Bad Landlords other side of the coin

matthies

Well-known Member
Plugged up sewer for three days with a 3 day old baby and new mother, he tried to fix it until I went a talked to his wife, next morning plumber had it done in less than an hour, bats in the attic and feces stinking up the house, he power washers the house and garage, power bill was $1000 more than any other month said its your problem my name is on the meter, I had to collect from guys who put corn in the bins and run fans and don't pay the bill on time twenty miles away, one meter on the pole, he cries about the costs while he drives a new pickup and camper he never uses, my two trucks are 84's. Best part was when he son stops in to store his boat for the summer and he asks how's everything going, mentioned the sewer and the bats and he looks at his Dad and says you haven't taken care of that yet, sons been out of the house for twenty years, landlord puts his head down and walks away!! These are the top ones, many more.
 
matthies- I argued with my Mom until the day she died...'You can't keep a renters deposit just because...'

She always felt that the 'deposit' was a payment "in good faith" and she got to keep it even if the rental was returned in great shape.

Actually, one person left the house in better shape than he rented it and she still kept his deposit.

I did the inspections and suggested to her to return his deposit.

Nope.
 
Rented a farm house once and after 6 months or so the dairy barn got rented out. Found out the hard way that everthing was on my meter. Ended up taking the landlord to court since he wouldn't do anything about it.

Had another one that took over a week to do something about a busted drive. Roof leaked so bad that one evening the tiles all fell on the dinner table while we were eating. Guy would call on dry days to ask if the roof was leaking. 2 years later a big storm came through and he tried to pass everything off as storm damage. Made sure the insurance adjuster knew the deal.
 
Greg1959, I doubt I'll ever see my deposit back, we've been nose to nose over some problems and happy he never called the police. Being the guy he is, and his reputation follows, nobody can believe we're still there. Also nobody within 40 miles will come out and do anything. Another episode is when the AC unit kept loosing the freon, he told me I was keeping it to cool in the house at 72 and need it at 78 since that what his is at. I'm 44 now and he is 81. So with the AC freezing up then thawing and running down the furnace over the circuit board, the local guy comes out and replaces the circuit board with the wrong one causing the ignitor to burn out every month. I'm tired of coming to a cold house so call a different guy that had a heck of a time with the factory trying to figure out the board and furnace. They sent a $500 bill to landlord and boy was he mad, I told him the furnace is fixed and take the bill to the local guy who screwed it up in the first place, been over 5 years and not a problem with the furnace. 15 years and still looking for a place.
 
Have a SIL who brags that she never returned a security deposit. Until once! Court awarded the tenant treble damages due to her attitude!
 
I was on an Army Recruiting tour in New Hapshire in 2001. I had to move as my previously rented condo sold and the new owner wanted to live there. It was difficult to find a house that would allow pets, even with a "pet fee". We finally found one, and I should have seen the red flag when he insisted that first months rent, security deposit and pet fee be paid in cash. No problem, just made sure I got a reciept.

On move in day, I arrive and the house is "empty"' minus the garage that is now packed with all of the household furniture and items. Call the landlord and tell him I need it empty, he said it would just be a couple of days. Inside of the house has not been cleaned, ok I'll just video everything. My wife finds a shot glass on the stove and asked me what was in it- oh nothing, just some crystal meth and a MJ roach- call the landlord back- no idea what I'm talking about.

Next morning, I get up to go to work and there is now an extension cord running out of the front door to an RV trailer against the fence. He had entered the house in the night to connect it. I unplug it and pound on the RV door- no answer. Leave a note that says "where I'm from, that's a good way to get shot". A week goes by and on a Saturday morning at 0500 I hear "Sheriff's department! Executing a search warrant!" I open the door to 15 cops and the sheriff is surprised that I wasn't who he expecting to see. Tell him who I am and show him the lease. He asks if I know where the landlord was and I point to the RV. They arrest him and confiscated the garage full of stolen items. Apparently since his divorce, the landlords source of income was burglary. No problem, my garage is now cleaned out.

His mom calls a few days later as he is jail, and wants to know when I will pay the pet fee, security deposit, and first months rent. I told her I had a reciept for all that, and she said that's what I suspected. Poor little fella (mid thirties) fell into drugs after his family left him she says. She apologized and said all future payments will be to her. I start looking for a new place.

Sheriff shows up a few days later with an eviction notice (in his name) and proceeds to have an auction on the front steps as the house had been in foreclosure.

I pay to move again, the family dog of 5 years goes to the shelter and gets put to sleep as she wasn't adopted and my kids move schools in the middle of a school year for the second time. I never got my security deposit or anything back. Expensive lesson for a young family.

I'm glad you made this post asking the reverse. We own our own property now, and could have then. We rented then as we didn't want the hassle of buying and selling the same house in a three year period. In retrospect, I'm sure it would have been much easier than all the hassle we went through in those three years up there.
 
I remember doing a side job for some poor security guard and when I shut the power off the downstairs tenant comes out and complains . The guy looks at me and says 'I' m paying for his power . Yes apparently. Although I have seen entire factories tapped into a neighbors power but thats another story.
 
How can you have a bad landlord for 15 years? Walk away. I could see if it were a month or a 6 months or 1 year lease but 15 years, no way. This sounds like one of those episodes of cops where the woman won't leave her abusive live in boyfriend because she "loves him". You can't rape the willing.
 

its actually very much against the law in Indiana.

In fact. here if you the landlord don't have written, documented evidence of reasons to keep or withhold some deposit you must return it all regardless of how the place might be trashed. in fact the landlord only has a short period of time, like 60-90 days maybe or they will have to return it all regardless.

we were renting a place from a rental management company and the duplex was sold. rental management company incoming inspection was really hard to read and they would not support.

when it was time to move out, even though the new owner said don't worry about cleaning the carpet the land lord thought it should be replaced so he kept the deposit. Also wanted us to pay for the 1/2 done drywall mud that the original contractor didn't finish 10 years before we moved in (yeah right). He also paid his kids to clean the place which he deducted so $0 was coming back. (all of which are illegal anyway, carpet is regular wear item, you can not pay yourself for work on the property and we didn't do the drywall) Our lawyer said to not do anything for the 60-90 days to see if he sends receipts ect. He didn't. the lawyer sent him a nice note reminding him of the law and he must pay. got the check for the full amount in about a week.
 
Davpal guess we are waiting for an acreage to come up for sale but nothing is available. We are a mile from town, school, church, and now the wife's work. I drive 17 miles to work. The place is half way between work and my hometown where I have family, friends, and guys who pay me to work on there tractors. I have storage for all my tractors and vehicles, and also a 20X40 shop area to work. Just can't find something like this to rent, so I keep putting up with him. And at times its hilarious on how he tries to save money and it comes back to bite him in the a$$ and costs way more!!
 

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