As someone who has only ever rented, and will likely never be a landlord (LOL I’m poor), I’m used to hearing only one kind of rental horror story: the unfair, greedy landlord.
The one who won’t repair things that are broken, who won’t give your bond back, who creeps around uninvited.
But, of course, there’s always another side. In this case: the renters from hell.
A recent Reddit thread asked readers to share their stories of horrible tenants, and on behalf of everyone who has ever rented, I am sincerely sorry. You guys, people are…disgraceful. Here are some of the best.
“Help me with my problems that you can’t actually help me with.”
We had one tenant who wouldn’t pay rent. We followed the protocols to evict him but he kept getting the judge to agree to an extension. He ended up staying rent free for 7 months. He also complained about anything and everything. “The neighbors are too loud” “Someone’s car alarm went off across the street”, “one of the neighbours has a cat and I’m allergic”. There is literally nothing I can do to remedy those situations.
When he finally got evicted he left the apartment in shambles. Holes in the walls, curtains stained with what I can only assume was doo doo, and the rug was littered with cigarette burns.
Sorry...what?
I had a tenant remove the kitchen island and bring it outside by the pool because they needed an outdoor serving area.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE.
My parents had some tenants when I was probably 7 or 8 that never paid the rent and they wound up getting evicted. My parents decided that they would save some money and we would just clean the place up ourselves. This was their worst idea ever.
I didn't know what a lot of the stuff I saw that day was until much later in life. The first thing I saw when we walked in the door was a fish tank full of dead, exotic fishies. In the bedroom we found used condoms, used tampons, and used needles. Like, just laying around. Once we saw that bedroom my parents gave up and hired a cleaner but I heard what else they found.
They found a cat shoved into the toilet of the master bathroom. It was terrible.
Losing your marbles.
When I was in property management we had a guy dump marbles down the drain because his sink was clogged. He said it would push the clog out. It did in a way, it pushed it further down into the city line and they had to come out and unclog it for the whole building of 30 or so units. He did not like it when we forwarded him the city bill.
As you do.
Used to have a job that involved cleaning and minor repairs of rental apartments and houses between tenants. Usually it was easy enough, but the ones who were evicted often made it a point to wreck the place on the way out.
One particular guy decided to pack plumber's putty into the sink and bathtub drains, then turn the taps on before he left. They had to get professional contractors to fix most of it, but I got to rip out a bunch of stinky wet carpet and water-damaged floorboards.
Something's a little bit fishy.
This happened to my friend's rental. Guy gets evicted. Instead of trashing the place. This guy cut off chunks of drywall, put dead fish in the walls, and sealed it back up. Tenant was a carpenter.
The owners couldn't figure out the smell for weeks. They repainted, got it professionally cleaned a few times, searched endlessly. Eventually, they figured something died in the walls, and started knocking holes in the wall. Turned out to be that piece of shit move by the tenant.
"IT'S A BIG ONE, OKAY?!"
When I was a little kid, my parents bought a cheap house in a neighboring town and fixed it up to rent. Two young women moved in and were great. Just out of college, working entry-level and kind of getting by, no trouble. They called at 6pm on Christmas Eve because there was a spider.
My dad called back when we got home from church service and asked what they wanted him to do. They said they wanted him to kill it. So he went out on Christmas Eve to kill their spider. They seemed to think this was normal, like about on par with what you'd expect your landlord to do if your water pipes burst on Christmas Eve - the least he could do given the situation.
That old chestnut.
One day we were served a notice that our tenant was taking us to small claims court. Why? Because her in unit washing machine was not working. Had she reported the problem to management? Nope. The maintenance man and I entered the unit that afternoon to fix the washing machine. The problem? It was unplugged.
Ducking ridiculous.
I own a few houses, all of them have tenants. For the most part everything has been fine....except for the one tenant. Important details. I pay for everything in the rent because I didn't want to deal with tenants who got behind on utilities etc. It's just easier that way, all in one price. Each suite has a basement suite and a main floor suite.
Ok. So the tenant from hell....well the first thing she did was get a duck. Yes. A live duck. It crapped everywhere and squawked constantly. Due to a loophole in the lease caused by my own naivety (I said small pets, with no specifics) it took me quite some time to make sure the duck was gone.
Next it was rats...except she let them breed so they were bloody everywhere, including their waste. She also seemed to think old takeaway containers were a great home decoration. So we've got a colony of semi domestic rats, old food everywhere, and yes her two children living in this.
She would manage to set the stove on fire at least once bi weekly, frequently had "family" stay for longer than allowed (including inebriated and high people passed out on the lawn) and she apparently decided to sublet my garage at the property to other people as a way of recouping some of the rent. It took me about 8 months and thousands of dollars in legal fees to get her out, and then another thousand and for professional cleaning.
Worst part of this is...she was my friend at the start.
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You know what? I think I'm okay with the fact that I'll probably never be a landlord.