10 Real Stories From Landlords

Being a landlord is not easy and while most tenants are great, some aren’t and some are even worse than that. Here are 10 landlord scare stories that will put a shudder up you.

1.

I once had tenants that decided to take out the kitchen-island, where they used it outdoors around the pool because they decided they needed a serving area outside.

2.

We once had a tenant that stopped paying the rent. We abided by every protocol to get him evicted but managed to convince the judge to keep giving an extension. He landed up staying in the property for 7 months rent free. He also made complaints about everything and anything that he could.

3.

When I was still in the property management business, we once had a man that dropped marbles into the drain, because one of the sinks were clogged. He stated that the marbles would push out the clog. It managed to push the blockage further down till it reached the city-line. We then had to hire services to unclog the entire building of around 30 units. He did not enjoy the city bill that we sent to him.

4.

I once had a job which involved minor repairs and cleaning of rental homes and apartments between tenants. In most cases the job was easy, yet the tenants that were evicted would often wreck the places before they moved out.

One of these offenders, packed plumber’s putty inside the bathtub drains and sinks, and then left all the taps running before moving out. The landlord had to hire a professional contractor to conduct most of the repairs, but I was left with the task of ripping out all the water-damaged floorboards and wet and stinky carpets. This is one of the reasons many sell and do so quickly, looking for national house buyers to take the home off their hands.

5.

I once had a job in lettings. We once had a couple that was young that moved into a rented house. Two months down the line, we were contacted by a locksmith who was working for the police. The police raided the property the previous evening as the man happened to be a wanted drug dealer. The police smashed the frame of the front door out from the wall, while the locksmith was contacted to conduct the repairs.

6.

My parents are the owners of properties that they rent out, yet the 1 that I have a personal investment in was with our last tenant. My parents made the decision to rent out the home I grew up in and I suggested this rental to one of my coworkers. I worked with this lady for a number of years, and I had an idea that she and her family members were people that were decent. I also trusted them.

These people damaged the walls, the property was infested with bed-bugs and they proceeded to pull out and sell 100-year old hardwood-trim. They also took out the cental air-unit which they sold. After this, they left town after they were kicked out, as soon as they discovered that their monthly wages were now being garnished.

7.

This is a story about a rental belonging to one of my close friends. When the tenant was evicted he didn’t trash the place. Instead, he cut out pieces of drywall and then stuffed the holes with dead fish. He then sealed the holes back up. This tenant was also a carpenter.

The owners of the property could not find the foul odor for weeks. They tried to repaint, get the home cleaned professionally cleaned a couple of times and searched endlessly to find the source of the smell. Months down the line they eventually discovered that it was coming from inside the walls.

8.

One tenant rented out an apartment that did not include its own parking space. One of the apartments that came with its own parking space soon came up for rent. He requested if he could move into this apartment. I explained to him that it would cost $XXX.0 extra every month. He went onto post propaganda over the inside and outside of the property which involved the injustice that I had committed because I refused to give him the parking space for no extra charge.

9.

When I was a small child, my parents purchased a cheap home in one of the neighboring towns and they fixed the house up with a plan to rent it out. Two young ladies moved in and they were great. They had both just finished college and the working entry-level type. They called us at 6 pm in the evening on Christmas Eve because they found a spider.

My dad phoned them back after the evening church service and asked what they expected from him. They responded that he needed to come out and get rid of the spider. So he went over on Christmas Eve in order to kill this spider. What was surprising is that they seemed to believe that this was a very normal request.

10.

When our tenant vacated the apartment, she had left one of the windows open in winter. The water pipe inside the ceiling then froze and cracked and an hour later when we arrived at the apartment, the entire ceiling had collapsed.

11.

I once had a female tenant who allowed her sister to come and stay in the house “for a weekend visit. That Monday, the tenant had moved in with her once-estranged husband, and her sister carried on staying in the property. After one month of the normal payments, she missed the next payment. I sent her a message asking about the payment and she replied, that she no longer lived there. She also said that her sister now had the keys to the home and she refuses to leave. Sorry!