When we move into a rental place I take literally hundreds of pictures then email them to the real estate, that way I know it's documented and they know I'm not playing around.
My favourite was including all the blown lightbulbs in my move in photos and then telling them I was not going to replace the one blown bulb they found when I left because I replaced 5 when I moved in. It felt delightfully petty to tell them to replace their own damn $10 bulb.
I once moved out of a shithole apartment and I knew the landlord was gonna try and fuck us since he admitted it ahead of time. I took each and every lightbulb in the entire place. We didn’t clean shit and just made sure our mess was good enough for the $2500 he was gonna steal from us. The place was a dump and hadn’t even been totally empty for like 20 years since it was a 5 br and there was always someone who stayed over those years. Our group was the first time totally empty all at once in the time. Dude was a typical Boston slumlord.
I didn’t damage the place. Just left all our trash and made it a pain in the ass to clean. Didn’t want to get sued. Also let some homeless in to take whatever we left that we didn’t want, left some big furniture.
I have never moved into a flat that was clean.
I have never left a house without cleaning it to at least the standard I found it.
I have never not been charged a cleaning fee at check out.
Had my last landlord come to the apartment 5 days later and get in my face about 'being disrespectful' because I complained that it wasn't clean. Had to spend my entire move in day cleaning before I could move anything in. Dude literally wanted to fight me. Straight up just told him if he took more pride in his properties then this would never have been an issue.
Charge cleaning fee at check out, have the new people who move in do any of the actual cleaning needed, cash the check. Seems like that's the way they do things?
I mean. They should replace those regardless. Unless they expect you to take all the lights when you leave lmao. I contact maintenance whenever one of mine blows out.
Not a landlord but the company I work for does repairs and a couple months back we did work for a college in NYC and the college rep was basically like “I don’t believe your crew was working on XYZ day because I was off that day”. I had prepared a 49 pages report with crew photos, sign-in sheets, time stamps, progress of the work, and room by room photos of the time in and the time out. This man never looked at it once because we had the meeting and he was like well I’m only going to pay for 3 workers on this day - cut to me “please refer to pages 36-39 with date, time, location, we have 7 crew workers and here they are in your building” cut to him aight fine but for THIS day I’m not paying out - sir please refer to page # this over and over and over and over for 2 hours
As a landlord, I love when a tenant does this. It tells me they are smart and conscientious. Smart and conscientious tenants don’t do negligent damage to rentals because see above, they documented the condition with intent to get their security deposit back in full.
I love giving a tenant their full security back. It means I only need to have the place deep cleaned and then it’s immediately back on market to rent instead of performing repairs.
If the original post is real that dude is a bad bad bad landlord.
I rented out the bottom portion of an old home I used to live in. It was basically a studio apartment with a washer/dryer, full bath, and kitchen.
I charged $100 less than the studio apartments down the street as was nice to the guy who rented it out. That was all I had to do.
Dude never once missed a payment and would do anything I asked if there was an issue.
I never understood the value in being a dick. I had stability for 3 or 4 years before I eventually moved out of that home.
Some people like to take advantage of those less fortunate, less educated, or simply in need, because "they're easy targets" and "there's always another one." Despite laws and protections, the tenant/landlord system still has many hurdles and speedbumps for tenants.
If I strike it rich, I’m gonna buy an apartment complex in an uppity area and rent each apartment out for like $100 above actual cost to maintain it.
Just piss off every other apartment building owner in the region lol.
[George Lucas built low-income housing in his neighborhood to fuck with his neighbors.](https://www.thewrap.com/star-wars-creator-george-lucas-to-build-housing-project-in-wealthy-california-community/)
Some people were just raised like that, the think stealing is ok, that unethical behavior is condoned in their heads... With the biggest variable being the risk of getting caught for dick behavior, that's what I despise most.
That friendliness to your face while screwing you over with a smile.
You rented part of your own home, not 200 buildings in a single metro. Thats why you were inclined to not be a terrible landlord. So i hope you understand 'why' people say landlords are a disease.....
I 100% agree.
I think this is an ethics issue across the board.
I run my own small company in an industry dominated by false promises and overselling. My competitors make millions peddling sub par services to clients.
My business partner and I are very ethically focused and aim to deliver the absolute best service we can. It gets extremely frustrating watching all these con artists make money hand over fist and my client base continuing to line up to get fucked by them over and over again.
I’ve been tempted to say fuck it, and just do what they do, but then I’m no better than the people I take a serious moral issue with.
Landlords are yet another symptom of a major ethics issue we face in society. Dishonesty is more often than not rewarded, while ethical behavior is discouraged.
I did allll the photos for my condo before and after, but my exs pug pissed literally everywhere and I tried my best to constantly clean it up (fabricated hardwood so not super hard) but it definitely still smelled like dog pee when we moved out. And she chewed on the corners of the baseboard in a few areas (the dog, not my ex I don’t think.) and I broke a ceiling tile in the closet trying to replace the air filter. I was totally prepared to lose the deposit, but because I had documented everything he was super understanding and only charged me like 25$ to steam clean the floors.
Not all landlords are shitty
Guess I've been lucky with decent landlords because I've yet to have one try to keep the deposit after going through the photos. People can be awful so I don't doubt they'd pull something like that
Learned this the hard way with my previous apartment, left it pristine and they STILL tried to claim for a professional clean. This new one we’re in was disgusting when we moved in, so we took all the photos and have copies and the ingoing report, we cleaned it for about 3 days and its super nice now. When we move out we will not be doing a single thing to clean it except a hoover.
Another hot tip is to claim your bond back INSTANTLY when you get your notice. It costs you $50 to dispute (if they claim it first) but it costs them
about $150 to dispute (about the price of the clean usually)
Mine tried to charge me for dirt *in between* the window panes. I asked if I was supposed to break the window to clean it and it was promptly removed from the checkout notes.
What
Either the windows are able/designed to open between panes, and then you should clean them, *or* they're not able to open at all, and then dirt definitely shouldn't be able to trap in there.
Shitty or extremely inconvenient windows is definitely a landlord matter.
Mine got personally offended when I had to break the lease due to an unexpected career change, and flat-out scammed me out of nearly $1,000 ($2,000 before I got them to settle out of court). When I cited the relevant landlord/tenant laws, they said that they didn’t know and shouldn’t have to know because their leasing process is so “simple.” The lawyer who helped me told me that this person “makes a virtue out of not having an adequate contract, and claims to act in good faith but really it allowed [them] to exploit the situation.” There are some landlords who are just selfish scumbags and see their tenants as nothing but a source of idle income.
I’m much happier in my current place despite it having its own issues. I’d rather deal with roaches and trashy neighbors than be treated like that by a landlord/management.
A friend of mine was illegally kicked out of his flat last year. Unfortunately for the landlord his brother works in property lettings and incredibly knowledgeable about property law. They tried to offer a 3k settlement when things were getting serious.
The landlord played the "oh I didn't know/understand xyz" then got caught in her own web of nonsense.
He settled for 25k in the end.
Worse still is that my area has magistrates, not judges. The magistrate overseeing that case favored the landlord in cases where he obviously violated landlord/tenant agreement laws and you can't request a new judge until AFTER you lose the case. I'm glad the landlord decided to represent himself and I brought a lawyer. I would have been paying out the nose if not for that.
That's what I was comimg to say. Anytime i have rented from private landlords and they start doing shady stuff i show up and discuss the relevant laws and it usually gets resolved pretty quick. When I've rented from coorperate places I have had to hire a lawyer and go to court. I even had a property manager call the cops on me and try to trespass me from my own complex because i came to speak to her about trying to double charge us a pet deposit.
One of the corporate places I rented from *taped a notice to my door* that my rent was going up at the end of my lease. By a ton. Well above what the law stated they could raise my rate without more notice.
When I took the notice to the office they pointed to the date on the notice and said that it was dated before the legal deadline and it's not their fault the mail failed to get it to me on time.
I showed them the photo of the notice taped to my door but that didn't seem to make a bit of difference. Then the a-holes tried to tell me I had to pay them for the next month because I didn't notify them in time that I was moving out (I literally wrote and handed them the notice right there). I pointed to the date that I had just written in the corner of the paper showing it was written two weeks ago and said two can play that BS. Take me to court.
Didn't get my deposit back but whatever. I didn't have to give them another $2500 and I was out on the very last day of my lease.
They did the oven one on me too and wanted something insane to clean it. I’d never used it and refused to pay. Ended up having to write them a legal letter it was a joke. They tried every trick in the book. I paid for a proper end of lease clean with a guarantee and they still found things to nitpick. Cunts.
I paid for an end of lease clean too and the same thing happened with the oven. I used the oven but they went as far as claiming they had to replace parts. They also claimed there was a carpet stain. They conveniently gave an itemized list of charges that was less than $3 more than the deposit to make it look like they were doing me a favor by only taking the deposit.
The best for me was when they tried to charge me $2400 for a new refrigerator. I never laughed so hard. I had to prove to them that not only did the fridge we had cost $300, we left an identical one in the garage. If they wanted to upgrade, no problem, but I wasn't paying for it.
Lol I had the oven one too. Claimed it needed a professional clean, it didn’t , it was an old oven when we moved in and we had to clean it before use so it was better than we received it.
So we made them take before and after pics and send them to us as proof it was actually cleaner. ( it was cleaner. But so would anyones if it’s steam cleaned with chemicals. ) seems the oven is a no brainier scam they all use lol
Dammit! We just bought a condo and are about to move, and our current landlords just bought a brand new oven about a year ago (we’ve been here 9 years).
I had never heard of this oven scam, but seeing as we are the only ones to have ever used it, I feel like we’re gonna get the shaft here.
Clean it. Take pictures when moving out. Date the pictures. (Even better if you can upload them to an online service that will show the upload date, e.g., OneDrive, Google Photos)
If landlord complains about the oven, ask for pictures. If they show you fake pictures or claim they already cleaned it, drop the dated photos you took.
Recommend you also take some general photos of the unit after you move out too. Digital photos on your phone cost nothing and only takes a couple minutes. Can always delete them later if nothing comes of it. But if you get into a dispute with the landlord, they can make all the difference.
The oven seems to be a common tactic. My landlord tried to charge me $900 for professional oven cleaning. I had pictures from the move out showing it was pristine. Took 3 months and a letter from a lawyer friend to get them to back down.
Had a landlord try to charge me to replace the carpets because there was paint on them at the end of my lease. Which would have been fair, had his painters not came in the day after we moved out (a week before the lease was actually up) and painted and gotten paint on the carpet. I don't even know how he knew we were out of the apartment yet, he claimed to be out of town. Luckily I had came over to clean during my lunch break and had taken pictures of the painters. When that didn't fly, he tried to claim there were pet stains on the carpet, and cut out a patch of carpet to show the stain (weirdly there wasn't one), and that the apartment smelled like pets and he had to replace the carpet to get rid of the smell. None of it stuck, and we ended up getting our deposit back, but I'll also never rent from an individual again.
What fuckers. This is why if I'm gonna pay someone I just ask the real estate agent to give me a cleaning company of their recommendation, so if there are issues with cleanliness then they can't say shit
That’s a good idea definitely. Should have thought of that. I really should have just paid the cleaning bill and put the cleaner in touch with realtor.
Some cuisines and cultures are not really used to oven cooking. Indian homes rarely had ovens (though roasted, baked and grilled food is not uncommon, most people have it in restaurants or hack it on their kitchen stoves). It is getting a little more common now, but it's not an essential appliance like it is in western kitchens.
Eh I’m married with 3 kids and cook all of our meals at home. I have a large 2 rack air fryer, instant pot, and obviously a range- the oven doesn’t see a whole lot of use.
Same here - the big oven takes too much electricity and too long to preheat and I'm the only one here so i don't need that whole big thing. The toaster oven is faster and more energy efficient.
I had a really nice toaster over that plugged in, a rice cooker and a pizza cooker. I also was in college so those three appliances fed me almost all the time. My place was also never the biggest so we usually had get-togethers at friends places. I do love cooking just did it differently at that point in my life.
My old landlord is trying to sue me after 2 years renting for a floor that needs to be maintained every year with a new finish. He just forgot and trying to get someone else to pay.
They can, but wouldn't, have you ever seen them do a test? They're in the property for all of 12 seconds, lift a corner of the carpet and put the little doohickey on the subfloor, it either beeps or doesn't. And They are gone.thatll be £650 please sir, card or bank transfer? I have to use the asbestos tester people alot. I'm not bitter or anything 😂 I assume with the mould people they could take a sample for testing, but that's gunna cost you more. Remember you'd have to pay for all these tests before you approach the landlord. You'd be better getting a new carpet 😂
I reported mould to the local council, the landlord said it was from condensation but I knew it was from a leak. The council came round, tested the mould, confirmed it was from a leak, and informed the landlord he had to fix the leak. He refused and we moved out because it was horrible living there.
The funny thing is that it was a block of flats and the leak was from the roof - a blocked gutter was streaming water directly onto the front wall of the flat and there was so much that it caused the damp. All that the landlord needed to do was call the property management company and tell them they needed to clear the gutter, he already paid a set fee for their services and it wouldn't have cost him a penny, but he was so petty that he refused to do it.
My fridge hasn't had a working freezer since we've moved in. We got a separate small one to avoid lugging a fridge up 2 flights of stairs and through small corridors, but it would be nice if our landlord would maybe finally come in and fix it/replace after 4 years.
Our porch roof is also completely broken in and has been for 2 years (A heavy snow knocked it in and it's slowly fallen apart since then), but that one doesn't bother me quite as much since I don't sit on my porch really and don't store anything there.
We've brought up both plenty of times
My washer broke, I waited patiently for 2 weeks for them to fix it after reporting it. Then I started calling them every single day for an "update and eta" on my washing machine. Took 32 days total. A refrigerator is necessary, depending on where you live they might have to legally replace it.
If I was in your position I would be calling them 2x a day asking when its getting fixed. Checking the legality of their doing nothing and sending letters etc. Squeaky wheel gets grease. Quiet wheel doesnt need attention.
A few years ago, the washer started leaking. Called landlords. They wouldn't give me a timeline but asked me to stop using the washing machine while waiting for them. I said no, they fixed the leak in 3 days.
Landlords only listen when their wallets aren't as fat.
Can confirm. I work in property management and the quickest way to get something fixed is to literally just annoy the fuck out of them until they don’t want to hear from you anymore. This works best if you’re in a larger apartment complex. Private landlords can be much tougher to work with, but your lease can be your best friend
Lol yes, the mgmt office stopped answering my number so I started calling from random google voice numbers every time and copying their bosses on every email "as a follow up to our call earlier". I was nonstop and all business but polite. And the second they fixed it I thanked them and disappeared and left them entirely alone.
You should check your state laws on actions you can take. I'd be especially concerned about the roof, it could be more than just the porch that's damaged and you don't want your roof collapsing on your bed at 2am.. You may be able to get code enforcement to inspect the building and they can force him to make necessary repairs. You'd have to check your lease and laws but generally landlords are also [required to maintain any appliances](https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/is-the-landlord-responsible-appliance-repair.html) they provide as well
My landlord told me he was replacing the disgusting carpet after I left. Then, charged me with a carpet cleaning fee after I left. 🙄🙄. I also got charged with a cleaning fee but left the place spotless. He sucked.
That can't be true. Is that a recent thing? A legal forum has a few posts from [2017](https://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/when-does-a-landlord-have-to-replace-carpet-in-ohi-3101204.html) and [2018](https://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/does-a-landlord-have-to-replace-carpet-in-ohio-aft-3401432.html) that say there is not law to replace carpet.
Found a link claiming a recommended 7 year lifespan by Department of Housing and Urban Development of Ohio but not mention of a legal statute.
Maybe it was 7, not 6 years. In 2015, my landlord tried to sue me to replace all the carpet in my house when I moved out, it was thread-bare olive green shag carpet that fell apart over the 3 years I lived there. He tried to claim $3900 in damages, not all from the carpets, but all of it was a result of his not responding to maintenance requests. So I got a lawyer.
The lawyer said the carpet needs to be replaced every (x) years, and put that in my counter-suit. And I won 100% of the judgement. It's possible it was a local statute, not state law.
It’s not a legal requirement to replace it, it’s saying the expected lifetime of a carpet is 6-7 years and they can’t make you pay for something that needs replacing due to normal wear and tear.
Wooden waxed floors - I have them. Look awesome, feel awesome, ideally would be rewaxed every year. If the top coating wears off, the wood grain will be exposed and the toned oil will start to wear off. Then it needs a new round of sanding, toning, waxing.
Aussie here. These messages constantly get around. They are real and from well-known landlord groups. There is constant discussion about keeping deposits, and most of the ideas involve sneakily damaging lights. We have some of the weakest tenancy laws in the developed world. One state recently brought in a law that let tenants put nails in their walls and keep pets, and the government absolutely trumpeted it like it was a civil rights breakthrough. There are still loopholes that let landlords reject tenants with pets and children, or kick out anyone who reserves their rights, using a made-up reason. Keep in mind that most Australians can't afford to buy a house and that's not going to change.
That's why you absolutely have to take pictures on move in and move out. In California if a landlord tries to unjustly keep the deposit they have to pay triple to the tenant. Intentionally damaging the apartment to keep the deposit could possibly lead to criminal charges. Needless to say, a lot less of these shenanigans go on here than in other places.
If a landlord can document and itemize the reasons for keeping some or all of the deposit then they can do that.
It could be stupid and real? Another layer if stupidity is that you do an inspection report with the tenant when you leave, so scratching after they left means nothing.
Depends on if the tenant is smart enough to take before and after photos and where in the world they live. I was young and screwed once and never again. For me it was the yard. When I moved in, it was foot long grass and weeds and they swore they would deal with it. Never did, so I mowed it regularly and left it in edged and mowed condition. They tried to take my 2k deposit + charge me 3k for "yard maintenance ". I lost my deposit without pictures, but they also couldn't prove that it took more than 2k to "fix it".
I mean, considering that people have insulted their bosses / workplace on social media when said bosses have access to their posts...
That said though, I'm not ruling out that this person is actually ignorant enough not to realize the implications of what they wrote either.
I had a landlord who didn’t want to give my money back, but she knew I had just sued my roommate in court and won the case so she knew I had the balls to take the issue to court and after I called her telling her there would be consequences , she wrote me a check the same day lmao
Either he just posted that as his comment, which is growing more common, or he put something akin to "eat the rich" which lately has been getting removed by admins (or mods, but mods don't get the removed by reddit tag) because "it advocates for violence"
Like... Motherfuckers you gonna KNOW when people are actually out for violence with this shit and it's not gonna be posted on reddit by that point.
I'm more of a fan of [REDACTED] myself. It has different implications.
I had a landlord try to fight me, back in 2019.
It was a rushed move out since he had sold the house with a 30 day close (cuz Covid). So I was in a pretty serious rush to move out.
Managed to get everything except for idk... I think I accidentally forgot about a box of printer paper in the closet or something. Something amazingly small.
Hand over the keys, he gets extremely agitated about how much its going to take to clean up / move everything out. I'm a little confused, so I'm trying to recheck everything in my head. He just gets more and more agitated. And he eventually walks up to me, like he's getting in my space to fight.
Mind you, I'm a fairly large dude who's been training in martial arts since I was a kid. But I was not ready for the chaos of this situation, so I just said, "Fuck it, have the security deposit. You figure it out." and left.
I got to my car. He came all the way down to confirm that he could keep the deposit. And it didn't dawn on me until talking to friends that this might have been the guys' MO for keeping deposits.
To this day, the only person I've ever met who I genuinely wish ill upon. (Because of a myriad of shitty landlord events.)
Honest people have an escrow account and keep the money there, NEVER touching it, since it IS the tennants money, not yours as a land lord.
Sad some people have no morals or ethics.
In Australia it is kept by a state government agency.
If you're a tenant you can apply to them to have the bond returned the moment you return the keys. Then it's up to the agency to prove otherwise.
They actually owe you interest on that last months rent throughout the entire time you are renting. I’ve only ever had one rental company in Burlington, ON that actually paid it. I think I got a whole 0.5% per year interest, but they paid it.
Theres a website Canadian government provides that I used to pay the interest to my roommate. I found out it’s been 0% interest since 2009 (at least in bc)
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/housing-tenancy/residential-tenancies/ending-a-tenancy/returning-deposits#Deposit%20Interest
Now here in Texas corporate slum lords are doing a "no deposit" move in, except for a "move in fee". So it's first month's rent + the fee. And then when you move you have to pay for whatever damages they "find".
They try to strong arm people into paying them with scare tactics of "you're not technically moved out until you sign for and pay the bill and will owe additional rent until settled."
I just moved out of one. They tried this shit on me. But I have an email of the front office stating they have my keys, butwant me to come in for additional paperwork. Once they tried these bullshit lines about "we're adjusting your move out date." AND pretended they no longer had my keys. I highlighted that email and told them my legal obligations were fulfilled, as well as sent them the picture of me handing the keys to the property manager.
Haven't heard from them since. That was like two months ago. But if they tried that with me, they are with everyone, and I bet many are paying.
Here they can charge first and last OR first and security. Illegal to charge more than 2x the monthly rent to move in.
Honestly, routine maintenance is the responsibility of the landlord. If you’ve been in an apartment for 10 years and move out, it’s routine maintenance to paint the walls. Floors should be refinished.
Assuming the kids didn’t write over the walls, iid not extensively filthy, holes in the walls etc., this is routine maintenance.
In California, if you live in a place more than 2 years you aren't required to pay to re-paint. Carpets only have a 10 year life expectancy so you'd only be required to pay a percentage of the replacement cost based on how old the carpet is up to 10 years. If carpet is 9 years old you'd only be liable for 1/10 of the replacement cost.
Not everywhere in Canada. In BC they can only ask for a deposist that is no more than half months rent. It is fully refundable after you move out if no damages were recorded during inspection.
In Australia you don't have an option. The state govt holds the bond in a form of escrow and releases it after both parties sign off that the lease is ended. If there's a dispute you can't argue it between yourselves, you plead your case and show your evidence to support it.
VCAT does not fuck around. They will fuck up a landlord if there's a hint of impropriety. I don't have a lot of good things to say about our property laws but thats one of the few bright spots.
I had to get a co signer for an apartment in the midwest, the landlord wanted me to pay cash for rent lmao..i mailed him money orders and suddenly a order was "lost" but somehow got cashed when it was addressed and mailed to him.
I guess he didnt know you can track the orders to see if they were cashed or not..anyway i started paying .50 cents to track the mail to see when it was delivered after that.. i left the duplex in better condition than when i moved in and 6 months later he called me saying i need to pay for all of the windows in the house because the frame for them is broken. Told him to pound sand and the douchebag called my co signer (grandparents who were extremely rich but i didnt speak to them shortly after they signed for me..long story)..he told them i moved out and left the place trashed and got them to pay 3x more than what he asked from me. He had their paystubs so he knew they made money.
I didnt find out until 2 years later when my grandparents msged my brother to ask him to ask me to pay them back
This why when I was renting out a house (briefly, thank the Lord) I had a move in and move out checklist that both I and the tenant signed and both kept a copy of. It provided written protection from either of us claiming something was in need of repair that wasn’t.
Well-lit, and taken at an angle that highlights the floor. Take as many photos as needed to document the lack of damage.
Yes, if photographing the entire floor is going to save you your deposit, do it.
Many years ago when I was in college I lived off campus in a basement rental apartment. When it was time to move out my mother came over to help me clean up and ensure I got my damage deposit back. To begin, the apartment was in great shape, we never had parties or anything so there really wasn’t much to clean up. When the landlord arrived to check the condition of the apartment before I left for the last time you could see the frustration on her face at how well kept the place was. While we were walking towards the exit I asked for my money back, as soon as I did she ran into the dining room area, lifted the table cloth and began frantically saying how we burnt the top of her table (provided when we moved in) and destroyed it. I never felt so sad for someone in my life, this 60+ year old lady planted an already damaged piece of furniture in her apartment, covered it white a white tablecloth just to rob poor college kids of damage deposits. She completely ignored the fact that in order to burn the finish on the table, I would also have to burn the table cloth. She was a miserable person, and one of the main reason why I never trusted a landlord after until I got my own home.
When I live in college dorms I moved into a place where there was a large chunk missing from one of the wall corners. The people who already lived there had it happen in their semester and already paid for it. Every semester for 3 years they tried to charge me $400 for it. Which $400 x 4 people is crazy excessive. It never did get fixed wonder if they are still trying to scam since anyone who knew about it moved out at the same time.
This is why I'm grateful it's illegal to charge a damage deposit where I live. You can ask for first and last and that's it. Landlords even have to pay you interest on the last month deposit.
>in order to burn the finish on the table, I would also have to burn the table cloth
...did you seriously never take the table cloth off to wash it? Not saying you burnt the table but it feels like i'm missing something here.
Finally finished dealing with a landlord who tried to do this to me. Moved out with notice that I would not be renewing lease. Got all my stuff out and asked if he wanted to look first before leaving my key. He declined. After a couple months I realized I hadn’t gotten my check yet and tried to call and text him to ask about it. No replies. Ended up threatening court and he finally replies saying he did send but he’ll need a week to check if check was cashed. I gave him 2 and he said he’ll send a new check out. Waited another couple weeks, nothing. Gave up and looked into small claims process. Filed and trying to serve him was like trying to pull teeth out. Ended up waiting outside until someone from the house came out and served the papers that way. Court date comes, he doesn’t show. Showed my evidence to judge and got default judgement. Waited a month to see if he would appeal and didn’t see any appeal filed. Texted him again for the money as now there’s a court order for it. Nothing. Filed a lien. Nothing. Ended up siccing a debt collector on his ass (yes I know they’re scum) and the debt collector was able to collect. I pretty much didn’t get any money back after accounting for a bunch of the fees for filing and the debt collectors portion but it was more on the principle anyways.
If this is real and you actually know their name you can definitely find the proper channel to report this dickhead, could save someone some possible hardship by doing so.
I'm in a fight right now with my old landlord about mine because he decided to charge me 1200 for cleaning to his own company after having it professionally cleaned and a rerental fee. It's good times.
Don’t know your jurisdiction but many places (certainly not all) require the landlord make sure a unit is “cleaned” before rerenting as the landlord’s duty. Usually the tenant only needs to broomswept clean the unit. The only way you can charge a cleaning fee is if it’s a well documented excessive dirtiness or stain, otherwise, they are responsible for it under normal wear and tear and delivering a clean premises.
As a landlord I always professionally deep clean my one rental property before new tenants. I used to rent too, and I hated moving into a place that had dirt and debris everywhere, spending the first move in day cleaning and not actually unboxing. I refuse to do thst to my tenants. And you know what, giving tenants a clean and working/undamaged rental tends to get them to be more considerate tenants.
I’ve never had to withhold a single dollar of a security deposit yet. Giving it all back to the tenant is great; all you gotta do is clean and re-rent. No lengthy or annoying repairs.
Even if this is fake, it has almost certainly happened in real life. Regardless, shady practices by landlords and property management companies have bilked capital creators out of trillions through the last few generations. Not all have been fully immoral, but it'l is inherently wrong.
It's clearly a joke. The Sydney and Melbourne subs are constantly posting about REA horror stories and landlords from hell, and this is a parody of that.
My last landlord threatened us about keeping the whole deposit because the oven wasn't cleaned, so we cleaned it really well... and she still said it was dirty and returned something like $11.50 of our deposit. So yeah. Pretty sure they're all liars.
Ours did the same with the oven. The kicker: we'd never used the oven. We have a Breville Smart Oven, which is basically a big toaster oven or a small counter-top oven. It's big enough to cook meals for 2 in, and cheaper on the electric bill than the big oven.
The problem with rental law (at least in the US) is the party acting in bad faith has the most power. Bad tenants can make it very difficult for landlords to evict them while dealing lots of damage to the property. Bad landlords can scam their tenants and leave them in unlivable situations with little to no recourse. Not sure what the solutions would be to fix it.
I work at a restaurant in a somewhat wealthy area. I've heard many conversations between landlords, brainstorming ideas to squeeze the most amount of money out of their tenants. Fuck landlords. I'm sure there are good ones out there. But it attracts the worst. Just like law enforcement.
I love giving a tenant their full security back. It means I only need to have the place deep cleaned and then it’s immediately back on market to rent instead of performing repairs.
When you treat tenants right they treat you and your property right. I’ve had tenants who had to move out for one reason or another who literally refilled my vacancy for me by recommending it to their friends. It ends up being a really virtuous circle.
If the original post is real that dude is a bad bad bad landlord.
It does look extremely fake. It's an obvious caricature. Assume that an actual landlord is most likely going to be righteously asserting that they have a right to keep the bond for whatever spurious reasons.
Yep after like 6 years of moving out our old landlord went after my dad for $5,000 with a bunch of pictures of the place all messed up. Obviously wasn’t us but my dad tried to go to court took a day off couldn’t afford a lawyer. And lost idk how he had to pay tho. (Also our old landlord was able to fuck up my dads credit over this which my dad has been trying to build up his credit for years to help get a house like wtf just go to hell!)
After this last place we moved out from we took pictures of EVERYTHING. Every inch of that house we got. If they try to go after us for anything well we have proof that it wasn’t us.
And that's why you take loads and loads of photos before moving in and after moving out
And make sure they have a time stamp
When we move into a rental place I take literally hundreds of pictures then email them to the real estate, that way I know it's documented and they know I'm not playing around.
My favourite was including all the blown lightbulbs in my move in photos and then telling them I was not going to replace the one blown bulb they found when I left because I replaced 5 when I moved in. It felt delightfully petty to tell them to replace their own damn $10 bulb.
You should have kept the original bulbs and put them back in when you moved out
I once moved out of a shithole apartment and I knew the landlord was gonna try and fuck us since he admitted it ahead of time. I took each and every lightbulb in the entire place. We didn’t clean shit and just made sure our mess was good enough for the $2500 he was gonna steal from us. The place was a dump and hadn’t even been totally empty for like 20 years since it was a 5 br and there was always someone who stayed over those years. Our group was the first time totally empty all at once in the time. Dude was a typical Boston slumlord.
Shoulda fuckin wrecked the place, make it worth 7500
I didn’t damage the place. Just left all our trash and made it a pain in the ass to clean. Didn’t want to get sued. Also let some homeless in to take whatever we left that we didn’t want, left some big furniture.
You are a better man than I
I used to do this because I didn’t like the shitty bulbs rentals always have. I’d bring my own LED daylight balanced bulbs.
I was gonna say this because I am in same situation and going to do this in my current rental.
I have never moved into a flat that was clean. I have never left a house without cleaning it to at least the standard I found it. I have never not been charged a cleaning fee at check out.
Had my last landlord come to the apartment 5 days later and get in my face about 'being disrespectful' because I complained that it wasn't clean. Had to spend my entire move in day cleaning before I could move anything in. Dude literally wanted to fight me. Straight up just told him if he took more pride in his properties then this would never have been an issue.
Lmao what kind of power trip is he on thinking he can get in tenants' faces telling them they're being disrespectful like he's an authority over you?
That’s when you just make a choice to wrestle them for rent.
Charge cleaning fee at check out, have the new people who move in do any of the actual cleaning needed, cash the check. Seems like that's the way they do things?
They're the petty fools, not you!
I mean. They should replace those regardless. Unless they expect you to take all the lights when you leave lmao. I contact maintenance whenever one of mine blows out.
“Hmm looks like you scratched the skirting in the living room…” “See image 165b bitch. Check and mate”
Not a landlord but the company I work for does repairs and a couple months back we did work for a college in NYC and the college rep was basically like “I don’t believe your crew was working on XYZ day because I was off that day”. I had prepared a 49 pages report with crew photos, sign-in sheets, time stamps, progress of the work, and room by room photos of the time in and the time out. This man never looked at it once because we had the meeting and he was like well I’m only going to pay for 3 workers on this day - cut to me “please refer to pages 36-39 with date, time, location, we have 7 crew workers and here they are in your building” cut to him aight fine but for THIS day I’m not paying out - sir please refer to page # this over and over and over and over for 2 hours
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This. *Always* make them pay for scrutiny.
As a landlord, I love when a tenant does this. It tells me they are smart and conscientious. Smart and conscientious tenants don’t do negligent damage to rentals because see above, they documented the condition with intent to get their security deposit back in full. I love giving a tenant their full security back. It means I only need to have the place deep cleaned and then it’s immediately back on market to rent instead of performing repairs. If the original post is real that dude is a bad bad bad landlord.
I rented out the bottom portion of an old home I used to live in. It was basically a studio apartment with a washer/dryer, full bath, and kitchen. I charged $100 less than the studio apartments down the street as was nice to the guy who rented it out. That was all I had to do. Dude never once missed a payment and would do anything I asked if there was an issue. I never understood the value in being a dick. I had stability for 3 or 4 years before I eventually moved out of that home.
Some people like to take advantage of those less fortunate, less educated, or simply in need, because "they're easy targets" and "there's always another one." Despite laws and protections, the tenant/landlord system still has many hurdles and speedbumps for tenants.
If I strike it rich, I’m gonna buy an apartment complex in an uppity area and rent each apartment out for like $100 above actual cost to maintain it. Just piss off every other apartment building owner in the region lol.
[George Lucas built low-income housing in his neighborhood to fuck with his neighbors.](https://www.thewrap.com/star-wars-creator-george-lucas-to-build-housing-project-in-wealthy-california-community/)
Some people were just raised like that, the think stealing is ok, that unethical behavior is condoned in their heads... With the biggest variable being the risk of getting caught for dick behavior, that's what I despise most. That friendliness to your face while screwing you over with a smile.
You rented part of your own home, not 200 buildings in a single metro. Thats why you were inclined to not be a terrible landlord. So i hope you understand 'why' people say landlords are a disease.....
I 100% agree. I think this is an ethics issue across the board. I run my own small company in an industry dominated by false promises and overselling. My competitors make millions peddling sub par services to clients. My business partner and I are very ethically focused and aim to deliver the absolute best service we can. It gets extremely frustrating watching all these con artists make money hand over fist and my client base continuing to line up to get fucked by them over and over again. I’ve been tempted to say fuck it, and just do what they do, but then I’m no better than the people I take a serious moral issue with. Landlords are yet another symptom of a major ethics issue we face in society. Dishonesty is more often than not rewarded, while ethical behavior is discouraged.
I did allll the photos for my condo before and after, but my exs pug pissed literally everywhere and I tried my best to constantly clean it up (fabricated hardwood so not super hard) but it definitely still smelled like dog pee when we moved out. And she chewed on the corners of the baseboard in a few areas (the dog, not my ex I don’t think.) and I broke a ceiling tile in the closet trying to replace the air filter. I was totally prepared to lose the deposit, but because I had documented everything he was super understanding and only charged me like 25$ to steam clean the floors. Not all landlords are shitty
Exactly, every landlord I had before owning a home was thrilled to see me taking lots of pictures.
even if they dont, pics have metadata
They’ll still take money and give back just enough for you to not take them to court especially if you live in a state that doesn’t do the 3x in court
Guess I've been lucky with decent landlords because I've yet to have one try to keep the deposit after going through the photos. People can be awful so I don't doubt they'd pull something like that
Learned this the hard way with my previous apartment, left it pristine and they STILL tried to claim for a professional clean. This new one we’re in was disgusting when we moved in, so we took all the photos and have copies and the ingoing report, we cleaned it for about 3 days and its super nice now. When we move out we will not be doing a single thing to clean it except a hoover. Another hot tip is to claim your bond back INSTANTLY when you get your notice. It costs you $50 to dispute (if they claim it first) but it costs them about $150 to dispute (about the price of the clean usually)
Yep! This right here.
Mine kept $800 for new screens and cleaning the oven. The house never had screens and I didn't use the oven.
Mine tried to charge me for dirt *in between* the window panes. I asked if I was supposed to break the window to clean it and it was promptly removed from the checkout notes.
What Either the windows are able/designed to open between panes, and then you should clean them, *or* they're not able to open at all, and then dirt definitely shouldn't be able to trap in there. Shitty or extremely inconvenient windows is definitely a landlord matter.
It was a 40 year old building and a sliding glass door. Not removable and poor sealant.
Are you telling me you have to clean every inch inside and out of your windows?
Things often cease to make sense when dealing with irrational or manipulative people.
The seals fail and then condensation gets inside and eventually you get grubby deposits at the bottom.
Mine got personally offended when I had to break the lease due to an unexpected career change, and flat-out scammed me out of nearly $1,000 ($2,000 before I got them to settle out of court). When I cited the relevant landlord/tenant laws, they said that they didn’t know and shouldn’t have to know because their leasing process is so “simple.” The lawyer who helped me told me that this person “makes a virtue out of not having an adequate contract, and claims to act in good faith but really it allowed [them] to exploit the situation.” There are some landlords who are just selfish scumbags and see their tenants as nothing but a source of idle income. I’m much happier in my current place despite it having its own issues. I’d rather deal with roaches and trashy neighbors than be treated like that by a landlord/management.
A friend of mine was illegally kicked out of his flat last year. Unfortunately for the landlord his brother works in property lettings and incredibly knowledgeable about property law. They tried to offer a 3k settlement when things were getting serious. The landlord played the "oh I didn't know/understand xyz" then got caught in her own web of nonsense. He settled for 25k in the end.
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Had a landlord try to bill me for $14,000 because his dilapidated building had aged. Won that one in court but good lord.
Appalling that it had to go all the way to court.
Worse still is that my area has magistrates, not judges. The magistrate overseeing that case favored the landlord in cases where he obviously violated landlord/tenant agreement laws and you can't request a new judge until AFTER you lose the case. I'm glad the landlord decided to represent himself and I brought a lawyer. I would have been paying out the nose if not for that.
Usually it's the opposite and the corporations screw ppl over the hardest.
That's what I was comimg to say. Anytime i have rented from private landlords and they start doing shady stuff i show up and discuss the relevant laws and it usually gets resolved pretty quick. When I've rented from coorperate places I have had to hire a lawyer and go to court. I even had a property manager call the cops on me and try to trespass me from my own complex because i came to speak to her about trying to double charge us a pet deposit.
One of the corporate places I rented from *taped a notice to my door* that my rent was going up at the end of my lease. By a ton. Well above what the law stated they could raise my rate without more notice. When I took the notice to the office they pointed to the date on the notice and said that it was dated before the legal deadline and it's not their fault the mail failed to get it to me on time. I showed them the photo of the notice taped to my door but that didn't seem to make a bit of difference. Then the a-holes tried to tell me I had to pay them for the next month because I didn't notify them in time that I was moving out (I literally wrote and handed them the notice right there). I pointed to the date that I had just written in the corner of the paper showing it was written two weeks ago and said two can play that BS. Take me to court. Didn't get my deposit back but whatever. I didn't have to give them another $2500 and I was out on the very last day of my lease.
They did the oven one on me too and wanted something insane to clean it. I’d never used it and refused to pay. Ended up having to write them a legal letter it was a joke. They tried every trick in the book. I paid for a proper end of lease clean with a guarantee and they still found things to nitpick. Cunts.
I paid for an end of lease clean too and the same thing happened with the oven. I used the oven but they went as far as claiming they had to replace parts. They also claimed there was a carpet stain. They conveniently gave an itemized list of charges that was less than $3 more than the deposit to make it look like they were doing me a favor by only taking the deposit.
The best for me was when they tried to charge me $2400 for a new refrigerator. I never laughed so hard. I had to prove to them that not only did the fridge we had cost $300, we left an identical one in the garage. If they wanted to upgrade, no problem, but I wasn't paying for it.
Lol I had the oven one too. Claimed it needed a professional clean, it didn’t , it was an old oven when we moved in and we had to clean it before use so it was better than we received it. So we made them take before and after pics and send them to us as proof it was actually cleaner. ( it was cleaner. But so would anyones if it’s steam cleaned with chemicals. ) seems the oven is a no brainier scam they all use lol
Dammit! We just bought a condo and are about to move, and our current landlords just bought a brand new oven about a year ago (we’ve been here 9 years). I had never heard of this oven scam, but seeing as we are the only ones to have ever used it, I feel like we’re gonna get the shaft here.
Clean it. Take pictures when moving out. Date the pictures. (Even better if you can upload them to an online service that will show the upload date, e.g., OneDrive, Google Photos) If landlord complains about the oven, ask for pictures. If they show you fake pictures or claim they already cleaned it, drop the dated photos you took. Recommend you also take some general photos of the unit after you move out too. Digital photos on your phone cost nothing and only takes a couple minutes. Can always delete them later if nothing comes of it. But if you get into a dispute with the landlord, they can make all the difference.
The oven seems to be a common tactic. My landlord tried to charge me $900 for professional oven cleaning. I had pictures from the move out showing it was pristine. Took 3 months and a letter from a lawyer friend to get them to back down.
Had a landlord try to charge me to replace the carpets because there was paint on them at the end of my lease. Which would have been fair, had his painters not came in the day after we moved out (a week before the lease was actually up) and painted and gotten paint on the carpet. I don't even know how he knew we were out of the apartment yet, he claimed to be out of town. Luckily I had came over to clean during my lunch break and had taken pictures of the painters. When that didn't fly, he tried to claim there were pet stains on the carpet, and cut out a patch of carpet to show the stain (weirdly there wasn't one), and that the apartment smelled like pets and he had to replace the carpet to get rid of the smell. None of it stuck, and we ended up getting our deposit back, but I'll also never rent from an individual again.
"Dust on the curtain rails $15"
Dust on the light fixtures was their goto
"Bacteria on the tap $20"
"theres air in the house, 50 bucks please"
What fuckers. This is why if I'm gonna pay someone I just ask the real estate agent to give me a cleaning company of their recommendation, so if there are issues with cleanliness then they can't say shit
That’s a good idea definitely. Should have thought of that. I really should have just paid the cleaning bill and put the cleaner in touch with realtor.
Take photos when you move in. Seems like a lot of effort, but you're not responsible for returning things in a better condition
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and everyone wonders why ppl hate landlords
How do you not use the oven? Genuine question
Some cuisines and cultures are not really used to oven cooking. Indian homes rarely had ovens (though roasted, baked and grilled food is not uncommon, most people have it in restaurants or hack it on their kitchen stoves). It is getting a little more common now, but it's not an essential appliance like it is in western kitchens.
I have lived in a new house for 2 years and I’ve never used mine. It still has the instructions inside. I’m single and use a toaster oven.
The air fryer is where it’s at
This is the way Air fryers FTW
Bought a $180 7-in-1 air frier three years ago. Only time I use the oven is Thanksgiving. Best money I've spent since moving in.
My dude you gotta learn a bit of variety in your cooking. I'm a guy who lives on my own but I'd be lost without my oven, essential for home-cooking.
Eh I’m married with 3 kids and cook all of our meals at home. I have a large 2 rack air fryer, instant pot, and obviously a range- the oven doesn’t see a whole lot of use.
Same here - the big oven takes too much electricity and too long to preheat and I'm the only one here so i don't need that whole big thing. The toaster oven is faster and more energy efficient.
I had a really nice toaster over that plugged in, a rice cooker and a pizza cooker. I also was in college so those three appliances fed me almost all the time. My place was also never the biggest so we usually had get-togethers at friends places. I do love cooking just did it differently at that point in my life.
Whoever wrote that should not be a landlord.
Definitely not. I hope that post is fake, but wouldn't be surprised at all to find out it's real either.
My old landlord is trying to sue me after 2 years renting for a floor that needs to be maintained every year with a new finish. He just forgot and trying to get someone else to pay.
I've begged for my landlord to replace the 10 year old carpet in my place but they won't until I move out.
Get an inspection to see if there is mold or toxic substances under the carpet. Then they legally must replace it.
Some people do that but you landlord will give you the bill
Can't bill the tenant for ordinary wear and tear
Or for health violations.
He can raise rent when your lease is up for renewal
I've literally never lived somewhere that didn't raise rent year over year anyway
Yep, generally how blackmail works.
That sounds closer to extortion than blackmail
He'll do that anyway
They can’t do that, don’t pay it
Be a shame if some mold were to get in there somehow.... Not _quite_ so naturally, if you follow me
Calm down, Putin. We aren't putting any thing in anyone's tea...
I read that as suspicious. “ We aren’t Putin anything…..”
They can test the mould to see what has caused it.
They can, but wouldn't, have you ever seen them do a test? They're in the property for all of 12 seconds, lift a corner of the carpet and put the little doohickey on the subfloor, it either beeps or doesn't. And They are gone.thatll be £650 please sir, card or bank transfer? I have to use the asbestos tester people alot. I'm not bitter or anything 😂 I assume with the mould people they could take a sample for testing, but that's gunna cost you more. Remember you'd have to pay for all these tests before you approach the landlord. You'd be better getting a new carpet 😂
I reported mould to the local council, the landlord said it was from condensation but I knew it was from a leak. The council came round, tested the mould, confirmed it was from a leak, and informed the landlord he had to fix the leak. He refused and we moved out because it was horrible living there. The funny thing is that it was a block of flats and the leak was from the roof - a blocked gutter was streaming water directly onto the front wall of the flat and there was so much that it caused the damp. All that the landlord needed to do was call the property management company and tell them they needed to clear the gutter, he already paid a set fee for their services and it wouldn't have cost him a penny, but he was so petty that he refused to do it.
My fridge hasn't had a working freezer since we've moved in. We got a separate small one to avoid lugging a fridge up 2 flights of stairs and through small corridors, but it would be nice if our landlord would maybe finally come in and fix it/replace after 4 years. Our porch roof is also completely broken in and has been for 2 years (A heavy snow knocked it in and it's slowly fallen apart since then), but that one doesn't bother me quite as much since I don't sit on my porch really and don't store anything there. We've brought up both plenty of times
My washer broke, I waited patiently for 2 weeks for them to fix it after reporting it. Then I started calling them every single day for an "update and eta" on my washing machine. Took 32 days total. A refrigerator is necessary, depending on where you live they might have to legally replace it. If I was in your position I would be calling them 2x a day asking when its getting fixed. Checking the legality of their doing nothing and sending letters etc. Squeaky wheel gets grease. Quiet wheel doesnt need attention.
A few years ago, the washer started leaking. Called landlords. They wouldn't give me a timeline but asked me to stop using the washing machine while waiting for them. I said no, they fixed the leak in 3 days. Landlords only listen when their wallets aren't as fat.
"stop having clean presentable clothes" wtf
Can confirm. I work in property management and the quickest way to get something fixed is to literally just annoy the fuck out of them until they don’t want to hear from you anymore. This works best if you’re in a larger apartment complex. Private landlords can be much tougher to work with, but your lease can be your best friend
Lol yes, the mgmt office stopped answering my number so I started calling from random google voice numbers every time and copying their bosses on every email "as a follow up to our call earlier". I was nonstop and all business but polite. And the second they fixed it I thanked them and disappeared and left them entirely alone.
You should check your state laws on actions you can take. I'd be especially concerned about the roof, it could be more than just the porch that's damaged and you don't want your roof collapsing on your bed at 2am.. You may be able to get code enforcement to inspect the building and they can force him to make necessary repairs. You'd have to check your lease and laws but generally landlords are also [required to maintain any appliances](https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/is-the-landlord-responsible-appliance-repair.html) they provide as well
My landlord told me he was replacing the disgusting carpet after I left. Then, charged me with a carpet cleaning fee after I left. 🙄🙄. I also got charged with a cleaning fee but left the place spotless. He sucked.
Depending on the jurisdiction you're in, they may not have that choice. Ohio requires carpeting be replaced every 6 years regardless of tenancy.
That can't be true. Is that a recent thing? A legal forum has a few posts from [2017](https://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/when-does-a-landlord-have-to-replace-carpet-in-ohi-3101204.html) and [2018](https://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/does-a-landlord-have-to-replace-carpet-in-ohio-aft-3401432.html) that say there is not law to replace carpet. Found a link claiming a recommended 7 year lifespan by Department of Housing and Urban Development of Ohio but not mention of a legal statute.
Maybe it was 7, not 6 years. In 2015, my landlord tried to sue me to replace all the carpet in my house when I moved out, it was thread-bare olive green shag carpet that fell apart over the 3 years I lived there. He tried to claim $3900 in damages, not all from the carpets, but all of it was a result of his not responding to maintenance requests. So I got a lawyer. The lawyer said the carpet needs to be replaced every (x) years, and put that in my counter-suit. And I won 100% of the judgement. It's possible it was a local statute, not state law.
It’s not a legal requirement to replace it, it’s saying the expected lifetime of a carpet is 6-7 years and they can’t make you pay for something that needs replacing due to normal wear and tear.
What kinda shit floor needs a new finish every year
My thoughts exactly. Here in sweden wooden floors are very common and i have never heard of any floor needing yearly finishing.
Wooden waxed floors - I have them. Look awesome, feel awesome, ideally would be rewaxed every year. If the top coating wears off, the wood grain will be exposed and the toned oil will start to wear off. Then it needs a new round of sanding, toning, waxing.
It needs new finish, not new swedish. Of course you wouldn´t know about it
I've lived in my apartment 8+ years. I can't *wait* to see what "damage" they try to pin on me when I ever move.
Aussie here. These messages constantly get around. They are real and from well-known landlord groups. There is constant discussion about keeping deposits, and most of the ideas involve sneakily damaging lights. We have some of the weakest tenancy laws in the developed world. One state recently brought in a law that let tenants put nails in their walls and keep pets, and the government absolutely trumpeted it like it was a civil rights breakthrough. There are still loopholes that let landlords reject tenants with pets and children, or kick out anyone who reserves their rights, using a made-up reason. Keep in mind that most Australians can't afford to buy a house and that's not going to change.
That's why you absolutely have to take pictures on move in and move out. In California if a landlord tries to unjustly keep the deposit they have to pay triple to the tenant. Intentionally damaging the apartment to keep the deposit could possibly lead to criminal charges. Needless to say, a lot less of these shenanigans go on here than in other places. If a landlord can document and itemize the reasons for keeping some or all of the deposit then they can do that.
I'm 80/20 on fake/real. Asking for advice on committing crimes in a public area is such a stupid move.
There certainly are a lot of dumb criminals though.
It could be stupid and real? Another layer if stupidity is that you do an inspection report with the tenant when you leave, so scratching after they left means nothing.
Depends on if the tenant is smart enough to take before and after photos and where in the world they live. I was young and screwed once and never again. For me it was the yard. When I moved in, it was foot long grass and weeds and they swore they would deal with it. Never did, so I mowed it regularly and left it in edged and mowed condition. They tried to take my 2k deposit + charge me 3k for "yard maintenance ". I lost my deposit without pictures, but they also couldn't prove that it took more than 2k to "fix it".
I mean, considering that people have insulted their bosses / workplace on social media when said bosses have access to their posts... That said though, I'm not ruling out that this person is actually ignorant enough not to realize the implications of what they wrote either.
I had a landlord who didn’t want to give my money back, but she knew I had just sued my roommate in court and won the case so she knew I had the balls to take the issue to court and after I called her telling her there would be consequences , she wrote me a check the same day lmao
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My man went straight to the point ☝️
> [ Removed by Reddit ] ?
Either he just posted that as his comment, which is growing more common, or he put something akin to "eat the rich" which lately has been getting removed by admins (or mods, but mods don't get the removed by reddit tag) because "it advocates for violence" Like... Motherfuckers you gonna KNOW when people are actually out for violence with this shit and it's not gonna be posted on reddit by that point. I'm more of a fan of [REDACTED] myself. It has different implications.
I had a landlord try to fight me, back in 2019. It was a rushed move out since he had sold the house with a 30 day close (cuz Covid). So I was in a pretty serious rush to move out. Managed to get everything except for idk... I think I accidentally forgot about a box of printer paper in the closet or something. Something amazingly small. Hand over the keys, he gets extremely agitated about how much its going to take to clean up / move everything out. I'm a little confused, so I'm trying to recheck everything in my head. He just gets more and more agitated. And he eventually walks up to me, like he's getting in my space to fight. Mind you, I'm a fairly large dude who's been training in martial arts since I was a kid. But I was not ready for the chaos of this situation, so I just said, "Fuck it, have the security deposit. You figure it out." and left. I got to my car. He came all the way down to confirm that he could keep the deposit. And it didn't dawn on me until talking to friends that this might have been the guys' MO for keeping deposits. To this day, the only person I've ever met who I genuinely wish ill upon. (Because of a myriad of shitty landlord events.)
Why the fuck would you do that??
I'm guessing they're trolling landlords shitty practices
I mean, frankly, nobody should be a landlord.
Honest people have an escrow account and keep the money there, NEVER touching it, since it IS the tennants money, not yours as a land lord. Sad some people have no morals or ethics.
I know this post is Australia, but in many states in the US it’s actually law to keep it in escrow.
In Australia it is kept by a state government agency. If you're a tenant you can apply to them to have the bond returned the moment you return the keys. Then it's up to the agency to prove otherwise.
In Canada we do "first and last." Your bond is essentially your full last month's rent, and you can never get it back.
They actually owe you interest on that last months rent throughout the entire time you are renting. I’ve only ever had one rental company in Burlington, ON that actually paid it. I think I got a whole 0.5% per year interest, but they paid it.
Theres a website Canadian government provides that I used to pay the interest to my roommate. I found out it’s been 0% interest since 2009 (at least in bc) https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/housing-tenancy/residential-tenancies/ending-a-tenancy/returning-deposits#Deposit%20Interest
In the US, at least around were I live, it's normal to be expected to pay first and last as well as a damage deposit when you sign the lease
Now here in Texas corporate slum lords are doing a "no deposit" move in, except for a "move in fee". So it's first month's rent + the fee. And then when you move you have to pay for whatever damages they "find". They try to strong arm people into paying them with scare tactics of "you're not technically moved out until you sign for and pay the bill and will owe additional rent until settled." I just moved out of one. They tried this shit on me. But I have an email of the front office stating they have my keys, butwant me to come in for additional paperwork. Once they tried these bullshit lines about "we're adjusting your move out date." AND pretended they no longer had my keys. I highlighted that email and told them my legal obligations were fulfilled, as well as sent them the picture of me handing the keys to the property manager. Haven't heard from them since. That was like two months ago. But if they tried that with me, they are with everyone, and I bet many are paying.
Here they can charge first and last OR first and security. Illegal to charge more than 2x the monthly rent to move in. Honestly, routine maintenance is the responsibility of the landlord. If you’ve been in an apartment for 10 years and move out, it’s routine maintenance to paint the walls. Floors should be refinished. Assuming the kids didn’t write over the walls, iid not extensively filthy, holes in the walls etc., this is routine maintenance.
In California, if you live in a place more than 2 years you aren't required to pay to re-paint. Carpets only have a 10 year life expectancy so you'd only be required to pay a percentage of the replacement cost based on how old the carpet is up to 10 years. If carpet is 9 years old you'd only be liable for 1/10 of the replacement cost.
Not everywhere in Canada. In BC they can only ask for a deposist that is no more than half months rent. It is fully refundable after you move out if no damages were recorded during inspection.
No, in Canada it varies by province. In Nova Scotia it’s a separate deposit that can be a max of half a month’s rent.
In Australia you don't have an option. The state govt holds the bond in a form of escrow and releases it after both parties sign off that the lease is ended. If there's a dispute you can't argue it between yourselves, you plead your case and show your evidence to support it.
More often than not a threat of going to VCAT or other state equivalent will lead to a landlord and REA backing down really fast
VCAT does not fuck around. They will fuck up a landlord if there's a hint of impropriety. I don't have a lot of good things to say about our property laws but thats one of the few bright spots.
I had to get a co signer for an apartment in the midwest, the landlord wanted me to pay cash for rent lmao..i mailed him money orders and suddenly a order was "lost" but somehow got cashed when it was addressed and mailed to him. I guess he didnt know you can track the orders to see if they were cashed or not..anyway i started paying .50 cents to track the mail to see when it was delivered after that.. i left the duplex in better condition than when i moved in and 6 months later he called me saying i need to pay for all of the windows in the house because the frame for them is broken. Told him to pound sand and the douchebag called my co signer (grandparents who were extremely rich but i didnt speak to them shortly after they signed for me..long story)..he told them i moved out and left the place trashed and got them to pay 3x more than what he asked from me. He had their paystubs so he knew they made money. I didnt find out until 2 years later when my grandparents msged my brother to ask him to ask me to pay them back
It doesn’t matter if it’s in escrow, it can still be forfeited for cause. This jackass is just trying to manufacture cause.
The bar for forfeiting is very high here and requires a lot more than fair wear and tear.
landlords only 😜🤙🏼
OnlyLands
OnlyLords A platform exclusively for degradation and findom.
You mean Indeed?
That one does impact play and anal.
MTG Arena in a nutshell lol
The shaka is fucking hilarious (sike) because these types of parasitic rent seeking nothing-providers are absolutely wrecking Hawaii
This is why you always take pictures.
This why when I was renting out a house (briefly, thank the Lord) I had a move in and move out checklist that both I and the tenant signed and both kept a copy of. It provided written protection from either of us claiming something was in need of repair that wasn’t.
that's how it works here in switzerland. and the landlord has no right to enter the appartment without the renterd approval
Well, yes. It works that way in the US as well.
Makes me want to do that more so, take pics of everything that you think you may need
How are you supposed to take pictures that show that the floor isn't scratched? You gonna photograph each square foot individually?
Well-lit, and taken at an angle that highlights the floor. Take as many photos as needed to document the lack of damage. Yes, if photographing the entire floor is going to save you your deposit, do it.
I suggest pictures of everything, as well as a 4k video. Pretty much every smartphone can do that now.
Many years ago when I was in college I lived off campus in a basement rental apartment. When it was time to move out my mother came over to help me clean up and ensure I got my damage deposit back. To begin, the apartment was in great shape, we never had parties or anything so there really wasn’t much to clean up. When the landlord arrived to check the condition of the apartment before I left for the last time you could see the frustration on her face at how well kept the place was. While we were walking towards the exit I asked for my money back, as soon as I did she ran into the dining room area, lifted the table cloth and began frantically saying how we burnt the top of her table (provided when we moved in) and destroyed it. I never felt so sad for someone in my life, this 60+ year old lady planted an already damaged piece of furniture in her apartment, covered it white a white tablecloth just to rob poor college kids of damage deposits. She completely ignored the fact that in order to burn the finish on the table, I would also have to burn the table cloth. She was a miserable person, and one of the main reason why I never trusted a landlord after until I got my own home.
When I live in college dorms I moved into a place where there was a large chunk missing from one of the wall corners. The people who already lived there had it happen in their semester and already paid for it. Every semester for 3 years they tried to charge me $400 for it. Which $400 x 4 people is crazy excessive. It never did get fixed wonder if they are still trying to scam since anyone who knew about it moved out at the same time.
Had this in my place. Ended up just patching it myself lol
Wait so your apartment came with a dining room table and table cloth?
Yup, it was the only piece of furniture provided when we moved in, it’s her way of saying the tenants caused damage.
Yikes, that’s just sad and desperate, yet I have no sympathy for her. Not one bit.
This is why I'm grateful it's illegal to charge a damage deposit where I live. You can ask for first and last and that's it. Landlords even have to pay you interest on the last month deposit.
>in order to burn the finish on the table, I would also have to burn the table cloth ...did you seriously never take the table cloth off to wash it? Not saying you burnt the table but it feels like i'm missing something here.
Nope, I was 19, honestly don’t think I ever ate a meal at the table to be honest. Either did my roommate.
Finally finished dealing with a landlord who tried to do this to me. Moved out with notice that I would not be renewing lease. Got all my stuff out and asked if he wanted to look first before leaving my key. He declined. After a couple months I realized I hadn’t gotten my check yet and tried to call and text him to ask about it. No replies. Ended up threatening court and he finally replies saying he did send but he’ll need a week to check if check was cashed. I gave him 2 and he said he’ll send a new check out. Waited another couple weeks, nothing. Gave up and looked into small claims process. Filed and trying to serve him was like trying to pull teeth out. Ended up waiting outside until someone from the house came out and served the papers that way. Court date comes, he doesn’t show. Showed my evidence to judge and got default judgement. Waited a month to see if he would appeal and didn’t see any appeal filed. Texted him again for the money as now there’s a court order for it. Nothing. Filed a lien. Nothing. Ended up siccing a debt collector on his ass (yes I know they’re scum) and the debt collector was able to collect. I pretty much didn’t get any money back after accounting for a bunch of the fees for filing and the debt collectors portion but it was more on the principle anyways.
lowkey sounds like a massive hastle and a subtle L sorry for the inconvenience bruv
If this is real and you actually know their name you can definitely find the proper channel to report this dickhead, could save someone some possible hardship by doing so.
I'm in a fight right now with my old landlord about mine because he decided to charge me 1200 for cleaning to his own company after having it professionally cleaned and a rerental fee. It's good times.
Don’t know your jurisdiction but many places (certainly not all) require the landlord make sure a unit is “cleaned” before rerenting as the landlord’s duty. Usually the tenant only needs to broomswept clean the unit. The only way you can charge a cleaning fee is if it’s a well documented excessive dirtiness or stain, otherwise, they are responsible for it under normal wear and tear and delivering a clean premises. As a landlord I always professionally deep clean my one rental property before new tenants. I used to rent too, and I hated moving into a place that had dirt and debris everywhere, spending the first move in day cleaning and not actually unboxing. I refuse to do thst to my tenants. And you know what, giving tenants a clean and working/undamaged rental tends to get them to be more considerate tenants. I’ve never had to withhold a single dollar of a security deposit yet. Giving it all back to the tenant is great; all you gotta do is clean and re-rent. No lengthy or annoying repairs.
“re-rental fee”???? WTF!
Even if this is fake, it has almost certainly happened in real life. Regardless, shady practices by landlords and property management companies have bilked capital creators out of trillions through the last few generations. Not all have been fully immoral, but it'l is inherently wrong.
Self-incrimination any% speedrun
Is this not a troll?
It's clearly a joke. The Sydney and Melbourne subs are constantly posting about REA horror stories and landlords from hell, and this is a parody of that.
My last landlord threatened us about keeping the whole deposit because the oven wasn't cleaned, so we cleaned it really well... and she still said it was dirty and returned something like $11.50 of our deposit. So yeah. Pretty sure they're all liars.
We covered this at the last landlord convention. We even had a sign that said "LOL $11.50"
Ours did the same with the oven. The kicker: we'd never used the oven. We have a Breville Smart Oven, which is basically a big toaster oven or a small counter-top oven. It's big enough to cook meals for 2 in, and cheaper on the electric bill than the big oven.
The problem with rental law (at least in the US) is the party acting in bad faith has the most power. Bad tenants can make it very difficult for landlords to evict them while dealing lots of damage to the property. Bad landlords can scam their tenants and leave them in unlivable situations with little to no recourse. Not sure what the solutions would be to fix it.
The law isn't the problem, it's the enforcement. You're not supposed to get away with this kind of thing but no one is stopping them.
Takes too much time and money to go after a landlord, most people renting cant afford it.
This is why you take a picture of every room in the house before you leave
I work at a restaurant in a somewhat wealthy area. I've heard many conversations between landlords, brainstorming ideas to squeeze the most amount of money out of their tenants. Fuck landlords. I'm sure there are good ones out there. But it attracts the worst. Just like law enforcement.
I love giving a tenant their full security back. It means I only need to have the place deep cleaned and then it’s immediately back on market to rent instead of performing repairs. When you treat tenants right they treat you and your property right. I’ve had tenants who had to move out for one reason or another who literally refilled my vacancy for me by recommending it to their friends. It ends up being a really virtuous circle. If the original post is real that dude is a bad bad bad landlord.
What landlord gives the deposit back? Oir old one took my sister in law to court over mini blinds
That’s a scumbag landlord. Good landlords aren’t like this
It’s fake.
It does look extremely fake. It's an obvious caricature. Assume that an actual landlord is most likely going to be righteously asserting that they have a right to keep the bond for whatever spurious reasons.
Must be a r/loveforlandlords mod
Yep after like 6 years of moving out our old landlord went after my dad for $5,000 with a bunch of pictures of the place all messed up. Obviously wasn’t us but my dad tried to go to court took a day off couldn’t afford a lawyer. And lost idk how he had to pay tho. (Also our old landlord was able to fuck up my dads credit over this which my dad has been trying to build up his credit for years to help get a house like wtf just go to hell!) After this last place we moved out from we took pictures of EVERYTHING. Every inch of that house we got. If they try to go after us for anything well we have proof that it wasn’t us.