HOA Karen building manager, tries to force out tenant so her friend can move into the building, tenant gets the owner involved, who fires her and doubles her rent: 'she couldn’t afford to pay the full rent'

Author image for Brad Dickson
Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Oct 11, 2025 12:00 PM EDT

The only thing worse than having a landlord at all is living with them.

Whether it's a landlording roommate who owns the place or a live-in building manager who lives in the building as part of their arrangement for managing it, the close proximity and the out-of-balance relationship that results from a clear power imbalance and disparity in priorities and expectations is going to haunt that relationship, and really your entire existence for the time you're living there

I even made casual friends with the manager of one of the buildings I lived in off-campus at the university. He was of a similar age and tended to frequent the same university bars that we would go to, so when we saw him out and about, we'd invite him over and exchange banal pleasantries. 

But, we were totally backstabbed and blindsided when we went to move out of our apartment, leaving the place, frankly, tidier than it was when we had moved in and feeling pretty good about the fact that there was no chance of the manager and owner taking a dip into our deposit. 

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  • 01

    "She was just trying to run the clock out on me."

    Cheezburger Image 10562960128
    via sono bono

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

  • We were surprised, then, to find that not only did they try to leverage some of our deposit, but all of it. Further circumstances made it seem that there was something underhanded afoot, and the manager might have been skimming part of the deposit that he claimed he was returning. 

    That was the end of that, lessons learned, and nothing to be done about it. 

    When this apartment dweller lived in a duplex, they found themselves under the reign of a power-hungry fellow tenant who had made a deal with the owner to manage the property in exchange for a decreased rent. Whatever the actual arrangement, she did very little actual building management but wielded her supposed power with impunity. And, among other things, sought to oust this apartment dweller so that her friend could move into the duplex they inhabited. This went sideways for her when they got the owner involved to step in with the absolute power necessary to dethrone her petty tyranny. 
     

  • 02

    "Try to drive me out of my rental house? How does getting your rent doubled and getting fired sound?"

    Years ago, I rented a duplex from a very nice owner. He was honest and reasonable. I put a healthy security deposit down and moved in.
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  • 03
    Unfortunately, he was NOT my day-to-day contact. That was the delightful and charming Giselle. She was the on-site landlord. I found out later that she was a tenant who the owner made an arrangement with. In return for
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  • 04
    cutting her rent in half (a sweet gig), she collected and deposited the rental checks, arranged repairs and handled any other day-to-day things. The neighborhood had about five duplexes owned by this man.
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  • 05
    Giselle hated me from day one. And what's more, she lived in the other half of the duplex. You know all the nightmare petty landlord stuff you see on this sub?
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  • 06
    Giselle ticked off all the boxes...HOA-style Karen obsessed with "the rules"....yelled at my friends for parking an inch over on her side of the duplex, my phone or doorbell rang if my place wasn't
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    stone quiet a minute after 'quiet time', rental checks I dropped in the same mail slot I always did somehow got 'lost', appliances and things not fixed in anything resembling a timely manner, etc etc.
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  • 08
    It was more annoying than awful. I told myself I could live with it, as I was going to be moving closer to my job after my lease ran out.
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  • 09
    Later, I found out why she hates me: She had wanted a friend of hers to move into the duplex I got. But the owner said no because her credit check was awful and mine was sparkling. So, she just wanted to make my life miserable out of pure spite.
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  • 10
    As the end of the lease drew closer, I noticed my water heater was leaking. I dried the floor around it and then put some towels down. Then I emailed Giselle (I had wised up and started a digital trail by then). No response. A week later, I re- forwarded the email with a friendly
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    "..you may have missed this, but this could be a real problem...". No response. Another email with "I had a friend who is a plumber look at it and he recommended immediately..." Finally she responded with "I will look into it." and nothing else.
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  • 12
    She was just trying to run the clock out on me. It had been about a month now, and I was just a few weeks away from moving out. I saw Giselle watering her flowers and approached her and mentioned it.
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    She blew me off but finished the convo with a threat: "I hope you're keeping it clean around there. I'm a stickler when it comes to the final inspection. If you want to get any of your deposit back, you better be ready to pass a white glove inspection."
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  • 14
    Okay then. That's how we're going to play it? Fine. I was trying to figure out how I would get petty revenge. About a week later (right before my last rent check was due), I happened to see the owner in the neighborhood. Giselle was nowhere to be found.
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  • 15
    And that's when it struck me how I could make all this work. I went out to say hello and tell him thanks for renting to me, that I appreciated that. He was very friendly, said he was sorry I was leaving, etc and if I needed anything to let him know. Checkmate.
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  • 16
    I asked him if he had a few minutes to come in and do the security deposit inspection. He said sure, and we went into my place together. As we were walking around looking at things, he was all positive. Yup, looks great. Yup, no issues there.
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    Then we came to the water heater. I paused dramatically and gravely said "I hope we can come to some kind of understanding about the floor around the water heater." I opened the closet doors and showed him. I told him what I'd been doing to fight the leak. I pulled up the sopping wet towels I had put down the night before, and I told him I have had experience with mold and that it was nasty stuff.
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  • 18
    He got quiet and said, "have you told Giselle about this?" Why yes, did, and here are copies of the emails I sent to her. He read them and then noticed I had kept them in a file folder. He looked at me and said "Are there other things that haven't been fixed?" I showed him a few other emails I had collected. |
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  • 19
    He got beet red in the face and said "okay. I think with what I have seen I'm fine with releasing your full security deposit."
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  • 20
    In that moment it struck me. I had one more rent check due ($750). How about instead of me writing you a check for $750 and you writing me a check for $500, I just write you a check for $250 and call it even? He shrugged and said sure. He signed the paperwork and then left.
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  • 21
    A few days later I dropped my check for $250 in the mail slot. Later that evening Giselle pounded on my door, foaming at the mouth about how I didn't write a full check. She can get me evicted if I don't write a check for the full amount right freaking now.
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  • 22
    I explained (conveniently omitting that the owner had done the inspection) that $750 less my security deposit of $500 was the $250. Giselle's eyes widened as her brain tried to comprehend what I had said. She nearly
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  • 23
    exploded, yelling at me about 'that's not how things are done' and 'you have to obey the rules like everyone else' and 'she has final say because she does the inspections.' Friends, she literally had spittle flying out of her mouth she was so enraged.
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    I calmly told her that the owner had done the inspection and signed off on the payment arrangement and told her to talk to him. And to get off my porch and quit bothering me. And I very slowly closed the door on her.
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  • 25
    Again, her brain froze, and she went into lockdown trying to process what I had just said. That was an image I'll remember forever.
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  • 26
    Before I moved out the owner came by to ask if he could come in and fix the water heater for the next tenant. I said sure. As he was working, we talked a little and he mentioned that his daughter was moving into my place, and that she was going to take over the onsite landlord duties.
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  • 27
    I asked about Giselle. The owner simply said she's going to be moving out. She decided she couldn't afford to pay the full rent anymore.
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    3112
    via Robert Macleod

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

  • 29
    Ravenmn "He read them and then noticed I had kept them in a file folder." LOL! Perfect use of props in your presentation! Nothing malicious here: he just happened to notice...
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  • 30
    I love the way your mind works! And that the landlord listened. That's not usually the case in these situations!
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  • 31
    Godiva Plaistow "Friends, she literally had spittle flying out of her mouth she was so enraged." And yet, she was destined to be even angrier. Well played.
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    Cheezburger Image 10562960384
    via Daniele La Rosa Messina

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

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landlord hoa neighbors neighborhood homeowner neighborhood-drama bad neighbors neighborhood-stories terrible neighbors building manager Bad Neighbor neighbor
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