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Landlords Describe The Most Disturbing Tenants They've Ever Had
Every landlord dreads the thought of having a bad tenant, but there is a large chasm between being late on your rent every so often and the things that these renters did. From opening an unofficial carpet cleaning business to burning the house down, these are the most disturbing tenant stories from around the web.
- 1
Their Tenants Were Living In Squalor
From a deleted Reddit user:
My dad is a landlord and I used to help work on the houses when I was a teen. One time, he evicted a tenant, and we went to go clean the house out with some other workers. We opened the door and cockroaches fell onto us. Inside was the most vile scene I've ever seen.
Dirty diapers strewn about. Sh*t literally smeared on the walls. Cigarette butts and soggy pizza boxes everywhere. The room where they kept a dog (and never let him out) had a massive pile of accumulated dog sh*t in the corner. P*ss stains on the walls. A crib with cockroaches crawling around and piles of trash everywhere that made it hard to see the floor.
One of the guys ran outside and vomited, the smell was so horrible. It disturbs me to this day how a person could live like that.
Disturbing? - 2
They Had To Write In A 'Mold Clause' For The Unit
From Redditor u/Jaci_D:
My last landlord had in our agreement a "mold clause." Basically, he explained that he rented a unit to a guy, and he lined the walls of the apartment with what I can assume was plastic wrap, and got the humidity in the house so high, and was growing mold and mushrooms on the walls of the place. So when the guy eventually was evicted, they had to gut the entire unit.
Disturbing? - 3
The Tenant Claimed He Worked For The CIA
From Redditor u/Cheesejeeze_:
I had a tenant tell me when they moved in that they worked for "THE Agency" (meaning CIA I guess?) and made all these demands once they got their key. Like that they wanted new security cameras only posted at one specific neighbor's door (because that tenant was their "mark) and when I refused, they hung up obviously fake ones (made out of soda cans, tinfoil, and string spray-painted silver) pointed at my door. I lived onsite, and he started watching me whenever I left or even got the mail. When I tried to take down his fake security cameras, he called CPS on me.
I don't even have kids.
Disturbing? - 4
They Made A Very Devastating Exit
From Redditor u/CurtainJerker83:
My older sister and her boyfriend rented out their house when they moved out west for work. After several months of non-payment, the young adult male and female tenants were told to move out. Right before leaving, they smeared [waste] on the floors and walls, removed every light switch and electrical outlet cover, [wrecked] the bathroom, and removed the locks on the doors, and left the doors wide open.
Disturbing? - 5
The Tenant Had A Glue Habit
From Redditor u/lowaltitude:
Glue huffer. I was putting veneer on cabinets with a respirator. She walked into the unit asking where "it" was. I thought the odor was too strong and apologized. She went right for the bucket and started taking deep breaths. My buddy and I both said, "Nooooo," in what seemed to be in slow motion. It wasn't her first glue rodeo, so you can imagine how fried her brain already was/is.
Disturbing? - 6
They Poured Wax Down The Drain
From Redditor u/sushkunes:
Parents had rental houses growing up. One tenant got evicted and, before leaving, poured wax down the drains and used cat litter in the vents.
Disturbing? - 7
The Tenant Did Some Illicit Rewiring
From Redditor u/Back2Bach:
Our parents rented a floor of their two-family home to a guy who was an electrician. In return for lower rent, he did electrical improvements and minor repairs to the house.
All of a sudden, our parents' electric bill nearly doubled. So they called the power company for an inspection and discovered that the tenant had illegally rewired his connection so that it was drawing most of the current for his apartment from their electric meter instead of his.
They had given him a substantial break in the rent, and he [took advantage of] their kindness. Dad simply said, "No good deed goes unpunished."
Disturbing? - 8
All She Had Was A Futon And Bibles
From Redditor u/il18yog:
I had a female tenant who lived in a basement apartment. We regularly heard a dog barking in her unit. Funny thing though, she didn't own a dog. She had every light in the unit on 24/7, until she called complaining about not having any power. Went in to check it, and she had power. Every lightbulb was burned out, though. All she had in the place was a futon and Bibles. Bibles in every room, open to different pages. When we finally got her out for nonpayment (of course), she hired a moving company to move her belongings - the futon and a garbage bag full of clothes.
Disturbing? - 9
Their Tenant Had A Very Unique Lifestyle
From a former Redditor:
Real nice older guy lived in the apartment next to mine for several years. He was quiet, and I didn't notice when he had not been around for a while. The landlord asked me to go into his apartment with her, kind of afraid he might be dead inside - he had never been late on his rent before. We went in there, expecting the worst, and all that was in the entire place was a bare mattress in the living room, with an enormous stack of [adult material], both magazines and DVDs, and a toaster. My elderly landlord quipped, "How do you think he used the toaster?"
Disturbing? - 10
They've Had A Host Of Awful Renters
From Redditor u/AboutThisAccount:
Upstairs carpet ruined with fertilizer because they grew weed in there, wallpaper ruined by pouring ashes from the stove behind the bed, downstairs wooden floor ruined and needed to be sanded, window smashed, one door had a hole in it made with an axe, rent unpaid, and loud parties in the yard. Needless to say, we went to court.
One truck driver's family, on the other hand, managed to turn white bathroom sink and tiles almost black, an accomplishment in itself. Not to mention not paying the rent.
Multiple tenants over the years, from the past 15 years, I can count exactly one who paid rent on time and kept the place in good condition. One.
I would sell the damn place tomorrow and quit being a landlord, but I'm not the only owner so it's not exactly up to me.
Disturbing? - 11
She Didn't Tell Anyone About Her Husband's Passing
From Redditor u/quail_eater:
My dad rents a few houses out and about 10 years ago, he was going to collect rent from an older couple in one of his houses. Let's call her Annie, answered the door and made my dad a cuppa. He was surprised her husband, let's call him Frank, was not sitting in his normal armchair. He was quite a big man and was always there when my dad came round. So Dad asked Annie where he was, and she said 'He's in bed, he [passed] last Tuesday, I'm not really sure what to do.' This was Saturday and Dad asked where she had been sleeping. "In beside Frank," she said. So Dad was able to help Annie with the undertakers and had to help them get big Frank down the narrow stairs. He got Annie sorted with a new house to rent as well. Grief can make people do very strange things.
Disturbing? - 12
The Tenant Started A Carpet-Washing Company
From Redditor u/Bubble6325:
Water was included in the rent, so she decided to run a carpet washing company in the house. Ruined the laminate flooring by drying the carpets over it and accumulated a massive water bill.
Disturbing?
