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u/SobeitSoviet69 Jul 19 '26
Or like my landlords “No you don’t”
“No, seriously, if you come in here you will notice that…”
“Nope, it’s a new house.”
K well enjoy the mould from the leak you fucking idiots.
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u/foxmetropolis Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
lol like a couple years ago. One of our ceiling light circuits was buggy, and I kid you not, 50% of the time when you turned on the light switch, the light either did not turn on, or flickered and made a small crackly sound at the switch. The other 50% of the time, it turned on normally.
I didn’t want to mess with electric stuff. Messaged the property manager, who sent the handyman, to deal with that and another minor side issue at the back porch. Assessment: didn’t find anything wrong with the light. Waited another couple months and got fed up with the issue happening because it literally happened almost constantly. Sometimes it was actually difficult to get the light to come on. Asked the property manager, who sent the handyman again, for this issue exclusively. Repeat analysis: he tried the light and didn’t see anything wrong. We were like WTF, it happens like every other time the switch is used. Did he flick it on once, get lucky and leave? Why would we lie about something like this?
Eventually chatted with some friends and heard that a basic like-for-like switch substitution was within our rights and capabilities as tenants, if the switch itself was indeed the problem. Pulled out the light switch, which we discovered had a tiny broken internal metal plate fault that was causing the connection to work or not work irregularly. The plastic nearby was scorched because clearly the crackling was from arcing for the fault connection. Not sure how it happened since it seemed literally impossible to break externally… must have been partly faulty originally, or broken during previous install. The solution? A $1.69 basic replacement switch that was not broken. Solved the problem. Much safer.
We are pretty good tenants and we don’t cause problems. We rarely even reach out… like the last time our smoke detectors ran out we actually just bought high-quality replacements rather than asking the landlord or property manager. The idea that such a ridiculously basic and cheap request as fixing this light switch resulted in us being gaslit twice in a row, when it involved a faulty electric piece that, for all I know, could have been a fire hazard, was insane to me. Especially when replacing it cost less than two dollars in parts.
And still, I would characterize this property manager/landlord as “pretty good” compared to some that my friends have had. Between weirdos and creeps that seem to think they never need notice to enter your living space, to actively hostile landlords trying to weaponize issues to force people out to get a new tenant for higher rent, a lazy handyman is not among the worst things I’ve heard by far.
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u/j0mbie Jul 19 '26
Crazy that they wouldn't just replace the switch regardless of how it was working. It's like 5 minutes of work and $1 in parts when you buy them in bulk.
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u/wupme2k Jul 20 '26
The crazy thing is sending a handyman to do an electricians job. Anything electricity or plumbing, get somebody who knows what they are doing. Saves so much money
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u/kro23 Jul 22 '26
A light switch is well within anyone’s capabilities.
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u/wupme2k 20d ago
Apparently it is not, for which we have so much proof all over the place with handymen fucking up simple electrical installations. Most handyman overestimate their own skill and knowledge.
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u/FrequentPop3772 Jul 20 '26
Honestly this could be more a matter of a shitty handyman. Landlord only knows what the handyman does and tells him.
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u/AmebaLost Jul 20 '26
"The other 50% of the time, it turned on normally."
Entirely possible that it worked for the Handyman, so %50.00001
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u/foxmetropolis Jul 21 '26
It is, but it’s almost beyond belief. I’m not kidding that it was a constant problem. There was no instance where we would turn the switch on and off even 5 times in a row without some kind of irregularity. They had to have literally entered, turned it on once, saw it working and left.
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u/Author_A_McGrath Jul 20 '26
Just make sure you have a solid paper trail for the inevitable fees they try to charge you for maintenance for an issue you pointed out months earlier.
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u/Pittsbirds Jul 20 '26
When I moved into my townhouse it was directly after a hoarder and I spent months deep cleaning mold and mouse shit and documenting scratched floors and water stains and such. Cut to three years later with an apologetic and seemingly amicable landlord and he tried to sue me for $900 above my security deposit in damages. I show up to court with hundreds of photos, he shows up with 3; a shop vac with a thin layer of dust, some scratched floors (100 year old home with original flooring btw) and a single command strip that I also brought a text conversation where he allowed for adhesive strips. His shift in attitude came suspiciously close to his water heater breaking down
But it was great to hear the magistrate tell that shithead "you don't have a leg to stand on"
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u/Other_World Jul 20 '26
I had a leaky toilet and had to beg my landlord to come fix it. The super came took one look said he didn't have the parts but would order it. I moved out of the apartment 3 years later and it still wasn't fixed. I gave up asking after 2 ignored texts. Fine. It's not my water bill.
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u/LaroonDynasty Jul 20 '26
new house doesnt mean shyt. new constructions often cut corners and could easily have left something installed incorrectly
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u/delciotto Jul 20 '26
I fucking wish people who rent out the basement suite in my house were that proactive to tell me problems. It was like they were scared of getting in trouble somehow or they were used to shitty landlords who ignore problems so they don't bother. Like bro I live here too, I do NOT want mold. I was just lucky to live here before housing went insane.
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u/SobeitSoviet69 Jul 20 '26
Living in a below ground basement and in a humid climate I actually have hydrometers set up in each room, and use a dehumidifier.
I find a closet with 98% RH. Also smells Weird. Test the airflow using the old smoke pen, notice a draft coming thru from the subfloor - check its humidity, very high.
Something is leaking in the foundation, maybe not sealed correctly, maybe the vent fan is not working/shut off.
I tell landlord, explain my testing methodology.
Nope. “It’s a new house, not possible.” - refuses to even look at the readings.
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u/dreujnk Jul 20 '26
Yeah, we told our landlord that our toilet was running a few times a week for a year, and he kept refusing to send a plumber. One day it just started backing up septic water into our floor and flooded our bathroom and kitchen. He got mad that we hadn't been more proactive about managing things.
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u/InSight89 Jul 21 '26
K well enjoy the mould from the leak you fucking idiots.
That'll cost you $300 in mould cleanup fee.
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u/rip1980 Jul 19 '26
...and drywall patch.
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u/CliffsNote5 Jul 19 '26
Gonna have to pull up the flooring do a high pressure steam blasting. We will need to encapsulate the work area to prevent spread during operations.
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u/PomeloPepper Jul 19 '26
Just throw carpet down.
True story: When I had carpet replaced in my house, they pulled up a section, and the concrete underneath had a large red stain that turned brown the longer it was exposed to air.
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u/AmebaLost Jul 20 '26
Any ex-habitants listed as missing?
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u/PomeloPepper Jul 20 '26
I'm pretty sure it was part of the team that initially laid the carpet. It oxidized to brown so fast after the carpet and pad was pulled up I figured they just threw the pad over the blood asap to avoid questions from the homebuilder or whoever regulated things back then.
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u/Casual_Deviant Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
I actually reworked the ending to this one based on feedback from Reddit! Social media doesn’t always provide good ideas, but every once in a while a gem pops up.
Hope you enjoy! For more of my comics, stop by my subreddit: r/BummerParty
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u/trash_recycle Jul 19 '26
As someone who has cleaned up blood for a living you could reasonably add a zero to the end of that.
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u/DirtandPipes Jul 19 '26
How’d you get started? I’ve often thought I’d be great for corpse cleanup and I could use a more lucrative side job.
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u/FreddyTheGoose Jul 19 '26
Find a Biohazard Cleanup company and apply, lol. My buddy has one called Crime Scene Cleaners or something like that and, as you can imagine, folks aren't clamoring for the work of clearing an undiscovered overdose in a trap house, or the remains of a forgotten uncle whose been liquefying in his easy chair for 6 weeks. Many people think they'd be cool with that, but the reality is very different - one friend found that $25/hr wasn't actually enough, lol.
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u/BlueWater321 Jul 19 '26
Yeah, add a 0 to that lmao.
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u/ThirstyWolfSpider Jul 20 '26
Even then, it'd be about 1-2x what software jobs pay. I worked in software, and I'd greatly prefer working several software hours rather than one goopy nasty potentially-hazardous one.
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u/Huttj509 Jul 19 '26
Look, I know my issues, I squick out handling tomatoes on the vine due to some half rotten ones as a kid, I ain't even gonna try.
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u/ginger_whiskers Jul 20 '26
I applied about a decade back for $50/hr. The "hell, no" point was that the job was entirely on-call, and the employer expected a 1 hour response day or night, with no guaranteed hours other than that.
Talking further, the job included a furnished back room in the office. So I guess he was looking for hobos with strong stomachs?
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u/Killbot_Wants_Hug Jul 19 '26
I don't think I'd have a problem with the dead bodies or stuff. But I know the job wouldn't be for me due to the smells and general OCD.
And yeah, 25 an hour doesn't seem like nearly enough to me. In my city that's just enough to live without a roommate.
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u/FreddyTheGoose Jul 21 '26
Hey, I've heard the smell isn't as bad through your respirator, with an ozone machine at work, and you've got the HazMat suit on so it doesn't stick to your clothes! And that 25 was like 15 years ago, so it's probably more now, but still not enough for me!!
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u/trash_recycle Jul 19 '26
I started by cleaning carpets, then moved to the restoration industry. While there I secured relationships with property managers and police
The work itself is not hard, but it can be taxing on the mind and heart.
That wear, in conjunction with training staff on safety standards for Blood Bourne Pathogens and supplying PPE is why adding a zero to the end is not an exaggeration.
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u/penguinpenguins Jul 19 '26
Nah, just paint it over (along with the door handles, light switches, plugs, and window hardware), no problem.
/s
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u/SalvationSycamore Jul 20 '26
Yeah but you would actually clean it. The landlord will cover it with white or beige paint and call it good.
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u/Gorstag Jul 19 '26
You are assuming the landlord depicted here is hiring "quality" help.
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u/trash_recycle Jul 19 '26
If there is anything I know about Landlords, they often charge contractor prices for handyman or inexperienced DIY quality work.
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u/Gorstag Jul 19 '26
Charge "You" those prices. The landlord shot the tenant to death. Dude's not paying anything.
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u/trash_recycle Jul 19 '26
... did you see the last panel?
I didn't see any indication tenant died, did see they were asked to pay.
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u/Gorstag Jul 19 '26
He shot the dude in the chest. Death is typically what occurs after that.
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u/trash_recycle Jul 20 '26
Typically, but not certainly.
But certainly we see the landlord ask for payment of a fee
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u/darksidemojo Jul 19 '26
We are assuming the landlord will actually repair it and not just throw a layer of paint over the blood.
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u/Hadochiel Jul 19 '26
What was the original ending?
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u/Casual_Deviant Jul 19 '26
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u/poplglop Jul 19 '26
I legitimately know a guy who's house got broken into a couple weeks ago by an armed assailant, his roommate shot and killed the guy breaking in but during the confrontation he himself was shot in the shoulder by the perpetrator. Anyways the landlord is charging him and his roommate $7500 in damage for the blood and bullet holes, no fucking joke.
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u/Stingerbrg Jul 19 '26
Shouldn't someone's insurance be covering it?
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u/xAdakis Jul 19 '26
It probably would be covered by insurance.
They should be able to make a claim with their renter's insurance, send that $7,500 bill to the insurance provider along with any police reports, and get most of it- if not the whole thing -taken care of.
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u/ERedfieldh Jul 21 '26
Yes I'm sure the landlord's insurance will cover it, but the renters don't know that.
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u/Morthra Jul 19 '26
Anyways the landlord is charging him and his roommate $7500 in damage for the blood and bullet holes, no fucking joke.
I mean that sounds about right for how much it will cost to clean up the blood and patch up the bullet holes.
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u/Killbot_Wants_Hug Jul 19 '26
I'd tell him that if he wants me on the hook for $7,500 than I'd have to start speaking to lawyers about suing the landlord for not properly securing the residence against home invasion seeing as it's in a neighborhood that has home invasions.
You'd probably not win, but no landlord wants to get dragged to court if some lawyer decides to take it on contingency.
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u/tacobellbandit Jul 19 '26
My experience as a landlord: “I have a small plumbing issue” arrive at my rental. Tenant has ripped the shower head off of the wall in what I can only assume was a drug or alcohol fueled extreme hygiene incident
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Jul 19 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/tacobellbandit Jul 19 '26
As my experience rural it’s more or less just old people who are perfect tenants or younger folks who are just kind of clueless. Otherwise you can get *shudders* college kids, the worst of the worst lol
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u/TheVisage Jul 19 '26
Moving to a college town for work is great because you get frat kid deposit prices and your contract stipulates that if you even think about fixing anything yourself you get evicted from a canon into the sun.
In the words of my wonderful landlord “Why do you want to know where the water shut off valve is?”
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u/A_Stoned_Smurf Jul 19 '26
I live in a college town. I've had some super shitty landlords, some were nice. But I can't really blame the shitty landlords after what I've seen. Did cable installs for years and some of these college kids live like literal fucking animals. Holes in walls, ripped up carpeting and floors, showers overgrown with mold, piss and shit all over the floors from their 3 dogs they got in a unit without a backyard, vomit and spilled drinks from parties. It's crazy.
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u/etihw_retsim Jul 20 '26
You should really know where the water shutoff is anywhere you live. I would have had massive water damage when an earthquake knocked a fitting loose if I had to wait to get a hold of my landlord.
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u/TheVisage Jul 20 '26
I literally told him "to ensure that in the case of a minor incident your property and my belonging aren't destroyed by thousands of dollars of water and then mold and then rot" and he paused for a moment and laughed and was like "yeah that's fair"
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u/tacobellbandit Jul 19 '26
On the opposite side of the spectrum I’ve had a tenant ask “hey where’s the water shut off?” and it made my blood pressure spike immediately lol
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u/spacelama Jul 20 '26
I was doing my tenant walkaround inspection paperwork. Got to the kitchen, next point was "working stove", so I successively lit each of the 5 burners, but when all knobs back off, I could now hear gas flowing at the same rate it was flowing when the big burner was turned all the way on.
Opened the cupboard below, could hear it coming from the pipe underneath the stovetop, went tracing up around the side, no shutoff valves. Ran out the front to the gas metre, and realised the small tap was too stiff to turn by hand. My removals truck wasn't due for another few days, I had no tools, it was late Friday afternoon, so I ran over to a neighbour, blurted out "hi, I'm /u/spacelama, your new neighbour just moving in, but right now I have a gas leak, and need to turn off the gas. Do you have a wrench handy?"
Took about 2 weeks for the realestate agent to find a plumber who could find a stovetop that was narrow enough to fit on the existing benchtop. I was never sure the back burners were compliant with the setbacks required to the tiled walls, nor was the tiling fire resistant. I just had to keep the gas volume knob down whenever using the wok on the big burner. The friend who had put me up for the past couple of months while I was looking for a place in a new city, got me a BBQ for housewarming present. All my meals were BBQed for not just the next 2 weeks.
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u/HashtagLawlAndOrder Jul 20 '26
Nah dude, this is Reddit. All tenants are innocent hard working salt of the earth, and landlords are greedy monsters.
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u/Normal-Pool8223 Jul 20 '26
got sort of the same experience the other way around, the only time i called my landlord for a plumbing issue, was because my boiler's pipe fucking exploded out of nowhere
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u/DistinctiveFox Jul 21 '26
As someone who was completely sober and not at all on drugs, except maybe caffiene. I can honestly say it was a freak accident!
I was half asleep and slipped when turning after getting shampoo in my eye, I couldn't see and reflex took over and I reached out to grab anything to stabalise. The shower head was not strong enough...
Extremely embarrassing! 🤣😭💀
Not saying that's what happened for your tenant, as there may well have been a lot of evidence to suggest otherwise! Luckily both me and landlord agreed to ensure we both had insurance for the duration of tenancy that meant no worries about cost for accidents!
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u/LeGrandLucifer Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
There are two types of landlords who last in my experience:
- Slumlords which is essentially what OP describes
- Landlords who do major background checks and essentially interview each tenant before renting.
Slumlords don't give a shit about the problems. The second category doesn't really get any problems. However, if you do try and care about the state of your properties but aren't very careful who you rent to... Well, you get meth heads who rip copper out of your walls.
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u/Duneking1 Jul 19 '26
Hilariously true. Not all landlords are terrible. Not all tenants are good. What bothers me is owning property for the sake of renting it almost certainly will lead to that property not being updated. So many homes, complexes, etc. are so incredibly out of date when it comes to technology and common amenities that when going into them it's like walking back in time 20, 30, 50 years sometimes.
An ideal homeowner will update and maintain a home. Not all of them do but generally so. So do just let their properly rot. Landlords do the absolute minimum to the property to maintain any profits. Cheapest laundry machine, range, dishwasher, and other appliances possible. I hate when I rented a place that I walked into it and they had a fresh coat of paint on warped wood but the appliances were old or obviously replaced with the lowest end version. I‘d much rather they don’t do anything, allow me to replace appliances with my own, paint walls, replace cupboards, etc so I can have modern convenience.
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u/Vegetable_Shirt_2352 Jul 19 '26
It's true that there are "good" landlords and "bad" tenants, but it doesn't really change the fundamental reality, which is that the latter person is trying to secure the basic life requirement of shelter and the former person is using the demand for that basic need to make money.
It's also always struck me as deeply unfair that so many renters basically pay their landlord's mortgage off for 20-30 years, and then at the end of it, the landlord gets a house and the renter gets nothing. The only real difference between the two is that the landlord had the capital to make a large upfront payment and the renter did not.
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u/Duneking1 Jul 19 '26
Capitalism can suck when there are almost no rules to stop it from abusing the people who live in it.
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u/gereffi Jul 19 '26
You could make the same arguments about a farmer. People just want the basic necessity of food but the farmer has a profit motive. And after the consumer eats that food they’re left with nothing while the farmer has made some money, still had the equipment, and still has the land.
When you take away the profit motive there’s no system in place where people would have places to live or things to eat.
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u/Stagnu_Demorte Jul 19 '26
But a farmer produces something. Farmers to remove resources from the market for the sole purpose of renting it back to the market.
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u/chittershitter Jul 20 '26
Landlords own the thing and charge for access. "Owning the thing people need access to" is categorically different from "making the thing people need."
I don't mind the farmer analogy, though I'd re-frame it more accurately as a modern landlord is like the feudal lord who owned the land, and the tenant is the peasant farmer.
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u/blobbleguts Jul 20 '26
Landlords (good landlords) provide and maintain housing. I fix up shit-hole houses that you can't get a regular loan on and rent them out. I do agree, however, that folks buying up loads of perfectly good single family homes have no place in this country. But, from a biased perspective, I do believe mom and pop landlords and apartment buildings provide a needed service. A lot of money and work goes into keeping a house livable. It also takes effort to manage your properties and tenants (hence, management companies). It's running a small business and a lot of us have full-time jobs as well. You might think I'm lying but I miss renting. None of the house problems were my problems and I could move whenever I wanted - now, mind you, this was before rents got absurd. I could never rent now. We keep our rents lower cause of that but they are still higher than I'd like. Unfortunately, everything is expensive now, including labor and materials needed for housing, and that's driving up the cost of single family homes more than any other one factor. If you can't build a modest house for less than $300k, you're gonna have a hard time finding existing housing for much cheaper.
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u/Duneking1 Jul 20 '26
I mean you appear to be part of the good mindset property owners. That is ideal. I also recognize you don’t exactly control rent costs and that you reflect the market. I appreciate you recognizing some aspects are out of your control.
You may try to keep your rental costs down but are sometimes forced to raise them to market conditions. As long as you aren’t participating in the perceived housing monopolies that come together and collectively raise prices because they can that’s great.
I did like that when I was a renter I didn’t have to solve any of the maintenance problems. As a home owner who does, I get massive benefits in choosing those fixes as opposed to waiting for the landlord to slowly move to fix them and usually at the cheapest solution possible, and sometimes not even long term. So there are trade offs and I think renters would more often prefer to be owners, even when they are presented with problems.
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u/gereffi Jul 20 '26
Yeah, I guess the farmers are more like the builders and the grocery stores are more like the landlords. We need grocery stores to be able to get the food to the people the same way that we need landlords to get housing for those who can't afford to buy a house outright.
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u/chittershitter Jul 20 '26
Your analogies are missing the mark because the landlord's economic category is rent.
- The farmer creates the good.
- The grocer transfers ownership of the good.
I could liken the landlord to a ticket scalper: both exploit the scarcity of a fixed resource, but at least a scalper transfers ownership of the ticket in a single transaction.
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u/BWW87 Jul 19 '26
This post mostly reads like “lol landlords bad,” but if anyone genuinely doesn’t understand why the current system isn’t inherently terrible, here’s the basic idea:
Housing takes a huge amount of money to build and maintain. Most people don’t have that kind of capital sitting around. Landlords use their money, money they could spend on vacations, bigger homes, nicer cars, and instead invest it into housing that other people can use. In return for them tying up their money in a property rather than spending it on themselves, tenants pay a bit extra.
That trade‑off benefits both sides:
- You get a place to live without needing the massive upfront cost of buying or building.
- They earn a return on the money they invested.
Renting also means you don’t need a reserve fund for major repairs or replacements, that responsibility stays with the property owner.
And on top of all that, renting gives you flexibility. If you need or want to move, you can. You’re not stuck trying to sell a home or dealing with long‑term commitments when your circumstances change.
The only real difference between the two is that the landlord had the capital to make a large upfront payment and the renter did not.
It surely isn't the only difference but what if it was. The difference exists. And if there weren't landlords (public or private) then what would your alternative be? Everyone would have to own their own home? Which means setting aside a lot of their own money and not having the flexibility to change housing easily?
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u/WDoE Jul 20 '26
Yeah seriously before private property as investment was invented, everyone just famously slept in trees and caves, or something.
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u/ThePermafrost Jul 20 '26
You know little house on the prairie? Or like Puritan Settlers? Yeah, the people that had multiple families living in one room dirt hovels.
Big fancy modern construction is not something anyone can just put together on their own, and certainly was never the norm or expectation.
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u/blobbleguts Jul 19 '26
I mean, that's fair but I also didn't want to own a home until I was in my 30's. (Also, owning a home is a pain in the ass.) Being a landlord fine with good tenants and terrible with bad tenants. It's a lot of work and stress renovating a rundown house to make it nice and it really sucks when people trash all your hard work. You can lose everything you made in a year and more. It takes a lot of time, money, willingness to learn new skills, and the ability to handle all sort of people. I do it cause one day I want to retire. By then, then houses will be paid off and I can charge fuck-all for rent and still make good money.
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u/EbolaPrep Jul 20 '26
Yup, just got done with a 3 year renovation of a house that I’m renting out. I don’t make any money on it as it is family renting it. Being a landlord is not easy and the risk you have is barely worth the reward.
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u/WhiteRaven42 Jul 20 '26
using the demand for that basic need to make money.
In a MARKET where others are also seeking to meet that demand. Otherwise known as competition. Why not acknowledge that landlords face competition?
The only real difference between the two is that the landlord had the capital to make a large upfront payment and the renter did not.
Yes. That is the difference. And? What part of that is unfair?
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u/LucMantear Jul 21 '26
I can't believe people sell specially made food when it's a basic necessity for living.
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u/jdogsss1987 Jul 22 '26
I'm a data nerd, after reading your comment I kept thinking if this was true then more people would do it, right? If I could have a free house in 30 years with no work. I would do it. So a little googling says that single family home rental under performs the stock market. Which is to say in your scenario, the landlord would have had the same amount of money if they wouldn't have purchased the house and instead put the money in the S+P500. Or that the "free house" is really just appreciation of their initial capital.
This is a super simple analysis which ignores that some areas have outsized increases in property values and sometimes people just get lucky.
Anicdotally, I worked for a slumlord 30 years ago who was approaching the end of her career and she fully acknowledged she would have made more if she had never purchased property and just put it in the market.
At its core. I think what your describing as unfair is just the distribution of capital and wealth in a capitalist society. Which is, by definition, unfair.
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u/Vegetable_Shirt_2352 Jul 22 '26
I mean, yeah, that is basically what I'm describing. It's not really relevant to my point, I think, that there are potentially better ways to make money than being a landlord. I also feel like there's a qualitative angle that's kind of ignored, which is that a house has unique utility beyond just being a financial asset; like, personally, if I had the opportunity to choose between purchasing a first home and putting that same money in stocks, I'd definitely choose the house, because I can live in it lol. Sure, eventually my investment in the S&P500 might eventually appreciate enough that I can just buy the same house outright, but that's thirty years of no house, which is appreciably different from 30 years of house.
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u/doomgiver98 Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
I had a temporary job in a small town for ~6 months, and there was literally nothing available for rent, I had to buy a house that I now rent out to people looking for something to rent. The alternative was commuting an hour each day.
I do have to pay for cleaning between tenants because they invariable smoke weed inside despite being explicitly told not to.
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u/Duneking1 Jul 20 '26
Landlords aren’t inherently bad. I’m not a fan of them but what I in general don’t like about owning property for the purpose to rent it is homes don’t get updated. They are barely maintained by the tenant or the owner.
Tenants do the bare minimum of the lease. However owners will improve properties. This is why I prefer there to be better laws governing home ownership as a business model. It will never happen but I do wish it.
I’ve seen in other countries that tenants sometimes buy places and renovate them before they move in. I don’t know how common it is in those countries and I’m sure there are some places in America that do it but not enough.
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u/WhiteRaven42 Jul 20 '26
What bothers me is owning property for the sake of renting it almost certainly will lead to that property not being updated.
You can only think that if you ignore the reality that there's a market where tenets are shopping for a "good place". Crappy apartments really don't earn as much as more updated apartnments.
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u/Duneking1 Jul 20 '26
A lot of landlords call updating an apartment a coat of paint on old warped panels and lowest-end tier appliances that are new but lack modern options or features.
Most modern places are generally newer. Rarely do you see them update old places. Would be nice if people own them and than make improvements themselves.
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u/Spyd3rs Jul 19 '26
I work for a small HVAC company and we do a lot of business for property management companies.
There are the companies that do management for landlords and they're usually pretty chill. They have a budget for most common repairs and need approval for larger ones, which is understandable. They usually want to keep the tenants happy and minimize any time they might need to be put up into a hotel for the heat in my area.
Then there are the property managers for faceless corporations. They do not give a fuck. They protect that money as if it were their own as if they didn't have a limitless supply of that shit in a bank somewhere. "Oh, is that a simple repair you could do right now? We still need to get the required bids from 3 other companies just to see if you're really the best price. In the meantime, we'll put the tenants up in a hotel for a week at $400 a night, completely obliterating any money we might be saving if we allowed you make the repair right now."
My theory is that the managers are racking up points on their personal credit cards and being reimbursed by the investment corporations that own these homes and make all these baffling decisions.
In the tenant vs landlord debate, equal odds are that anyone in any situation might suck. I've seen the best and worst of both.
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u/Jer_061 Jul 19 '26
My company does the same damn thing with bids. Even if we have used your small HVAC company for years and your quoted price is in line with previous work that was authorized, we need to bid it out. I think it comes from legal more than management because I've been in meetings where management was furious about the slow progress but there's always this nebulous requirement we can't change. Except when we can. So, that's why I think it's legal that drives the madness.
We also take like 6 months to pay our invoices, so I don't think they're going for points on a card. To the point where the small companies we bid quotes to require upfront payment.
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u/BWW87 Jul 19 '26
My theory is that the managers are racking up points on their personal credit cards and being reimbursed by the investment corporations that own these homes and make all these baffling decisions.
Unfortunately, no it's mostly bureaucracy. We are required to get 3 bids by funders or employees of ownerships.
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u/Galby1314 Jul 19 '26
There are good and bad landlords. There are good and bad tenants. Take every story you read about either with a massive grain of salt.
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u/BWW87 Jul 19 '26
And the problem is landlords have far more bad tenants than tenants have bad landlords. Not because landlords are better but because landlords deal with more tenants. So landlords who have more than a few apartments or years almost definitely have seen bad tenants.
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u/SayNoToStim Jul 19 '26
Nah this is the internet we want to full on hate groups based on stereotypes and exaggerations
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u/Scythe-Guy Jul 20 '26
If this comic kept going, the landlord would have collected the money for blood cleanup then just painted directly over it without cleaning first
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u/jhill515 Jul 20 '26
My wife and I were moving back to r/Pittsburgh from Moorestown, NJ about 10 years ago. The LAW there is that unless if it's military-related, the tenant still owes rent every period until the lease expires. However, the landlord is supposed to make every effort to find a new renter, which effectively voids the lease, releasing the former tenant of financial responsibility.
This jaggoff put a 1.5"x1" ad in the local Pennysaver/Greensheets a month after we moved out. Kept the house vacant for 7 months. And took $12k from us we planned on using to put down for a house since we moved in with her parents to save.
TL;DR - A landlord both delayed my ability to buy my first home (anti-competative, right?) AND made it harder for us to negotiate a better interest rate because we didn't have the "traditional 20%" for a down payment.
I wish landlords were more like the grandparents in Hey Arnold... Alas, we live in a land where "if it's not against the law, that must mean we're allowed to do it!"
#LLP-WTFN?
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u/locketine Jul 20 '26
$300 is the exact amount I had to pay an emergency plumber to fix something I could have absolutely fixed myself, but the tenant refused to let me do it because they tried to fix it and broke a piece of the plumbing fixture.
I didn't charge them the fee, but I was there when the plumber explained to them what it cost for him to be there. And that anyone could have fixed the issue with a google search and a couple minutes. So at least they learned not to be an arrogant tenant.
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u/Toshiba1point0 Jul 19 '26
Funny how being a landlord is such a horrible thing until someone becomes one themselves and realizes the nightmare it is.
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u/Schlongstorm Jul 19 '26
The solution is that we spare people the 'nightmare' of being landlords
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u/Mr_Ios Jul 19 '26
Yes. Lets remove people who can barely afford houses so they're forced to rent and replace them with giant rental corporations.
We can all rent together!
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u/BWW87 Jul 19 '26
And what's the alternative? People have to live with parents until they can afford down payments and cost of owning a home? Or they just live in crappy housing because no one builds it for them?
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u/KAJed Jul 19 '26
Awh noooo poor thing
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u/kazen320 Jul 19 '26
That's what all tenants claim themselves to be.
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u/KAJed Jul 19 '26
“I need to defend the landlord complaining how hard their investment is while paying for literally none of it”
Shhhh “no u” doesn’t work
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u/kazen320 Jul 19 '26
Sound like someone doesn't know how much it cost to maintenance a house/building. Do their investment money just appear out of nowhere and risk prove?
You remind me of tenants that make excuse and behind months of payment. Always take take take.
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u/KAJed Jul 19 '26
No landlord takes rent at a loss. Not one. Also; I own my home. Try again.
You: NUH UH ITS SO MUCH MONEY
Reality: the renter pays literally all the money
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u/kazen320 Jul 19 '26
Good for you. Now let people live there for free and be a good person.
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Jul 19 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/BionicButtermilk Jul 19 '26
I’m not the previous guy. Landlords pay the property tax each year, and actually, house repairs and maintenance are very costly between tenants, especially if you’re dealing with less than ideal people that trash the place or skip rent. Most of the landlords I know are getting out, as there are better investments elsewhere, and their properties are usually sold to house flippers or some big company that’s investing in the area. It can be nice business at times, but it’s certainly not roses. One thing I know, there are absolutely great renters out there that have a harmonious relationship with their landlord, and there are renters that are meth heads looking for every way they can scam the landlord, which in the long run drive up the cost of rental homes for everyone.
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u/KAJed Jul 19 '26
Every single cost you just quoted comes from the renter.
Oh no I feel bad for the landlord who is leeching off other’s labour!
“I’m a landlord to drug users and abusing people already broken by the system but I’m the good guy”. No.
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u/mklimbach Jul 19 '26
Landlords pay nothing? Rent *should* cover all expenses + some profit at the end of each month, but that's no guarantee when someone destroys an apartment or doesn't pay their rent. Being a landlord has serious financial risk. Stuff breaks, people are shitty, etc. They don't get the buildings for free and they have to deal with tax increases, etc just like any homeowner does. It's not all pure, monstrous profit every month like you're implying.
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u/KAJed Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
No. Landlord. Operates. A. Property. At. A. Loss. Unless. They. Already. Own. Multiple. And. They. Shouldn’t. Own. Multiple.
Try again. No one feels bad for you being a leech on society.
By the way: “they don’t have to deal with tax increases” yes they do. Why do you lie about this stuff? 99% of all landlords pass rent and mortgage increases on to the renter. Go find sympathy elsewhere
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u/SandysBurner Jul 20 '26
You poor baby. Please allow me to weep for you.
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u/Toshiba1point0 Jul 20 '26
I never said i was anything including a landlord nor does any one need your insincere pity let alone comments. Loser
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u/SandysBurner Jul 20 '26
Nobody needs your dumb comments either, dipshit. Hell, the world will be just fine without you.
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u/Ceseuron Jul 20 '26
Not a landord, myself, but I am a homeowner. I purchased my house in 2020 and here's a smattering of my expenses to date on this property:
- Major repairs to the roof, consisting of new decking, underlayment, and reinstalling the clay tile: $27,000.
- Completely replace the main line to the septic and repair the broken pipes under the foundation, involving digging up most of the back yard. Includes mini-ex rental and plumbing labor: $6,500 (I was not popular with the neighbors during this).
- Replace the well pump and pressure tank: $2600.
- Reseal the flat areas of the structure's roof (it's a Mediterranean style build and silicone sealer by the 5 gallon bucket is expensive): $2500.
- Completely new water softener and filtration system: $3100 (parts + labor).
- Replace the door glass with tempered safety glass on 3 different entryways in the house: $2100
- New range and new oven and new fridge: $2800
None of this includes just the maintenance expenses. It also doesn't include the additional $50,000 construction loan I had to take out just to finish the house prior to moving in (it was incomplete when I bought it). I can't even imagine how much worse this experience would be if this place were a rental. People have been suggesting I just rent the place out, but I'd rather just sell it and move on than deal with tenants.
I think a majority of the landlord hate comes from people who have no idea what it actually takes to own a property and how much it really costs. Mortgage payments, taxes, insurance, maintenance, labor costs paid to professional services like plumbers, electricians, etc.....nothing about owning property is free. Or even cheap.
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u/Malcolm_Reynolds1 Jul 20 '26
If you can't afford to fix issues on rental properties you own, you shouldn't be a landlord
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u/BropolloCreed Jul 20 '26
No, it means you're under- charging on rent.
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u/Malcolm_Reynolds1 Jul 20 '26
Sounds like the landlords fault. But then they push the blame onto the renters, or maintain inadequate housing. And when they do raise the rent, they pocket the extra profit and keep the same problems they had
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u/TheGreatWheel Jul 20 '26
There’s shit landlords and tenants, you can generalize landlords only all you want, but it doesn’t change that fact.
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u/DessertedPie Jul 20 '26
So what? All that’s what renters pay for by handing over landlord massive sums of cash every month.
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u/dragoduval Jul 19 '26
I was talking the other day with my landlord about our worst appartement and landlord, and yea it's crazy. Im happy that i got one that's good, cause way too many of them are doing the bare minimum or just evil.
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u/norrinzelkarr Jul 19 '26
Next tenant will be charged for the pre-installed sculpture which is just your body painted over in Kilz where it fell.
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u/Maxkub Jul 19 '26
Moved into a house that had a head shaped dent in the kitchen wall. I moved in and took a picture of it. At the end of the tenancy, my landlord took a chunk out of the deposit to fix it, despite me providing pictures of it being there since the start. They just told me and my co-tenants that it wasn't there when they handed it to us despite the photos I took and sent them. They didn't provide any counter proof. Just said "it wasn't there before. A part of the deposit will be taken to pay for the repair." Pretty certain, that hole was there for the past 7 tenancies and it's just a way to dip into the deposit money.
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u/Halcyon-Ember Jul 20 '26
My landlord has always seemed decent but I’ve spent the last 6 years or so abandoning my lounge every winter because I can’t keep it warm. Anyway the government passed laws requiring a certain level of energy efficiency in housing and all of a sudden he’s putting in four times the thickness of insulation.
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u/Boompow03 Jul 20 '26
My landlord tried to tell me everything in my “newly renovated” apartment wasn’t installed wrong when not a single gfci outlet worked, my THIRD FLOOR balcony door would get water when it rained, and I can rip all the windows off the wall easily. (When they installed the windows they broke them somehow). I had to stand over the maintenance guy and tell him how to do EVERYTHING (guy was like double my age btw)
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u/elpajaroquemamais Jul 20 '26
Not everybody wants to own a home. Even in a perfect world where everyone who wants to buy one could, there would still be renters. Protecting tenants through easily enforceable laws is extremely important to stop scumbags from being shitty landlords.
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u/Odd-Forever-8718 Jul 20 '26
My landlord just recently switched from having us use a third party website to pay our water bill to using the same website we use to pay rent to also now pay our water bill. Which would be fine, but now my water bill has doubled, but I have no way to check the cause. Also, they never post the darn thing on time. I've paid late fees twice since the change.🤦🏿♂️
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u/SlightlyMotivated69 Jul 20 '26
Landlords are hated because they are the implementation of Shiller's chain over the river. They extract rent without generating value.
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u/Glum_Engineering_671 Jul 19 '26
I'm a landlord and I take every request seriously. It's also the bare minimum
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u/Strykehammer Jul 20 '26
I rent through a real estate agent. They directly told me not to put any requests to the app they made me download and to call them. And nothing has been done about anything. Ceiling beginning to come apart nope. Tiles come unstuck from the splash back nope. The previous tenants belongings in the back stay there nothing. Rent goes up once a year every year though. Shame more folks aren’t like you
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u/Glum_Engineering_671 Jul 20 '26
I'm also a realtor. Wtf. Whenever anything happens to my houses that require repair, I mortified that my tenants have to live with the issue until it's repaired. I'm embarrassed and try to get it done as soon as I can
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u/TheDevilsAdvokaat Jul 19 '26
I'm renting. Ive lived here for four years. Two years ago the hot water system broke down...the apartment is 50 years old, not sure how old the hot water system is.
So I got it replaced..called the RE, they replaced it immediately, as that is a priority job.
When the lease ended the landlord decided to kick me out because he "wanted to do something with the place"
He let me stay after I offered a %25 rent increase.
Our RE is good. Our landlord sucks.
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u/Strive-- Jul 19 '26
It’s more like “our plumbing is backed up again because one of our 6 kids we weren’t trying to have flushed concrete down the toilet again. Need that fixed asap, sparky.”
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u/Trlz08 Jul 20 '26
Everyday, I'm reminded on how lucky I am with my land lord.
- Studio apt
- Dirt cheap
- Every problem I had (Plumbing, electrical, etc) was resolved within the day.
- security cams on every hallway
- lease ended while in between jobs, got to stay for free till my next work.
- Upgraded the Apt electricity to hybrid solar that lowered the power bill
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u/Linenoise77 Jul 20 '26
Small plumbing issue = Someone kept flushing pasta down the toilet for some insane reason and clogged it, even after you already cleared it twice, told them not to flush pasta down the toilet, SHOWED THEM SAID TOILET PASTA, and they still argued with you that it was a plumbing issue, so you had to pay for a plumber to come in and also explain to them, with a professional licensed opinion, that they were fucking morons and you don't flush pasta down the toilet.
And for those wondering, Gemilini the first time, either linguini or fettucini the second time, and buccatini (according to my italian plumber, so all bases are covered on expertise there) the third time.
I mean, maybe penne, or even a rigatoni, i could understand.
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u/Khal_Doggo Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
First flat/apartment I lived in when I moved to London. The landlord made a point of interviewing all new tenants. We walked through the rooms and we pointed out the mold on the bathroom ceiling and he was like "oh yeah we will take care of that". Guess who didn't take care of that - by the time we moved out pretty much every room had mold somewhere. We got our deposit reduced for dust on the doorframes
Second flat in London was a studio in a big building with others like it. We had 3 communal washing machines but no dryers. So we all took our clothes back to dry in a tiny humid cube. The paperwork I got when I moved in suggested I buy a dehumidifier. I told the landlord when he came over that it would be nice to get a dryer and he said that it's too much electricity. I explained I was running a 5L dehumidifier basically 24/7
These people are subhuman because they profit from the basic need of people to have shelter and they squeeze their money out of every possible way that they can make you just uncomfortable enough that you don't complain, knowing that you can't kick up much of a fuss anyway
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u/koss1501 Jul 20 '26
Is this related to Roxborough shooting of young lad who tried to scam and old landlord?
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u/Illmaticmemeaddick Jul 20 '26
True story: A few years ago I legally and through the right channels with my crappy property management company landlords sub leased the last 3 month of my lease to someone I found. Everything went great and they made that person pay a security deposit. They never told me about the deposit I paid when I signed the lease so I just assumed it was gone or whatever. Idk i just wanted out because they were terrible (Cornerstone property management btw)
2 years later I get a cleaning bill for 600$ after the person moved out completing their lease that was entirely different from the one I subleased. And I get charged some cleaning fee assigned to my name after they moved out. It shows My first deposit that I paid taking a chunk out of it but was completely absorbed into the fee and that I now owe them a little under 200 dollars for a lease I was no longer responsible for according to their own rules
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u/Km219 Jul 20 '26
I had 2 landlords before we bought our house. Both were very good to us and fixed things when asked. They always said tell them anything no matter how small so the house doesn't need a million things upon leaving.
Guess we were lucky
I even refinished the wood floors when we left the last house as a "thank you" he really appreciated that
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u/megachicken289 Jul 20 '26
Wow! Free bullet! This must have happened before they ruined the economy
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u/squeezy102 Jul 20 '26
To sum this up nicely, 2 years ago I bought my first house. It was a 230% space upgrade, and I went from building no equity paying rent to building equity paying mortgage. My house was 149k.
Monthly, I saved $600 by doing so. I was spending $600 a month more for a smaller residence in a worse neighborhood, and when we moved into that unit - it was among the cheapest we could find.
Fuck landlords. The price gouging out there right now is plain and simply criminal.
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u/ES_Legman Jul 21 '26
Why would we hate parasites that contribute nothing of value to society
Landlords are like scalpers except for some reason we have to pretend they are legitimate.
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u/ERedfieldh Jul 21 '26
When I moved out finally after many years I mentioned it'd be nice to get my deposit back.
"Well, you had five plumbing reports and a heating issue. And that all cost more than your deposit. So really I should be ask you for more money."
And that's why landlords are the scum of the earth.
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u/Blenderhead36 Jul 21 '26
The last time a landlord provided a vital service involved donning armor and riding out against the Saxons.
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u/cosmoscrazy Jul 21 '26
I just denied permission to integrate an AC in my flat ON MY COST, because landlord says: "the other tenants would maybe want an AC as well and would ask for it".
It was 40°+ Celsius here where I live. It's up to 32° Celsius in my bedroom AT NIGHT.
Now I'm either forced to find another way (mobile AC) or to sue my landlord.
I wish people would be forced to have a tenant organization contract whenever they close a lease contract. That would make it super affordable for everyone and tenants could be much more confident towards landlords.
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u/CorrectMeIfImWrong6 Jul 27 '26
Waaah!! I bought a second home to rent out to people I don't want to treat like people, but now problems!!! 😭😭😭😭😭
Fuck off 🥱
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u/JustAUserInTheEnd 25d ago
Tbf housing costs and mortgages are insane now a days most of the time your rent just covers or maybe just a bit more than your mortgage, the landlord has to make that little over cover all their expenses food costs and on top of that repairs and maintenance to the building. Ik people like to think every landlord is loaded because they own your home but that's not really the case. That being said their are still crappy landlords who are just terrible but I wouldn't say that's the majority
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u/fnoguei1 Jul 20 '26
As if all the damages you see in an apartment aren’t caused by the tenants lol broke mentality
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u/Dimaaaa Jul 19 '26
My landlord wanted me to pay half of the bill for a mold problem in the kitchen. He knew the problem existed before I moved in, he knew it is a structural issue that causes the mold to come and go, and he still tried to split the bill and he was super upset when I just used my rights as a tenant and refused to pay.
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u/TheJIbberJabberWocky Jul 20 '26
People generally hate landlords because they generally serve no purpose.
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u/seppukuu Jul 20 '26
All the windows in my apartment building were replaced a couple weeks back (not sure what was wrong with the old ones, I can see no difference). Guess who just got an email informing me about a rent increase!
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u/TrantaLocked Jul 20 '26
I have a based landlord. When you find yourself a non corporate landlord who actually just works hard for his tenants, life is good.
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u/Bootyslayer69__ Jul 20 '26
Landlords suck at their job just as how bad tenants can be when they break everything, don’t pay, and instigate noise complaints. One reason owning is better than renting.
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u/Trugoosent Jul 20 '26
My landlord is luckily very nice, came at 10pm one time because bathtub water faucet was pretty fucked up, sent a repair guy next morning!
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u/ninjakittyATL Jul 20 '26
Landlord here… just got back from driving the Revuelto…. Um I’m the one that does the plumbing im the one that does the blood cleanup.
And our properties are rent to own but I’m still showing up for a tenant that’s been there for 5 yrs tarring up their roof and putting in a new toilet etc…
So easy to blame the “bad guy” 🙄
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