FAIL Blog

'I stopped paying rent': Tenant gets back at terrible landlord by building a case against them and taking them to court

Renting a home is a challenging experience… living in a place that isn't really your own under some degree of scrutiny from a landlord whose assets your earnings are paying off… and that's in the best of circumstances. There are plenty of landlords who won't uphold their basic obligations of maintaining their property to liveable standards, charging you more and more in rent—yet, regarding their tenants as an unfortunate inconvenience to their "investment"—refusing to fix anything when it breaks.

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Posted by Brad Dickson
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  • These scammy slumlords are only one of the many groups of grifters in this world who make a habit out of doing the wrong thing to separate people from more of their cash, only becoming more and more emboldened by years of reaping greater profit and only becoming more naturalized and complacent in their ways.

    The surprising thing about these people and these situations is that it usually only takes one person, knowledgeable enough and with the necessary time, resources, and determination, to topple them from their position and expose their unethical practices—usually, the grifter is counting this. Counting on their victims lacking in knowledge, time, or resources—but their victims will never be lacking in determination…

    This tenant had enough knowledge from their previous work experience to catch their terrible landlord off guard after their peaceable existence was shattered by changes within the rental company that saw new terrible policies coming into place. They managed to meticulously document every misstep from their landlord to the point where they knew they had enough on them to stop paying rent and press the issue further.

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  • 1
    "I went for them... I stopped paying rent."
    Via Phil Hearing
  • 2
    Posted by u/TheVaneja Landlord screwed with the wrong tenant for too long This will be decently long as it needs some context. I'm going to throw in a lot of stuff to make it all easier to understand as well. I'll put a *** where the story proper starts, in case anyone wants to skip the preamble. Minor details might not be entirely accurate as I've no interest in a revival of this conflict on any level. I won completely, and any resurrection can only taint the experience.
    Via u/TheVaneja
  • 3
    We'll start off by noting that I spent about 2 decades working in security. During that time I worked many different types of security in many different locations. The one that matters for this story was time spent in the Rental Housing Tribunal in a major city, as a kind of bailiff. For those not knowing what that is, think a court room (in a major city anyway, in a smaller town it'll probably be an event room in a hotel or community centre) as you'd see on tv but with less formality and an adj
    Via u/TheVaneja
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  • 4
    Note that I wasn't a bailiff, and it wasn't a court, but these terms mostly accurately describe the situation and my place in it. For 2 years I worked at the Rental Housing Tribunal, it was early in my time in security I was 18-20ish. Being as it was a major city, the sheer number of cases I sat through was beyond my ability to count. I saw everything there was to see. Noone is capable of surprising me with a story because I've seen them all. In detail, as a side duty of mine was to ensure all p
    Via u/TheVaneja
  • 5
    By the time I stopped working there I probably knew the way everything worked well enough to be an adjudicator myself. Well no obviously not, but I'm certainly in no need of a lawyer either should I ever have need to go there. I also had intimate knowledge of how the system worked beyond the actual rules. Like, for example, adjudicators would always give a little leeway to anyone representing themselves over someone who had a lawyer. Or how adjudicators would get when a party was speaking out of
    Via u/TheVaneja
  • 6
    *** Skip forward almost a decade. I left the city and am in a fairly large town in the same Province (same tenant laws). I have a few roommates in a decently sized townhouse. We get along well. But there's a problem. Only I can write cheques, and our paydays don't line up. So I'm the one who pays the rent, and I usually can't do it on the 1st because roommates don't usually all pay in time. We advise the landlord we might be a day or two late but we'll always have it by the 3rd at the latest. Th
    Via u/TheVaneja
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  • 7
    For about a year this works fine. No complaints from landlord because even if we're often a day or 2 late, we always pay. We're also fairly quiet and don't damage the property. Nearly model tenants. I do not actually have any idea why, but one day this changed. I suspect a different person in the company started overseeing the region. One day, suddenly we got a summons to the Rental Housing Tribunal (hereafter to be referred to as RHT) on the 2nd of the month for failure to pay rent. This doesn'
    Via u/TheVaneja
  • 8
    we paid the same day. But now we have to pay the application fee the landlord paid in order to serve the summons. I bitched to the neighbour who was also the superintendent and eventually heard back that their contact at the company was now demanding 1st of the month no exceptions. Well that really didn't work for us, so we probably had to pay that fee 15-20 times over the next 2 years. I could have gone to tribunal over it but we were technically without a leg to stand on and I knew it. Maybe i
    Via u/TheVaneja
  • 9
    If this was the only issue, there wouldn't be much story though. At around the same time the rent leeway vanished, so did mandatory maintenance. I'm not going to list everything that went wrong and wasn't fixed. You'll get a decent idea at the end. We suffered through it. We were all working too many hours at pay to be able to actually do anything about it. We adapted.
    Via u/TheVaneja
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  • 10
    But after about 2 years it broke. Everyone but me up and moved out for various reasons within a 4 month period. I'm not going into any details on my roommates at all because things kinda exploded for a couple different reasons outside of this. No reason to dig any of that up. I had been saving up awhile and was able to quit my job without having to immediately get another so I suddenly had a lot of time. I didn't want to stay and pay the rent by myself or have to find new roommates I could live
    Via u/TheVaneja
  • 11
    So I went for them. I stopped paying rent. Annoyingly I didn't get a summons the 1st month. But I did the 2nd. So I went. With a meticulously documented plethora of evidence of failure to maintain the property and entering the property without formal notice. I had a copy for the landlord and a copy for the adjudicator. I know from experience that technically you're supposed to give the other party the evidence before the tribunal, but I also knew about that leeway an adjudicator gives to those w
    Via u/TheVaneja
  • 12
    They argued they were ambushed, but the adjudicator just dismissed the case, dressed me down a little, and told me to file my own summons as I should have done. This was the petty revenge. The landlord and lawyer drove 3 hours to get there, for nothing. Worse than nothing. I filed my own summons, and the big day shows up. It's been about 4 months of me not paying rent at this point. I'm prepared to if I lose, but I don't think I'm going to lose.
    Via u/TheVaneja
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  • 13
    The whole thing could not have gone better. I had 20-30 pages of evidence and 20 odd photographs, they had nothing. They had no actual defence for our water heater being out for 6 months or us not having a fridge for a year, just to mention 2 severe issues. Their entire defence rested on us being late for rent, which actually worked against them once that led to the adjudicator learning how many times we'd paid the application fee, and lies that had no evidence to support them. They even talked
    Via u/TheVaneja
  • 14
    me a few times, and I SAW IN HIS EYES the one time I opened my mouth to protest during their turn to speak but forced myself to shut up with every gram of willpower I had so only a squeak came out, the adjudicator respected me. He had no respect for the landlord. I had won on every possible front. The only question was how much. It was more than I'd ever seen. I got 9 months of free rent, and the landlord was ordered to have everything fixed before the next month was over or I'd get more. I gave
    Via u/TheVaneja
  • 15
    If you want a figure to put to it, I basically got a $13,000 judgement in my favour, adjusted for inflation and rounded. I also made the landlord and lawyer drive 3 hours, twice, only to lose. The landlords face was so red at the end I thought he'd have a heart attack. He didn't though. Bye Mark!
    Via u/TheVaneja
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  • 16
    Edit to clarify a few things based on questions. I also want to add for those good landlords out there, I do feel you. My time in the RHT was eye opening. For every bad landlord there are 10 bad tenants easily. There's a massive debate of debates to have over the whole thing I'll only say that I do sympathize with the good landlords out there. I'm not trying to paint all landlords as terrible. This is the only landlord I've ever had that was so useless.
    Via u/TheVaneja
  • 17
    Edit I've revised my estimate of the ratio based on a little research and some comments from 30 tenants per landlord to 10. I'm probably still wrong, but the sheer number disparity between landlords and tenants effectively requires there be more bad tenants than bad landlords simply because there are so many more tenants than landlords. I'm going to leave it at that and just beg you not to rip me apart from either side. I'm intimately aware of the problems both good landlords and good tenants fa
    Via u/TheVaneja
  • 18
    IanDOsmond Speaking as a landlord myself... nicely done. Fk landlords who don't keep their tenants' places up to what someone would want to live in, and who nickel-and-dime people for things like "two days late, but I told you ahead of time in order to let you not be messed up. 300 TheVaneja OP Thank you! 61 Reply Share Reply Share ●●●
    Via u/TheVaneja
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  • 19
    Lay-ZFair Well done - although from the description of his face maybe more on the rare side! I guess you left a mark! ;) Reply Share 218 ●●● TheVaneja OP Thanks, I think you hit the mark! ;) ↑ 77 77 ↓ Reply Share
    Via u/TheVaneja
  • 20
    Future Direction5174 I believe this story, because I too worked with a Court system and I too learnt how to play it. In my case it was a Lands Tribunal, the other side was not represented. He had appealed a decision by my colleague. I disagreed with my colleague's decision - she had a grudge against him. He appealed. I told my boss that his appeal was sound. I was told to do the hearing. I
    Via u/TheVaneja
  • 21
    told my boss either HE did the hearing or got my colleague to fight it (she had Court authorisation so could fight her bad decision). Boss refused and insisted that I attend. He spoke first, gave his story. I stood up, said "the facts are as stated. I have no further argument" and sat back down.
    Via u/TheVaneja
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  • 22
    Returned to the office and told the boss that we lost, and handed him back the papers. Never heard a dicky bird. Oh we did have to pay his Court fee, but it was only £20 or something stupid like that. I'm not fighting a b/lsht case just because my colleague didn't like him.
    Via u/TheVaneja
  • 23
    Molly Godiva I find it odd that the other party has to pay the filing fee. In the US the other side only pays if they lose and the fee is included in the judgment. 29 Reply Share TheVaneja OP In the RHT, I can't speak for any courts, the application fee is always paid by the applicant. If I remember correctly, technically the application fee isn't automatically assigned to the losing non- applicant party. But if the
    Via u/TheVaneja
  • 24
    applicant/winning party asks for it, it will be part of the judgement. In practice the applicant always requests the fee back. My experience told me there was no hope in fighting it except in a harassment case. But doing that would require going to the RHT multiple times and taking multiple days off work to do so. Too many days. And losing every case until I was able to pull out the harassment card.
    Via u/TheVaneja
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  • 25
    I didn't even intend to bring it up at the tribunal because I felt it was a weak and petty thing to bring up and I knew what adjudicators thought of weak and petty things, but it happened anyway. I can't honestly say it changed anything I got the distinct impression that I got about as much a victory as was possible to get without going to actual court in a follow-up. But it was obvious the adjudicator didn't think much of their actions. I wasn't prepared to try actual court that was outside my
    Via u/TheVaneja
  • 26
    Tamalene The more I read about scumlords, the happier I get reading stories like this. Reply Share 32 Blue Moon_Rabbit Having dealt with a rental tribunal because a slumlord (and not having such ideal results as OP), can confirm, this felt very nice to read. Also, pretty username! It almost sounds like Tam Lin. 8 Reply Share
    Via u/TheVaneja
  • 27
    Stormy8888 No heater and no fridge = dealbreaker. I can't imagine the tribunal ruling any other way but for you. You got revenge and screwed them in the pocket book, the only thing they really care about. Good for you! 6 Reply Share
    Via u/TheVaneja
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  • 28
    TheVaneja OP Thank you! I did know I'd win something, I was less certain of what. The RHT was very limited as to what it could grant in a judgement. It has been a long time so I might be remembering slightly wrong but I'd never heard of a 9 month rent abatement before this. It was only due to my bringing it all up in the first hearing that I got 2 or 3 of those months. If not for that I wouldn't have gotten 9 months it would have been 6 or 7. I think 6 but don't quote me on that. Reply Share 3
    Via u/TheVaneja
  • 29
    mcflame13 So you went from having a good landlord who gave you some leeway because he knew of the situation you and your roommates had. To a landlord that I would call a slumlord. A landlord that only cares about getting paid and not maintaining the rental property. He learned the hard way that if he doesn't take care of the property. It will severely bite him in the ....... 7 Reply Share ●●●
    Via u/TheVaneja
  • 30
    TheVaneja OP He hated us enough and we'd had so few issues previously I think it was all a personal vendetta and in the general sense they were actually good landlords. In my view it explains why they were so unprepared and defeated so easily. The really slimey slumlords I'd seen working in the RHT would never have let things get to where they
    Via u/TheVaneja
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  • 31
    did. They had experience working the system. This guy seemed like he'd never had to actually fight a case before. However I might be wrong about that maybe he was a slumlord and he just rarely if ever got challenged. 3 Reply Share
    Via u/TheVaneja

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