r/TenantHelp

I’ve been renting a house for over 3 years. The landlord has used this address for her mail (and her dead husband’s) the entire time despite living an hour away. It caused some issues at the beginning of the lease because she never mentioned it prior to us moving in, and is now becoming an issue again. I’m wondering if we have any kind of legal recourse or just need to deal with it and plan to move at the end of our lease.

She was using it as an excuse to come up into the property and walk around the yard and occasionally even looked in the windows if the curtains were open. She made it clear she has no intention of changing her mailing address, and that she likes to have a reason to “come by and keep an eye on the place”. A few months in, after several calls/texts from her about not liking how we had the yard set up, questioning things she had seen in our trash, comments on our furniture layout, etc., I put my foot down about the lease agreements. Basically the notice she’s supposed to give in writing that she’d be entering the property, and that outside of the obvious regarding damage, we don’t have to get her approval for how we set up the house/yard. I also involved the leasing agency she had used while trying to get it rented who also reiterated the rules she’s supposed to follow.

She continued to use the mailbox, with the agreement that she would inform me if she intended to come onto the property beyond that. It’s been mostly smooth other than her occasionally being borderline accusatory when she was expecting some mail item that wasn’t delivered, and some of our mail being taken by her because she’ll grab everything from the box without going through it.

Fast forward to the past two weeks, and she’s had multiple larger packages delivered here. The first I assumed was a mistake, and USPS had sat it on the mailbox so I left it alone. Apparently it got taken, so I ended up with multiple calls and texts from her about where it was. There’s been several more, all to the front door now, including two delivered today. I’m super uncomfortable with this for numerous reasons. I refuse to bring them inside because I am not taking responsibility for them. Nor do I want to have to chase her down about collecting them. I also don’t like the idea of her having multiple excuses to come right up to my front door and living room window. Our house is raised up considerably from the road and our driveway is long so the curtains and windows are usually open, and she’s obviously proven in the past to be nosy and invasive.

I reached out to her to ask if she could make sure packages are being addressed to her correctly so as to not be left on our door, and her response was that it’s not a big deal for us to have her come by to collect them without notice unless we’re hiding something and don’t want her to find out, and that we shouldn’t need 48 hours to “prepare” for her to be on the property if we’re actually taking care of it. I told her I just don’t like feeling like we’re constantly being randomly checked up on, especially this far in. We’ve never paid rent late, she has commented on how clean and well taken care of the house is every time she comes for an inspection, and we’ve only ever reached out for one repair. As well as us not making a big deal over things in the lease she hasn’t kept up with (like snow removal that we’ve had to pay for all three winters so far even though it’s supposed to be included in our rent).

Are our hands just tied on this? I don’t want to move our kids away from this neighborhood because we love it and our neighbors, but this doesn’t feel sustainable or fair. I really hope there’s something we can do because we’re locked in for another 9 months on this lease and it’s going to be miserable if it keeps up.

Hey y’all,

We have been renting for going on six years at the same rental location. We haven’t had any issues with our landlord, but really never had a major issue until now.

Background: the house is is an old house, and the septic pump was replaced around three years ago. The septic pump has failed due to being clogged, and the landlord sent a unlicensed plumber out to attempt to fix the issue which intern caused the problem to become worse, raw sewage leaking from pipe outside of the house.

We have asked for over a month now to have someone come out to fix the pump because the last plumber broke the wash out connectors causing raw sewage to overflow in the backyard. There is a creek that runs through our property that is around 400 feet away from the sewage leak and we are concerned about polluting the waterway.

The landlord has not responded and is unwilling to send someone out to fix the issue.

The Handy Man, who does work around the property suggested we tell the landlord that we will start living out of a hotel and deduct the hotel cost from the monthly rent. The same Handy Man also suggested at one point that we pay to have the pump fixed and just deduct from the rent.

My question is are we legally able to deduct from the rent or if we withheld the rent due to the plumbing issue will the landlord have rights to evict us??

Do we tip off the city about a potential environmental hazard?

We love where we live and don’t want to get anyone in trouble or piss off the landlord (I hate I just said that). Landlords suck and we don’t want to move. We just signed a new lease in August.

Let me know your thoughts, thanks in advance!!

So I’m not sure of this is a normal thing that goes on but it seems a little sketchy. Today (10-1-26) our apartment building has new landlords. We received a paper under the door for the new information as far as paying rent and who to contact for maintenance and other questions.

The first thing that seemed odd was the contact information. For any questions about rent, maintenance, or other property matters we have to email someone. There is no other form of contact like a phone number. I thought it was a bit weird as there is no phone number in case of emergencies or stuff of the sort where we would need to call. But all we have is email.

The second weird thing is the way to pay rent. The only thing listed as far as directions is the name to write who to pay for on a check with a mailing address and an accounting and routing number to Wells Fargo. I don’t fully understand why they listed an acct and routing number as there is no portal or website to go to, to send money to. Anytime I have had to use any information for routing, it’s usually through a company own website or portal that is already set up to enter my details. It seemed a bit odd to just have this information but no where to enter details to send.

Then the mailing address for sending checks. Since the other details seems odd to me I was a bit weary about where money was being sent to so I looked up the address. When looking on Google Maps it pulls up an apartment in another city about an hour away to send any mail to. I didn’t think much of it because I know some places are privately owned and have mail going to there private residence, but it just seemed odd to me that our owner who just purchased an apartment building for near a million dollars would be living in an apartment elsewhere.

I ended up looking who the owner of the apartment was through the Geographic Information System (GIS) and the owner of said apartment was listed as an address. After searching for the address of the listed owner, a business office pulled up, and in the suite number listed was a business called triangle accounting. After searching the name of the business, it states that this company is the largest Chinese accounting firm in the eastern United States.

Knowing this information now is throwing a lot of red flags for me. I used to work in property management and I know some places are listed under an LLC, but something about the separate apartment being listed and a Chinese accounting firm owning the building just seemed off to me.

This could just be me overthinking things, but it just didn’t make sense to me as we were notified today of the changes and rent is technically due today.

Location: Baltimore Maryland.

Hello. I moved out of an apartment in Baltimore city at the end of July. I left three trash bags in the apartment, tied and left by the door, as I was physically unable to bring them down at the end of my last day in the apartment (I'm chronically ill and struggle with muscle weakness). Otherwise I left the apartment fully clean and I took photos as evidence.

When I got my short security deposit back a few weeks ago I noticed a $250 charge for "trash left in apartment and in front yard". I reached out to the landlords about it and told them I hadn't left anything in the front yard upon leaving. I had them email me a picture of what they were talking about, and they sent back a pic of a metal bed frame, two box springs, and a mattress that were apparently in front of the building at some point. I don't remember seeing them during my last day but I could be mistaken.

In any case, I told them the items weren't mine and sent them photos of the bed setup I had while I lived in the apartment (a futon mattress and wooden platform frame) as well as pics of the apartment as I left it. They're still refusing to refund me most of the $250, saying they sent me a message about the yard mess the day after I moved out (they did not, I just asked for a copy of the supposed message), and that they had mentioned the yard mess during a phone call I had placed to them while I was waiting for my security deposit to be refunded (they did not mention anything specifically in the yard, simply that there was garbage left and I assumed they meant the trash bags I left). They're also saying that the owner and leasing agent are "confident" that the items were mine, even though neither of those people should have been in my apartment at any time during my tenancy.

Their lease also included an illegal clause saying they had the right to enter at any time for any reason without giving notice. When I pointed out this went against Maryland law, they stood by it.

Is there an organization within Baltimore city and/or the state of Maryland I can report this to? Or do I just need to take it to the police?

Thank you.

I just moved in August 1 and the first week I told the landlord about the mold in the washer which he said just hit the clean tub feature. It did nothing. My apartment has mold in the washer, drywalls, and wood around the AC. I’ve been to the ER twice and my health issues are just getting worse. I’m unsure what to do given rent is due today but I am in the process of finding an Airbnb this week. The landlord has blown me off and my maintenance requests are not being addressed.

I had no luck finding a firm to take on my case as it has to do with both mold and tenant/landlord. It goes beyond breaking a lease, seeking damages to my belongings, medical complications to my already existing disability, and suing for them knowing of the mold and covering it up before I moved in with paint and a full renovation.

I have proof from the Board of Health that came to take moisture readings which confirmed the high levels in the walls. Additionally proof of mold in the shower and washer. Maintenance requests have been blown off and the landlord continues to gaslight me.

Any recommendations on how to proceed being today rent is due and I need to move out for the sake of my health like this week? Any additional advice is greatly appreciated!

Thank you 🙏🏻