Landlords love to laugh at the expense of tenants. They’ll share stories about all of the questionable things their tenants have done in the past and wonder out loud what the thought process was behind these choices. However, you don’t often hear the other side of the story. Landlords do some pretty strange things themselves. In fact, some of them are so strange that tenants, like yourself, will have a hard time ever understanding their rationale. Let’s take a look.
1. Installing Hidden Cameras
Is there anything creepier than being watched? Your apartment is supposed to be your own private place to retreat and relax – but this isn’t always the case. Over the past few years, we’ve heard numerous stories – including this one from a young student living in New York – regarding the installation of hidden cameras in apartments.
“Everyone has a right to privacy in their own personal living space,” says Abraham Jaros, a New York City attorney and senior partner at Jaroslawicz and Jaros. “Whether you rent or own, nobody should be able to take that privacy away from you.” Unfortunately, there are some strange landlords who will try to do just that.
2. Performing Shoddy Work
Landlords are in the business of making money, so many of them will do whatever it takes to save a few bucks. Blogger Carly Jacobs highlights a number of these stories, including one she titles “The Repair Man.”
This story involves a young woman named Kate who rented a house with her boyfriend. The house had constant problems and they frequently called the landlord to get them fixed. Each time, the landlord would send a strange repairman to fix the problem.
One day, the house was broken into and the repairman came over to fix the locks. He also handed Kate a bill. Kate refused to pay the bill and told the repairman to charge the landlord. After some back and forth arguing, the repairman admitted that he was the landlord, and had been entering the apartment under a false identify to act like he was paying for professional repairs.
3. Terrible Communication
While you could argue that one individual’s idea of good communication can different from another person’s, there’s little room to debate that some landlords are terrible at communicating with tenants. Take this story for example:
A few guys rented an apartment on the ground floor of a home on a block that was being cleared to make room for a new high-rise apartment building. For about a month, the guys endured constant vibrations and the sounds of heavy machinery, as construction was roughly 40 feet from their apartment. A few months later, the building inspector came by and discovered a large crack in the home’s foundation. He said it needed to be fixed or the house would be condemned.
The landlord, being the wonderful communicator he was, gave the roommates a 24-hour notice via a handwritten note that was pushed underneath the door. With two of the roommates out of town, the third roommate decided he wouldn’t leave the apartment until something was figured out. However, once the building inspector officially condemned the home, he was forced to leave.
This just goes to show that good communication shouldn’t be taken for granted – and that a handwritten note 24 hours prior to the fact isn’t the proper way to serve an evacuation notice.
Sleep With One Eye Open
Pretty creepy and strange, right? After hearing these horror stories, you may want to deadbolt the door and sleep with one eye open. And while some tenants certainly have weird habits and strange behaviors, we shouldn’t be quick to assume that our landlords are as normal as they’d like us to believe.
Do you know who’s getting your rent check each month?
Featured photo credit: Amanda Wray via flic.kr
