10+ Landlords Share Tenant Horror Stories

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Aug 17, 2023 4:00 PM EDT

We've all heard plenty of stories about shady landlords, but what about when the tables are turned? It's hard to remember that there are some landlords out there that are just regular people and that there are some tenants out there who are to blame for ridiculous living situations. Sure, sometimes it's the landlord who ignores a tenant's pleas to fix a serious roach infestation or to solve a roof leakage issue (yes, these are all things that happened to yours truly). 

 

However, every so often, there's a crazy tenant who causes all the drama on their own. Some of these stories range from bringing bed bugs into the apartment, causing other infestations that never existed prior to the tenant's move-in, and structural damage to the building as a result of reckless "interior designing." Keep scrolling below for this collection of tenant horror stories from the landlords of Reddit, compiled from this r/AskReddit thread. For more stories like this, here are some of the top hot takes and bold pickup lines this week!

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  • 01
    Property - 10+ Landlords Share Tenant Horror Stories
    via Henry Becerra
  • 02
    Font - r/AskReddit Posted by u/[deleted] Landlords of reddit, what are your tenants from holl stories?
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  • 03
    Font - ally-saurus When I was a little kid, my parents bought a cheap house in a neighboring town and fixed it up to rent. Two young women moved in and were great. Just out of college, working entry-level and kind of getting by, no trouble. They called at 6pm on Christmas Eve because there was a spider.
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  • 04
    Font - My dad called back when we got home from church service and asked what they wanted him to do. They said they wanted him to kill it. So he went out on Christmas Eve to kill their spider. They seemed to think this was normal, like about on par with what you'd expect your landlord to do if your water pipes burst on Christmas Eve - the least he could do given the situation.
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  • 05
    Font - Not a horror story by any stretch, but it makes me laugh. He told me that I was not allowed to move out until I could kill my own spiders, because fil that. 8.9k Share
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  • 06
    Font - SmellyMickey. 2 My dad owns quite a few apartment buildings throughout Colorado. One summer while I was in college, he was between managers for one of his 80 unit properties, so I acted as the stand-in manager until he hired a new manager. I can't say she was a 'worst tenant' per say, but I definitely have a few funny stories surrounding one woman named Kate:
    via [deleted]
  • 07
    Font - • One day we were served a notice that Kate was taking us to small claims court. Why? Because her in unit washing machine was not working. Had she reported the problem to management? Nope. The maintenance man and I entered the unit that afternoon to fix the washing machine. The problem? It was unplugged.
    via [deleted]
  • 08
    Font - • Same summer. My dad awakens me at 2 am saying the local police department is at the apartment on a shots fired report. When I arrive at the apartment, the place is lit up like Christmas with squad cars, there must have been 20 officers at the scene. What prompted the call? Kate and her bimbo friend were walking back from the bars hammered. They heard two loud pops and decided someone was firing at them. What actually happened? Two guys launched a bottle rocket from a nearby balcony. Als
    via [deleted]
  • 09
    Font - MClovechild I have a couple tenant from h stories. In 2007, an older couple decided to quit paying their rent, but they had pretty good excuses so I didn't evict them until after three months of not paying. Finally went down to the court house to file an unlawful detainer on them.
    via [deleted]
  • 10
    Font - We finally had our day in court. The female who was usually dressed nicely, with fake nails, and an expensive weave showed up looking like an old hag. The guy was using a walker (eye roll- this fil didn't need one). They claimed I was a slum lord and never fixed anything, but I had receipts from every repair including a new AC unit.
    via [deleted]
  • 11
    Font - After I got the judgment against them, I tried to garnish the man's wages, was told he worked for Coca-Cola Co. Turns out they'd never heard of him, but after a little digging I found out they had both been arrested for selling coke. The officer showed me mugshots dating back to the early 80s! They also stole the refrigerator.
    via [deleted]
  • 12
    Font - This past summer, I had a family of 7 move into a 5 bedroom house. They paid their deposit and 1st months rent. That's it. Haven't seen another dime from them. To top it off, they didn't get the power switched into their name so I got a $400+ power bill. About a month ago, I called the water company, turns out they never had the water turned on so they have been stealing water. The water company pulled the meter (I'll be the one paying to have it put back).
    via [deleted]
  • 13
    Font - When I gave a 24 hour notice to do a walk through (with the police present), the woman answered the door told me, "You can't come in, and we'll get out when you follow all the procedures and the sheriff kicks us out". I think they've done this before. ↑ 6.1k Share
    via [deleted]
  • 14
    Font - LaserBeamsCattleProd This happened to my friend's rental. Guy gets evicted. Instead of trashing the place. This fi guy cut off chunks of drywall, put dead fish in the walls, and sealed it back up. Tenant was a carpenter.
    via [deleted]
  • 15
    Font - The owners couldn't figure out the smell for weeks. They repainted, got it professionally cleaned a few times, searched endlessly. Eventually, they figured something died in the walls, and started knocking holes in the wall. Turned out to be that piece of move by the tenant. 5.8k Share
    via [deleted]
  • 16
    Font - SunshineSexWorker. I had a tenant remove the kitchen island and bring it outside by the pool because they needed an outdoor serving area. 13.5k Share
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  • 17
    Font - BighouseJD My mom had some tenants in a rental property who apparently sacks were serial and would live in a place until they got evicted, then move on to the next place. They'd do things like not pay rent while claiming AC was broken or some other property related issue then avoid actually letting it be examined or fixed. Long story short, after getting evicted they waited until the very last minute to move out, left a bunch of their stuff behind, and filled a microwave with hot dogs whi
    via [deleted]
  • 18
    Font - While my mom was in the process of getting a court order the TV show "Hot Bench" (a Judge Judy spinoff) called and asked them to come on. Everyone got flown out to LA and my mom got her money and the sacks got berated on national daytime TV, so I suppose it worked out in the end.
    via [deleted]
  • 19
    Font - john_gee. Used to have a job that involved cleaning and minor repairs of rental apartments and houses between tenants. Usually it was easy enough, but the ones who were evicted often made it a point to wreck the place on the way out.
    via [deleted]
  • 20
    Font - One particular decided to pack plumber's putty into the sink and bathtub drains, then turn the taps on before he left. They had to get professional contractors to fix most of it, but I got to rip out a bunch of stinky wet carpet and water- damaged floorboards. ↑ 2.7k ↓ Share hole
    via [deleted]
  • 21
    Font - [deleted] My parents had some tenants when I was probably 7 or 8 that never paid the rent and they wound up getting evicted. My parents decided that they would save some money and we would just clean the place up ourselves. This was their worst idea ever.
    via [deleted]
  • 22
    Font - I didn't know what a lot of the stuff I saw that day was until much later in life. The first thing I saw when we walked in the door was a fish tank full of dead, exotic fishies. In the bedroom we found used condoms, used tampons, and used needles. Like, just laying around. Once we saw that bedroom my parents gave up and hired a cleaner but I heard what else they found.
    via [deleted]
  • 23
    Font - They found a cat shoved into the toilet of the master bathroom. It was terrible. Edit: to those who are wondering, my parents did report them for animal but unfortunately nothing came of it. 2.7k /neglect Share
    via [deleted]
  • 24
    Font - m2k88. 2 bedroom unit, rented to two girls. [Grown woman, mind you with jobs etc]. Complained there were roaches [previous tenant had no roach problem, we even had it cleaned and so none]. We get it taken care of, still complained there were. Now we're thinking she or her roomate brought them.
    via [deleted]
  • 25
    Font - Skim to them both leaving on Oct 31. We get the key and check the unit, it is trasheddd. They left most of their behind, bottles on the counter, glasses, plates, cutlery, clothes, shoes, food just all over the place. And roaches...lots of them.
    via [deleted]
  • 26
    Font - We call junk removers, they dont remove unless it's roach free. Called pest control; they advise to remove the things before they do their jobs. FML 2.0k Share
    via [deleted]
  • 27
    Font - I_am_a_Wookie_AMA. My parents have owned properties for a while, so there are a number, but the one that I'm personally invested in is the last tenant. They decided to rent out my childhood home and I suggested it to a coworker. I had worked with this woman for several years, and thought she and her family were decent people. I trusted them.
    via [deleted]
  • 28
    Font - They brought bed bugs into the place, did quite a bit of damage to the walls. They also pulled out and sold 100 year old hardwood trim, removed the central air unit and sold it, and just generally the place up. They then proceeded to skip town after being kicked out once they found out that their wages were being garnished (show up to your court dates, kids).
    via [deleted]
  • 29
    Font - Having tenants leave behind a pile of trash, horrifying bathrooms, and holes in the walls is common, but I hold a bit of a grudge on this one specifically. ↑ ↓ 1.9k Share
    via [deleted]
  • 30
    Font - Captain-Poop. We had one tenant who wouldn't pay rent. We followed the protocols to evict him but he kept getting the judge to agree to an extension. He ended up staying rent free for 7 months. He also complained about anything and everything. "The neighbors are too loud" "Someone's car alarm went off across the street", "one of the neighbours has a cat and I'm allergic". There is literally nothing I can do to remedy those situations.
    via [deleted]
  • 31
    Font - When he finally got evicted he left the apartment in shambles. Holes in the walls, curtains stained with what I can only assume was doo doo, and the rug was littered with cigarette burns. I wouldn't wish someone like that on my worst enemy 610 Share
    via [deleted]

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