'Not in the lease agreement. You agreed to a rental price': Landlord rents out room, tenant keeps having nighttime guests, landlord gets petty until he moves out

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Aug 18, 2024 4:00 PM EDT

It's easy to blame the landlord in any tenant-related dispute, but every so often, one comes across a story in which the tenant got exactly what he deserved.

In this scenario, we have a landlord who rented out a room in his apartment to make some extra money. He covered all utilities and renovated the place so that there was some separation between him and his new tenant. However, after the first month, the tenant started bringing "lady friends" over five to six times a week and would make a ton of noise well into the night. The landlord tried to confront the tenant calmly, to no avail. Things only got worse soon thereafter. In fact, the tenant claimed he could do whatever he wanted when it came to house guests because there was no policy put into the lease agreement.

This promptly inspired some justified malicious compliance. The landlord decided that if his tenant wanted to play games and talk about the specifics of the lease renewal, then the landlord would give him a taste of his own medicine by following said agreement to the letter. This meant that every day, the landlord took away a special perk he once offered to the tenant. Before the tenant knew it, the living situation was as bad as it could get for him. Keep scrolling below for the full account of this conflict. When you're done, take a look at this story about another tenant-landlord argument!

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10390526464
    via Jakub Żerdzicki
  • 02
    You want to have girls over all the time? Ok. Have it your way. LOC THE SETUP:
    via mechpaul
  • 03
    I have a 2 bedroom house. I decided that I wanted to rent out the other bedroom in the house to make some money on space I wasn't really using after C I fixed up the place really nice: So
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  • 04
    The tenant gets: • Private, semi-attached bathroom (bathroom is actually outside the bedroom, but I put up drapes. between the bedroom and bathroom so tenant can walk between without me seeing)
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  • 05
    • Common consumables! (I pay for toilet paper, paper towels, laundry supplies, kitchen supplies, etc.)
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  • 06
    I create the lease. The lease is very barebones. It just says "you get a room at this property. You pay this much per month. Landlord covers all utilities. Your lease is X months long."
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  • 07
    I created the ad. In the ad I mentioned how "it's ok to have guests over, but keep it to no more than twice per month". I did not put this into the lease agreement. You can see where this is going.
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  • 08
    I do a showing for a prospect, T. I tell him the guest policy and he seems just fine with it. I do the rest of the showing and all seems grand. He signs the lease agreement and moves in.
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  • 09
    THE PROBLEM: The first month is grand. Anyone can fool someone for a month. But eventually you return to bad habits. His bad habit was women. He would have women over 4-5 nights per week. I did not appreciate this.
    via mechpaul
  • 10
    I pulled him aside to tell him "Hey, you're having a lot of girls over. You need to reduce how many girls over or, if you're willing to pay a bit extra for having all these girls over, I won't say a thing." He initially agrees with it.
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  • 11
    The next day, he calls me down and asks to speak with me at the dining room table. It's T and his girl du jour, G. T begins arguing, "How can you ask for more money when that's not in the lease agreement? You can't ask for that."
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  • 12
    I told him the guest policy was in the ad and that we spoke about it when he came here. He said, "Yeah, but you can't ask for that. If it's not in the lease agreement you can't do that. The guest policy isn't in the lease agreement either, so I pay rent. I can have over whoever whenever I want."
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  • 13
    G piped in, "You just need to take the L on this one and write better lease agreements."
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  • 14
    I replied to G, "You're not on the lease agreement, so I don't give a what you think about it." I turned to T, "It was in the ad. We also talked about it when you came here. You knew about this."
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  • 15
    T replied, "Woahhh man calm down. It's just six months man. That's my lease term. I'll be out of your hair in six months."
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  • 16
    I replied, "Why can't you stay at her place?" G said, "That's none of your business."
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  • 17
    "Shut up, G. I don't care what you think. You want a problem, T? You got one. This is not cool and you know it. Why does she have to be here 5 nights a week? She practically lives here. I signed a lease with you, T, not with her. Why is she here?"
    via mechpaul
  • 18
    He shrugged, "Can't help it. Not in the lease agreement man. That's what lease agreements are for."
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  • 19
    I was infuriated. We talked about this. He's choosing to follow the lease agreement. Okay... fine... what's a guy to do? I want him gone. I don't want T & G teaming up against me in my own house!!
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  • 20
    They walked upstairs and turned on the loud music in their room. Later in the evening, G was downstairs cooking something on the stove by herself using my pots and pans. She's cooking for herself in my house! She's not even a tenant but she sure is acting like one.
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  • 21
    G tried striking up a friendly conversation with me, but I just gave her absolute silence for 10 minutes while I cooked. I took my food upstairs.
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  • 22
    This is war. I'm going to follow the lease agreement TO THE LETTER. If I advertised a feature in the ad but it wasn't in the lease agreement, that thing is GONE.
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  • 23
    THE COMPLIANCE Every day I took something away. I first started by removing all the common consumables from the house. He texted me later, "Man, you removed all the consumables?
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  • 24
    You need to come down on the rent." I replied, "Not in the lease agreement." He said, "It don't got to be like this."
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  • 25
    I removed the drapes between his room and the private bathroom. I took away the chairs for the dining room table.
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  • 26
    I then shut off the clothes washer and dryer (circuit breakers were in my room) and left taped up the location of a local laundromat.
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  • 27
    I also became an absolutely filthy roommate. I didn't clean anything. I left bags of garbage wherever I felt like. I never cleaned the kitchen and left the sink full of dishes. "Please man can you clean up" "No."
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  • 28
    I had maid service. Cancelled that. I informed him of the change. "Can you come down on the rent, man?" "Not in the lease agreement. You agreed to a rental price." "C'monnnnnn"
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  • 29
    I turned off the breaker to the stove and left out a wall outlet single pot electric plate for him to use. I turned off the microwave. Not in the lease agreement either.
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  • 30
    I actually started feeling bad for him. G started coming around less and less as I made the living situation worse and worse.
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  • 31
    Finally, he texted me, "Do you want me to move out?" I replied, "Yes, when are you leaving my house?"
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  • 32
    He said, "End of the month. You'll let me break the lease?" I replied, "Of course."
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  • 33
    He left at the end of the month. I had my house back. I made for sure to make my next lease agreement way more specific about EVERYTHING.
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  • 34
    JustMePatrick 9 hr. ago It was MC on both sides. This is why contracts spell everything out. If not then this is the result. Totally worth a consult with a lawyer (specializing in landlord- tenant law) anyway, you don't want to inadvertently run afoul of landlord-tenant laws for your city/state.
    via mechpaul
  • 35
    vedgehammer 8 hr. ago This definitely fits but OP is a colossal idiot for manually creating a lease agreement. Legal- reviewed ones for any jurisdiction are available online often for free.
    via mechpaul
  • 36
    ODCreature98 - 11 hr. ago I mean, you were planning on being a good landlord and all, but that guy just had to be like that, what can you do?
    via mechpaul

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landlord malicious compliance malicious-compliance-reddit bad roommates tenant landlords reddit thread Reddit roommates apartment
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