still looking? Should I just keep looking and if I’m not interested in any other place, tell them later in June?

UPDATE: I messaged my landlord. The rent is going up by $30 and I’m staying. Thanks everyone for the advice and suggestions.

I’ve heard some landlords try to enforce some genuinely bizarre rules on tenants.

What’s the weirdest, most unreasonable, or oddly specific rule a landlord tried to make you follow?

Hey all, I live in a single family home I rent from an asset management company. Never met the actual owner. Our washer machine has been broken for about a week now and we immediately emailed the company telling them about it. They initally said to unplug it and plug it back in haha. Which we did but no luck.

They said they'd ask the owner how to proceed. Then they emailed us a chatgpt conversation on how to fix it. It was basically repairman level work. My wife and I aren't that handy around the house nor do we have time to try the list of activities they asked us to try before moving on to engaging a repairman.

Is this normal? Using generative AI to move the problem solving onto my family seems like a gimmick.

If you're interested in improving housing systems and housing policies, in building sustainable working class power for the long term, or even in just better understanding how power works in general, I highly recommend it.

People don't appreciate the full extent to which landlords have dominated, crippled, and limited the public's understanding, options, resources, and thinking around housing systems and housing policies.

The landlords have been so successful in getting their interests baked into the status quo, that people think that housing/unhousing systems and policies designed specifically to serve landlords' interests are due to neutral "market forces", rather than being the deliberate products of power and class conflict.

Landlords have been using their power to steamroll the public, to create and maintain homelessness as a threat (by lobbying against public housing options and new construction), and to force the public into conditions of maximal and frictionless exploitability to maximize their profits and rents, without any pushback whatsoever, for far too long.

So the book challenges many of the latent assumptions, thinking, and policies that the landlords have gotten the public to accept in the status quo, uncritically, often without awareness let alone any pushback.

The authors advocate for tenants' unions as a valuable and necessary community resource, and a countervailing power to landlords.

Without building and harnessing countervailing power, the public (including tenants and the unhoused) will be unlikely to be able to see or think clearly, let alone advocate effectively for more sensible and just housing systems and policies that actually meet the public's needs.

For one example of what collective power can accomplish, when NYS Tenants Bloc and Housing Justice for All got tenants to realize that they comprised a majority in NYC, they were able to mobilize to help Mamdani get elected to freeze the rent and control housing costs.

Obviously, landlords don't want the public realizing what can be accomplished with collective power and understanding.

They want the public to be and behave as atomized serfs, with crippled and limited understanding and imaginations, who think that they're powerless.

Those are the conditions that maximize the public's exploitability, and accordingly the landlords' profits and rents.

So this book is at or near the top of the list of the books that landlords don't want the general public to read, think about, or understand.

I highly recommend reading it, and supporting/growing your local tenants' union :)

i pay my rent early every single month. i never throw parties and i even fix the small to myself cause i dont wanna bother maintenance. ​now they hit me with a $150 rent increase and my shower has been leaking for 3 weeks. i literally asked for one thing to be fixed. do u guys think im a good tenant or am i just being played here? cause it feels like they just wanna punish the ones who actually take care of their property smh

I want to rent a room in a 3 bedrooom apartment and the landlord told me that I cant have people spent overnights there because my roommates might not be comfortable with it. I highly doubt they are the ones uncomfortable with it. We are all in our 20s and the most progressive generation. I think it’s her that’s uncomfortable with me having guys sleep over. I really like the place but I hate how prudish the landlord is.

I've rented the same apartment in Florida for almost 10 years. I've always paid on time, never had eviction issues, and recently gave proper 60-day notice because I'm finally moving into a better place.

Here’s where things get confusing:

I originally signed a lease years ago and then signed yearly renewal addendums after that. The last signed addendum renewed the lease through January 22, 2026. That addendum also referenced an “option of renewing” through January 2027 at a higher rent amount.

However, NO separate 2026 renewal/addendum was ever actually signed or executed after January 2026. I simply continued paying rent monthly in 2026, and the landlord continued accepting it.

The lease has a liquidated damages / early termination clause equal to 2 months’ rent (about $2,600+). Since I gave notice, the landlord hasn’t mentioned the fee yet, but based on her behavior during the move-out process, I’m concerned she may try to enforce it.

My question is:

In Florida, if no new 2026 lease renewal was actually signed, but rent continued being accepted after the prior lease term expired, does this more likely become a month-to-month tenancy? Or could the landlord still successfully argue that the future renewal term through 2027 was already binding because it was referenced in the prior addendum?

Just looking for opinions or experiences from anyone familiar with Florida landlord/tenant situations.

We had a mouse infestation in the shitty ass trailer that we have the misfortune of renting (it was our only option at the time)

We caught 10 mice within 3 days. I messaged our landlord that the entry points need to be sealed, and that we did not want him to put out rat poison because then something dies underneath and the smell is unbearable. We have two young children, one with asthma.

So what does he do? He puts out rat poison. And what happens? Something fucking died underneath and the smell is horrible. It's almost like we knew this would happen.

We have concerns for mold already, we did one of those at home tests and it signified mold, nothing toxic necessarily but since our kids have asthma/allergies, we're worried about how that's affecting them.

He told us someone would come on Monday to check it out. MONDAY!? It's currently Monday so we have to wait a whole week????

And he had the fucking audacity to raise the rent.

The only potential upside is that we are in the process of buying a house but it's been a very difficult, drawn out process. I'm at my wits end.

Would love any advice you have on what to do. (Besides setting the place on fire...joking for legal purposes)

[US-CA]

Hi All—

This is *mostly* hypothetical, but I'm curious about this situation. The basic gist was landlord didn't complete the walk through and didn't even respond about the security deposit until Day 29 (it's 21 days in Los Angeles), where she provided a sketchy list that didn't even list amounts. We went to small claims and won.

We originally pushed for bad faith (which would triple the amount) but didn't get it. But there were a few things we should have gotten—the demand letter via certified mail and the process server weren't included in our final amount. Those were small so fine whatever.

But here's where things get complicated. We submitted our evidence via the digital evidence system, but when we got there the judge was ancient and had no idea how to use it. Meanwhile, the landlord had not submitted the evidence in advance and simply handed it to us 5 minutes before the hearing. Only after did we realize how she did so much worse in her evidence—included tons of receipts for things outside the apartment (like fence repair and the washer/dryer in her illegal ADU), and included additional items that she hadn't texted about (for example, she included a repair of jacuzzi jets that were part of our shower that she told us on Day 1 of moving in never worked). Had we been able to review the evidence we would have stated this for the record and wasn't part of our testimony.

We did win, and my sense is the judge simply decided "21 days is 21 days" and did not review our evidence. However, I have a feeling the landlord may appeal. So here's my question: during or *at* the appeal can I request the "bad faith" claim? Or can I only defend the originally received amount? Hopefully she just sends us the money, but I can't help but be curious!

I just moved out of an apartment after living there for 30 months. After getting my security deposit back in the mail, it appears they are trying to pull one over on me, but being very vague in the charges. The following is what was listed.

Charges

Carpet Cleaning $112.61

Cleaning of apartment $165.00

Drip Pan Replacement $25

We do not have pets, we rarely wear shoes inside, and we are generally pretty clean people. I am not sure how a charge for carpet cleaning would make sense as, you cannot charge for normal wear and tear.

The "cleaning of apartment" charge seems very generic and not quite itemized, as we are fairly certain we cleaned everything outside of maybe forgetting one or two minor things (dusting above kitchen cabinets and maybe a door frame). Also, I was told by the old manager that drip pans were part of normal wear and tear, especially after 30 months of regular use.

Is there any point in disputing these charges? We forgot to take pictures of everything as we were leaving, but we have a couple saved. We are located in the US - Nebraska

Edit: In the initial lease, there might have been mention of a carpet cleaning fee, but I am not sure if that was carried over to the second lease, as I can not find it, and they are both from separate companies, as there was a buyout of the apartment complex during my initial lease.

the condition of my apartment is in much better shape than when I moved in 2 years ago... I turned in my 60 day notice and already started packing, moving some furniture out, I even patched up small holes from thumbtacks, repainted the walls white and started deep cleaning bc i am determined to get my deposit back... the past 2 years have been horrible living here... I am literally traumatized.. I was so close to breaking my lease 6 months ago.. but ended up just riding it out... my mental health was declining I started seeing my therapist weekly .. I have no idea where I'm moving too but I'm getting the hell out of here .. any suggestions on apartment hunting and starting somewhere new ? i hope my next move I'll be able to get my confidence back, make friends, FEEL SAFE, and love my apartment where I live at bc these past 2 years really did affect mentally