Landlord arrogantly reports themselves to the Fire Marshall after refusing to supply tenant with a single fire alarm: 'They had no idea that landlords had "responsibilities" and simply saw us tenants as a source of income that should be ever growing'

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Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Sep 16, 2025 12:00 PM EDT

There are certain situations where you just don't want to draw unnecessary attention to yourself. Things like avoiding making direct eye contact with the teacher in class to avoid answering questions, or that exceptionally long paragraph that's coming up.

In situations like this, it's best to go as unnoticed as possible. Flying under the radar becomes a method of self-preservation, even when you're not doing anything wrong; it's just that getting your teacher's attention at the wrong time would be mighty stressful and inconvenient. 

As you grow up, the powers that be are no longer petty authority figures but mighty swollen bureaucracies and their agents of misfortune. Again, it's not that you're doing anything wrong, at least not intentionally, but drawing their gaze is like the eye of Sauron fixating on the Ring when Frodo slips it on his finger, and once the gaze is upon you, there is no going back.

Before you know it, you're going to be drowning in unnecessary administration and all the paperwork that comes with it, with fines for each small violation as a reward.

When it comes to building management, the local authorities' building inspector and the fire marshal are two of those things that you'd rather not have come poking around. With their technical policy manuals in hand, there is not a building in the world that these professionals could walk through where they couldn't pull up some violation that would need rectifying. 

Don't get me wrong, this is all for good reason, good technical standards are written in the dark red ink of hard lessons. But when you're on the receiving end of an impossible list of required alterations, it doesn't feel this way. And I'm sure that's exactly how this landlord was feeling after they willingly brought themselves to the attention of the local fire marshal, putting an end to their quarrel with their tenant. 

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  • 01
    FIREFIGHTER 99 LAFD
    via Andy N
  • 02

    "They had no idea that landlords had 'responsibilities' and simply saw us tenants as a source of income that should be ever growing"

    This happened a few years ago, in my last apartment. My roommate and I were living in a basement place with upstairs neighbors, and the owner decided he wanted to sell. The upstairs neighbors ended up buying it, and became our new landlords. And they ... were awful at it. I could fill a whole post with the amount of stuff they tried to get away with, but we're here to talk about one particular instance. But suffice to say,
    via vikingzx
  • 03
    they had no idea that landlords had "responsibilities" and simply saw us tenants as a source of income that should be ever growing (hence our rent suddenly spiking, and why we left). But there was one time they maliciously complianced themselves.
    via vikingzx
  • 04
    See, they had a habit of trying to push stuff on us that was blatantly illegal. Their first contract, for example, said among other things that they had the right to enter the apartment at any time they wanted and could go through our stuff if they wished because we were "living on their property." I pointed out that this was highly illegal, and they grew very upset, saying "Well, we'll see about that." This clause later suddenly became the real one before we signed.
    via vikingzx
  • 05
    One day, however, our lone fire alarm stopped working. As dutiful tenants, we reached out and said "Hey, the fire alarm stopped working." Their response was a predictable sort of 'So what?' "We need to have a working fire alarm," we replied. "And it's the landlord's duty to provide working fire alarms."
    via vikingzx
  • 06
    "No it's not. You want one, you get it." "The law says otherwise." And here's where they maliciously complianced themselves. Possibly because they were getting tired of being corrected, they got snooty with this one. We got a very sarcastic response. "Oh, it does, does it? Well, we'll just see what the FIRE MARSHAL has to say about THAT!"
    via vikingzx
  • 07
    Me and my roommate, upon recieving this message, burst out laughing. But they were serious. They thought they were going to contact the fire marshal, he was going to side with them, and then they could come down on us hard. I don't know what their expressions were when we said "Okay, yeah do that!"
    via vikingzx
  • 08
    However... The next morning there's frantic knocking at our door. There's the landlord and his family, looking very concerned, with a bag of brand- new fire alarms, one for each room and IIRC even two spares. He begs to be let in outside of the 24-hour notice, and says its an emergency: He has to put these alarms up RIGHT NOW.
    via vikingzx
  • 09
    Trying not to laugh, we let them in, and they hurridly put one in every single room, apologizing profusely for the "delay" and telling us "if you need anything, don't hesitate to ask!" I don't know how that meeting with the fire marshal went, or if they got him or someone else at their office, but their attitude painted a pretty clear picture of the ultimate result. They complied maliciously, thinking they'd called our bluff. Whoops.
    via vikingzx
  • 10
    A building inspector searches a wall for flaws
    via Mohamed hamdi For Unsplash+

    The image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 11
    MrSpiffenhimer Yeah, the fire marshal does not around. When he gives you f 24 hours to remedy a problem, he's being very generous and your consequences can be pretty extreme for missing that deadline.
    via vikingzx
  • 12
    WakelslandTango Fire marshals are only one small step below postal inspectors in terms of creatures you want to avoid at all costs
    via vikingzx
  • 13
    Much Bed6652 I could tell you roughly how that conversation went even not knowing the details. They called and managed to reach a fire marshall. They acted like entitled I about fire safety. The Marshall sternly corrected, pointed out the financial and criminal liability they could be under if not compliant, and heavily implied someone would be by to check in the 24 hours notice they would need to get it done. Now wether the Marshall ever intended to do anything is debatable, but it sure sounds
    via vikingzx

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