A man named Chen woke up recently to find a scorpion crawling over his body. Snapping on the bedroom light, he found his bedroom to be full of scorpions. He gathered his family and worked to capture several hundred of the arachnids. When they left the apartment, they found their neighbors had been battling the poison-tipped beasts, and their landlord, who wants them out to make way for a construction project, is suspected of letting them loose. [More]
The Slum Lord Garbage Tree
By July 15, 2011
Greg was pretty ticked off. After two weeks of complaining to management, the tall tree outside his apartment complex still had garbage hanging from its branches. It looked like some sort of foul Christmas Tree for hobos. He couldn’t use the parking spot he pays $94 a month for because the building staff had removed all the “Tenant Only” parking signs and not put up the new ones. People who didn’t live in the building were parking in his spot. Only after sending a string of admonishing emails to the building manager, his bosses, and the board of directors did Greg finally get The Tree Of Garbage cleaned up. Here’s the chain of emails: [More]
Finding A Non-Crappy Place To Live When You Have Poor Credit
By May 31, 2011
D. hates her current apartment, and is looking for a new place to live. The catch? She works as a temp, and has had some credit problems. She has a steady work history, and also a decade-long history of on-time rent payments to the management company she currently rents from. She wonders: what advice does the Consumerist Hive Mind have for her as she looks for a new home? [More]
How Can I Get My Fridge Fixed If I'm Never Home?
By April 6, 2011
S. rents a house in Florida, and the refrigerator needs repair. Her dilemma is that her landlord wants to use a specific repairman, who is only available when S. and the rest of her household aren’t available to wait around. The landlord has offered to let the repairman in, but S. isn’t comfortable with having anyone in her home when she’s not around. What would you do? [More]
Surviving And Thriving As A Long-Distance Landlord
By April 3, 2011
Being a landlord can be a dream, with an easy stream of income with little ongoing effort required, but the career can also be a nightmare of repair bills and troubling tenants. [More]
Landlord Offers $50 Off Rent To Tenants For Leaving Positive Ratings
By March 28, 2011
Luke got an intriguing email from his landlord. It was an offer for $50 off his April rent – hooray! – but he had to something unsavory first. His landlord wanted him to go to apartmentratings.com and give the apartment complex 5-star ratings across the board. [More]
Landlord Wouldn't Fix Leak For 5 Months. This Letter Got Him To Do It in 5 Days.
By March 7, 2011
Raymond and his wife had a leak in their master bedroom ceiling that they begged their landlord to fix for five months, with no result. With a baby due in a month, they really needed full use of their bedroom. Then Raymond wrote a very good complaint letter specifically citing his state’s landlord-tenant law and proposing a retroactive rent reduction for all the months the leak wasn’t fixed. That got their attention. [More]
Certified And Notarized Letter Gets Heat Turned Back On After 5 Days
By March 3, 2011
Davya says that after showing her landlords she meant business with a notarized and certified letter, she finally got the heat in her apartment turned back after 5 days of no heat. [More]
Apartment Still Doesn't Have Heat After 4 Days But It Does Have Noxious Burning Smells
By February 28, 2011
Dayva has written in an update about her landlord and heating issue. They don’t have heat yet, but they do have a power strip that’s been slowly melting itself into goo! [More]
No Heat, Apartment Has Smoke And Fumes, Landlord Is MIA
By February 25, 2011
Dayva is fuming, almost as much as her apartment. She’s been without heat since yesterday after the cord on the heater her landlord installed melted. The landlord sent repair people who replaced the cord, but the heater still doesn’t work and its been emitting odd smells. Now she’s fighting through phone tree hell and getting hung up on by the landlord, unresponsive management company, and their minions. What’s a body to do? [More]
Repo Man Cometh For Furnace
By January 5, 2011
Repossessing a car or mobile home is one thing, but a furnace? [More]
68 Families Evicted Because Landlord Owes $79,000 Water Bill
By December 16, 2010
Terrible: being forced out of your home during the Christmas/New Year’s holiday stretch. Even worse: losing your home because your landlord hasn’t paid the water bill in months. That’s what is about to happen to sixty-eight families in Oklahoma because their out-of-state landlord hasn’t paid the apartment complex’s water bill in months. [More]
Know Your Renter Rights
By December 7, 2010
Do you rent? Better know your rights. Here’s a state-by-state guide with links to statutes for both landlords and tenants. If you want to negotiate down your rent, get a drippy ceiling fixed, fight an eviction, or squelch a noisy neighbor, first bone up on your renter law. [More]
What Do I Need To Pay When I Break My Lease Four Months Early?
By November 4, 2010
Shannon in Alabama recently got engaged, and she’ll be moving into the house her fiancé owns after the wedding in December. The problem is her current place, which she just leased in April. She wrote to Consumerist for help figuring out what to do, since her landlord doesn’t seem too clear on the procedures, either. [More]
Landlord Says He Never Got My Rent, Can I Get My Money Order Back?
By November 3, 2010
Marty sent his rent in by money order and the landlord says he never got it. Marty is trying to get his money from the money order back, but is finding out that it’s not the same thing as a check. [More]
NYC Slumlords Outed By Public Advocate's Worst Landlord List
By August 30, 2010
Not many renters in New York City are in love with their landlords, but only a handful of the city’s landlords deserved to be called out in public for repeated violations and ignored complaints from tenants. Starting this morning, the city’s Public Advocate has decided it’s time that the worst offenders be forced into the spotlight with a public, searchable database. [More]
Won't Pay Up Rent? I'll Spraypaint "Deadbeat" On Your Garage
By August 6, 2010
Sick of her renters not paying any rent, a Charlotte landlord spraypainted “DEADBEAT TENANTS” on the garage. [More]
I Thought My Apartment Included Utilities. Now I Have A Zombie Gas Bill
By April 28, 2010
Jesse has turned to Consumerist for help because he is being haunted by a relic from his past. Specifically, he writes that a debt collector has contacted him, claiming that he owes them for having a gas service account that he never used–in an apartment where he thought all utilities were included. What should he do? [More]
