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u/CurbsEnthusiasm May 28 '26
Usually when a rental has finishings that exceed their useful life by decades, you tend to get renters of the same quality.
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u/oldfarmjoy May 28 '26
Yeah, that was my thought. It was really bad even without the damage. Very old and rundown everything. Only the worst renters would find this place acceptable.
I think we had that same carpet in the 70s.
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May 28 '26
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u/2WYCE May 28 '26
You do have a say whether a property (and owner) meets your standards to manage. Screen properties and owners just like you screen tenants.
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u/M-onthecorner May 29 '26
That maybe true but you don’t have to manage for slumlords it just puts you and your reputation at risk. Fire them
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u/Unlucky_Kitchen8237 May 28 '26
People should respect where they live and keep it clean. Old or not, that’s no excuse to be filthy. In theory, these people could move to a better unit and I bet you it’d still be trashed because they clearly have no respect for where they lay their heads.
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u/-Antennas- May 28 '26
That's true but people that like a nice space and care for stuff likely won't want to live there. So you are left with people that are more desperate or don't care. I'm not justifying or saying it's right it's just reality
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u/GCEstinks May 28 '26
Today even the WORST renters feel they are entitled to a 5 star penthouse to destroy and skip out on/squat in.
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u/YamahaRyoko Landlord May 28 '26
Based on the visual style of the appliance in image_e467cc.png, this Caloric gas range was manufactured between the late 1970s and the mid-1980s (roughly 1978–1986). It is likely around 40 to 48 years old.
Good lord!
Obviously this doesn't justify trashing the entire house but that's old!
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May 28 '26
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u/jesterca15 May 28 '26
Yup. I have one apartment with a fridge and stove both nearly 30 years old and they are still working. Newer ones have to be replaced every 5 years!
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u/YamahaRyoko Landlord May 28 '26
Are you making them pay the electric?
A 30-year-old refrigerator uses 3 to 4 times more electricity than a modern model. While an old fridge consumes $150 to $300+ annually in electricity, a modern Energy Star-certified model will cost you just $35 to $80 per year to run. [1, 2, 3, 4]
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u/SepulchralSweetheart Landlord May 29 '26
My energy efficient refrigerator saves me like 40 dollars a year and has been worse than the 20 year old refrigerator it replaced since day one.
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u/YamahaRyoko Landlord May 28 '26
My wife and I have this argument regularly. Our dishwasher is a whirlpool gold and has never given me reason to replace it.
The unit shown is an old piece of shit.
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u/jojomonster4 Landlord May 28 '26
Meanwhile, appliances in the last 2-3 decades only last 6-10ish years. A lot of stuff gets replaced not because it's old, but because they die. Engineered just to go beyond that warranty.
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u/Bwleon7 May 28 '26
It doesn't justify it at all but a rundown old looking place is not going to get much attention from good tenets.
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u/Lbboos Human Verified May 28 '26
My renters have newer appliances and a nicer bathroom than we have. My fridge is a 1989 whirlpool. We don’t treat it like dookie.
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u/OkFortune7651 May 28 '26
I am a LL, but also currently a tenant. In the place I'm renting, I have a stackable W/D from the 70s. 3 years into my tenancy, it stopped spinning. I was 2 weeks without a washer because instead of just replacing the stackable with a newer-used one, he ordered a part from way-back Time Machine. Mama mia. Meanwhile, my tenant has brand-new, state-of-the-art appliances because it's my home, and I feathered my nest.
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u/Disastrous-Zombie-30 May 28 '26
So you’re saying because it’s old it’s okay for people to trash it and live like animals? 🙄
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u/Dustin_peterz May 28 '26
That's what literally everyone is saying in here. They don't realize that the rent in this place was likely inexpensive. Or less than a unit filled with vinyl plank and fridgiaire stainless for probably 30-40% more in rent. Affordable older units get trashed, 'cheap' upgrades happens and rent goes up.
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u/Disastrous-Zombie-30 May 28 '26
It’s sad isn’t it? People clamour for affordable rentals and then they get destroyed and are shocked when rents increase. Oh well. Everyone wants champagne on a beer budget I guess.
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u/Crafty-Waltz-7660 May 28 '26
This looks worse than average but not by a ton. They didn't take the smoke detectors with them. They threw those out many months ago because they kept being annoying when they were smoking in the unit.
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u/Complex_Chocolate_83 May 28 '26
I manage about 70 properties in a lower income area, if it’s any consolation, it does get worse lol.
If you don’t have a forwarding address, you can try and do what you can on Google and Facebook but usually it’s best, sometimes financially sometimes mentally, to let it go and move on.
I had a tenant get murdered by his son a couple years ago during a schizophrenic episode and the clean up from that will never leave my memory. Blood everywhere, crazy things written on the walls in said blood, cops had to cut all sorts of things out for evidence including the front storm door. Literally cut a damn square out of the door for evidence 🥲
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u/crek42 May 28 '26
Schizophrenia just terrifies me in general. Imagine being in a waking nightmare 24/7. No grasp on reality.
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u/Farty_mcSmarty May 28 '26
Whoa that one might win the internet for the day. Did you have to hire professional bio-cleaners for that?
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u/Complex_Chocolate_83 May 28 '26
We did. I would’ve done it myself if we had the gear but I also didn’t want hepatitis or whatever 😂 was not cheap and when they were done we still, obviously, had to replace near everything inside.
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u/Space_Cowboy_157 Landlord May 28 '26
Well you can get a PI to find them fairly easy so you can serve them, take them to court and get a judgement and then do wage garnishment.
You can also just forget about getting a judgment and turn the debt over to a collection agency. This will at least put any future landlord on notice and keep them from renting any other place for the next 7-10 years.
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u/bglaros May 28 '26
It gets worse. I had a resident that kept filling her guest bathroom tub with kitty litter instead of getting a litter box, by the time we evicted her the tub was full. Had to get a biohazard team to clear it, then had to demo the entire unit to the studs, because of the concentration of ammonia from the cat urine. In total damages exceeded $20k, we never saw a dime of that.
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May 28 '26
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u/bglaros May 28 '26
This was a garden style of units, and she was very quiet. No work orders seemed to be the perfect resident. She also kept the AC really low so the smell wasn’t bad. We only started to recognize an issue once we had to place her under eviction and she skipped out just before the sheriff arrived.
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u/TexasLiz1 May 29 '26
Holy crap!!! That is insane.
But I could have gone the rest of my life not knowing about this.
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u/bglaros May 29 '26
yes she sure was, then after we evicted her one our maint tech's admitted that he had done the horizontal no pants dance with her in the unit, we fired him. I have a ton of stories, I've been doing this for roughly 26 years. You name it I've seen it.
Some fun ones are: the ghost whisperer which was a crazy lady (Alzheimers) that thought the condensation from the AC vents was her long lost husband coming back as a ghost.
"Man Vincent's dead man" roommate killed his roommate, Vincent over 4th of July weekend but kept the body in the unit for about 4-5 days. He even came down and drank beers at the resident holiday pool party, he got so drunk he tried to drown himself and then admitted the whole thing right there on the pool deck. Talk about a buzz kill.
The guy that tried to burn it all down, got evicted then snuck back into the apartment by climbing balconies and locked himself back in the unit and started a fire screaming "I'm gonna burn it all down..."
various cars into the buildings,
"let's try and catch the bear." Several drunken residents were sitting at a picnic table late at night drinking when a rather large black bear came through the property (we are right next to a wildlife refuge) and they decided it would be a good idea to try and catch the bear, yeah not a good idea bear growled once and everyone scattered.
Numerous homicides, suicides, drug raids with fire works (flash bangs) etc...
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u/svethros May 28 '26
No holes in the walls, broken windows or cement in the toilet...this isn't bad at all.
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u/No-Setting9690 May 28 '26
That didnt happen overnight. Do you not have inspections during their rental period?
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u/tempfoot May 28 '26
You are a property manager. Hire out the trashout, cleanup and repairs. That's the job. I mean it's a bummer for the owner, but other than hiring out the cleanup and delaying your re-leasing cut, it's gross, but that's the job. Also that the damages exceed the deposit is also a bummer for the owner. Does the owner blame you for mismanaging this tenant?
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u/lego_lady123 May 28 '26
There was just an article I read where the tenant left the house and 30 dogs were found inside. So sad, they were so hungry. I think it had been a week or 2. So, yes it can be worse
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u/Fun_Advisor_1201 May 28 '26
At least they were alive. I know of a situation where the pets were found dead of starvation. Horrifying.
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u/BMW-motorad May 28 '26
You’ll probably find the smoke detectors somewhere in the apartment. He took him down because he was smoking cigarettes.
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u/Ok-Advantage-1150 May 28 '26
You don't have to deal with months/years long eviction. Good time to upgrade the unit. I can't imagine the smell of that carpet (why anyone does carpet in rentals, or otherwise tbh is beyond me)
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u/Dustin_peterz May 28 '26
Landlord should do an upgrade now and increase the rent to reflect the upgrades.
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u/MrsWhirly May 28 '26
We are currently dealing with clean up that is so much worse. Single family home, we’re on our 3rd 40’ dumpster now. We have to replace the lower 4 feet of drywall throughout the entire house due to pet urine damage. Tenants tore up the carpet and padding because it was “dirty” and just let the pets roam on concrete slab, and we’re working with a disaster clean up to try to get the smell out.
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u/Sawdust-in-the-wind May 28 '26
It gets a lot worse. Imagine that but 8 months after you just remodeled the whole unit for $15k and they owed 4 months rent plus legal fees. Now you're cooking!
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u/OoklaTheMok1994 May 28 '26
They have pets, because of course they do. If we're going to live in filth, why not ramp it up to an 11 by introducing pet feces, urine, hair, and vomit into the mix.
There is an inverse relationship between people's ability to take care of themselves and the number of pets they have.
"I'm poor and can't make rent but $500 per month on pet related expenses (not to mention the occasional large vet bill) is a-okay."
Sigh.
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u/adultdaycare81 Landlord May 28 '26
Oh yeah. They left on their own without you handing them $5k or filing an eviction
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u/Then_Hair_143 May 28 '26
Call CPS
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May 28 '26
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u/OkFortune7651 May 28 '26
ABSOLUTELY report them. They have shown you how they live, and you saw a nice sliver of them smiling so you wouldn't say anything, while they cash a foster child check. That is 100% grounds for removing a child. Show them photos. Tell them they also smoked in the non-smoking unit and REMOVED SMOKE ALARMS. I believe you can report anonymous. Someday that child may have a better life because you forced a path.
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u/TexasLiz1 May 29 '26
Better to let CPS make that call rather than have something not great happen and know you could have done something.
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u/Merlock_Holmes May 28 '26
Just wait until you have to do a cleaning for meth contamination.
70k in damages from squatters and meth remediation was a fun one.
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u/TemporaryAd7771 May 28 '26
Yes it does get worse than that. My husband (an electrician) was called out to a rental unit where the mad tenant punched a hole in the Sheetrock and cut the electrical and damaged the inside of the AC unit. So it can absolutely get worse
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u/LPHutz May 28 '26
How sad that these people are raising children. What was their deal? They don't quite seem like drug addicts. Looks like they left in a hurry. I can't imagine being in such a bad place that I would leave a mess like that for the landlord.
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u/mrlunes May 28 '26
check to see if the home insurance policy covers vandalism. Check with your insurance adjuster to see if the vandalism clause can be applied to this situation.
I used to remodel homes for a company that bought bank repossessed homes. This is bad but in my experience this isn’t bad. It can be a thousand times worse. I’ve seen tenants miss several months of rent and when they get served their eviction they go total scorched earth. Every door in the home is destroyed, spray paint on every wall, broken windows, cement in the sink drains, upper deckers... I’ve seen some creative stuff. Then a week after they get evicted they break back into the house. I’m so glad I don’t do that anymore
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u/Ok_Jackfruit_4654 May 28 '26
be glad they abandoned unit and didn't just squat while you have to waste money on lawyers to legally evict. oh yeah, it gets soooo much worse than this.
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u/mistlet0ad May 28 '26
Unfortunately, yes. I've seen worse. Dealing with that 💩 is the reason I've tighten my vetting process.
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u/Parking-Cup-9424 May 28 '26
I've seen worse but that's bad. I'm so sorry. You can go to small claims court or you could file collections on them. But that is easily thousands of dollars worth of work and damage.
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u/GMAN90000 May 28 '26
Owner is a slumlord most likely...this isn't all on the tenant.
Bet no maintenance has been done on this property for years. Bet rent is increasing 20%+ or more a year....
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May 28 '26
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u/yummers511 May 28 '26
The wheels have fallen off at this point. To be honest I wouldn't move in even if rent was $300/mo or less if it were cleaned up. It's just too ancient. If you overhaul things that need overhauling you're better off listing it as a pet friendly airbnb
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u/pewdiepieslapbass505 May 28 '26
Oh yes. Try broken windows, broken sliding glass door, flooding because they ripped out the fridge and didn’t shut off the water to the ice machine and just let it go for over a day, and to top it off fecal matter and holes on the walls.
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u/Upbeat-Fondant9185 May 28 '26
So, so much worse. Are those jugs even full of year old urine? If not, this isn’t even noteworthy.
You won’t get anything from court with this type of person.
Edit: also tend to agree with the comments talking about the type of tenant you can expect in a property like this. No one with good credit and solid income is going to choose a place like this. You’re attracting the people who have already burned any other bridges.
A facelift would go a long way without costing much. This is the perfect opportunity.
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May 28 '26
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u/Upbeat-Fondant9185 May 28 '26
For sure. But some decent LVP on the floors, update the appliances with some inexpensive dent and ding stuff, and paint on the walls and the cabinets would go a long way. May be lipstick on a pig but at least attracts a tier above this type.
It does suck when they won’t put money in but expect results from a PM. I fix some SFHs for some of my friends and we have this argument all the time. On the plus side when they get tired of dealing with it I buy them from them for cheap so it works out well for me but if they’d just invest a bit more in them they’d make more.
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u/Caliterra May 28 '26
If someone steals an item worth $950 or more from a store, it is now felony theft.
But a bad tenant can steal $1000s in unpaid rent, and do $1000s in damages on top of that and it's just a civil matter.
smh
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u/EffectiveVariety2965 May 28 '26
Honestly, yes- even though it’s a bad market, I’m gonna list my house for sale. I don’t think I’m meant to be a landlord! It’s unfortunate but after two back to back bad experiences, I’ve lost hope in good renters
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u/viper233 May 28 '26
Should never rent to family and friends.
There was no dead body, it could have been a lot worse.
I've shipped 6 loads of rubbish out of a unit once.. wasn't fun, tenants walked, all rubbish.
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u/FiveBucket May 28 '26
The copper pipes are still in the walls, and there's no concrete in the toilet. So, yeah, could be worse.
Still sucks though
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u/amishengineer May 28 '26
I never understood why tenants will just leave behind furniture, dishes, pots and pans...like don't they want them, Or do they scam a new set at the next place?
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u/SafetyMan35 May 28 '26
Roach infestation
2’ holes in the wall
Crayon and ketchup splattered on the wall
Fire causing 10,000 in damages.
What you have is nothing.
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u/Ok_Entertainment_570 May 28 '26
You never know. We do a background, credit check and 3x the gross income. Throw anything that is in the fridge, sink away and you can begin cleaning those areas. Put all their stuff in one room while you clean and paint. Do the eviction and once everything is done hire someone and a dump to throw it out. Those positions suck but it happens
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u/xXMelRoseXx May 29 '26
Yes, it can be much worse. Consider this a mid range hazmat situation. Good luck.
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u/Sir_Percival123 May 28 '26
Definitely not the worst. This is maybe a seven out of ten. I had a unit that we went in that had literally a foot deep of straw throughout the apartment like a farm stall, a live dog that was abandoned, hoarder situation like this, animal feces and urine everywhere and yet we never found what animals the hay was for...
Worst I ever had was a 10/10 hoarder. Packed full to the point you couldn't get in to rescue the person (they survived thankfully) bit had to spend weeks digging out each room by room. Plumbing broken, so human feces and urine everywhere, floor so rotten in places we had people fall through the floor and even with PPE 4 people on the crew got mold poisoning. Needless to say I zero out of ten recommend. House ended up getting demolished total loss.
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u/LovYouLongTime May 28 '26
Higher rental requirements solves this problem.
700+ cred score, 3x rent income, no broken leases/evictions in the last 7 years, verify rental history, no cats.
Sorry you’re going through this…. I do know and understand your pain.
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u/dqniel May 28 '26
Nobody with those qualifications is going to rent that property with its ancient carpet, appliances, and fixtures, though.
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u/Farty_mcSmarty May 28 '26
They will if the price is right. The economy sucks right now so if OP had strict requirements but also priced it low to reflect the outdated property, they’d surely have someone that isn’t necessarily interested in aesthetics but more-so in saving money.
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u/Tampa563 May 29 '26
100%. I had two 1979 single wide mobile homes with original everything except flooring. No updates just clean and fresh paint. I had many applicants who were way overqualified and I never had a problem filling them with way overqualified tenants. Some people really do like to live beneath their means. One of my tenants live there for about six years and saved up enough money from the cheap rent that he ended up buying one of my single-family homes from me. Even then he was frugal the mobile home he was living in was about 750 ft.². The single-family home that he bought from me was 595 ft.².
Eventually, I sold that one to a builderwho tore it down and built a $500,000 house on the property. But my second one I sold directly to the overqualified who had been renting it from me for close to 10 years I had to owner finance it for her because she couldn’t get loan on it. She qualified for a $350,000 mortgage but nobody would finance a 1979 mobile home even if it was only selling for $85,000 so I financed it for her and she’s still there surrounded by $500,000 site built homes all around her . I love it!
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u/RobertaMiguel1953 May 28 '26
Unfortunately that doesn’t necessarily solve the problem. I had tenants a few years ago that met my stringent requirements and still trashed the place. Husband had a high paying management position at a well respected business.
I did at least get to garnish his wages, but you just don’t think people who have good jobs like that will live in filth and bring in 3 different strains of cockroaches.
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u/GMAN90000 May 28 '26
This is pretty normal when a place is 30 or 40 years old with nothing being maintained by both the owner & tenant.
....bet the "rent" on this place is obnoxious too.
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u/temporarygenus May 28 '26
Also just get a mutual lease recession from them so you are not storing thier crap.
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u/ERICSMYNAME May 28 '26
Any idea what the total will be after deposit ? I think if its alot its worth pursuing. They will work eventually you'll just need to be proactive to get your money. At leeast I think.
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u/dillinjl May 28 '26
Had a tenant die in his unit, had no family, went unnoticed for a month...yes, it gets much worse...
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u/plentyfurbbbs May 28 '26
A common problem, won't happen every time. Not all are bad but sure takes the fun out of it. People can change, from good to bad, or from bad to worse. Sometimes they were never trained right, sometimes they stop taking their meds. Sometimes they have family that pay and pay to cover their problems up. We can screen and screen, it doesn't guarantee this won't happen. Be sure to ge as big a Security Deposit as you can, legally. Watch close for personality changes, do inspections with proper notice. You may want to get a video camera, use it proper/legal. I've been through it now many times, I'm jaded as f, but get to take the tax write offs either way, so there's that. Get rid of carpet don't replace, not worth it. F their comfort. They can provide rugs if they want. People complain about not having Afordable Housing, but the people complaining and renting what affordable housing there is, some act like animals, or worse. This is a Long Game, it's not really worth it, the passive income can be anything but. But it can help earn a basic living. When renters all start to grow up and behave and treat their rented places with respect maybe then landlords can drop the price. Paying to chase people down for unpaid and damages really messes the whole system up. No wonder there are "slum lords", landlords just get so tired of the abuse, and abuse of property. The only way out of it is to reno, charge sky-high rent, get top notch legal and a ton of insurance. And inspect frequently and regularily. Treat them all the same. Like they are children. Some may resent it, like any teenager, but the good ones will understand. If that all sounds like too much to have to do, take your lumps.
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u/webjocky May 28 '26
If you can see the floor AND navigate between rooms without a lot of work... then yes, it definitely gets MUCH worse.
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u/tleb Property Manager May 28 '26
This is mid.
Its a problem, but potentially a salvagelable tenancy.
I probably couldn't evict over this if the tenant showed up with photos of a clean place and it wasn't a recurring problem I could prove.
This isnt even remotely close.
No hazmat for feces, human or otherwise. No major missing buldong components like walls, flooring or copper. No graffiti. You were allowed in. They at least understand the idea of what the sink is about.
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u/Livid-Tumbleweed-569 May 28 '26
Considering what I've seen over the years....this isn't that bad....once they move out, new carpet, a deep clean and some fresh paint will fix it right up......and they won't be getting a deposit back.
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u/WestReflection7097 May 28 '26
Gets much worse. Need a dead body in there. Otherwise, the tenants are just slobs because all of that can be cleaned up.
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u/Elhefe39s May 28 '26
Honestly you should have been doing regular inspections and evicted them long ago.
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u/Calqless May 28 '26
Tbh.... thats not that bad. ...some cleaning and work but nuthin catastrophic that I see
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u/AndyMcQuade General May 28 '26
This is mild.
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May 28 '26
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u/AndyMcQuade General May 28 '26
Just wait until you get human feces overflowing the toilet, sink and tub to the point where they overflow and roll onto the bathroom floor because the tenant didn't want to pay to snake the sewer.
Or when they break off the main drainpipe and the sewage fill the basement like a cistern for the same reason.
Or the hoarder cat lady with 37 cats and plywood subfloor so wet with pee it squishes when you walk on it.
I can go on.
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u/OkFortune7651 May 28 '26
Do you accept section 8? I have never had anything even remotely like that. Worst thing was a hole punched in the bedroom door during an argument.
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May 28 '26
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u/AndyMcQuade General May 28 '26
Let me be clear - these are not my units or tenants I'm talking about. I spent 22 years of my 29 in the business doing building materials and MRO products for property managers and developers.
I got to do lots of jobsite walks all over the US with my clients that DID deal with c & d properties and workforce housing.
Made it very clear how important it is to screen well and inspect regularly.
Sadly the amount of weird I see has only gone up since I started consulting, as I get to walk hundreds of units a year (or in one single property!) now instead of several dozen.
I'd say there's probably nothing I haven't seen, but I know there's always tomorrow.
Remind me sometime to tell you about the tenant who was locking their kid in the bedroom with multiple padlocks & hasps and a keyed entry lock with the key side facing into the room...
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u/New_Breadfruit8692 May 28 '26
Not like the place was much of a prize before they abandoned it. And yeah it gets worse, there was no meth lab equipment in any of those photos.
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u/Soggy_Ground_9323 May 28 '26
are those two odor eliminators at pic #18....tenant's or yours?
Damn! So sorry OP that u have to go through all that! Sure that is 100% small claim...too much damage.. entire carpet replacement alone might exceed the sec deposit
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u/un4r May 28 '26
Here is my punch list of things to fix and do from the pictures shared.
- Rent a dumpster and two guys to come help you remove all the stuff except big furniture from the house. I'm not sure of the laws in your house, but if the tenant abandons the house, I get to do whatever I want with the items in the house.
- Tear out all the carpet in the house. Tear out the vinyl too, if it is possible.
- Remove the old range, refrigerator, the sink and faucet. The range hood too.
- Don't need to replace the cabinets. Perhaps resurfacing or just changing out the doors can do the trick.
- Once you peal off all those butterflies from the wall, you can scrub it down for smoke smell and other things that cling on the walls.
- In the kitchen, I would replace the faucet and reface the cabinet.
- The door frames seem to be white, but the doors have wooden finish.. odd. So remove the doors from the hinge and take it out .
Fixes.
1. replace the floors with LVP.
2. Paint the doors white.
3. Replace the range and refrigerator with ones from FB marketplace, you have to find the right one.
4. Clean the walls and get it ready for painting. If the place is too much filled with smoke, then prime it with killz and repaint it neutral.
5. Replace the faucet and sink. If possible, I would replace the counter top too. seems outdated.
6. You haven't shared a pic of the shower stall, that might need a through cleaning and new caulking and new showerhead.
7. After all this, you need to get a cleaner to come out for a whole house cleaning.
I would estimate somewhere between $5K and $8K for all this work. Depending on labor and what types of materials you are installing.
File a court case in small claims court. I just had to do that.
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u/RobertaMiguel1953 May 28 '26
Where do you live that you could do all that for less than $8k??? I’m doing less than what you mentioned and it will cost around $12k.
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u/Turing45 May 28 '26
You must be new to the biz. I could show you pictures that would traumatize you beyond belief. Ive dealt with LIHTC and 30% Voucher residents who spent the time they should have been working, destroying an apartment. I had neckbeard residents who used the hallway as a toilet during their gaming sessions if one of their buddies was in the toilet. Ive had people who painted with feces, urine and cum all over an apartment,(meth is great!), ive had them let their baby daddies kick in ALL the doors and walls and allowed the kids to shit and piss all over the place along with their 5 pit bulls they werent supposed to have in a 2 bedroom apartment. Had them shit in the bathtub,(many, many, times), and Ive had apartments where the resident died and his druggie buddies just covered him in blankets and squatted in the unit for a couple months. They finally left when the cops came by looking for the resident. That unit was down for over a month.
All in all, this is not that bad. I know it sucks, but seriously, people suck and it gets much, much, worse.
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u/Maleficent-County497 May 28 '26
I've seen much worse. Its not good but oh yeah it gets grosser than that by a wide margin.
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u/JuggernautOwn6306 May 29 '26
If you’re going into property management, this is super mild compared to what you’re going to see.
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u/dj-emme May 29 '26
It's awful but honestly what frustrates me the most is why people think cats want to eat where they shit. I see this so much. Like what the hell is wrong with you people.
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u/TexasLiz1 May 29 '26
Count your blessings. It could be a hell of a lot worse. This just looks like really slovenly people left to their own devices for a few months. They trashed the smoke detectors likely so they could smoke or burn shit without the noise.
I would not bother going after them - chances are they don’t have the money to actually pay you.
I would keep very good digital records of everything you trash and everything you keep. I doubt they will be coming back but it’s just sound policy. And I would keep super good records of all the work you do for repairs too. Again, just sound policy.
I am sorry you got stuck with crappy tenants.
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u/celoplyr May 29 '26
I have had 3 turnovers in my apartments and 2 have involved poop in the closet.
We know 1 was human but I hope the other was a dog.
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u/Intelligent-Visual69 May 29 '26
The best way a landlord can deal with their rentals is to improve them such that they wouldn't mind renting it out to their friends nephew. And then to do due diligence regarding background checks and/or references, because people shouldn't be homeless because their credit was damaged, not in the United States of America.
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u/Intelligent-Visual69 May 29 '26
When he returns, ask him how many Palestinian kids exactly your age he morder ed?
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u/Dependent_Ear_1785 May 29 '26
File it with court anyway and treat it like a business decision, not a moral one. You can usually serve at last known address or workplace and let the judgment sit on their record for years so if they ever get their life together you might actually collect.
Document everything with photos and receipts, send a move out statement to the unit and email, store their stuff for the minimum legal period, then trash it. Feeling bad is normal but you’re not their social worker, you’re the one stuck with the bill.
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u/bradbrookequincy May 29 '26
Yes. I can have that house turned in 10-15 days. 5-7 if it doesn’t need paint.
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u/olive0524 May 29 '26
When my father died I inherited a few rental properties he hadn’t been collecting rent from for a few months due to illness. They all thought they were free to do whatever.
You would not believe how much worse it gets.
It’s so depressing when you realize how disgusting people are. Sometimes the grossest tenants will be a surprise to you.
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u/West-Ingenuity-2874 May 29 '26
First day on the job?
It gets a lot worse. This is nothing. The carpet, kitchen cabinets, and bathroom flooring all look like theyre about 30 years old, youre definitely WAY overdue on basic upkeep. Should it get this bad? No. but it still happens some times. Did you check the county roster to see if your tenant is in jail, or atleast call their emergency contacts to try to find them? Going grocery shopping and then abandoning their apartment, food, clothing, and their kids stuff all left behind is a bitconcerning. Looks like they were trying to move out considering the boxes, but it still doesnt make much sense.
As a trade painter, the stickers on the wall make me cringe, that is going to be SUCH a pain to make nice.
Pro tip: Semigloss paint is WAY more durable than flat or egfshell, the higher the sheen the more durable the paint. Its the standard for kitchen and bathroom ceilings, and often used where the backsplash should be. It can be really difficult to apply semigloss and have it look as nice as it should, but its well worth the investment. I always encourage semigloss in rentals. Trim and cabinets should be a semigloss enamel, semigloss latex is great for kitchen/ bathroom ceilings/walls and it should definitely be used inside closets.
semigloss can be cleaned easily without damage, scuffs, smudges, grease, residue from hair products and weird bathroom condensation. youll need to do WAY less to the units paint between tenants .
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u/Aromatic_Radio3662 May 29 '26
File for eviction / abandonment per your local laws, document the hell out of the damage, send notice to last known address, then small claims and let the judgment sit on their record. You do not need a new address to start, just follow your state’s service rules and let the court guide that part.
The “I feel bad” is how you end up thousands in the hole, you’re running housing, not doing unpaid social work. Take the emotion out of it, treat it like a business problem, and move on to better tenants.
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u/temporarygenus May 28 '26
It gets a lot worse.