Predatory Landlord Screws Themselves With Their Own Lease

An error in the lease that they were strictly enforcing caused this landlord to lose out at their own game in this trending Reddit thread. The thread was posted to Reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit by the tenant, u/aalilyah, who was looking to get out of their lease. The landlord's strict enforcement of this document had them on the ropes before they discovered the crucial error.

Predatory practices from landlords pervade certain communities. It's almost as if they gather once a week at the local rotary club in order to discuss just how low they're going to set the bar for local landlord expectations. Take the University district where I attended university. In my sophomore year, a group of us were looking to move out of the dorms and into a house on the outskirts of the district (which was still a popular area for students.) As part of the move-in costs, we were required to pay an exorbitant cleaning fee. However, when we actually moved in, the house was still absolutely trashed by the previous tenants. We're talking trash in the corners and floors that were so sticky that you'd lose a flip-flop when you tried to tread across them. Whatever vile concoction was coating our new floors was so thick that there was a notable difference in the appearance of the floor once you took something to scrape it away. From those floors to the flooding in the winter, to the fight for our deposit at the end, that house and landlord were absolute hell. Justice would be served if the guy was drowned in his constantly flooding basement.

My housing experience in that area barely got any better, and the predatory practices of the landlords persisted because you had to have a reference from your landlord to secure housing for the next year. This ensured that you'd never say anything or complain about the scamming and grifting that was taking place.

But I digress, commenters had the following advice and experiences to share.

"Just goes to show: always read the lease that you're going to sign," said Meteoric_Chimera. "Doesn't matter what's supposed to be on it. And then read it again when any issues come up!"

"When we signed the lease on our current apartment, I think the broker was surprised that my husband & I actually sat down & read the whole thing," replied BefWithAnF. "I could tell she was getting antsy after about 20 minutes, but knew better than to rush us. We had a few questions about the language in the contract, & when we asked the broker she said 'nobody has ever asked that before.' We were like '…K. You gonna call someone & find out?'"

"They were being predatory and screwed themselves," stated vacuousintent.