Your worst renting stories

[alkemyst]

Lets hear them. It can go both ways, either you were renting or the renter. Lets face it, some people are just not cut out for living around other people.

My worst:

When I transferred to University I found an apt very close to campus that was dirt cheap. Lived there for 4 months. Here's some of what went wrong:

I agree, however; that's an income factor. Sadly, too many think they should be homeowners while renting. I really didn't have bad experiences other than (what always happens and I respect it) is the landlord lets themselves in for made up emergencies when you aren't home....however; once I was home in bed with someone in a back room from the door he knocked on? (my car was in the shop and I skipped work that day).

I had a Kabar knife out, some shorts on and a raging boner.

My landlord ran out of the house. He apologized later on. I was always a good tenant. In fact all the improvements in that unit he asked me to leave. Many times that has happened. I put in upgraded trim, some nice paint lower, some built in stuff, some better lighting and switches...

1 Had a call girl living behind me who left her windows open while serving clients and taking it in the ass.

Not my cup of tea, but if that's your station; free live porn ain't so bad. Growing up (I was in middle school) across from my parent's house was a kept 'mom'. She was smoking hot, but never kept up her yard / house. A lot of stuff I learned as a kid in home repair came from me going over there when she left and cutting her grass, feeding her dog (that I later found hanged because he jumped over the top bar on a screened porch), painting ...

Her screened porch door was open one day so I went inside. There was porn mags everywhere, in her bedroom they had wires with a phone end on them going to both sides of the master bed. She had nice outfits and stuff in her closet and on her bed. She also had sex toys in her room.

She got mad I was inside her place. That was my worst experience and I wasn't renting.

2. Little kid set the building behind mine on fire.

sucks.

3. All the mailboxes could be opened with a pair of pliers so all the mail was constantly on the ground.

I would have camped out. USPS takes these things seriously as well. I had a mailman in a University of Florida rental that would open my magazines (when they were all still sent wrapped) tear out coupons and pages. Put my mail in the box all wet and crap.

Same place people would steal your clothes if you left them in the machines (even if still running, I never missed my timer).

Also at a laund-o-mat (due to the first problem and the machines were much more expensive and took longer) had two guys come in to it and ask if I can leave since they had a date with the girl at the back machines (which was my wife and these guys ended up being rapists).

4. Next door neighbor played music at all times of the night too loud to sleep.

This is common with cheap rentals. Don't rent in a college town off-campus if you don't want to deal with it.

5. Neighbors in the building that eventually got set on fire partied each night and then beat up the bums who lived in the bushes and would drink their left over backwash.

I don't know how you know this.

6. Fire alarm was pulled nightly.

Fire Department would have someone there, demand ink devices.

7. People walked into neighbors apt and robbed them at gun point.

This happens in wealthy communities.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Here's another one you won't believe. The landlord was so impressed with the condition I left the rental in, he doubled my deposit return. I think the entire neighborhood drew a sigh of relief that the crack house was gone.

 

[TangoJuliet]

I had another situation when I was at school living on campus.

I used to work at the Daytona speedway and the morning of the 500 I had to get up earier than usual. My dorm room was 1 of 4 rooms that were connected in the middle which was where the bathroom and shower was located.

So I opened the door that led to this common area and there was one of the suit mates passed out. I jumped because I wasn't expecting anyone to be there. Then I realized that he was drunk and there was puke and shit all over the common area and bathroom. I stood there for what felt like 10 minutes trying to decide if I should take a shower anyway or smell like ass for 16 hours...honestly I don't think the rednecks would have cared.

I decided to take the shower. I walked over the guy and carefully navigated around the puke and feces. I took a fast shower and when I got out I was relieved that the kid wasn't there any more. I reached over to the knob of my door and click - it was locked. I then tried to open the other door and it was locked too. So now I was stuck in this common area in a towel with puke and shit all around. I started yelling and knocking on the door - trying to get someone to open it.

Finally it opened and the passed out guy's roommate was pissed that I woke him up. I showed him what his roommate had done and that's when he tells me that he isn't in their room. I then had to go down to the lobby of the dorm and get in touch with the RA that was on call. After telling the story we headed to my room. The RA opened the door and there was the passed out guy sleeping nude in my bed covered in puke and shit.

Needless to say I threw the sheets out. The kid had to clean the bathroom and got sentenced to some sort of campus/community work. I showed up late to work and was fired/laid off after the race. I did get to meet Dale Sr. before the race though....which happened to be his last.

 

[Brovane]

Not that I had to pay for it . When I was in the navy I worked 2nd shift (3pm to 11pm) and was off duty the rest of the time. They came in to inspect my barracks room at 9am and failed my room due to an unmade bed. I happened to be sleeping in it at the time.

What the hell. Wait it is the military, why am I not surprised.

 

[CrackRabbit]

The two worst I've had to deal with aren't nearly as bad as some of the others in this thread.
In 2002 moved into an apartment where after being assured verbally by the office staff that DSL and Cable Modem service was available I found out that neither were. At that time Verizon, who controlled the land lines for that area was completely neglecting it's infrastructure and had no plans to offer DSL service for at least 3 years and the cable company was a small independent one and had no offering at all.
I later learned that SBC and Time Warner who both had their service territory end exactly 1 block north of the complex I was living in.
I spent a year "sharing" a dial up connection with a roommate.

Another Complex the upstairs neighbor's water heater burst and started leaking water into one of the bedrooms, except the room was being used for storage as I didn't have a roommate at the time. So I didn't know there was warm water leaking in from the ceiling for a week.
When I did notice, I alerted the upstairs neighbors (who had no clue that it was leaking) and called the complex emergency maintenance, and that's where the real trouble began. Instead of tearing out the now mildewed carpet and ceiling they made us remove my belongings (which thankfully weren't damaged due to being in plastic tubs), open the window and put a fan in the room to "dry it out". Once dry they slapped a coat of Killz on the ceiling and called it good.
No amount of complaining to the management would get them to replace the carpet or do anything about the water damaged ceiling.
I left as soon as my lease was up, and I highly doubt they bothered repairing anything after I left.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Wow... some of these are rough. I have been extremely lucky in the last 7 years of renting since I moved out for college/life.

Keep these stories coming.

 

[bradly1101]

The dogs, oh god, the dogs!

Our building used to be pretty quiet and was pet free. Then they upped all the rents and started allowing pets. Most people moved out, and they apparently replaced them all with people who needed an apartment because their dog was too loud, because it seems like they all live here now.

To avoid pet stains (I assume) they take out the carpets when someone moves out and replace them with tile. The carpet was the only real sound insulation.

Our last upstairs neighbor had a small dog that would whine and cry whenever she wasn't home (almost all the time). We complained and she eventually got kicked out.

Our new upstairs neighbor's dog is a little yippy one and because of the tile we can here it scamper everywhere along with the barks, and fortunately it doesn't cry all the time.

In my last place (before I met my partner) I lived in a high-rise with a bedbug problem. My apartment always passed, but the frequent inspections were very intrusive. You weren't allowed to be in your own apartment during the inspection, but you could see everything had been gone through.

When I moved out I wrote a letter stating that their apartment was unlivable (I had been shacking up with my partner for a while) and that I wanted my deposit to pay for them to dispose of all my furniture (we didn't need any of it, and keeping it seemed risky). They gave me my full deposit back.

 

[Ichinisan]

I rented a video from blockbuster once and it broke and ruined my rewinder

fuckers charged me for it too

You *could* have used you VCR/VCP to rewind it

 

[Ichinisan]

I rented Judge Dredd for SNES from a local video store and it was so bad, I decided it was a public service to "lose". They charged me 30 days late fee and called it even.

Blockbuster apparently thought the game was good enough to be included in their 1995 competition (Sega Genesis platform). I competed in the SNES competition playing Donkey Kong Country and won a year of free game rentals.

 

[Mermaidman]

I had a wheelchair-bound old lady as a neighbor once. She had some kind of palsy and could only make primitive sounds and gesture with her spastic arms. One day, she wheeled over to my apt and banged on the door indicating some kind of urgency. She led me to her bedroom and gestured to the bed pan . . . D:

So I helped her to relieve herself and flushed and cleaned the bed pan.

 

[Svnla]

My current place is not bad. One in a blue moon, one of the tenants verbally argued but no fighting or shooting. I live on the top level so no up stair noise for me.

Before this place, I had a small house in an older neighborhood. Love the landlord, sweet old lady, and the rent rate was reasonable. Sadly, after a few years, the neighborhood went to hell with bad characters. I did not want to move but the writing was on the wall. I drove by that place a few months ago and it was even worse, as it was officially a ghetto place. <sad panda>

 

[Blackjack200]

I had another situation when I was at school living on campus.

I used to work at the Daytona speedway and the morning of the 500 I had to get up earier than usual. My dorm room was 1 of 4 rooms that were connected in the middle which was where the bathroom and shower was located.

So I opened the door that led to this common area and there was one of the suit mates passed out. I jumped because I wasn't expecting anyone to be there. Then I realized that he was drunk and there was puke and shit all over the common area and bathroom. I stood there for what felt like 10 minutes trying to decide if I should take a shower anyway or smell like ass for 16 hours...honestly I don't think the rednecks would have cared.

I decided to take the shower. I walked over the guy and carefully navigated around the puke and feces. I took a fast shower and when I got out I was relieved that the kid wasn't there any more. I reached over to the knob of my door and click - it was locked. I then tried to open the other door and it was locked too. So now I was stuck in this common area in a towel with puke and shit all around. I started yelling and knocking on the door - trying to get someone to open it.

Finally it opened and the passed out guy's roommate was pissed that I woke him up. I showed him what his roommate had done and that's when he tells me that he isn't in their room. I then had to go down to the lobby of the dorm and get in touch with the RA that was on call. After telling the story we headed to my room. The RA opened the door and there was the passed out guy sleeping nude in my bed covered in puke and shit.

Needless to say I threw the sheets out. The kid had to clean the bathroom and got sentenced to some sort of campus/community work. I showed up late to work and was fired/laid off after the race. I did get to meet Dale Sr. before the race though....which happened to be his last.

Holy shit, I worked the same race. I was running catering trays from a truck out to one of the tents in the infield. You didn't go to Embry-Riddle, did you?

I actually left the speedway before Dale crashed, got back to my dorm room, turned on the race and saw all the commotion. One of the guys in the other suites ran out to his window and started yelling out his window to the backed up cars that Dale Earnhardt was dead. What a fucking idiot.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I bought a house as soon as I moved out of my parents' so I never had to live any of the horrors of renting. Pretty glad really. I have thought of buying a secondary house to convert to an apartment and rent out but from what I hear it's really not worth dealing with that. The law sides with tenants and not landlords so if they don't pay up or what not, there's nothing you can do.

 

[TangoJuliet]

You didn't go to Embry-Riddle, did you?

Yes sir, I graduated in 2001.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

I'd like to take a moment to apologize to my apartment dwelling neighbors for all the times I threw parties, cranked loud music until the cops showed up, did all sorts of illegal stuff that I won't detail in case it could still incriminate me, and generally acted like a complete douche of a neighbor.

i feel better already, this is a great thread.

 

[NetWareHead]

In my last place (before I met my partner) I lived in a high-rise with a bedbug problem. My apartment always passed, but the frequent inspections were very intrusive. You weren't allowed to be in your own apartment during the inspection, but you could see everything had been gone through.

Sorry that just does not compute...

 

[nageov3t]

I bought a house as soon as I moved out of my parents' so I never had to live any of the horrors of renting. Pretty glad really. I have thought of buying a secondary house to convert to an apartment and rent out but from what I hear it's really not worth dealing with that. The law sides with tenants and not landlords so if they don't pay up or what not, there's nothing you can do.

honestly, by and large my renting experiencing has been pretty unremarkable.

and the nice thing is that even when you do have crappy neighbors, you can just pack up and move once your lease is up (with the only expense being a couple hundred dollars for hiring movers).

otoh, my parents have been epicly feuding with their neighbors for a decade and both families are stuck there because neither is willing to move and potentially lose money on a house sale.

 

[dr150]

Geezus OP.

If I went thru that any of TWO of your items, I'd have moved in a heartbeat!

Sounds like you lived in Compton or something.


P.S. The worst I've had it is some Mexicans sometimes playing their Ranchero music too loud at night. I'd complain to the Super and it was taken care of.

 

[feralkid]

Acid casualty with a repossessed car
Vietnam vet playing' air guitar

It's just the shit-kicking', speed-taking'
Truck-driving' neighbors downstairs
Yeah...yeah

Whiskey-stained buck-toothed
Backwards creep
Grizzly bear motherfucker
Never goes to sleep

It's just the shit-kicking', speed-taking'
Truck-driving' neighbors downstairs
Oh, yeah...yeah

Belly flopping' naked
In a pool of yellow sweat
Screaming' jackass with a wet cigarette

It's just the shit-kicking', speed-taking'
Truck-driving' neighbors downstairs

 

[TallBill]

I've never had any issues with any landlord.

 

[dabuddha]

In Alexandria, VA, I rented an apartment that started out really nice until some shady people started moving into the complex. Then it slowly became a roach motel :/ This is the shit we dealt with (pics of the cabinets while moving out)

They were every fucking where. And those cocksmokers had the audacity to claim that I didn't give 2 months notice (though I did and had my notice signed by the office worker of theirs). They sent the bill to a collection agency who I told to drop dead. I still get so pissed when I think of those fuckers. :|

 

[Imported]

Besides an army of ants in a new apartment for my third year in college and the neighbors below us in another apartment who would constantly grill/bbq with enough smoke to set off our smoke detectors.. not much.

 

[Tweak155]

First rental place...

Lived with a bunch of guys while in college. One night, one of my roommates was dropped off by his friends at about 2am. Those idiot friends of his drove off (bad neighborhood) and as soon as they did, a van rolled up to my roommate. The driver pointed an AK47 out of the window at my roommate and told him to give him his wallet. According to my roommate, he just put his hands up and walked backwards to the house and went inside, telling the robbers he didn't have anything. Scary.

At that same place, my car antenna was broken off.

Just before I moved out, a police chase ended 3-4 houses down from us when the car ran off the road and into a tree.

Rental place 1 was in Detroit...

Rental place 2:

Had a crazy neighbor. One day I'm at home and I hear a knock. I answer the door and it's that crazy neighbor, he just looks at me and said something along these lines:

Him: "I had some people over the other day (I don't think he ever had anyone over in the year I lived there) and they told me you raped and murdered my kids. Is that true?"

Me: "No?"

Him: "Ok."

This guy regularly left his door open to his apt (right next to my door) and he would lay on the floor, next to the couch, and watch like a 10" tv he set on the floor. Also I don't think he ever showered, the hallway regularly stunk when he left his door open.

 

[Krazy4Real]

If she was hot that sounds like a bonus. :awe:

That's what I'm thinking.

 

[jtvang125]

I had to borrow my dad's truck to move some stuff back when I was living in a shitty neighborhood during my college days. The truck was too big to fit through the narrow driveway to the rear carport so I had to park it on the street. One morning I was awaken by my roommate that there was a shooting right outside the apartment and I should go check to see if the truck was ok. I go out and immediately noticed a single bullet hole the size of a quarter at the top of the windshield. It nicked the rear view mirror and hit the frame of the back window. Never could locate the bullet though.