'Keep your word’: Carpenter tenant gets evicted after making a gentleman's agreement and spending $10k of his own money on renovations, rips everything out as he goes and gets the last laugh

Author image for Elna McHilderson
Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Nov 23, 2024 10:00 AM EST

The relationship between a tenant and their landlord can be a tricky one. Sometimes you hit the jackpot and you get a landlord who actually cares about their tenants and has empathy for them. If you find a landlord who understands that they are providing you with a home, not just some frivolous expense, then hold on tight to them. Because the usual MO is a landlord who only sees dollar signs. 

This carpenter didn't start renting until his mid-30s. Before that, he built his own home and lived in it for a decade. When he and his wife decided to rent a condo, they found the perfect place that was just the right price. Sure it was a little rundown and dated, but that's the perks of being a carpenter—you know how to fix that. So with the approval of the landlord via email, he was allowed to make renovations. However, he was so good at them, that when the landlord's money-hungry wife caught wind of the renovations, she immediately wanted to sell the place to make a pretty penny. 

What they forgot is that the tenant got it in writing that they would return everything back to its original state if they ever moved. So, of course, once they got evicted, they moved out and took their $10k+ renovations along with them. Leaving the owners with a spot that is valued way below what they were hoping to get for it. Landlords have to learn to stay true to their word. It's that simple. Read the entire situation below!  

Advertisement
  • 01
    "I can tell by the smell she's Fy seeing dollar signs. "
    via Unsplash+ (and Frames For Your Heart)

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    My Landlord Learns The Importance of Keeping Your Word - and I Learn Not To Renovate a Rental Condo. I became a renter for the first time in my mid 30's, pretty late in life. Before that, I'd been on the other side of things. I'm a landlord and developer, which I realize doesn't endear me to most readers, but in my partial defence, I've built everything that I own, and with my own hands for the first few years.
    via IknowwhatIhave
  • 03
    I started doing painting, finishing carpentry/millwork/cabinetmaking to make money during university, and when I graduated I had saved up enough to get horribly into debt at an extremely high interest rate which I had to build my way out of. The first place I lived in after the dorm was a dangerously neglected warehouse that I had just bought, and ended up reconstructing into a fourplex - I lived there for the next 10 years while subsequently getting into new greenfield rental developments.
    via IknowwhatIhave
  • 04
    Just before COVID I ended up selling that first place I had built, and the buyer wanted me out so they could raise the rent to market. This was to be my first time getting "evicted," but the pain was numbed by the sale price during that huge market runup. I also thought it might be tricky to navigate being a tenant in a building that I had built and owned for years. I decided to treat myself by renting a condo downtown a huge step up from my previous 1 bedroom that was chosen for its ROI rather
    via IknowwhatIhave
  • 05
    I spent around 3 months looking at dozens of places and built up a good sense of the rental market as my pride insisted I get the best deal possible. I quickly learned that the market that had been so favourable to me The Landlord was extremely difficult for me The Tenant. I got incredibly lucky when I took a chance and viewed a condo on craigslist that had no photos in the listing, never a good sign. It turned out the lack of photos was not an attempt to cover up, but simply the inability of th
    via IknowwhatIhave
  • 06
    It was perfect - 2005ish building, floor to ceiling glass, high floor with 270 degree views, A/C, open layout, well priced. The only problem? Very worn out, shabby 2005ish kitchen and bathroom, and the reddest looking cherry wood flooring you could imagine. Horrible cheap honey coloured fake wood veneer cabinets, gloss black appliances. Brushed aluminum finish everywhere, lots of frosted glass on the light fixtures. A simpler time.
    via IknowwhatIhave
  • 07
    The landlord seemed like he would be pretty hands-off, and my application pitch was that if he was okay with it, I would take care of maintenance myself and just e-transfer him rent every month and not bother him. He loved the sound of that. He said he had bought a house in the suburbs and wanted to keep this condo for rental income for about 10 years until he retired - there are pretty strong tenant rights where I live, so long as he didn't sell there were no "no fault" eviction options. We sig
    via IknowwhatIhave
  • 08
    We loved the new place - a complete change from the "up and coming" part of town we had just left, 400 feet above the street. The absolutely horrible kitchen, bathrooms and floors haunted me, but I had a plan and it was only a matter of time. One of my carpentry/millwork subs did a lot of retail tenant improvement as well as... model homes and apartments for much bigger developers. When you are building a 30 story highrise, you typically spend a few hundred grand to several million mocking up a
    via IknowwhatIhave
  • 09
    A few months later and it's the summer of 2020 and COVID is in full swing, and my carpenter emails me - one of his clients is cancelling their project, and since they are ghosting him on his draw, he is taking down their display unit. The drawings show an almost exact match to my unit in terms of dimensions. The spec sheet is jaw-dropping: almost 20' of Snaidero cabinets, gloss white with champagne bronze hardware, Sub Zero/Wolf appliance package, white marble counters and back splash, Kallista
    via IknowwhatIhave
  • 10
    Well, my jobsite is shut down for the foreseeable future, the government is making 75% of my payroll and I don't have anything to do except stare at my awful kitchen all day. After about 3 hours with my measuring tape and pencil, I ask my carpenter if he is willing to join my bubble for $40/hr cash for a few weekends. He is. One last step email my landlord and ask if he doesn't mind me doing a complete renovation on his condo. Crucially, I conclude the offer with "I'll undertake to return it to
    via IknowwhatIhave
  • 11
    Not surprisingly, he accepts. "That's okay, do whatever you want, we love having you as a tenant." Time to go to work. I get the old kitchen out in about 2 days, hampered by my need to work quietly as I'm doing this without permits (not like they are doing inspections anyways, but still..). A side effect of this slow pace (and my wife's current obsession with Marie Kondo) is that everything is removed intact, and carefully taped and labelled. Taking out the old kitchen does indeed spark joy. The
    via IknowwhatIhave
  • 12
    The carpenter comes over, and he gets the "new" kitchen installed in less than 2 days while I lay down the floor. The floor actually ended up taking me a week, mainly because I had to make the end cuts at my storage unit across town, since I definitely couldn't run a mitre saw with everyone at home during lockdown. After just under 2 weeks, I had effectively a brand new, ultra high end condo for just under $12,000 out of pocket. At this point I'm sure everyone reading this is facepalming as they
    via IknowwhatIhave
  • 13
    There are a variety of economic and market conditions and segments where it makes more financial sense to rent than it does to buy. For example, my monthly rent would not have even covered the interest portion of a mortgage, let alone condo fees, insurance, taxes and the opportunity cost of the downpayment. In other words, it was cheaper to rent the condo than it was to rent the money that I would need to buy the condo. Also, as a builder, cash is a critical tool, and the more cash I can hold on
    via IknowwhatIhave
  • 14
    With my 1 year lease, and the fact I had lots of free time, it didn't seem like such a reckless move. And who can say no to a $2000 kitchen faucet. Filling a glass of water feels like working the bolt on a well-oiled Holland & Holland rifle. Worst case I could probably get most of it back by selling just the appliances if something unexpected happened. Which it did. I had undertaken all this after evaluating all the possibilities and weighing the risk of putting time and money into a place I don
    via IknowwhatIhave
  • 15
    By the spring of 2023 the upgrades had, in my opinion, paid for themselves after nearly 36 months of use. I hadn't seen the landlord since I moved in and he hadn't been in touch since approving my renovation except for the monthly confirmation he'd accepted my rent transfer so naturally I began to get concerned when by the end of the first week of May, he hadn't deposited my rent. Two emails went unanswered, until there was a knock on the door. I opened up and was hit with a wall of flowery perf
    via IknowwhatIhave
  • 16
    The landlord had contracted COVID (in 2023!) and sent his wife to collect the rent. I get out my phone to cancel the transfer and go into my office to look for my chequebook. I come back to find her (still in her heels!!) standing in the middle of the living room spinning like a technicolour top. "Oh wow, this looks fabulous! I heard you were doing some renos but I never thought it would look like this! Is that a Sub ZERO fridge?" She opens the fridge. My fridge. "I looove the floors.. and are t
    via IknowwhatIhave
  • 17
    It took days to air out the smell of perfume after she left. Several hours later my wife came home, and given the lingering smell in the apartment, I'd already briefed her on who had stopped by. "F . I can tell by the smell she's seeing dollar signs." Sure enough, 3 weeks later I get a call from a realtor who wants to schedule the photographer to take listing photos as the landlords are selling. Of course the landlord, who has now recovered from his COVID, will not take my calls and won't respon
    via IknowwhatIhave
  • 18
    I'm upset that he doesn't have the courage to admit what he is doing, my wife is upset because she doesn't want to move, and I'm feeling embarrassed that I trusted this guy... I'm not really losing much since we've lived there for 3 years and paid tens of thousands less than market rent during that time... but it still stings. Even in the slow market the place sells in 3 weeks and yes, the new owners want to move in. They give me the required 3 month's notice and pay the 1 month rent compensatio
    via IknowwhatIhave
  • 19
    My first instinct was to at least contact the realtor and suggest he check with the landlord about what was included with the apartment, and what was being represented, but the description in the listing infuriated my wife to such an extent that we agreed to let them do their own due diligence. I think you can all guess where this is going. This time it only took 3 days to pull the "new" kitchen out and put the "old" kitchen back in. Same with the floors - turns out you can lay 1000 square feet
    via IknowwhatIhave
  • 20
    The old Home Depot Glacier Bay $49 kitchen faucet unfortunately started leaking when I put it back in, so I treated the new owners to a brand new replacement (now $60). The new one leaked as well, but not much, and only when it was on. I re-watched the move-in inspection video to refresh my memory and made sure everything was exactly as it was when I moved in, right down to a few small holes in the drywall - I had also forgotten that the old oven control board was fried which meant it kept shutt
    via IknowwhatIhave
  • 21
    My wife and I debated leaving a wireless camera up on the wall to capture the new owner's delight at how faithfully we upheld our tenancy agreement as unfortunately we moved out about a week before their planned move in date but there was/is (still?) a reasonable chance of getting sued so we opted not to, as intent is half the battle. I don't actually know what happened since I've ignored the dozens of phone calls from the landlord and the new owners, and just sent them a registered letter with
    via IknowwhatIhave
  • 22
    I did get a text from the realtor calling me a petty, vindictive a_h_le and that I'm lucky I'm not getting sued (implying that my landlord probably IS getting sued, and furthermore, one or all of them has looked into suing me and were advised against it.) The concierge recently told me that nobody has moved into the condo yet which presents another intoxicating possibility - because the new owners evicted us for their personal use, according to the tenancy law, if they fail to move in within 6 m
    via IknowwhatIhave
  • 23
    I still haven't bought a place, I ended up unfortunately having to pay a fair bit more in rent to move upstairs in the same building, with a different layout but thankfully much nicer finishings. I have an alert set for the building that tells me if a unit gets listed - I'm ready to make an offer if there is a fixer upper that comes up for sale - I even have a kitchen that might just fit.
    via IknowwhatIhave

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

homeowner costs real estate agent karens blue collar employee buying land hoa hoa stories tradie hoa fees working in trades new homebuyer how to handle your hoa tradesman new homeowner trade work hoa scandal HOA board member homeowner homeownership house hunting helpful new homeowners blue collar workers community drama owning a home buying a house blue collar worker story reddit karen young blue collar what goes around comes around entitled people karma homebuyer real estate pay back How To senior blue collar karens in the wild hoa drama justice served entitled karen karma new homebuyers r-entitled Reddit official hoa owning a house karen story blue collar new home karma karen housing market entitled people buying a new home hoa members
Scroll Down For The Next Article