19 Landlords Who Prove They Are Basically Satan's Henchmen
Landlords are generally terrible, and we all know it's the truth.
I've never had a good landlord. At best, they don't reply and aren't helpful. At worst, they police the tiniest things or expect you to chip in in ways that are not your responsibility.
I have great landlords/property managers right now, meaning that they do absolutely nothing about all my packages being stolen and issues with the front gate, and they forgot to give me my laundry card at move-in. I'm not being sarcastic — they're literally among the top landlords I've had. Other landlords have accused me of doing drugs (I don't), done absolutely nothing about neighbors peeing and doing coke outside my kitchen window, lied to me about parking spaces, or refused to let me have my pet deposit back when my cat died, so there's not a lot of competition for the "best" spots.
And it's not just me — I've rarely heard of someone having a good experience with their landlord. So I decided to take it to the BuzzFeed Community and ask about infuriating conversations you've had with your landlords.
I also took to Reddit's r/landlordlove for a few more examples, because I simply love that page (the "love" is sarcastic), and this Reddit thread about bad-landlord stories.
Here are 19 infuriating conversations people have actually had with their awful landlords!
1."My landlord texted me asking if I could turn off a faulty alarm system in THEIR building that happens to be outside my apartment. At the time I was out of town at my brother's funeral. Even if I was in town, I cannot physically access it and do not know how to turn it off, all of which she knows. This was her response. While I was at my brother's FUNERAL."
2."My mom was in the hospital being tested for cancer, and because of COVID, I couldn’t see her for a month. Her rent needed to be paid, but I was unable to drop off her checkbook. I called her landlord to explain, and he said that if it’s later than the 1st of the month, there’s a $25 late fee for every day it was late. I told him the situation and he said, 'Cancer is not my problem; being paid on time is!'"
"I gave him my mortgage payment to ease her mind. He near doubled her rent since she moved in. He owned a beverage and liquor store and had at least 10 rentals I knew of — not to mention, she rented from him over a decade. We found out a week later that she was stage 4. She came to my house for hospice, and I was so happy she didn’t have to return there. I don’t think I could face the heartless POS again."
3."When we mentioned that one of our dogs was still sick, she replied, 'Hasn’t your dog been dying for like two years!?'"
4."Man, I WISH I still had receipts for some past crap. Best ever was renting from a large rental company when I informed them that my suite had bedbugs. They refused to come check and kept insisting they were probably ladybugs (lmaooo)."
5."My landlord refused to hire an exterminator for a severe cockroach infestation and insisted on dealing with the teeming number of bugs himself. It would take 'only' 10 days for it to *maybe* work, meaning that my asthmatic self would have 10 days minimum stuck in an apartment riddled with bugs."
6."My last landlord said he was having issues with his bank because he moved, so he would just charge our card to his business at the beginning of each month. Fine, no issues, until we told him we were moving. All of a sudden he started having money issues and then would 'accidentally' charge us for rent twice a month. Then our last month we were there, he charged us for rent a month early after stealing our credit card information and then tried to evict us so he could sell his house. We moved out because he wouldn't stop harassing us and we didn't feel safe."
"He said he would refund our rent and give us our deposit back. He didn't refund either. He said that we stole a priceless family artifact that he left at the house (we didn't) and that he wouldn't give us our money back until we gave it back. I tried pressing charges for theft, and they said it was a civil matter and we would have to take him to court, but he most likely wouldn't show up or pay what he owed: $4,000."
7."I live in New England. This winter, I’ve had an ongoing problem with heat working in my apartment. I’ve notified the 'property manager' multiple times and was never given a good answer. At one point I ended up without hot water for an entire day. I was told too many people were taking long showers. (At the time, my car and the property manager's cars were the only ones in the driveway.) After a short exchange in which I was told the boiler was 'more than adequate' even though it clearly wasn’t, based on my not having water, I was treated with some wrong-number texts that I assume were between the property manager and landlord. What a mess."
8."When we first moved in, I agreed to clean the house because our landlord had just lost her father and had a lot on her plate. I didn’t realize how filthy it really was. The worst was when we checked out the dryer vents because the dryer was taking forever to dry clothes. The vents were so full of lint, we don’t know how there wasn’t a fire."
"Almost completely full. I texted her with a picture and said, 'Thank god there wasn’t a fire when the dogs were home alone.' Her reply: 'Well, you told me you were going to clean.'”
9."My landlord told me that hair down the drain caused my sink and shower to back up black gunk and it was my responsibility to get it fixed. I had a shaved head at the time. He knew this, as we had met in person numerous times. Not sure how powerful he thought my pubes were."
10."I had a bad rat problem that was there before the move-in, and it just got worse the year I lived there. I kept texting and asking for help and an exterminator, but they were vegan and said they weren’t going to pay to have the rats killed (which is understandable), so they went with humane traps that caught like two of the 50. So when I left and there was a still a rat problem, I was like, whatever, they can deal with it. I not only moved out of the city but out of the state. Well, I get a call from animal control saying I was reported for abandoning the rats, and the landlords had apparently told them I 'rescued them from outside and decided to domesticate them.'”
"I ended up having to send every screenshot of me asking for help and being ignored, as well as text convos with the old tenant before I moved in discussing the rat problem, to the head of the city animal control to avoid this whole abandonment charge."
11."I used to live in an old barn. I had issues with raccoons managing to break their way in through the roof and into my room. Sometimes I’d see their little paws sticking and waving out the air vent. Obviously I got a rabies vaccine…classic apartment issue. Anyway, one time I called the landlord, and his response was, 'I’m just going to leave a gun there for you to use if needed.'"
"I hate guns. I never used it."
12."I subleased a room in a house. The landlord who owned this house also lived there. He also owned a dog and a cat. I lived upstairs. The floor downstairs is hardwood and tile, right? Upstairs, it’s all carpet except the bathroom. There comes a point — about three weeks in — when I start noticing little red bites on my legs. I think they’re mosquito bites at first. It’s another week later before I realize that they’re not mosquito bites, they’re FLEA bites, because I see jumping dots on my white socks."
"I mention this to said landlord, who owns said animals, who certainly tracked in said fleas. He tells me he’ll do a bug bomb before he calls the exterminator. It takes him a day or two to buy said bombs. I set it off myself. It does not work. I text him and tell him so, but he’s gone on vacation. At this point it’s an infestation — they’re everywhere. I can’t walk without them on me. He calls an exterminator, but I guess it was a shit one because they’re all still there the next day. He texts back, 'I’ve never had one jump on me. Are you sure that's a flea?' Yes, I am, as I have eyes, and my feet and legs are dotted red. He says he’ll call again. Two days later, I ask about whether he’s called. He texts back, 'I’m extremely busy.' (He is not. I’ve seen him gaming on his PC.) He then texts that he hasn’t seen any downstairs. He’ll check upstairs later. Allegedly he does. Texts, 'I don’t see a single bug.' I’m like, fuck it. I’ll send videos after work. I send seven, which I record in the span of two minutes. He texts back, 'Oh. Is that what they look like?' By a stroke of God’s grace, I don’t murder him in cold blood in the four days it takes the exterminator to come back and finally kill the fuckers."
13."Waaaaaah, poor me, having to pay for basic boiler repairs for my tenants to keep warm during a cold and windy winter. So unfair!!!"
14."Me (my first week after moving in): 'There is water dripping from the light bulb over the kitchen...' Landlord: 'It's probably just the AC again. I'll be over next week. Call me if you smell anything burning.'"
15."My landlord told my boyfriend (now my husband) that he would lower the rent for him when I moved out. Not the worst landlord ever, but the audacity of that comment makes me so mad!"
16."Landlord called my roommate asking for the 'Black Lives Matter' signs displayed in my room to be taken down. They're on the second floor, facing the street, for all to see."
17."I rented an old ranch house from a 95-year-old man. He lived in town (small Hill Country town in Texas), where his live-in nurses cared for him. I was in my 30s, and I visited the owner in town to show him pictures of what I was doing to the house. I was allowed to do anything as long as it was an improvement. I seriously thought we had become friends, like grandpa-style, because he acted so dang happy to see me. My boyfriend and I would take him meals from Whataburger, we took him to eat in town, our families sang Christmas carols to him, etc. When I moved out and went to tell him goodbye, it was sad for me. I was almost crying. That man looked me straight in the eye and seriously said, 'I gotta have ya. At least once. I want to make love to you.'
"You cannot believe how shocked I was. The man was 98 by then. 'Mr. Oldie!! I have a boyfriend!!' I walked straight out the front door. His nurse was sitting there outside having a cig. She told me that every time people came to visit, she had to wrestle with him to put his pants on. And that part of her duties were to return the various vibrators and butt plugs he ordered. And that was the last time I ever saw old Mr. Miller."
18."My apartment manager just told the three apartments upstairs that we have to find a place to stay for one to three nights while the stairs are being repaired. He’s not offering a hotel and just keeps saying he has no empty units to put us in."
19.And finally: "Two friends and I were moving into a house together. Before we moved in, the landlord wanted to meet us to sign the paperwork, etc. One of my roommates is Black, and he showed up to the meeting about 10 minutes before I did. He introduced himself to the landlord and took a seat. The landlord immediately excused himself to go to the bathroom, then went and sat in his car until I showed up."
"He was quite upset that we didn't all show up together and kept saying, 'Was I just supposed to sit there with a person like that until you arrived?' He then spent the rest of the meeting making thinly veiled racist comments toward my Black roommate. Things like, 'Are you moving from an apartment? I don't want you bringing roaches and gangs with you.' To cap it off, when we were leaving, he spent about five minutes telling the teenage hostess how beautiful she was, and that he got her schedule from the manager, so he will be sure to be there every day she is. Racist, sexist, hitting on a child."
What's your worst experience with a landlord? Let us know in the comments!
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.