If you thought your landlord was bad, check out this story. This San Francisco couple is facing several felony counts after conducting a campaign of terror against its tenants in an effort to get them to to leave the building. The crazy things they did include:
- Cutting a giant hole in one renter’s floor
- Breaking into a tenant’s apartment and pouring ammonia on their clothes, bedding, and electronics
- Cutting the support beams to a renter’s apartment
- Illegally entering a renter’s apartment and dismantling their furniture
- Turning off the water,power, and electricity to tenant’s apartments
Suffice to say, landlords aren’t allowed to do those sort of things just to get you to skedaddle. What’s the worst landlord you ever had and how did you deal with them?
S.F. landlords charged with tenant terror [SF Gate] (Thanks to Paul!)
(Photo: Getty)
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They’re being held in SF County jail now. Their lawyer tried to get their bail reduced from $350k to $110K, but the judge denied the motion. It looks like it’s a couple of speculators that got squeezed, so it’s less likely they’ll be able to make bail, so hopefully they’ll spend all the time before trial with large concrete, barred rooms filled with lots of umm likely renter types.
Adding to the charm of this couple, the man they assaulted and stalked the worst was on disability: Macy literally kicked a cripple.
@Ailu:
wow, what a couple of fucking crazy people. I sincerely hope they each get life sentences + a few to grow on.
Nearly every single comment has me terrified about renting for the first time in my life next year.
@SkipT: Make sure to talk to the previous tenants if you can to see how they liked the landlord. Talk to the person who’ll be managing the place (maybe the owner will show you the place but someone else will manage it), always pay rent 2 days in advance, mark every nook and cranny for pre-inspection so they can’t get you on damages prior to moving in, and be pleasant if something goes wrong, expect around a week for them to get to you if it’s a minor damage. This will greatly increase your chance of not renting to a jerk. And always document any complaints you make to your landlord, like how often you ask for a leaky faucet to be repaired, etc.
I saw one on television – Smoking Gun’s World Dumbest Criminals or something like that. They had a landlord went into a tenants home, pulled all the food from her fridge and then urinated all over it. As it turns out, she’d become convinced he was going into her apartment without notice and set up a hidden camera.
He was arrested, but it makes me glad I don’t rent!
@generalhousewifery: I think the better solution is some sort of landlord database. Supposedly there is some data base like a credit report that some property managers use to report tenant past behavior.
I found out after the fact by doing some research that one of our former landlords had been taken to court for some pretty unflattering things by other tenants.
@timmus: When I’ve rented, my landlords have all held my deposit in a separate bank account. I don’t know if that’s PA law or not.
I’ve never had a problem getting a deposit back. The only time I’ve ever not gotten a full deposit back was one house I was renting, we were supposed to be paying the water bill but the landlord never gave us the bills, he just ended up taking the bills off the deposit. We still got about half the deposit back.
Post all your bad landlord stories? This post would be a lot shorter if they asked us to post our good landlord stories.
I’ve rented: apartments (2 in Seattle, 2 in Chicago) and a house (in Seattle). Of all five, only the house landlord was cool, the rest have all the same horror stories as above, so I won’t repeat them.
I think state licenses should be required to become a landlord, mandated at the federal level by HUD. In order to get a license, you have to pass some basic common-sense knowlege questions. Sure it won’t prevent abuse, but it will remove the argument that landlords use “I didn’t know…” or “All landlords do this…” etc.
Our last landlord flat-out refused to give us his phone number. (We’re not the type to call and complain about anything unless something is broken, so I don’t know what he was worried about.) We were supposed to contact his lawyer’s office instead, and the lawyer would then contact him. Which basically worked OK, until the Sunday the landlord’s elderly father (who lived in the apartment downstairs) turned on the gas stove, forgot about it and then went outside to garden. Or the Saturday the radiator broke and flooded the apartment. Did I mention the lawyer didn’t work on weekends?
I’m so glad we don’t rent anymore.
Someone told me that their landlord took advantage of the rat problem in the city and stuff dead rats under their floorboards from the floor below in an attempt to evict the family.
My parents rented for years…. I don’t remember how many times I had to clean these places out with my dad, make repairs, and the most HORRIBLE shit they neglect to tell the landlord! My dad never made a fuss about serious repairs, he’d rather soak the money into it before something even worse came about. We watched renters let their TV Antennas fall THRU the roof and not tell anyone! Having problems evicting renters, how they turned properties into a dumpster… The hot water tank stopped working in one place, instead of telling my dad, they just left it, full, in the closet for 6 months-year… by the time my dad asked them to leave, the tank was so rusted out you couldn’t drain in, hell, he barely got it out of the house without the tank bursting apart. They didn’t have hot water for HOW long… and they wouldn’t tell my father, because he’d have to enter the premises to fix it and see the hellhole they created. I’ve been nothing but decent to my landlords, but there are always those BAD APPLES. Still waiting for my $500 deposit back, and we’ve owned our house since last December… *sigh* guess I should call the AG…..
A tip – Anyone renting, if you report problems to your landlord, put it on your RENT check! Under the memo for smaller stuff, and I always wrote severe problems or arrangements above the endorse lines on the back. “WASP INFESTATION REPORTED 4/07″ and when he endorses it, he admits he was notified about the issue. If you have a cell phone, use the cell phone to call your landlord to report problems and keep the records. Severe problems going unrepaired, send notice certified mail. My sister used to put small things into her door before she left her apt., (like a match, or rubber band on the top of the door) then if those things were moved by the time she got home, she KNEW someone came into her apt… tip to people who can’t afford a security system LOL
Worst landlord I had was probably my first one. He wasn’t too bad of a guy though. My friend and I rented a shitty basement apartment. By sheer coincidence I happened to know the girl that was living there prior to us.
We go to move in, and it’s like she and her room mate never moved out. Almost all her stuff is there and the place smells like cat urine. We give her a call and find out that a couple months prior, her room mate just up and left, leaving all her stuff behind. All the stuff left was her old room mate’s and the landlord was supposed to send someone to get it all.
We spent the entire day cleaning out the apartment and moving all the crap to the back patio. Called the landlord to have it removed. Took him two months to get rid of it all. But he did end up compensating us some for having to clean it all up.
Then winter rolls around, the heater isn’t working and the apartment is drafty as all hell. He comes by with some space heaters that he tells us we can keep and he’ll fix the heater and the draft problem. He never fixed the draft problem, and he did attempt to fix the heater but failed and gave up at trying to fix it. Since he had given us the space heaters, we couldn’t really with hold rent because he was technically supplying us with working heat.
Then the bathroom ceiling started leaking water. Again, he tried to fix it but failed and gave up.
Didn’t renew the lease on that place. But at least I got my deposit back.
Landlord #2 wasn’t bad and generally fixed problems we had. We had small leak when it rained a whole lot that we told him about. He didn’t do anything about it, and it didn’t cause a problem for a while because it didn’t rain much. Eventually, it rained enough to leak again and ended up ruining my room mate’s computer. Landlord ended up helping to pay for a new one.
Landlord #3 I never dealt with, since I only lived there for a couple months, half of which I was away for.
Landlord #4 was great. Problems were fixed immediately. I had I think 3 problems I had to call about (broken toilet and other leaking stuff). I’d call in the morning when I got to work, and the problem would be fixed by the time I got home. The building had a problem with the fire alarm malfunctioning and going off for no reason. After the fourth time, they said they’d pay us every time it would go off if we were home. But they finally managed to get it fixed. They were a bit overpriced though, but you get what you pay for.
Landlord #5 is an ok guy. I more have an issue with the guy he uses to fix stuff. It took months to get the guy to show up to paint stuff that was supposed to get painted. The job never got finished and I just got tired of dealing with it.
I rent the other apartment in my 2-family building to a group of 2nd year law students. I figured they would be all over the move-in inspection paperwork and other documents — giving me grief over little things, but they didn’t really seem to care and never returned the inspection docs.
Remind me not to use them as my lawyers once they pass the bar.
Sounds like a small scale version of the infamous Windermere case
[en.wikipedia.org]
@humphrmi: Yes, we definitely need more government involvement. Especially when, as you admit, it won’t stop the abuses anyway.
Where did the ‘you are a moron for buying a house’ crowd go? If this was a Countrywide mortgage thread, we’d be swatting them like flies.
@backbroken:
I still wouldnt own a house unless I got one helluva sweetheart deal & could pay at least 75% down payment & could possibly rent out a portion of it.
Building upkeep, insurance costs, financing (being in debt up to your eyeballs),inflated property tax costs,having to mow the lawn, dealing with anal rententive home-owner associations or insanely uptight local ordinances….. just doesnt make owning a house worth it to me.
I will stick with my cheap $350 a month rent (in an area where rent is typically $800 & higher),located in a nice neighborhood in an apartment- converted house with only two other tenant neighbors, where my vehicle is only 8 feet from my front door…. all the while living cheaply and socking away 35% of my income year after year living without ANY debt thank-you-very-much!
@forgottenpassword:
Granted… I do live with a few poisonous spiders during the summer. *shrug* (but the traps catch probably 85% of them).
@forgottenpassword: But the sweetheart renting deal you have isn’t available to everyone. For you, it’s the best solution. Buying is still the best solution for those who can afford it.
(I’m using the now antiquated definition of ‘afford’ here.)
@backbroken: IMHO.
Years ago I moved into an apartment after looking at the model (because my unit wasn’t ready at the time). While the model looked fine, when I got into my apartment, there was no ceiling liner on the patio and there were exposed roofing tacks pocking through. I’ve got several tall friends and was afraid they were going to stand up and perforate their skulls.
So, I notified the management and was assured that it would be taken care of. Weeks went by and nothing. So I notified them again. Assurances again, but no results. Finally I did a little research into the law and found out what my rights were. Then I wrote a little letter (“Pursuant to Kentucky Revised Statute #XYZ, this letter is notice that we will be withholding rent until the following issues are resolved.”) and then i listed every single litle thing that was wrong with the apartment and dropped the letter after business hours in the little mail slot where I normally drop rent.
They had 8 workers out at my place the next day. The moral of the story is that renter’s have rights. Educate yourselves and demand them.
@Cupajo:
But be prepared to not have your lease renewed when its up. The idea of moving every year would NOT be fun, especially if you have decent rent/neighborhood situation.
And if you are on a month to month lease….. well, be prepared to move within a month or two.
Crap and a half!
These stories always bring out the scariest comments.
@backbroken: I wouldn’t go so far as to say that you’re stupid for buying a house, but I also think it’s a stretch to say that someone is stupid for renting. I’m a 35 year old renter *by choice*. I looked at that cost difference between renting a property and buying the same property, and I found it to be about 40-50% cheaper to rent, once you factor in all costs. I take that price difference and invest it every month in things that are a lot more stable and lucrative than housing.
That’s not going to work for everyone, but it works for me and it works for a lot of other people as well.
I suggest The Consumerist follow up this post with one about “The Worst Renters”. The stories will be worse.
The landlords in this story are being prosecuted and are almost sure to lose and lose big.
Most of the housing laws around the country are designed to protect the renters. Landlords have no such protections. In some states people can stay in housing for years without paying a dime of rent before you can actually get the police to come and turn them out.
@forgottenpassword:
This was 10+ years ago. We were on lease and they had no options but to make the repairs they had promised. And when I left a couple of years later, it was on my terms, not theirs.
I rented a room from a guy who owned a big house and was single.
The house had horribly inefficient heat, and this guy was never home, so he didn’t care. He would come and go and leave doors wide open, so my lower level “living room” would always be freezing cold.
Worst things he did tho:
1) Casually take the Long way to his office when he KNEW i had a date over, so he could stroll by when he KNEW we were getting busy on my couch. (Thank goodness we had a blanket!)
2) Expose himself to and proposition my GF for a threesome when she, I, he and his girlfriend were in the hottub, and I got out to use the john. To her credit she later related to everyone what a small peepee he had, and that he was insane for showing it to ANYONE.
When we moved into our last place, the landlords asked us to document all defects and they would “priortize” them. When we moved out there were still several “low priority” items that were never addressed.
At one point, they taped a couple of letters to our front door that said it was “formal noticed” to remove our belongings from the basement and backyard.
I wrote them a letter to advise them that taping letters to our door was an inappropriate method of communication.
We left them hanging there until we moved out. If they brought any prospective tenants to see the vacant apartment, they would see them.
@bdgbill: One of the things the Small Property Owners Association (I assume they don’t own a lot of property, not that they are Little People) is pushing for in Mass. is a mandatory escrow account for those withholding rent. You need to have some skin in the game or otherwise it’s just a way to avoid paying rent.
If someone puts together that list, I’ll add the jerk I bought my house from. He moved in with his girlfriend who was renting the other unit and refused to pay rent for 6 months while I evicted them. Crooked landlords make the worst tenants.
My first landlord was a sweetheart — I didn’t realize at the time how great I had it. It was a retired couple that owned 5 properties, my wife (actually girlfriend at the time) and I were renting the upstairs apartment in a small house they owned. We had a few things break now and then — in retrospect it was normal wear and tear in an older home — and it drove me nuts. I was too young and inexperienced to appreciate how reliably the landlord showed up within 2 hours of me calling about ANYTHING. One time I broke a window after locking myself out, and paid to repair it myself. He found out I did that and insisted on reimbursing me for the cost of the repair because, as he’d said, “he’d been meaning to replace that lock anyway” and felt bad that I’d had trouble with it. We lived there for 2 years before moving on to one of those massive suburban complexes. We were excited to get more space, but didn’t realize how much personal attention and landlord integrity we were giving up. The rental agent at the complex told us that the landlord’s wife actually cried when she was giving us a reference, saying she wished they had a bigger place for us because they enjoyed having us as tenants. We lived in 3 more rental properties before buying a home, and never had an experience as great as that first one. If I’d known then what I know now, I might not have moved…and I’d certainly have appreciated that couple more. I just took it for granted that that’s how a landlord would behave.
@Cupajo: Totally agree with you on this. I rented for 10 years because I knew I would eventually relocate, didn’t need the space, and thought real estate was overpriced in my area.
At some point, buying became the best decision for me as I think it is for most people who have the means.
But yeah, not stupid to rent at all for a lot of people.
Had a landlord that wouldn’t do anything about the mice. I laid out traps but it wouldn’t do anything for the numbers that this place had. I moved out when I found a pile of dogfood under my pillow.
@Cupajo:
Well, then you were lucky you didnt have a vindictive landlord who was going to kick you to the curb the very second your lease was up.
I was just saying, if you are going to be forcefull & demanding while quoting housing ordinances (even to get the landlord to do what he is supposed to do)…. you run the risk of getting kicked out the moment your lease is up. And to be prepared.
Landlords HATE tenants who are informed of their rights & will often want to get rid of them in favour of tenants who arent informed.
@bdgbill:
But in a lot of the “poor states” mostly southern states…. its often the complete opposite, where tenants rights laws are almost nonexistant or if anything…just the bare basics. ANd the landlord’s rights are a priority over tenants’.
@Cupajo: (… your response to backbroken.) :
I am pretty much in the same situation as you (even the same age) & have also decided it was cheaper & less of a hassle to rent instead of owning a home.
The manager of my current apartment occasionally lives in the unit over us (when it’s not rented out, it seems).
The benefit of having attentive help far outweighs the ability to host epic ragers in my opinion. I am extremely happy with our current situation.
Oh lord…
When I was in college we had a great idea to rent in Hopewell Virginia.. We found a place that was 385 a month with 3 bedrooms and a nice sized living room and kitchen. Only one bathroom though.
Funny thing the landlord was a plumber. Guess what problems we had? When you took a shower you would see soapy water come out the left side of the house foundation… If you wash clothes same thing.. Let me tell you it was fun. The satellite guy was pissed when he came out and told me there was a pond under there that was horrific. I told him “to hell with that, just run the cable under the carpet we will deal with it”.. Then we found out the bathtub had a crack in it that went from the drain to the back. We found that out when my future wife moved in and tried to take a bath. Water would not stay in the tub, it simply ran under the house!
But hey at least the lovely neighborhood scum welcomed me to the neighborhood by breaking into my Blazer and stealing the stereo! That was awesome. Not as awesome as finding out later that because we had noticed so quickly we had them pinned down in a camaro out front and didnt know it until the cop went outside!
Renting sucks. Nothing to show for years of payments… Just as bad as leasing a car.
If you read the history of the immigration waves of Europeans to America, the main reason wasn’t war, or religious freedom, etc. it was landlord abuse. Of course back then it mostly the owner of the land that they farmed to go deeper into debt every season, but moving to the factory cities and tenement landlords was even worse. Landlords should have been banned when they wrote the U.S.Constitution as it usually keeps people too poor to become property owners, and to prevent the situation of having to pay another individual for the right to live in your own country.
Love the photo for this article. It was taken from the March 7th, 1949 issue of Life Magazine, from the article: “New army has a housing scandal, Fort Dix shacks.” The woman pictured was renting tents and shacks for high rent ($55 a month – quite a bit back in 1949!)
As usual. Great story and I appreciate the information. Being a renter, I find it very useful to know my rights when dealing with the rental agency/landlord.
The only major problems I had with renting were some renovations/problems with pipes. They always seemed to turn the water off on days I has just started my, you know… cycle. As I was not working at the time, I had ALL DAY to spend in an apartment with no working toilet. It was eerie how they managed to time it just right each month.
But you learn to live with roaches. Even when they end up half alive in your sweatpants. That you’re wearing.
I think the biggest problem I had was with a landlord when I was in college. She’d take forever to cash our rent checks.
If she’d cashed them each fairly quickly, it wouldn’t have been a big problem, but she’d save them up. So all of a sudden a poor college student who doesn’t keep track well enough of his own finances (obviously, totally my own fault) would start bouncing checks everywhere…
But the rest of the landlords I’ve had since then have been great.
My first landlord was great – a sweet little old lady who lived in one of the 13 apartments in the building. We knew just about everyone in the building, and you would usually find the landlady out planting flowers or inviting someone in for tea. She even loaned my roommate and I a dining table and chairs when she found out we didn’t have them.
Since then I’ve had good and bad renting experiences. The last landlord was what made me really want to own a house though. He would call and yell at us for asking for things to get fixed and tell us that we had no right to ask for things to get done. We ended up talking to one of the neighbors and it turns out we weren’t the only people he was constantly trying to intimidate. I guess he had actually showed up at the neighbor’s place without prior notice to yell at them.
Owning a house is a bit more expensive, but if we stay in it for the rest of our lives, we will eventually not have to pay rent.
The only really odd thing my landlord does is frequently take off for a few months a time, “we’ll settle up with the rent later.. By the way can you take care of my dog? I will give you $20.00 a day off the rent, save any receipts, etc.” At least the dog is really good, ‘cept it chews on my shoes sometimes. But hey, it amounts to free rent.
My landlady (wife of landlord, above) showed up at my door with a plumber and no advance notice to fix a faulty faucet. The housing inspectors were due about a half hour later. She thought she could squeeze in a repair at the 11th hour, 59th minute.
My landlord is pretty much the picture of perfection. When i asked if i could paint the walls, he responded “Just pick some color two coats of white will cover.” When my hot water heater went out at 2am on a Thursday, it was replaced by 5pm that day. When some thieving arse tried to break in and slashed all my screens, the screen guy was there the next day. Oh, and when i cleaned my carpets because i’d been there for two years, the property manager reimbursed my rug doctor rental. (oh no, i paid for the soap!) When the showerhead started spraying funny, he told me to go get what i wanted at Home Depot and just include the receipt with next month’s rent and deduct the amount.
Everyone in my building’s pretty nice, there’s a big and loud but sweet as heck family behind my building, and my rent’s been $475 for four years. (I live in Seattle, my landlord lives in SF.) Needless to say, my landlord’s a keeper, my building’s a keeper, and, oh yeah, when i e-mailed the gent a link to the story, his exact reaction was “Find their address, i have a tire iron.”
OMG, I was just reminded of my friend’s landlord. He rented a room in some old crazy lady’s house (it was cheap!).
She’d call him at work to come home and CLEAN HIS ROOM.
I joked that she probly sat in his room all day sniffing his boxers.
He lasted 4 weeks there
@vdragonmpc: “Renting sucks. Nothing to show for years of payments… Just as bad as leasing a car.”
That’s a ridiculous generalization. I have a friend that makes a similar claim that renting is “throwing money away”. No, not true. I am, in fact, trading money for a service. That service happens to be shelter. By taking your argument to it’s logical conclusion, I could say that, by not building a cistern on your roof to collect rain water, you’re “throwing money away buying water from the water company”.
By renting for a full 8 years longer than strictly necessary (so far), I have an investment portfolio and a 401K that rivals that of most people 10 years my senior.
If I had bought that house at age 28, the lion’s share of my monthly payment would still be going towards interest for another 4 to 6 years. Lousy math. It’s shelter. Not an investment.
Buy a houseboat. That’s what I’m gonna do.
@Cupajo: While buying instead of renting is certainly a wiser financial choice for many people, renting can make a lot of sense–and you’re getting more than just a place to sleep.
I currently live in an apartment complex (owned by BH Management) that is run by a very good management team. For my rent, I get not only a place to stay, but also a (basic but serviceable) fitness center, free cable TV, a portion of water, and most important, maintenance on plumbing and electrical, usually taken care of the same day.
I do intend to purchase property and build a home someday, but at that point, I’ll still have to pay property taxes and to keep the place in working condition–something that my rent includes.
There’s these two customers who keep coming in to buy stuff and told me about their landlord who is absolutely crazy (these people don’t live in the best parts). She said he has snuck into their apartment and actually tapped it, she found some recorders. She said she’s in her third lawsuit with the guy, he left death threats when they were living there, he’s wanted on charges etc. It’s crazy.