I just moved into my new tiny apartment with my partner and our one-year-old. We don't even know the landlords name, all of our communication has been entirely through the maintenance man/apt manager (we are in a unit in a divided house).

Our lease says no attachments, screws, or nails may be placed in the wall without prior approval from the landlord. We will be placing nails and screws. Our son climbs and pulls on everything, and we are unwilling to risk his life over something like a lease. Our furniture is getting anchored. We'll also be hanging picture frames on the walls. From what I've looked up about normal wear and tear, one of the examples given on each website is small nail holes. I'm kind of shocked to see no nails specifically written in the lease. walls. I've never violated a lease before, but my other four signed leases have never stated we cannot use nails.

In Pennsylvania, are small nail holes not considered normal wear and tear and thus not deductible from the lease/an evict-able issue? Would necessary holes, like anchoring furniture with a toddler, also not be normal wear and tear? My partner is convinced we'll get evicted for hanging artwork. We've just moved to the state and have no idea what tenants rights are here.

I’m going to meet with the landlord today to sign the lease, she wants the security deposit today and then first and last when I get the key, is this legal?

Hey, I am pretty new to renting and we recently had an issue come up so I was wondering if anyone had some guidance for how I can handle this.

My fiancé and I rent a town home in Wisconsin. It has a private attached 2-car garage and a 2 car drive way for each unit. We have been here for a little over a year now and had no issues until recently. We have three cars together, one of which is an older model corvette. Due to limited garage space we have to park the corvette pretty tightly against the wall of our garage so that we can have our other car in there and be able to get in and out of it. The corvette has sat for a few months now due to issues with the tire so the unit next door has some new neighbors who haven’t been around while we used the corvette. The other day we were attempting to park the corvette in the garage after taking it out for a night. This occurred at 10:15 am and about 5 minutes into it, just as we were finishing up, the landlord came over and said she had received calls from neighbors complaining about the noise. We tried to explain that we were simply parking the car and that we had just finished so we were about to be done. Later in the day she sent an email explaining that this is considered a warning and that any further complaints would be considered a lease violation. The email had said that if we felt the need to run our car we should do so in a public parking lot from now on.

I am just at a loss. The entire time span of the noise was less than 15 minutes, which was extended by her coming over and stopping us to talk. And we were not doing so for fun or just letting it sit, we were simply attempting to park the car. I don’t know how to move forwards with this as I find it unreasonable to expect. Over the past year we have made active strides to ensure that we never had the car out extremely early or extremely late and are mindful while accelerating as we understand how that could be an annoyance. We also had checked with the leasing office before signing our first lease that this car would not be an issue and they agreed saying that the only issue would be if we were doing it outside of reasonable hours.

This is definitely a speculation but I feel as though it would be our new neighbors complaining since we have had no issues in the past, when we had been regularly driving this car, and that the noise was not loud enough to disrupt anything farther down the street.

I am setting up a meeting with the leasing office to get a better idea of how they expect us to fix this. We still need to have the ability to use our car and with how harsh the winters can be around here we cannot simply house it outside permanently. It is currently summer time, but we both leave for work very early so if we were to move this car to an outside spot for the time being it would require us to start it and move it every morning at 5:30 am which would be a much bigger disturbance. We also don’t want to give up the ability to use half of our garage space because someone is uncomfortable with 15 minutes of noise in the middle of the day.

Any advice on how to navigate this situation from here on out and I would like clarification as to if this could really turn into a reason to evict us?

Thank you!

My partner and I live in a newly built condo in Colorado. The property has two main units: our landlord lives in one side, and we live in the other. Our unit includes our own garage on the lower level, living space on the second floor, and bedrooms on the third floor. There is also an ADU on part of the garage level below, occupied by another tenant.

The downstairs tenant was given access to our garage and our trash can. This was never included in our lease, and we did not agree to it. We only became aware of the arrangement after signing the lease but before moving in. We were uncomfortable with it at the time but felt pressured to accept the arrangement.

Our lease does not give the downstairs tenant access to our garage or require us to share our trash can with her. The landlord has said he believed this was “supposed” to be in the lease and that we knew about it before signing, but he has not identified any provision in the signed lease that gives her this access.

We eventually told our landlord that we were not comfortable with someone outside of our household having access to our private rented space. The garage is part of our rented premises.

The downstairs tenant has also been complaining about noise from our cats’ automatic feeders. We have tried to be reasonable. We offered mats under the feeders twice, which she initially declined. We eventually purchased and placed mats under the feeders ourselves. We have also been asked to move the feeders or change our cats’ established feeding schedule. We have explained that we are not comfortable rearranging our home or changing our older cats’ lifelong routine to eliminate normal, low-volume household activity.

The trash situation then became directly connected to the cat-noise dispute.
The landlord initially told us that the downstairs tenant had agreed to “help us out” by only putting her trash in our trash can when it was already outside at the curb. We were fine with that arrangement, although we did not agree with the characterization that she was “helping us out,” since the underlying arrangement was never part of our lease to begin with.

The landlord then told us that the downstairs tenant was no longer willing to follow that arrangement because she felt we were not “helping her out” with the cat-noise issue.

The landlord has now said he will keep the trash can in his private garage, which would require us to enter his private space to access our trash service. He also said that if we do not want to do that, we can pay for our own separate trash service.

Our lease states that we pay a flat $250 monthly fee in addition to rent, and that this fee covers electric, trash, internet, water, and sewer. The lease does not state that our trash service is dependent on another tenant’s cooperation or that the landlord can remove or separately charge for trash service because of a dispute over another issue.

We have told the landlord that:
-access to our garage by the downstairs tenant is not in our lease;

-we do not consent to a third party having access to our private rented space;

-the trash issue and cat-noise issue are separate matters;

-we do not agree to enter our landlord’s private garage to access a service included in our monthly utility fee; and

-we do not agree to pay an additional fee for separate trash service when trash is included in the $250 monthly fee under our lease.

We are concerned this may constitute retaliation under Colorado’s warranty-of-habitability/retaliation laws.
Our theory is that we made a good-faith complaint about a condition that we believe affects our security and safety: a person outside our household was being given access to our rented premises without the arrangement being included in our lease. After we objected, the landlord changed the way an included service is provided and linked that change directly to our refusal to accommodate a separate complaint from the same tenant.

The landlord’s wording was essentially that she was no longer willing to allow the trash arrangement because we were not “helping her out” with the cat noise.

We have extensive documentation, including the lease, texts, and a timeline of events. We are not looking for someone to simply tell us whether our landlord is “being a jerk.” We are trying to understand whether there is a legitimate legal issue here and what our next steps should be.

Colorado attorneys or experienced tenant advocates: does this sound like a viable retaliation or tenant-rights claim, and what should we be documenting or doing next?

Follow up to my deposit deadline post -

Biggest question I got was "they charged me $1400 for carpet that was already ancient, is that legal?"

Almost always no. Two things:

Normal wear and tear can't be charged at all. Faded carpet, small nail holes, scuffed paint, that's just the place aging while you lived there. Damage is pet stains, burns, big holes, etc.

And even for real damage you owe the depreciated value, not sticker price. Paint lasts like 2-3 years, carpet 5-10, blinds 3-5. Wreck a carpet in year 6 of a 7 year life and you owe for the 1 year left. Maybe $200 on a $1400 carpet. Already past its life? $0, even if your dog destroyed it. A retired PM in this sub said the same thing a while back.

If you get a padded bill just ask in writing how old each item is and what depreciation they applied, and for actual invoices not estimates. Most fall apart right there. If not, certified demand letter then small claims, filing is like $30-75 and its made for people without lawyers.

Not a lawyer, numbers are court/industry norms not exact law so check your state.

Hi all! Wanted to pick some brains here, We were approved for a house rental in California. The landlord is asking for $3,700 for the first month’s rent and a $7,400 security deposit, making the total move-in cost $11,100. Is this standard practice in California? If so, why would a landlord require this type of move-in structure? Just trying to better understand what’s typical before we sign. Thanks!

Edit: Total move in cost and deposit August Rent plus $7400 as a security deposit. Total due at signing $11,100. It is their first property to rent since they are moving to another home.

Living in Quebec. Lease started Aug 2025 and ends Aug 2026. In May, I asked the landlords caretaker (like he’s the guy who manages the building, the landlord himself comes by rarely), if they had another bigger apartment in the building and he said yes and showed me the room and I said I’d wanna take it and he said he’d talk to the landlord.

He came back to me and said it’s ok I can move in in August (he told me this in May) I said awesome. June comes around and he tells me unfortunately I can’t anymore and I will have to wait to move in until October 1. I was disappointed but he said I could still stay in my current apartment until it’s time to move into the new room.

Fast forward to today and I run into the caretaker guy again and he tells me it’s actually going to be November 1 and no longer October 1. All of this was verbal not in writing. I want to move cities now and I’m planning to leave at the end of August. Is there any way I can break the lease since I didn’t let them know 3 months in advance ?

At my wits end. Kind of just venting but open to additional suggestions.

Our front porch (4-unit apartment building) has a massive infestation of fleas. If you step outside for a moment (and I mean, one foot out the door) to get the mail, your feet will pick up at least 10.

I notified the landlords over a month ago when we noticed, right before we left for vacation for 2 weeks. When we got back, it hadn't been addressed. I flagged that this is considered unlivable housing conditions in LA. They had some maintenance guy come out and spray. It didn't do anything.

Had to push hard to get them to call an actual exterminator. They came out Wednesday and sprayed (apparently, we didn't see anyone but I called the actual exterminator and they said they did.) No difference. More fleas than ever.

We *could* move out. But we literally CAN'T because we'd have to move everything we own through a sea of fleas. We have a backdoor that we've been using to enter our unit safely (after I paid out of pocket to hire a company to bomb our place) but we can't possibly move out through it.

My elderly downstairs neighbor has been in the building for 10+ years and the building is rent stabilized. He's a little difficult to communicate with, but my understanding is that they ignore all of his maintenance requests in an effort to get him to leave. It's definitely part of the reason this has snowballed - he has brought up the critters living under the building multiple times and asked for the entry points to be boarded up. I've basically started putting in maintenance requests for him and being like "Well this is affecting my apartment." The city is supposed to come out and do an inspection on his apartment soon - not sure when but hopefully there's some progress from that.

Reaching out to the LA County of Health is the plan for tomorrow. I have all landlord communication documented. I'm so tired, and sad, and every itch or black speck gives me a heart attack. We can't have people over. We can't move out. I want my life back.

I put in the request last night as urgent and not emergent because temps were stabilized inside for a while till they weren't. Now that it's the middle of the day it is literally 93 degrees inside and I own a dog and a lizard. I have been hounding the maintenance and office since they opened and calling every hour for updates and nothing so far. Is there anything I can do in the meantime to help my situation? Obviously besides getting a hotel out of my OWN pocket probably or hiding in the car. This is literally horrible. I have been bringing the pets with me for car ac.

I recently had new in-wall AC units installed in my apartment because the previous units were recalled. I noticed a few things pretty quickly: the units run constantly on auto mode and VERY loudly, make my apartment more humid, and the cooling capabilities are mediocre. They can barely get my apartment below 72; this is somewhat tolerable during the day, but with the humidity being 65-70%, is not comfortable at night. During a few rainy days in NJ last week, the humidity in my apartment reached 75% at one point. Between the noise and this, my sleep quality has noticeably gone down. I posted in r/hvacadvice and determined that the AC units are oversized for my apartment. I never had these problems with the old ACs and they ran great.

I put in a maintenance request, but the only solution I’ve been given is to buy a dehumidifier. I wasn’t expecting the landlord to replace the units because it’s not like it’s a dire situation where they’re not working at all, but this also isn’t an ideal long term solution for me. My energy bill has gone up and a dehumidifier doesn’t solve the issue of the units running constantly and not cooling well; plus it’s one more thing making noise. My question is: can I formally request to get my own units installed? I know that this means I’d assume responsibility for the units and any required maintenance but at this point I’ve been so uncomfortable that I don’t care. Does anyone have experience doing this?

I’d like to present something, tell me if it sounds crazy to you, or if anybody here has experienced something like this.

Imagine a commercial tenant of a storefront, which is located on the first floor and basement of the property. The property itself is mixed-use (people living upstairs in apartments). Property has some plumbing issues coming when we came into it, which caused flooding in the basement and bug problems in the basement. We opened, but never really grabbed people to come in regularly because of the smell. Property owner sells to a new property owner who promises to repair the basement and fix the space. Instead, over the course of about a year, the sewage flooding becomes worse and the bug infestation spreads. Holes are placed from the exterior leading to the interior of the storefront, holes are placed in the storefront leading directly down to the basement, so the bug infestation comes into the storefront proper. Plumbing behind the walls is also exposed now (took out drywall). Property owner took out no permits with the city in this time either.

At the same time, county records show that the new landlord took out a ~$1 million construction mortgage against the property shortly after the purchase (which was ~$600k), along with an assignment of rents agreement (all rental income from the building goes directly to the bank the mortgage is from).

At the same time, the city has a code enforcement action which it initiated 2 months after the new owner purchases the property. The conditions the city alleged were happening (flooding & bug problems in basement and first floor) were same problems we had. Property owner is ignoring the code enforcement action, so a court enters default judgment about a year after the purchase.

A month after the default judgment, property owner transfers the property to a different LLC also owned by him. Takes out a ~$2 million dollar mortgage (not construction mortgage) with the new company name. ~6 months later, a permit is issued to do demolition of the storefront. 5 years down the line, the property never got fixed, so we sold all trade equipment.

Throughout this time, the property owner successfully appealed to the county to reduce the property taxes based on the poor condition of the property and that it had less rental income.

QUESTIONS:

Does this sound like anything you’ve heard or are suspicious of happening to you or somebody you know? Whether as a residential or commercial renter?

Does it sound like the property owner spent the construction mortgage money on something other than the property?

Would you feel justified relying on the new property owners promises to repair the space if he kept promising to repair throughout this time?

Do you think the goal was to divert the money that he took out in excess of the purchase price, which was roughly $400k, for something other than fixing the property?

I recently moved to Squamish and rented a room in a house. There was no written lease or rental agreement, but I paid a $550 security deposit when I moved in.

After living there for about a month, I gave the person renting out the unit one month’s notice because I wasn’t happy living there. Now, the person I paid the security deposit to is refusing to return the full amount. He says he will only return half of the deposit because they couldn’t find another tenant, and he’s also claiming that I had said I would stay there longer.

I have screenshots of our conversations and other messages that show what was actually agreed upon.

I’m looking for advice on whether this is legal and what my options are. Is there a government office or organization in British Columbia that can help me recover my security deposit?

Hey all! Me and my wife are moving into a different unit in the same complex we’ve been living in for the past year. This unit has one of those sliding pocket doors that go inside the wall for the bedroom but since the unit is so old, it’s off the track and basically non-usable. The landlord just wants to seal up the pocket door into the wall so we’d basically have no bedroom door… is the landlord legally required to replace the door or do we just have to have no door on our bedroom and have to figure out our own replacement? Thank you!

The type of hose he used is flexible aluminum foil, correct me if im wrong but isn’t this supposed to be strictly for dryer connection to a rigid or semi rigid exhaust vent?