These Landlords Were So Bad They Shouldn’t Be Allowed To Have Tenants

An Entire Family of Squirrels Descended From the Ceiling

From a family of squirrels living in the ceiling to a collapsing roof and a clueless handyman, this tenant’s childhood experiences with a neglectful landlord are nothing short of chaotic. As a child, this tenant’s slumlord refused to address any issues with the rental property, leading to a family of squirrels moving into the space between the ceiling and roof in his bedroom. When the squirrels eventually scratched through the ceiling and left small holes, the tenant and his family were forced to fall asleep to the sound of raindrops hitting buckets as the ceiling leaked. One night, while the tenant was staying with a friend, the entire ceiling collapsed over his bed, releasing the squirrels into the room and drenching the bed in wet sheetrock. It took three days to remove all of the squirrels, and the landlord took a full week before sending in his inexperienced son to fix the damage. Despite the chaos, the tenant persevered through these trying experiences with a negligent landlord.

This Landlord Tried Breaking Into Their Apartment Multiple Times

Uninvited and unannounced, this tenant’s landlord has a habit of barging into their home, and even trying to break down the door when it’s locked. His parents rented out the upstairs apartment and the landlord lived below them. When they first moved in, they had the habit of leaving the front door unlocked when they were home. He said: “Our landlord would barge in without notice or even ringing the doorbell. We’d be sitting in our living room watching TV. The next thing we knew our landlord was standing there in our living room. We got tired of this REALLY FAST. So we kept our door locked at all times.” The landlord would try to open the door normally. When it didn’t open, he’d then press his body against the door and try to break it down. He’d try this for a minute or two before finally giving in and knocking. Apparently, this went on for years.

This Landlord Stole Their Mail and Was Spying on Them

Sneaky mail theft and strange behavior: just another day for one unlucky tenant. The mailman would deliver their mail into a lone mailbox outside their front doors. If the landlords got the mail first, they’d grab the whole thing, take it into their apartment and wouldn’t give them their mail until a couple days later. One time, two of his uncles and a cousin came for a visit. According to them, they witnessed the landlord come out of his apartment. He would suspiciously look around, up and down the block. Then tried to peek inside the little window in his front door. The only thing he could have seen was the bottom of their stairs that led up to the apartment. He even placed his ear against the glass window in the door for a minute or two before going back into his apartment.

The Landlord Wouldn’t Give Them Heat in the Winter

When the temperature drops, most of us crank up the heat and curl up under a warm blanket. But for one unlucky tenant, their landlord made this simple pleasure nearly impossible. This landlord gave them very little or no heat, because he was in control of the thermostat. When he did turn on the heat, it was only 15 minutes before he turned it off again. After he turned it off, it would be a long while before he would turn it on again. It was so freezing in the apartment that he went to bed fully clothed, complete with long johns. But the landlord kept his apartment nice and toasty every day during the winter. Yes, this landlord was breaking the law. OP’s mother reported him to the housing authorities, which resulted in the apartment being warm for one day. After the housing authorities went away, he went back to freezing them. Eventually, they made their escape thanks to an inheritance.

This Landlord Tried to Sue For Bogus Damages, But They Turned The Tables

When a tenant is hit with a fraudulent lawsuit for over $5,000, these renters fought back and exposed their greedy landlord. They subleased a room from a friend one summer. At the end of the sublease, they cleaned the house, moved their stuff out, and turned in the key. Three months later, they got served with a lawsuit for over $5,000. It alleged excessive damages and cleaning fees. They sent them back a letter demanding an itemized list of all fees they were being sued for. When they got the itemized listing, it was horribly inaccurate. For example, they charged a total of $1,500 to clean, maintain, and then throw away a chandelier. Luckily, the renter worked for the Housing Department of their city. They sent them a response on the office letterhead, refusing to pay for the damages. The suit was dropped and they promptly advised the city to deny them any future city contracts.

The Landlord Stole Their Dog

Heartbroken and petless: this is the tale of a tenant and their disappearing dog. They spent some time in South America. In this house, stray dogs would often come by. They used to feed them if they looked skinny. However, the landlord didn’t like this. But as there were holes in the fence, they couldn’t stop them from coming into the garden. One dog started coming every day, and stopped leaving. The renter ended up adopting this orphaned pooch. The landlord noticed the pup and started complaining. They told him she never came inside, and wasn’t doing any harm. One night, the landlord’s car pulled up. They assumed he’d knock on the door, but he didn’t. They heard him open the gate, walk around a bit, and then he started his car up again and left. In the morning the dog was gone. They never saw their pup again.

A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

This renter recalled that the landlord and his wife “seemed like the nicest couple in the world when we first rented the place. They even invited us to dinner and we had a great time. Three months in, his wife stepped on a piece of blue glass that was on our kitchen floor.” Plot twist: they didn’t own any blue glasses. The renter remembered that one dinner, the landlord had blue glasses on the table. So he set up a camera in the living room and caught the landlord in their apartment when they weren’t home. The landlord was going through their dressers and playing with his wife’s underwear. Then he tried playing it off like he smelled smoke and wanted to investigate. So he played back the previous week’s videos of him visiting on three separate occasions. Luckily, the landlord was put behind bars and the renters found a new home.

The Landlord Turned the Heat Down, But The Joke’s on Them

A Reddit user called JohannReddit posted this photo on Reddit with the following caption: “Landlord decided to turn down the heat today in my MN apartment as it reached -40°. But the idiot must have forgotten he pays my electric and doesn’t realize that I value my comfort over safety or energy conservation.” In the comments, people are suggesting that he should also turn on the oven and open the door to let more heat into the apartment. Hopefully they also plugged in an electric heater, heated blankets, and literally any other form of heat that they could get from electricity.

This Replacement Heater is Mildly Infuriating

A user called Darbooka posted this on the Mildly Infuriating subReddit. They said, “Told our landlord to replace our gas fireplace because it was leaking CO, and came back to this monstrosity in our living room.” Someone joked in the comments saying, “Ok. Now complain about a leaky faucet and update us with the new town square fountain.” In all seriousness, I’m not sure why this landlord would install something like this, unless it was an old building, and they didn’t have a proper HVAC system. Hopefully they did something to fix this ugly issue before the next tenant moved in.

This Landlord Refused to Fix a Serious Rodent Problem

One tenant’s rental experience turns into a nightmare due to a mouse infestation, neglect from the landlord, and an unexpected charge for cleanup. This renter moved in and, within a week, a mouse problem got out of hand. Overnight, hundreds of droppings would show up. They informed the landlord about the mice, and he ignored it for four days before ever responding. Eventually, he came by with some traps three days later, making them wait an entire week for help. They moved out a week before the end of the month. The landlord didn’t get to the apartment until the second of the next month. He texted them, saying he’s keeping $200 of the damage deposits because of the mouse droppings cleanup.

The Landlord Signed the Lease During a Party

When a tenant scheduled a meeting to go over and sign their lease, they didn’t expect to be rushed through the process because their landlord was a party animal… This guy’s landlord told him they could only meet on a certain day to go over and sign the lease. He went over to the landlord’s house as planned. But when they got there, the landlord was hosting a party. The entire time, he complained about how he was missing his party and tried to rush them out. The lease was sketchy. It was full of typos and questionable statements that concerned them. So the renters needed to speak about it before signing anything. Which didn’t make the landlord happy. Yikes! There are red flags all over the place.

The Landlord Completely Blocked His Car in the Garage and Left on Vacation

A spontaneous landlord and a towed car turn into one tenant’s unexpected parking predicament. He had an off-campus apartment, and the landlord bought a large Winnebago that he and his wife could drive away in for spontaneous vacations. Not realizing that his tenant’s car was parked inside the garage that came with the rent, the landlord parked his regular car in front of the garage bay door and took off, never thinking about his inability to get in or out. The landlord was away for over two weeks and left no contact information – just gone in the Winnebago. He was furious when he got back that they had his car towed to a nearby parking spot during his absence. The landlord said he wouldn’t pay the towing fees for having blocked them in all that time.

The Landlady Showed Her Gratitude With a Lame Re-Gift

One tenant’s experience of helping their demanding landlady with various tasks is met with little appreciation and a re-gifted bottle of wine. Their landlady lived in the duplex below them, and decided to sell the house. So for three months everyday, she knocked on the renter’s door and asked them to help her. They pulled weeds, cleaned the basement and garage, washed the windows, etc. But she never really acknowledged it with a “thank you”- just asked them to do more. On her last day at the place after it sold, she asked them to help load the moving van. Then, just before she left, she gave them a bottle of wine for all my work. It had a picture of a frog playing a banjo on the label. An hour later the realtor showed up to thank them. He gave them a bottle of wine with a picture of a frog playing a banjo on the label. She re-gifted the wine.

This Landlord Broke In to Steal Money and Underwear

One tenant’s landlord goes beyond the boundaries of acceptable behavior. The next horrifying story came from a Reddit user called sahmeiraa. Her landlord came into the apartment days before she was set to be gone. She had piles of stuff set to go to different places, such as her new place, friends or family, or to donate. But she came in to clean one day. Things were moved, and boxes had been opened. And when she walked into her bedroom, there were a few pairs of her underwear on the floor in the middle of my room, despite the fact that she had already moved her clothing out. A jar of cash from her wedding fund was out in the open. It had been a while since she had counted, so she could not tell if any was taken. The landlord wouldn’t admit that he had done that, but he dropped the issue of the last month’s rent.