rental horror stories.

[httpwebwitch]

these are all true & happened to me personally
* * *
Previous tenants had had cats. They left the litter boxes behind, full and stinky. Fridge full of mouldy food. an old smelly couch with questionable stains. Landlord offered a deal if we cleaned up the place before moving in, which we accepted. While cleaning, pulled up the carpet under the cat litter boxes to find the floor crawling with thousands and thousands of maggots
* * *
landlord had fixed a large hole (size of a dinner plate) in a plaster wall by gluing newspaper over the hole, then painting over the paper. Imperceptible, until someone leaned against it and their arm pushed through the wall.
* * *
same place as above:
Bathroom had a window, or rather, a hole where a window once was. In its place were sheets of plastic film wrap, layered 4 or 5 thick and taped around the edges and held to the window frame using thumbtacks. It let in light, and kept out rain (mostly).
In the winter that bathroom was so cold it was not uncommon for the bowl to be iced over in the morning. We had a plunger on hand to break the ice before using it.
* * *
different time and place:
lived one floor below from a "woman of the night", purveyor of the world's oldest profession, who would frequently have loud yelling arguments with her "business manager", she leaning out the window, he on the street yelling up at her. Sometimes they threw bottles at each other, and sometimes their aim wasn't so good.
* * *
another place rented by some friends of mine
the heat was kaput, and it was really cold inside. We attempted to heat the apartment by building a campfire inside a big canning pot on the living room table, and for fuel they used a pile of old Archie+Veronica comics found in the attic crawlspace. Not a good idea, in case you wondered. Burning comic books will produce hundreds of small "Cincinnati fire kites [youtube.com]". They managed to contain the fire... but the curtains were badly singed. Not to mention the toxic smoke and carbon monoxide. Note to self: do not burn Archie comics indoors to stay warm, unless you have a chimney.

[incrediBILL]

OK, in my early days I racked up a bunch of these horror stories, more than one human should even endure.

*** the 1st apartment
My first place was a split house, the problem was the furnace controls were in the other half and the crazy cow that lived next door left for 2 weeks during a nasty cold snap and I almost expired from pneumonia thanks to her. When she moved out a couple of months later I snapped up her apartment and the building was warm after that.

*** the 2nd apartment
It was very nice until the first cold day. I woke up first with a massive headache/hangover, the problem was I hadn't drank the night before. I see the air is smoky, barely manage to get the ex awake, called the paramedics, it was ugly. It appeared we had steam heating and the idiot landlord painted the pipes with aluminum flake that burned off when hot. Probably still waiting for long term impact from that one, moved out without notice, broke lease, never paid him a nickel for almost killing us.

*** the 3rd place, duplex
It was fabulous, nice newly remodeled split-level on a huge lot, just perfect. Suddenly we started getting mice, lots of mice, tons of mice. I could've sold mice for a living. Turns out the "neighbors" in the other side of the duplex are section 8 (HUD) and she has families of mice living in drawers she can't reach from her wheelchair, and there were holes breached in the firewall of the building they came thru. Moved again without notice, when landlord wanted his money I threw some nice fire code laws in his face plus the mice issue, never paid a red cent more.

*** the 4th place. another duplex
Yet another split level duplex but it too was huge, lots of space, lots of yard. This landlord had a different problem, he hired unlicensed contractors that did stupid things which resulted in a bathroom shower wall collapsing, massive water damage to some of my furtniture, yada yada. It all went south just as I was about to move to California and needed to break my lease. He sends me some massive bill via his lawyer after I move but little did he know I set him up. Had a friend try to rent it, he told them not for another 3 months, he never mentioned my deposit (3x refund if ignored past 30 days) and a few more things. When it was over, he legally owed me more than I owed him, even after busting a lease to move to Cali, and I told him drop it or I'd fly back (at his expense, you can make them pay for anything involved in collecting a debt) and slap a lien on his place. Never heard from him or his lawyer ever again.

*** today
I own my own place now.

No problems with the landlord! ;)

[skibum]

I do believe it because I know someone else it happened to. It's too bad there aren't consistent laws everywhere giving unsuspecting tenants reasonable notice to find a new place to live.

Yup especially in the US now. If ur going to rent a house or apt, research the last sale date, the sales price and gather any other info you can to see if the landlord is likely to go into foreclosure.