Article created by: Ilona Baliūnaitė
#1
I F(25) have been renting a house since I was 18 (7 years). When I moved in, the backyard was a large piece of dirt, no lawn or anything, just a decently big backyard with a fence all around. It was a cheap but not great house, but I signed because I wanted the backyard space.
Over the past few years I erected a small garden shed, greenhouse and pizza oven (transportables), planted lots of veggie gardens in big transportable garden beds, and put down some nice pavers, an aquaponics set up, and generally made the backyard a really green and beautiful place to be. It became the green oasis all my friends gathered at.
A few months ago, my landlords let me know they were planning to sell, and my final move out day was a week ago. When I left, I brought my garden with me to my new place – nothing in my last backyard was directly planed into the ground, and nothing permanent. I dismantled the sheds and greenhouse, loaded up all the pots and garden beds onto a truck and cleared the backyard in three days with lots of help.
My former landlords are furious over this, and demand that I return the backyard to the former state – apparently they’d listed the house for sale with pictures of the backyard and potential buyers were walking away from the house when they saw the barren backyard. They’re accusing me of stealing their plants, and wrecking the backyard.
Legally I’m fine – my contract said I could garden, and I have photos from the first real estate walkthrough before I moved in that show that the backyard was in the same state as I first found it (although with more fertile soil now probably). The same real estate agent signed off my final inspection, and I got my deposit back.
I’ve received mixed responses though, because I saw the landlords taking pictures of my backyard before I left but didn’t make the connection because imho when pictures of a house has furniture in it, you don’t expect to also get free furniture. Some of my coworkers suggested that IATA because the house valuation certainly has fallen dramatically because I didn’t tell them I was taking my garden with me, so they couldn’t plan to landscape before lockdown hit.
Tl;dr AITA for moving my garden that I build from my former rental house into my new house, upsetting my former landlords who didn’t expect me to take it with me?
Image credits: GardeningMonster
#2
So, we live in a two bedroom, two bathroom house. He lives in the master bedroom with his own bathroom. My bathroom is the hallway bathroom. Anytime he has friends over or a party, after the party he will text me or leave a note in the bathroom telling me that I need to clean MY BATHROOM, that his party/friends just threw up in or made any type of mess.
I’ve tried to tell him that I clean up after myself after every time I use the bathroom and I don’t think I should clean up after anyone else. But he says that I pay rent for the room and the guest bathroom, so its my responsibility to clean that bathroom no matter who uses it.
Also, some of his friends have broken certain minor things in the bathroom and he says I need to fix or replace it since my bathroom is the guest bathroom and it doesn’t matter if his friends broke it, which I’ve told him that there is no way I’m going to do and I will just leave it broken or have him fix it, since he is the landlord.
Image credits: ElusiveProwler
#3
I [27F] and my husband [28M] moved into our own apartment back in July 2021. When we moved in we didn’t have any problems except seeing a roach or two that we thought was normal, but over the next couple months that quickly turned into seeing them daily, all sorts of sizes.
It got so bad to the point my asthma started acting up because I am allergic to roaches, and the anxiety of having an infestation in my clean apartment landed me in the hospital. I had no idea where they were coming from. I pleaded with my management to do something and they refused. I hired my own exterminators that stated that unless they treated every single unit in my building, the roaches would keep coming in.
The law in my city says that landlords are responsible for pest control and if they don’t do anything about it within a certain time frame, I can take them to court. So I hired a lawyer that sent them a demand letter, along with my exterminator bills and hospital bills and it must’ve scared management because they put a letter on everybody’s door stating tomorrow they will be doing a mandatory inspection of all apartments to see where the infestation could be coming from.
I was talking to my next door neighbor as I got home from work and he was upset because he apparently has been subletting which is against the rules and has animals that the landlord doesn’t know about. When I told him that it was probably because of me he called me an AH for making such a big deal about “a few little bugs.”
I don’t think I’m an *sshole, but I didn’t know they were going to force inspections. I just want my apartment to be roach free 🙁 So, AITA?
Image credits: simplymeanttobe1013
#4
I (34M) and my boyfriend (30M) currently live in a century old apartment building. I’ve lived in the building since 2010 and my boyfriend moved in before Covid hit my area. Last year I reported cracks appearing on my bathroom floor to my landlord. The landlord came over, patched the cracks and for a short while all seemed fine. Then around early December 2021, we noticed that the cracks had come back. I reported it to my landlord who said he’d come by when he had the chance to take a look.well the cracks quickly turned into crevices and when the landlord finally came by he figured something was wrong with the subfloor and he’d have to completely rip out the bathroom floor. We were told we’d have to move out for a couple of days while repairs were being done, ok not a problem. Well the day he was supposed to start repairs came and went and by March I emailed the landlord again to find out when he was finally going to fix the floor, he apologized saying that he had been waiting for the on site maintenance guy to get back to him. Well he finally got back to me yesterday and told me they would begin the work in two weeks and during that time, my boyfriend, my two cats and myself would have to move out for TWO WEEKS on our dime.
When I asked what happened to the couple of days he previously said, he replies “Well the damage is much worse than we originally thought and we have Covid requirements we need to accommodate for as well.” Two Weeks in a hotel is simply out of the question for us and isn’t something we can financially afford, so I told him in a nice and polite way that we simply cannot afford to move out for two weeks. Well we’ve since had some back and forth email conversations with our last conversation ending in, “You’re gonna wind up falling through the floor if I don’t get that floor fixed and you’ll be on the hook to pay for it.” I know the landlord needs to get in and do this fix but from my end and I know the problem will only get worse but it’s not something I can accommodate. Am I being the idiot here?
Edit: Putting this in at the last second but for those of you wondering why we don’t stay with relatives, My boyfriend’s family doesn’t live close enough to allow us to commute back and fourth to work and my family doesn’t have the room to house us. For the record I did the math and just to stay in the cheapest hotel I’m my area, a motel with an attached greasy spoon diner, it would cost $1.442 for the two weeks. This does not include other expenses such as food, and the cost of boarding our cats.
Image credits: CrotchWolf
#5
Hi y’all. I (25M) live in a duplex (for those who don’t know what that is, it is basically two houses built into one) and my neighbor has recently been making adjustments to her side of the yard (which is technically the backyard of the duplex has a whole. My side is the front yard that goes to the street) to start a garden and make an area for parties and stuff. I’m not one for conflict, I’ve had enough drama over the past few years, so I just let her do her thing. However, when I went outside to take my dog to the restroom tonight, I discovered she had made a bonfire in the yard. I’d usually be fine with it but she had left it unattended to burn by itself. You’d think maybe she had just gone to the restroom or something and would be back soon, right? Wrong. Her window overlooks the yard and I could see she was just watching TV, blissfully ignorant to the fire in the pit. I ended up having to extinguish it for her. I’m kind of furious at how irresponsible she was by doing this and I have half a mind to call my landlord first thing in the morning to tell him about this incident. If I had never gone outside and noticed the fire and just left it going all night, it could have burned down the duplex and killed us both. But I don’t know. Would I be the *sshole for doing this? Am I making too big a deal of the situation? What do you all think?
Tldr; neighbor makes a bonfire in the yard and leaves it unattended and I end up having to put it out to avoid any damages.
Image credits: MonoChaos
#6
I am renting a place and have paid through Sept 15th. I was planning on moving at the end of August but couldn’t find a moving truck or company. I spoke with over 40 moving companies and everyone was booked. I had a mover lined up for today but we are experiencing severe weather and the streets are flooding. I am still packing but wanted to move all my big stuff today so I would have space to work (500 SQ ft studio). The movers had to cancel because most of the streets to my new place were/are flooding. I was busy packing while keeping my 18 month old occupied. There is a knock on the door (it’s raining cats and dogs and some other animals). I figure it’s my neighbor (there’s two houses on the same property). It’s the landlord, he tells me that he has someone coming over in less than 5 minutes (my lease says he is supposed to give me 24 hrs notice). I told him that I am still packing and have boxes everywhere. He says they would understand. The lady comes and I tell her that I am still packing and I wasn’t aware anyone was coming. She said she would be happy to come back whenever I was done moving. I told her I would be out by the 15th. The landlord tells her to peek inside so she can get an idea of the layout. She pops her head in for about 30 seconds and then leaves. The landlord comes back in and tells me I embarrassed him and he probably lost the new lease. I told him that he should have told me yesterday that he was bringing someone. He told me that he doesn’t have too since my lease is almost up. Then the landlord told me I have to be out by Monday night
Image credits: Artistic-Mechanic139
#7
I moved into a new apartment, owned by a guy instead of a leasing company. I thought maybe a privately owned place would be better than renting from a big company when it came to getting repairs done.
When I moved in, there were a few issues. The central heat wouldn’t keep the apartment warm enough; it was dropping down to 64. The habitability requirements for my state are that the apartment has to be 68 or higher.
The sink drain was clogged.
The carpets were stained even though there was supposed to be a professional carpet cleaning done before I moved in.
The oven only worked on 2 of 4 burners.
I told my landlord about those issues and he said I should…
Wear warmer clothes, it’s an old drafty building and they’re difficult to heat in winter.
Give the sink more time to drain.
Just live with the carpet stains, it was sanitary because there had been a deep cleaning.
The oven would be expensive to replace, could I live with using the 2 burners?
I said no, I expected an apartment with working heat and appliances and expected it to have been cleaned as agreed on in the lease. I wanted the heat repaired and the oven repaired and the carpet properly cleaned or replaced.
He said that I was asking for thousands to tens of thousands of dollars of work, and he couldn’t afford it, the rental house was just his retirement income instead of a 401k, he wasn’t running it like a business.
And that my unit was only $600 a month, I wasn’t getting “luxury” for that price and it was ridiculous to expect it.
I felt frustrated because when he wrote up a lease agreement it was a business. And the cost of rent has nothing to do with the other lease terms such as functional appliances. Also has nothing to do with the habitability laws; there’s no law saying only expensive apartments have to be habitable! It applies to all!
I got so frustrated I asked him to prove he did not have the money.
If he wanted to beg brokeness, he could show me his wife and children wearing coats in his own house because he can’t afford to heat his family home. He could show me his family struggling to cook dinner because their stove was half broken. He could show me random brown stains all over the ground.
And if he wasn’t living like that, he had no right to claim he couldn’t afford to make the apartment livable.
He got frustrated with me and said I had no right to demand to see into his private house.
I said he had an obligation to his tenants first, as soon as he decided to write up leases and rent to people. If he couldn’t fulfill that obligation he needed to cut costs at home, not cut costs on contractually agreed upon terms with me.
And that I’d be withholding my rent unless he could either bring the apartment to a livable standard or prove financial difficulties to a reasonable level.
He said I was being unreasonable, and I said I was being very reasonable and I was holding him to the terms of the lease he wrote, and the laws of our state.
And if those terms couldn’t be fulfilled I would be withholding rent. I was being more than fair by offering leniency if he truly was suffering financially and could show me.
AITA for what I said to my landlord?,,,
Image credits: danit44
#8
I (24F) have recently moved into a new town to complete my postgraduate. It was pretty daunting, but after 6 months, I am starting to settle in. My landlord (40sM) was a bit weird when I first signed for the lease. He kept making offhand comments about me bringing home different guys each week. Of course he didn’t say this explicitly but heavily implied it. I just brushed it off and kept moving because whether I use my home for pulling all nighters like I intend to, or use it for one night stands is up to me.
To make matters even weirder, my neighbour (60sF) is very good friends with my landlord and doesn’t approve of me moving into the area (for info it is a rather mature area so I’m really bringing the average age down).
The problem came 4 days ago, when my landlord requested a formal inspection with rather short notice (he wanted to inspect the very next day). I obviously rejected this because it was too short notice, and suggested a date a week later. The request included something about me having a dog. The lease didn’t allow dogs, but I got my West Highland Terrier only a month after signing (low shedding and small so shouldn’t cause too much trouble). I don’t know how he found out, but I soon realised how.
Turns out, my neighbour has been complaining to my landlord about my dog, about how he is very loud and she can see him ruining the property. This is obviously exaggerations and borderline lies because he is very quiet and obedient.
It all came to a climax when I saw my landlord and neighbour peeking over the fence yesterday. Turns out, my neighbour invited my landlord over to peek into my house after I denied the initial request. When I spotted him recording, I started yelling at him and calling him a creep. He sped off quickly after that, but my neighbour started screaming back and called me a belligerent AH and that when I get evicted it will serve me right for bringing home guys every week (I haven’t had a single guy over in 3 months, dunno what she is on about) and getting that annoying dog.
AITA?
Image credits: peekinglandlordaita
#9
So me (24M) and my roommates (23Ms) have been living together all throughout college. I’ve been in the workforce and paying for my own expenses for about a year now and my roommates both just recently started doing the same. For all of our years in college their parents took care of paying things like rent and utilities and stuff like that. So they’ve been coming to me for help and advice on what and where to pay these bills for our apartment. When they first approached me a couple months ago for what to pay I told them all the standard stuff and how I do it. But I thought it would be funny also telling them they need to tip our landlord through venmo. Yesterday they brought it up again when mentioning bills and I was thrown off because I didn’t know they would actually do it. Now I’m not actually sure how much they’re tipping but I think when I initially made the joke I said “it was just like tipping your waiter 15-20% at a restaurant.” I’ve been feeling kinda bad about it and I’m wondering if I should come clean and tell them you don’t actually have to tip the landlord. Edit: I should add the landlord is a family friend of mine and I really wouldn’t like to ask him to give the money back Edit 2: To the people saying I should pay them back in my own money, I really wouldn’t be able to afford to pay the amount that’s accumulated for the last couple months for about a year.
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Image credits: aitathrowaaawaay
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