"He Mansplained Showering": People Shared Their Worst Landlord Horror Stories, And TBH I Think It's Finally Time To Abolish Landlords
"There was a large rock under the sink. I moved it to make room for my supplies. Later, water gushed out all over the floor. Management came to have a look and said, 'Well here's the problem: You moved the rock!'" —@carcarrigan
Only three things are certain in this life: death, taxes, and terrible landlords. Which is why, when author Lucy Huber tweeted about this phenomenon, it totally resonated with people.
In honor of me buying my first house, a list of problems I've had in various rented apts and my landlords' solutions:
— Lucy Huber (@clhubes) June 16, 2023
Some people insist being a landlord is a full-time job, but if someone did these things at a real job, they'd be fired.
-threw away two large boxes of my stuff bc I left it next to my car in the garage and they "thought it was trash": nothing
— Lucy Huber (@clhubes) June 16, 2023
-let my indoor cat out for hours: nothing
-decided they wanted to move into my apt a month after I had a baby: "Its not that hard to move with a newborn"
And Lucy isn't the only one with negligent landlord stories. These are some of the best replies:
1.
The fridge in the unit next to mine stopped working so landlord gave the tenants keys to my apartment and told them to just use my fridge (without telling me) 🙃
— Jacqueline Dole (@jacquelinedole) June 16, 2023
2.
We had a landlady who was so against chemicals of any kind she would sneak into the apartment and steal our cleaning supplies
— Alyssa Knickerbocker (@alyssaknix) June 17, 2023
3.
My favorite was when we had SLUGS crawl up through cracks along the floorboards. At that time I lived in Mountain View, down the street from some of the Google labs. SLUGS. My landlord's solution was to blame me for having a cat.
— Gretchen (@offgridteacher) June 16, 2023
4.
A landlord didn't believe us that the duplex smelled funny, that the random people appearing at the kitchen window was suspicious, and that anything was wrong when an older man came asking for his adult daughter.
— Alexander Kramer 🌹🖋️✊ #Solidarity (@AlexKramerBlogs) June 16, 2023
Turns out the previous tenants sold and smoked meth in-unit.
5.
the thermostat for our apartment was in someone else’s apartment. “here’s their number, text them when you want it changed”
— mads (@drivingme_mads) June 16, 2023
6.
Lived in a 9 unit building. A gentleman in one of the basement units died and wasn’t found for about two weeks, resulting in odors that literally drove me to crash on friends’ couches. Solution for biohazard remediation: renuzit airfresheners on the landings of the stairwell.
— Shannon Du Mont (@MontShannon) June 16, 2023
7.
One of my favorites
— Sam Sutliff (@samsutliff) June 16, 2023
Brown sludge is coming out of my taps so thick that the water can't run through the filter: no it isn't. pic.twitter.com/pLSqyH69jS
8.
Our worst was in Chicago, where the building on the other side of the party wall burned down in the middle of the night in -40 weather….landlord emailed to say sorry that happened but just bc you can’t live in it doesn’t mean your rent isn’t due, your lease is still in effect.
— Bethany (@Bethn8r) June 17, 2023
9.
One time our water heater had a leak so our landlord suggested shutting off our water until the new one came (about a week) and said we could take showers and brush our teeth at her house across town.
— accidental axolotl (@thefaithasaurus) June 16, 2023
10.
Roof in my apartment was being redone, they took out the skylight and covered it up, but didn’t tell us. Whole bedroom was covered in debris and dust. Offered a pizza gift card as apology.
— Samantha (@_samantha_lynn_) June 16, 2023
11.
Raccoons in the walls & ceiling: nothing. Finally called the local tv station’s “call to action” team & they were interested. Suddenly, the apartment complex found a way to fix it (hired a guy called Trapper Jim! 😂) This was eons ago but you never forget your raccoon infestation
— Susan Bruce (@SusanRBruce) June 17, 2023
12.
Had the handle of the only door in/out of an apartment come off in my hand one Friday evening. Landlord said he couldn’t fix it until Monday. Was stuck until my neighbor got home a few hours later. Replaced the handle/lock and flat refused to give landlord a copy of the new key. pic.twitter.com/MNjxiQ52Ff
— Kimono Dragon (@PhilipAllison) June 17, 2023
13.
I'm still renting because... this economy but my fav landlord story is when he mansplained showering to us because there was a leak from the bathroom, and he was positive we weren't closing the curtain.
— Rachael🌼 (@rkeef27) June 16, 2023
14.
neighbors call the police because they saw someone try to break into my place at night, i ask landlord for cameras installed: landlord says banks have cameras and banks get robbed every day 🙃
— amber ✌🏾 (@mielfuzz) June 17, 2023
15.
My sister’s last landlord refused to talk to her, only her husband. Wouldn’t accept that SHE was the one paying the rent so SHE should have access to him. He also tried to charge them for a new fridge when they moved out, even though theirs worked perfectly.
— SMueller 🦝 (@shandra_mcjeql) June 16, 2023
16.
I moved in, put stuff away under the sink. There was a large rock under the drainpipe. I moved it to make room for my supplies. Washed dishes later and water gushes out all over the floor. Mgt. came to have a look , says: "Well, here's the problem: You moved the rock."
— Caroline Carrigan (@carcarrigan) June 17, 2023
17.
My partner and I had to snatch a gianormous baby seagull that fell down our not-so-blocked chimney pic.twitter.com/ZhIqjg1NHx
— Sushi Man(a) (@DeFrenteComMahi) June 16, 2023
18.
The front door for my first New York apartment would just randomly pop open. It didn't do it all the time so my landlord refused to replace it since I was "just feeling uncomfortable." He ended up replacing it for free after we talked a bit about lawsuits
— Fart to Table (@lizscher) June 16, 2023
19.
We had leaky windows so our apartment regularly flooded. Their solution: drill small holes under the windows so the water “would drain back out.”
— Jennifer A. Zelnick, PhD (@JenZelnick) June 16, 2023
20.
I once had a wasp infestation, and the landlord “didn’t see evidence of wasps” and told me that if I killed another one, I could bring it to him as proof, so I caught one and took him a live wasp
— mildly skittish cat, MPH 🏳️🌈 (@_misrabella) June 16, 2023
21. But it's not all bad. Sometimes, you can find random money in the apartment and use it on therapy to process the horrors of tenant living.
On the other hand one time we found $70 cash in a crawl space
— Nicola DeRobertis-Theye (@NicolaDeRT) June 16, 2023