'Take 1.5 month's rent from me? Lose a year's rent!': Landlord tries to evict tenant to turn his apartment into an office, tenant uncovers scheme

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
May 8, 2024 8:00 AM EDT

Standing up to your landlord is not an easy task. Most of us give in because we have no other option. However, every so often in a landlord-tenant dispute, the tenant comes out on top, and it's usually because of two reasons. The first is that the tenant was admirably relentless in their pursuit of at least some semblance of justice. The second is that the landlord was clumsy and incompetent.

This tenant was kicked out of their apartment wrongfully because the landlord's wife wanted to use that unit as an office. The tenant knew this was wrong but gave in anyway and ended up renting another unit in the same building. During the move-out process, the landlord kept insisting that the tenant clean up certain areas of the apartment, and after complying, the tenant still received very little money back from their security deposit. Again, the tenant caved and let the landlord win. However, as time went on, the tenant started to notice that their old apartment was not being kept in a strong condition at all. This became the straw that broke the camel's back after having to do so much clean-up for the landlord's wife. Cue petty revenge!

Keep scrolling below to see how the other tenants in the building found out about the landlord's behavior and how he ended up losing a full year's worth of rent. For more stories like this, check out this post about an entitled Karen's comeuppance.

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  • 01
    FOR RENT 682-785 AE
    via Erik Mclean
  • 02
    My landlord got not *exactly what he deserved, but it sure was a rough ride for him.
    via u/redditsavedmyagain
  • 03
    i had a landlord who was pretty absent. i lived in this building (a high rise, like 20 stories) for 10+ years. he, despite living next door to me, was absent and cold personally but cool enough. rent was good, our agreement was NEVER bother him about anything unless its an absolute emergency.
    via u/redditsavedmyagain
  • 04
    shower head wonky? go buy a new one. fridge breaks? get it fixed, or dude just buy a new one. take it out of what you pay in rent. lost the receipt i DONT CARE i know more or less what a fridge costs just take it out of rent
    via u/redditsavedmyagain
  • 05
    finally his wife decides she wants more rent, wants to rent the place out as an office (not legal) and wants us out asap. i agree to move out a month early and get a month's rent back + deposit.
    via u/redditsavedmyagain
  • 06
    complete 180 on their part. "the place is ruined, can't give you until you fix all this stuff". 2 main things: my cats did scratch up the leather legs of the dining table,
    via u/redditsavedmyagain
  • 07
    and the pull-up bar made 2 dents in the door frame of the kitchen, which was quite nice hardwood. they come to me with this list of TONS of stuff like oh you hang a photo frame here, this tile is slightly chipped.
    via u/redditsavedmyagain
  • 08
    this is the busiest work time of the year for me but im trying to be cooperative, sure, i got the table legs re-leathered, spackle the photo frame wall hole. can't do anything about the door frame, take it out of deposit. patch the tile. like dozens of little everyday- wear-and-tear things, like you want me to change the window screens? these are all new screens and in nicer shape than when i moved in! but i did them all, i trusted the guy. gotta get my money
    via u/redditsavedmyagain
  • 09
    at the end he should have been giving me 24k rmb (~£2500). he gave me FIVE. "i still need to use the money to fix all that stuff, if you can't accept the five, i can't give you anything at all." i was super pd off but took the five.
    via u/redditsavedmyagain
  • 10
    now, people in the building are gossipy. i dont participate but i did tell this one older lady about my frustration. she told EVERYONE.
    via u/redditsavedmyagain
  • 11
    the wife went from being the star of the "mommies group" of the building to nobody wanting to talk to her. people shunned the guy,
    via u/redditsavedmyagain
  • 12
    too. i originally told them i was planning on moving to another city but an opportunity came up and i ended up renting a similar unit in the same building. so they thought they could just s☐ me over and not have to see me, but now they still did. often.
    via u/redditsavedmyagain
  • 13
    a year later the office calls me with some question about how to do something with the floor heating, i go... door frame is not fixed, still has dents, i call the guy like "what man" and he tells me to the mind my own business
    via u/redditsavedmyagain
  • 14
    5 years later... i see the light at my old place is still on at 3am. huh, that's odd. i go to check, the door is open, and the place is just trashed, ruined. cabinets broken, stuff on the walls "lazy landlord"...
    via u/redditsavedmyagain
  • 15
    and the dents on the kitchen door frame are still there. so the guy never fixed anything, just kept my money
    via u/redditsavedmyagain
  • 16
    by this time smartphones were popular and we had a chat group for the whole building, so about 500 people. i took pictures and posted everything. apparently he had also nicked these peoples deposit, and there was a huge ruckus when they trashed the place, cops called. all these people chime in with complaints, and pictures. people sm in the hallways, leaving leaky rubbish outside the front door, videos of people using foul language in front of children, dirty footprints.
    via u/redditsavedmyagain
  • 17
    he got fined a lot for 1: creating a public disturbance 2: degrading the quality of the living space 3: illegally renting a residence as an office and to top it off the building management wouldn't grant him permission to have workers in to fix the place, so it sat there empty for like 6 months. the fines were big, too.
    via u/redditsavedmyagain
  • 18
    take 1.5 month's rent from me, lose a year's rent. it, bro.
    via u/redditsavedmyagain
  • 19
    IndicaRain 4 days ago More petty than pro! But good story, what a
    via u/redditsavedmyagain
  • 20
    redditsavedmyagain OP 4 days ago i may not have been clear enough, i kept tabs on these people for 5 years, compiled all the complaints people had (they weren't upset about the place getting trashed, they were upset about things like years of cigarette in the hall and also had pictures), put all my pictures and theirs together, and wrote reports to relevant authorities. SAIC (state administration of industry and commerce, can't have an office here), local po-po (also, can't have an office here),
    via u/redditsavedmyagain
  • 21
    i work with publishing, im good with adobe illustrator. those reports, i am proud to say, were professional- grade. full colour pictures, screenshots, transcripts, printed on nice thick paper
    via u/redditsavedmyagain
  • 22
    i'll take the criticism from the likes of u/TurtleSandwich and u/vacuousintent but i stand my ground, i combined my sneaky investigative skills, document creation and layout skills (which i literally do professionally), and social organisation skills to gather evidence on this f turn some chat group drama into a bomb report, and get his fined like a .... i'd argue it was pro, but admittedly quite petty at the same time
    via u/redditsavedmyagain

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pro revenge landlord revenge-stories tenant reddit thread Reddit roommates payback funny apartment
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