Landlord turns a tenant’s apartment into a 3-month-long renovation experiment, then raises rent because the unit is now considered upgraded

Author image for Etai Eshet
Etai Eshet • Editor
Apr 13, 2026 8:00 PM EDT

This landlord ran a months-long construction experiment through someone's home, complete with unannounced water shutoffs, a sink in the hallway for four days, workers showing up on their own unpredictable schedule, and dust on every surface, and collected full rent the whole time. Then, as a bonus, kept texting the tenant to ask if things looked finished yet. Unpaid quality control on top of the inconvenience. The audacity has a certain completeness to it.

The beta tester framing is accurate and also kind of incredible when you sit with it. Tech companies at least give beta testers the product for free. You know what they say about landlords. Can't live with 'em, absolutely. 100%, no question about it, CAN live without them.

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  • Man holding cup stands in open balcony doorway looking into bedroom with bed in foreground.
    via Natalia Blauth

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

  • Landleech used my apartment like a test unit for months and now wants more rent for the "upgrades"

    My landlord decided this spring that he wanted to "modernize" the building one unit at a time, and because mine is on the first floor and easy to access, guess who became the trial run.
    via TinkerBramble
  • For almost three months I dealt with workers showing up late, then early, then not at all.
    via TinkerBramble
  • They tracked dust everywhere, shut my water off twice with barely any notice, left my kitchen half unusable for days, and kept telling me each mess was just temporary.
    via TinkerBramble
  • At one point I had a sink sitting in my hallway for four days because the guy doing the countertop "got delayed." The best part is that none of this was some real renovation that improved my life.
    via TinkerBramble
  • They slapped cheap gray flooring over the old floor, painted over outlets and trim, installed a bathroom fan that rattles like crazy, and replaced two perfectly fine light fixtures with ugly bright ones that make my living room feel like a doctors office.
    via TinkerBramble

  • Landlords have discovered that the word upgraded is doing a lot of heavy lifting in the rental market right now. Slap some gray vinyl flooring over the old floor, swap out two light fixtures, paint over the trim, install a bathroom fan that sounds like a small aircraft, and suddenly you have a modernized unit that justifies a rent increase. The fact that someone was living inside the renovation the entire time is more of a logistical detail than a moral consideration.

  • Man stands indoors talking on a phone while reaching toward a wall board, focused in a home office setting.
    via Sable Flow

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

  • I was still paying full rent the entire time while basically living inside a low budget remodel.
    via TinkerBramble

  • The upgrades themselves are worth examining because they reveal a lot about who the renovation was actually for. Cheap gray flooring that goes over the existing floor rather than replacing it, bright overhead lighting that makes a living room feel clinical, a rattling bathroom fan. None of these things improve the experience of living in the apartment. They improve the photos of the apartment. The renovation was not for the tenant. It was for the next tenant, or the listing, or some vague sense of asset value that the landlord is now trying to convert into monthly income.

  • I even had to take photos and text them back because they kept asking if things looked "finished" yet.
    via TinkerBramble

  • Getting handed a rent increase because your unit has been updated is one thing. Getting handed a rent increase because your unit was used as the practice run for a cheap renovation that you funded with your own inconvenience and also provided feedback on for free is a different thing entirely. It is the kind of situation that feels made up until you remember that this is just a very standard Tuesday in the rental market.

  • Man stands in a dimly lit kitchen preparing food at a counter, surrounded by plants and warm indoor lighting.
    via Odile

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

  • So I was paying to be inconvenienced and doing free quality control too. Now I got a lease renewal notice and the rent is going up because the unit has been "updated." Updated for who??
    via TinkerBramble
  • I lived through the noise, the dirt, the random strangers in my apartment, and all the half assed fixes, and now I am supposed to fund the landlords little value add fantasy too.
    via TinkerBramble

  • The sink was in the hallway for four days. The rent still went up.

  • They definitley used me as the beta tester, then handed me the bill.
    via TinkerBramble
  • coolandnormalperson While I fully empathize, and f him, you should've immediately anticipated this. The only reason a LL would renovate your space would be to increase its value on the rental market, it would never be for your benefit as a tenant
    via TinkerBramble
  • M52_MA Did you get a discount for all that inconvenience? He should be crediting you for all the days your apartment wasn't 100% usable. You should look into local renters laws, because you probably have a case. Tell him it's a fair trade, and you won't take him to small claims. court, if he DOESN'T increase your rent.
    via TinkerBramble
  • Gold-Construction846 Flandleeches fr
    via TinkerBramble
  • BlueberryPenguin87 That's clearly illegal. Landlords are not allowed to do upgrades or to enter for any reason other than an infrequent inspection or a necessary repair or maintenance. They cannot do upgrades while you are there. You should have called the city housing office or building inspector at the time. There may not be much you can do now but it's worth checking with them to see. Then maybe you have leverage to demand a rent reduction
    via TinkerBramble
  • ayoitsjo Whenever I'm apartment searching I always clock "newly renovated" as a red flag. Sounds nice in theory, but it just about ALWAYS means they did exactly this: cheap, "modern" styled changes with flimsy everything and fixtures that are usually not at all properly installed. And the price is always gouged to h I for a worse apartment than it probably was before. Same with most new buildings in my city. Paper thin walls, dumb f.... features that are more of an inconvenience than a boon, che
    via TinkerBramble
  • AutoModerator Welcome to r/Landlord Love! A tenant-friendly space for critiquing Landlords and the archaic system. of Landlording as a whole. Please get acquainted with our sub's rules. * Don't feed the reactionary trolls-- report them * Engage in good faith with comrades * Do not advocate violence In an effort at solidarity, r/LandlordLove has partnered with multiple leftist subreddits to create a discord server for our users to communicate on. All comrades are welcome Click here to join the di
    via TinkerBramble

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