I HATE LANDLORDS

I HATE THEM WITH A PASSION. My last LL refueses to pay the security deposit and says we did crap that we didn't. He didn't even check out the house before we moved out. He wants to take us to small claims court so I'll have to sue his ass too. The one before that tried to evict me 3 times and I won but took a deal to move out to another hell hole and now the one I have is always nosing around and wanting us to sign new rules. I hate them, they're all crooks and low down sub-humans. Bastards everyone. Now I know what that guy in "Crime and Punishment" went through. I HATE LANDLORDS, I HATE LANDLORDS, I HATE LANDLORDS. Thanks, but I don't feel any better. Landlords are terrorist as far as I'm concerned. One more time: I HATE LANDLORDS, ENEMY NO. 1.

and many landlords are good people...sounds like you've had some bad experiences though...

Kill my landlord.

C - I - L - L
My land
lord


Classic Eddie Murphy

Do he bite?

Kill my landlord

Kill. My. Landlord.

That was one of the best -- right up there with "I'm Gumby, Dammit."

http://www.wgoeshome.com

I actually prefer it to the Gumby stuff.

Oh another of my favorites from him was when he did the James Brown impersonation -- Should I get in the hot tub? Will it make me sweat? Should I get in the hot tub? Will it make me wet?

This absolute scumbag old man screwed my roommate and I so badly when we moved out of my previous apartment.

The people who lived there before had absolutely trashed the place...we didn't find out until we moved in. We told him about it and he made light of it, so we had to clean everything up ourselves.

When we moved out, he blamed everything on us and screwed us on the deposit. Needless to say, I was/am furious and there's not a whole lot I can do about it. He is crooked as hell (all rent had to be in cash) and I'm sure he'll do it to the next tenants too.

I would love to get him back, but short of committing a crime myself, there's really not much I can do.

So I sit and stew. :grr:

But lots of places have groups that will give legal advice to people who rent and can't afford lawyers.

I used one a while back when they tried to charge me for a new carpet after I'd lived there for 4 years. I found out in TX they can only charge you a prorated amount based on a 7-year lifespan for the carpet. I had to sit there all day, but it did save me a lot of money. If you have an org like that around maybe they can help?

It would still be our word against his. There was no documentation about the apartment's condition and all the bills were paid in cash.

Basically, I learned a valuable lesson about renting: take pictures of the place when you move in to cover your ass.

Another life lesson, courtesy of New York City.

Yeah that's true. Everyting in writing and with pictures, dated and signed by a notary.

Greedy bastards everywhere. I blame reagan. ;)

They LOVE stuff like that scumbag.

I bet you could cause him some SERIOUS grief. Especially if they find out he's wanting his rent in cash.

We were kids; my youngest brother was in 1st or 2nd grade; we owned our house but my brothers played with 2 little boys whose family rented a duplex.

My little brother picked up a major swearword - 'Oh, you LANDLORD, you!'

lol... kids so rock. :)

If your landlord refuses to do an exit checklist, then you need to make matters into your own hands. On the day you do your final clean up by a daily newspaper, get a video camera and a portable radio, take videos and stills of every room in the apartment making sure that the paper is in the pictures and the radio is on a news channel playing. Then videotape you putting the key in a sealed envelope. Then videotape yourself locking the door. Then go to a local post office with the envelope, the video camera, and the radio. By a stamp and put it over the seal and ask your post office to put a post mark on the stamp. Then go back and return the key. If he doesn't give you the money send him a copy of the tape with a note stating you will sue. If he still doesn't sue.

when I lived in NYC, at least there was the housing authority to complain to.

Many states have no redress for landlord problems. They own the property, thus, they rule.

I once (in a non-Housing Authority state) killed myself to clean an apartment that was not even that dirty to begin with. Scrubbed things with a toothbrush, where I could not fit the regular brush. I had no pets then, and the carpet was clean.

The place was spotless. I worked a lot then (Clinton was in office), and was hardly home. The place was cleaner than when I moved in.

So, despite all of this, I was told by the charming Nazi-like woman hired by the doctors and lawyers who owned the building, that they were keeping my security deposit because of the "state of the apartment". I attempted to address this BS with the state's JOKE office (FL dismantled the little thing they had for tenants' rights) for tenants. Tough noogies. The guy in the state capitol, who worked for said office (and was probably the only guy there since FL decided to downsize all government) sounded nuttier than the landlady.

So, they got to keep my money. I learned:

1. Do not kill yourself to clean an apartment. They are keeping the money anyway.

2. The more "conservative" the state, the better chance of being screwed in all areas of life that are necessary, like rent, food, work.

3. Kill my landlord.

I can match you story-for-story with nightmare tenants. Skipping out, having to chase down for rent, bounced checks, not showing up for final walk-through, giving fake forwarding address, parking on the front lawn (despite being told repeatedly not to) turning it into a mud pit, almost getting us taken to court for violation of nuisance laws by angry neighbors, unauthorized pets (including a bird that they let fly free in the house and crap all over and cats whose pee ruined 2-year old carpeting, a fish tank that leaked and destroyed beautiful wood trim and floors) and lies, lies, lies. Culminating in the jerks who almost killed themselves when they set the place on fire (close to "totaled) after leaving a pan with grease and french fries on a burner before passing out drunk on the couch. Which could have been avoided if the smoke alarms hadn't been dismantled. (Hey, they'd needed batteries and those were handy.)

And keep in mind - all this is from ONE rental house, and three sets of tenants over the past 10 years.

There's lousy people on both sides.

eileen from OH

I had a pal whose dad rented out a house. It was an old house, yes, but it was large and everything worked in it.

Many times, my father's friend would let the due date on rent slide, because this was a poor family on assistance, and he did not want to throw them out on the street.

Anyway, they paid his kindness back by attempting to sue him over a waterheater, calling the city, and then trashed the house so badly when they left, it tooks weeks to fix it up to rent again.

So there are always two sides, this is true.

Specifically "Let's Lynch the Landlord"

In CA we have something called UD Registry. Unlike credit rating agencies they are completely unregulated. ANY legal action filed by a tenant goes into their records (even if entirely unfounded), along with malicious gossip by any prior landlord.

In order to use the service, landlords have to agree never to tell a prospective tenant what is in their file. You can be refused rental and you never know why.

I ran afoul of them about 15 years ago. A prior landlord had filed a 3-day notice for entirely bogus reasons. The notice was rescinded, but I still found it hard to get an apartment. Finally one of the landlords let it slip that while I looked like a good tenant, there was this thing in my UD Registry file...

Oh, and in the 1980's there was a strong suspicion that services like this were being used to blacklist pro-rent control activists.

It IS reagan's fault!

and bad tenants too...it's part of being human

that was a joke, actually.

Sorry, I didn't make that clearer.

I did put the ;) on there the first time I said it, though.

I found out about them the hard way when I first moved to Dallas.

All I could afford when I moved up was a "charming" 405 sq ft efficiency, but one that had its own washer and dryer. This was wonderful for a single girl who worked and attended school full time. And I wouldn't have to hang out at scary laundromats.

The landlady was one of these hypocritical uber-Baptist Texas "aunt types." Seemed real nice upon first meeting her, but I started figuring out that the woman was cheaper than dirt.

My refrigerator gave up the second day after I'd moved in (and after I'd just bought over $100 worth of new groceries). I was in tears-- barely had any money left to my name, and I was trying to stock up for awhile. I went and bought an ice chest and ice to keep some of the stuff cold.

Called her up that afternoon panicked. She wouldn't talk to me because they "were watching the game." Probably one of the reasons I hate the Dallas Cowboys to this day. So my food proceeded to spoil, much of it.

The fridge controversy continued for months. She wouldn't get me a decent one, but when the guy upstairs moved in, I saw them wheeling a new fridge up to his place! Also probs with toilet running constantly. Because both were health/sanitation issues, I called the tenants' council.

When I moved out, I cleaned the place til it was spotless, and she claimed I left it a pigsty. Fortunately, with each successive problem, I had documented phone calls to the Dallas Tenants Council. I told her that if I didn't get at least $100 out of my $150 deposit back, I was hauling her ass to court.

Fortunately she didn't call my bluff. I got my money. Bitch.

and I always got most, if not all, of my security deposits back. I never lost all of my deposit. I did have a couple of doozies of landlords, though - the one that liked to show up at 6 a.m. on a Saturday morning to start ripping out drywall in the nasty little shacky dump we were renting from him was one. Yes, that's illegal in this state; landlords are supposed to get a verbal OK 24 hours in advance to enter the property. I filed a letter of complaint with the tenants' union and cc'd him on it. He did it again. I filed another letter. He called me and gave the most incoherent, bizarre rant about how it was his house and he could come in whenever he wanted, yap yap yap. I changed the locks and "forgot" to give him a key until I moved out.

There was another who was priceless; this guy was a little overextended on the properties he owned and used to get behind paying the water bill (unlike other utilities, around here, being late on the water bill means they can lien the property, so most landlords pay the water bill themselves, although some will collect the money from their tenants). We used to get shutoff notices which would invariably panic the poor retarded guys who lived in the group home downstairs. They'd come up to our apartment, all freaked out, wondering what to do (they kind of clung to my husband, since he grew up with a retarded brother and is very comfortable with retarded folks). We never knew if we'd have water or not. It really sucks to be trying to get ready for work and realize there's no f***ing water AGAIN.

Most of my landlords have been okay, though. But man, I hate living in someone else's house. I LOVE having my own home now. MINE.