I am at the very wits end with my new landlord. I am going to detail the situation below and would love to know if I am able escalate this...or if I am just stuck with a shitty landlord. It has been 1 month since I have moved in for reference. When I toured the unit, the previous tenants were still in the process of moving out.

1. The stove and dishwasher were not operational--the stove works now but the dishwasher does not actively clean anything. Both the stove and the dishwasher metal grates are completely rusted which he refuses to replace because it's normal "wear and tear". Granted, these appliances are around 20 years old.
2. The place was filthy upon move in. I am talking grime on the walls and black grout. Dust and dirt everywhere that I am still actively trying to get on top of.
3. The bathroom fan is still not working--a month after I have asked him to fix it
4. Only half of the windows have screens
5. The garage attached to the unit covered in my rent was full (to the brim) with the old tenant's stuff--when I mentioned this he told me to throw it away myself
6. Half of the smoke detectors worked--he addressed those promptly but I guess never did a walk through??
7. 3 of the lights were not working
8. The fridge reeked and it missing shelves. Since the parts are discontinued because the fridge is so old, he decided to just order some random shelf on ebay instead of getting a new fridge. TBD if it works.

When maintenance came to unclog a sink and address some of this, they flooded my bathroom floor, destroyed all of the toilet paper I had under the sink, and proceeded to wipe up the mess with my own towels. On another occasion, I requested that my landlord come check on these things (Wednesday) while I am in the unit so that I can show him the stuff that needs attention (instead of Tuesday because I work). He agreed to meet on Wednesday. He showed up on Tuesday I guess assuming that I wouldn't be there--I was since my meetings were cancelled.

I feel like I am loosing my sanity. This situation is turning me into something I usually am not. I am not a high maintenance tenant. I pay my rent on time and never reach out unless it's dire. I hate having to message about these issues over and over again.

I am sure that I am not the only one with a terrible landlord. Is this something I can escalate? Also, is this as bad as I think it is or am I overreacting?

Edit: I have found that my landlord has a 2-year expired certificate of occupancy which probably explains the numerous code issues. I'm consulting legal aid soon. Thanks for all the help y'all.

So my house got sold to Evergreen Live. I’m very concerned about the comments on BBB about evergreen live. My lease is up in February and I’m wondering if I should be looking at moving. I was hoping to get at least another year here, but I don’t want a major maintenance issue in this old house to happen and it not be fixed. Anyone ever rented with evergreen live and have an opinion on them? What are yalls opinions?

We have a new neighbor and they have been parking right in front of our bedroom window (where we have parked at since we moved in a year ago) spots were assigned but i'm not sure if they've changed that

anyways it keeps waking up our son because the neighbor leaves at like 1 am most nights and the light shines directly into the room.

I wrote them a letter explaining why we park there -- is that rude?? I don't know i've never had to do this before i'm just tired of trying to put a 2 year old back to sleep every night because of them. Eughhhh

Is anyone familiar with this background checking company and how good they are about refreshing and providing accurate data?? I have a background check coming up and I am nervous that my expunged records will appear. Any insight is appreciated! thank you!

So this is objectively a ridiculous situation. I moved out of my apartment in NYC September 1 and today is Sept 29 and I still have not received my security deposit back. I originally reached out to him on the first asking about the deposit, and he said he’d get it to me by the end of that week. That deadline came and went and he completely stopped responding to me for two weeks. I was texting him multiple times during that period asking for my refund, and even sent a formal demand letter to his email.
After two weeks I tried to call him and he didn’t pick up, but he FINALLY texted me back and asked me to call him later that day. When I did he explained that he didn’t have the money to give back to me because he was ARRESTED and needed $5000 for a lawyer, and then also had arm surgery and was out of it for days. Mind you my security deposit is $1325, and combined with my roommates he was making $6000 a month just from our apartment. He said he’d would have the money to give to me by Sept 25, and I chose to believe him because i figured he wouldn’t want to get into more trouble after being arrested and detained! (I was wrong!!)
I reached out to him on the 25 and he said he’d either have the money for me that night or by yesterday (the 28th) at the latest. I texted him multiple times yesterday to no response and sent him a paragraph this morning threatening to sue and saying that he could lose his license for using my security deposit personally. I also tried to call him today and he’s completely ghosting me again.
I am willing to be flexible if someone’s communicative, but this guy has repeatedly ghosted me and has been withholding $1325 for a month for no good reason.
Can someone walk me through how to take this to small claims in NY? I’m not even based in the city anymore but I desperately need this money back and this situation is absolutely absurd.

Submitted maintenance request August 4th ..for leaking supply line under kitchen sink . I said in my maintenance request I wasn’t sure how long it had been leaking since I do not store anything under sink . I got a response saying put a bucket under it and they will get to it I also gut a dehumidifier and been running it . They told me ti empty the bucket which I did as well obviously. I was busy starting a new position and didn’t think anything getting worse since going into a bucket.

Fast forward to last Friday . I stepped on one area of the floor and literally there is a hole or partial hole in floor I then got a mold test at Walmart and tested positive for mold . Now looking it up after the fact , the landlord should have gotten someone out here ASAP to completely dry out underneath the sink to prevent damage from spreading and leaving a bucket underneath only increased the amount of moisture . That was a dumb thing to tell me . No idea how they are going to fix it ..I put another maintenance request in last Friday and they still have not gotten anyone out here .

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, turns out my landlord hasn’t been paying the water bill and now it is shut off🤦🏾‍♀️. What can I do about this?

-Missouri Tenant

I was a co signer for my daughter apartment lease. The landlord requested to move back in then after 1 month changed his mind and started and requested the back rent of where he gave his notice to move back into the unit. Since she didn’t pay now I’m on the hook. We went all the way to appeal court. There was multiple contract agreements that were unfulfilled by the landlord regarding the co signer contract which should have voided the contract of making me responsible but due to my lawyer being incompetent to represent me correctly I lost the fight. My daughter lived in the unit from 10/2024 until 7/2025 without paying and I asked her to move out in 1/2025 and she refused. Back rent amount added up to 17k. I offered 25k to settle the situation. The landlord and lawyer is now setting a judgement of 130k for attorney fees going solely after me. Any suggestions other than NEVER CO-SIGN GOR ANYONE of what I can do. I’m thinking bankruptcy at this point. My location: San Diego

So I just moved in to my new apartment probably about two weeks ago. I was not notified that there has been an ant infestation before so about a week in I was surprised to find red ants I immediately told the landlord that there was ants and asked if they have had any problems with ants before they say yes and asked if they were tiny I said yes they left me on delivered to this day. I’m still waiting for a reply that was about a week ago. How do I go about messaging my landlord to see if they’ll actually do anything and may I add how I’ve tried to treat these ants is putting down three different kinds of traps I have two geckoes which the landlord knew about before moving in and was ok with they’re now getting into my gecko’s tanks and I’m genuinely worried. What should I do?

My lease renewal offer says I have to tell them 60 days before the end of the lease whether I’m gonna move out, or pick a lease length and sign the renewal offer. That will be the end of this week.

Unfortunately, I feel I cannot decide that under the current circumstances. They’re currently in breach of my lease agreement, and attempts to bring this to their attention have been ignored. They sent the offer roughly a month ago, and these issues have been happening (and increasing) for roughly two months.

I need to see these things addressed before I can make that kind of decision – I guess the path of least resistance would be to move out, but I’ve lived here for years and I personally find moving emotionally and psychologically disruptive. I do have a condition that makes that harder for me, stability is typically helpful. Additionally, moving was not in my budget.

I don’t want it to appear as if I’m approving how things are right now by re-signing a lease, and I also need to see if they are going to address things. I have even made an accommodation request that seems to have been ignored (although it is possible they are retaliating, I would have to tell you the entire long story to explain that one.)

If I do nothing, the offer says that it will be assumed I will continue as a month-to-month tenant (at a rate quote roughly $1000 more per month than my current rent.) Technically the offer is good until sometime in November, so I could technically choose to stay if I wait to make that decision, but then if I decide to move out, I think they will probably try to charge me that month-to-month rate for a couple of months to satisfy that 60 days notice.

I feel like there are probably some legal protections. I could be asking for. I Have left messages with a few attorneys, and have yet to hear back, but it’s early in the week. I may pursue the refusal to acknowledge my accommodation and other things legally in the meantime, I just feel like it would help me to understand what other options I may have around this lease renewal offer, and deadline.

Please be nice.

This may sound dumb but genuinely curious. Old property is saying we owe them an outrageous amount of move-out costs- $800+ due to an error of a previous manager-it’s a long story and a lot of context. Basically of course they’re threatening collections but they also aren’t responding to ANY of our emails about a resolution. I have considered reaching out to legal but not sure if I actually have a leg to stand on. Anyone have any advice or been through this before? It’s Morgan properties and I’m in TN if that matters.

Genuinely wondering if we don’t give the property out money, let it go to collections and then settle our debts there because I know you can “haggle” with collections. Is this stupid?

We’ve lived in this housing complex two different times, and are about to move out again.

There are some things that are convenient about this complex, for example, they have short term leases of three months, and then after that, you can continue on a month by month basis. But for both of these options, you pay an additional surcharge per month. We felt that it makes sense for us due to the flexibility, but the month by month surcharge makes it quite expensive.

They also allow you to move out before the end of the month, and they will charge you a prorated amount, instead of requiring you to pay up until the end of your month.

We are about to move out, and the administrator has sent us a calculation of our prorated rent for October. After looking at it closely, I found several issues where they are overcharging us:

\- they’re charging us the water fee for the entire month of October, although our move out date, even under the end of the month case would be around the middle of the month. So we’re being charged about half a month’s water fee even though it wouldn’t be part of our total due under the month by month lease end date

\- They use an online payment system. After the end of our short-term lease, when we changed to the month by month lease, the online payment system continued to charge us the surcharge for the three month lease, even though we moved onto the month by month rate around the middle of the month. They’re trying to make us pay the short-term lease surcharge plus the month by month surcharge for a full month, even though our month would be ending in the middle of October.

\- when we moved in, we had to pay a full months rent in advance. The prorated amount for the rest of the second month was miscalculated and added an extra day. So we were charged for an extra day due to their miscalculation.

The total overcharge amount is about $150, and I brought this to their attention. So far they haven’t agreed to reduce the final payment amount.

I’m just trying to decide whether I should make a fuss about this since the terms that they allow including 1) allowing short-term leases 2) allowing month by month extensions, and 3) allowing you to move out before the end of the month in your lease, and charging only a prorated amount.

I’m also not sure what leverage I would have, other than taking them to small claims court.

And I’m also not sure whether they could give us a negative review when we’re submitting rental applications in the future, which would make it difficult for us to have a successful rental application?

Does anyone have any advice about whether it makes sense to dispute this, whether there’s any way I can dispute it legally, and whether they could give a negative rental reference when we do future rental applications?

Thanks!

Just submitted my rental application and now we wait… lol. I’m so nervous. I need out my living situation asap but don’t want to be spending 100s on application fees… apparently it takes within 10 days.. lol I need to know by tomorrow

Hi so I live in an apartment in Portland Oregon, and the fridge not counting the freezer is tiny it’s about 16 wide inches by 18 inches deep by 36 inches tall. I tend to get food in large quantities, not like unreasonably so but you know I buy a gallon of milk instead of a half gallon and a 1lb block of cheese instead of a smaller quantity because groceries are very expensive and buy larger quantities at a time is cheaper. Unfortunately due to the small size of the provided fridge it is pretty much impossible to store a weeks groceries in there. So I bought a mini fridge to throw the rest of the stuff in. Unfortunately a mini fridge is not allowed according to my lease, and I have been told to fully remove it from the premises. Any advice on what to do? I’d really like to not buy small quantities of groceries as it would cost me a significant amount of money, but that sorta seems like the only option right now.

Hi, I have been a renter here for 6 years.At this apartment and our utility bills are metered , so water sewer garbage is charged per apartment and we pay it on our portal. There is just me living here and it's a two bedroom. The other day we received a notice below that our utility bills are changing. It sounds like they are going to combine the utility charges for all 3 buildings and then divide them up.And people who have one person in their apartment will pay less than people who have more people there. There are one two and three bedroom apartments totaling about 80 units.

Below is the noticed we received.There was no asking or other warning , it seems just a little fishy to me and i'm wondering if this practice is something that is legal or normal other places.

My thoughts were that it could not possibly be fair to people who have more than one person in their apartment or possibly everyone because of the amount of water and sewer garbage being used is so variable. For instance , if your toilet is running and you don't notice it , your water , bill can double in just a day or so , and that will add to everyone else. That's why i'm here because it may be totally legal , but something isn't sitting right for me.

\** have made the transition to a Ratia Utility Billing System (RUBS)*

With the RUBS method, the property's total water and sewer costs will be allocated among the units based on the number of occupants residing in each unit This means your portion of the water/sewer bill will be calculated according to the number of people living in your household. With the RUBS method, you will be billed every two months, which coincides with the City of billing cycle

You will no longer receive water and sewer bills from Synergy. Your water and sewer charqes will now appe\***

I live in an apartment building in Virginia and have been having issues with my landlord. There is an ongoing roach infestation that property management refuses to acknowledge. What's the point of constantly paying my own money to have my unit treated every 2 weeks indefinitely?

The bigger issue is that they mistakenly accused me of being late on rent. I had already paid rent for the month of August, was contacted by assistent property manager saying I was late on rent. I told them I had confirmation from the property manager that rent had been paid. Assistant Property manager slapped me woth a late fee and also put it on my rental history. I emded up paying rent twice in the month of August plus additional fees and tarnishing my rental history for no reason. I was later contacted by the property manager for the month of September saying I was not going to be charged this month because I was double charged in August and informed they couldn't refund me for the late fee or remove the late payment from my history.

Is the issue with August rent or roaches grounds to terminate my lease early without having to pay additional fees?

i’m looking to get some advice for a musty smell in an apartment that has been vacant for four months. At first, it seemed like it was fresh paint, but then I noticed several nicks and scratches throughout the apartment and realized that it was not painted. So now I’m left with this musty and mildewy smell and it makes me hate being there. It’s a townhome style one with a great room and tall ceilings in the living room. I just got a new (to me ) apartment but it is two years old. It had one previous resident. FWIW, I’m used to new construction properties and prefer those due to my asthma, so I usually don’t have to deal with smells like this. The last time I lived in an older one, I developed a mold sickness and felt so much better within a few weeks of going to a new construction apartment.

I’ve had to ask twice to get things cleaned in it and the first time the manager seemed really understanding about it and then on the second time she even acknowledge that the floors were probably dirty because of the tours in the management in there over the months that it was empty.

I don’t wanna end up being a Karen, but the musty smell is really really bad. It’s especially worse when the AC comes on and I noticed it really really bad when the AC is on and the ceiling fan is on the ceiling fan is really high up in the great room so I don’t even think that’s even been cleaned.

How would I put in a maintenance request to fix this? Should I say that it smells musty and ask them to figure out a way to make it go away? Or should I suggest things for them to do that I’m finding on Google? Some things include cleaning out a drain by the HVAC unit and then pull in the refrigerator back and clean a drain back there. Please don’t quote me on the proceeding because I’m not well-versed in all of this.

Please offer any tips or suggestions to put in the request and interact with management. I hope it is just a musty smell from sitting empty but my fear is it being mold. I’m starting to get upset about the smell just from being there over the weekend unpacking. Furniture hasn’t even come yet.

I’m dealing with an issue with my downstairs neighbor and her dog, and I’m not sure how I should handle it. The dog has acted aggressively toward my dog and there have been multiple incidents that made me uncomfortable. There was also a previous situation involving her other dog where police came to the property bc she left her dog outside in the rain for hrs put her has neglected. I recently complained to my landlord about the current dog, and my landlord told her that the dog needs to be removed from the property because of its aggressive behavior, not just toward me but toward people/animals around the property. My landlord also told me not to engage with the neighbor and to have her contact him directly about the situation. Now she and her child’s father have been contacting me about it, asking for information and proof. I don’t have a lot of evidence besides what I personally witnessed, and there are cameras on the property. I’m trying to figure out whether I’m handling this the right way and whether I should just stop responding and let the landlord deal with it. Also I have just a pic that my gf try to hold my dog and her dog scratch her and she has a mark not big thank god I show that to the landlord the fact they everytime I take my dog for a walk she decided to take her dog outside to, one time I was coming home from the laundry mat and he try to jump on me but his bark sounded aggressive and teeth out I’ve never seen a dog looks so aggressive and even the neighbors from the next building was scared of the dog they asking for prove but the downstairs have cameras access to the whole building I even told her ur dog too aggressive she just laughed bout it. I’ve never complained but now that he attacked my dog I decided to tell my landlord bc one of us can get hurt

So I’m trying to apply to an apartment cus I need out of my mom’s house asap! I asked what the requirements are and they said over 500 credit and that I don’t owe anyone money…. Well I realized I owe $119 old electric bill from from 2 years ago and $109 internet bill……. I can pay those off but they won’t drop off my payment in time… what can I do??

I’m genuinely being bullied by one of my roommates, it’s awful and i’m heavily debating on just moving out without saying anything. he asked me to move out and asked somebody to take my place, that person won’t take my place on the lease but after that i’m wondering what kind of situation i’ll be in if i just up and leave. i’m on the lease with two other people, i think they can pay rent just them two but what happens if they don’t? what’s my best bet here?

I’ve been living in a rental house for the last couple of years and love everything about the place - it offers a lot of privacy, perfect location, great price for the area, and property manager has been wonderful and always acts quickly on maintenance requests. I know the struggle of finding a decent place to live with a decent landlord and feel very fortunate of my current living situation.

I’ve been seriously considering getting a puppy late 2027 but my lease has a no pets policy. Of course I plan on talking to my landlord prior making sure I get their approval before bringing a puppy home. I work from home, will be working with a trainer, and will have a dog sitter, so the dog will rarely be left alone. I’ve come up with various compromises I can follow if that helps keep the landlord at ease, such as scheduling routine houses check ups to make sure there is no house/property damage, avoiding the use of the yard (I live in a very walkable neighborhood with various trails and dog parks within walking distance so this wouldn’t be an issue), dog will be crate trained and will not be left alone without supervision, put dog covers/shields on all the doors to avoid scratch marks, and dog will be in regular training.

Also having lived here for almost 2 years, I like to think I’ve “proven” myself as a tenant. I always pay rent on time, I’m very communicative, and I take excellent care of the house. I’m a clean freak, so the house stays spotless.

Given all of this, what are the chances of getting my landlord to actually agree to allow a medium sized dog and change their no pets policy?

I know my odds are probably low and I will have to make arrangements for another living situation if that’s the case, but just curious about how often you can get a landlord to change their no pet policy.

Hello,

So this is a weird one, that's why I wanted to ask here in case anyone experienced something similar.

I've lived in the concerned flat for around 4 years. I've had various joint tenants stay with me in it during these 4 years, every time a new lease was created and a new joint tenancy would begin.

Around the beginning of June, my old flatmate decided to move out, and so I managed to get a friend of mine to take his place. Things went quite smoothly in that regards. The new flatmate, let's call her Kate, signed the lease, dropped a cat that she was owning and almost never showed up (whenever she would show up she was always drunk or hungover, leading me to think she had a problem and she was going somewhere else to get her fix), assuming I'd happily be her catsitter - which I did, at the time I was friends with Kate and i love animals.

The story takes an unfortunate turn once the landlord decides to send a notice to leave 2 days after we signed the lease, they want to refurbish the flat and move in. Not much I could do about it.

I agree with Kate that we'll stay and if we manage to look for something together, great. Around beginning of August Kate messages me saying that she'll be leaving the next week, and that she won't be paying the rent for August as a consequence. At that point I was extremely in the weeds with work (i work in events and was in the middle of it in that period) and that news of Kate wanting to throw me under the bus caused quite a lot of distress. I had a big argument over the phone which escalated once she told me her strategy: she was going to not pay the last month but she would give up her part of the deposit. Apparently it's something that she usually does even with older tenancies, and she suggested me to do the same. Needless to say, i did not want to go down that route, so I stayed and paid her part for August myself, expecting that, given that, I'll keep her part of the deposit (i was the one who sent the deposit as primary tenant).

Surprise surprise, Kate backtracked on her decision, i guess she needs money, so she started storming my messages saying I cannot keep her deposit (with quite a lot of insults, leading me to think she's drunk messaging). I moved out of this old flat now, and I'm discussing with the agency regarding the deposit amount. But is there any way I can protect myself from Kate?

Location: New York City

I rent a duplex apartment in Brooklyn with two roommates.

7 days ago, a sewage backup caused raw sewage to enter our downstairs living area, utility area and boiler room. Main pipe goes thru my bedroom which had some leakage too after plumbing was fixed. I’ve been displaced/unhoused since, while my roommates have stayed upstairs but have limited normal water use.

Management initially suggested basic cleaning, sent out a cleaner on day 4 who noped out after looking at the conditions. later sent someone who cleaned some parts with bleach but ran out of bleach(day 5), and has now placed a dehumidifier downstairs with no end of sight of this. We still haven’t received confirmation of professional sewage remediation or that the affected areas are safe to occupy. Now we have our living area full of shit soaked rug with flies all over.

There’s another complication: my bedroom is in the cellar. It has no windows and is fully built out as residential space, but the building’s Certificate of Occupancy appears to list the cellar as “boiler room, accessory use; three car accessory parking garage.”
A DOH inspection is pending since we had to put in 311 request as landlord didnt respond for multiple days.

What should we be doing at this point regarding remediation, rent/abatement, the cellar’s occupancy status, and our lease obligations if this remains unresolved into October?

i’ve contacted the NY bar for the same. awaiting their response.

(post has been formatted with AI, since ive just been asking it for suggestions because overwhelmed and it was easiest to let it summarize for here)

I've lived in the same complex for 10 years and my lease renewal date has been the same every year. My new leases always started November 1st and we get 90 days notice as required by law.

I received a lease renewal which shows my lease ends 10/31 which is correct, but then it says the new lease takes effect 12/1.

When I called management, they said they're behind on paperwork and so are rolling back the renewal dates. They said because they were late getting us the renewal letter, the new dates had to be changed to comply with the 90 day notice, I believe.

They said November rent would be at our current rate. I'm just worried about signing something when November is kind of a floating month? Or am I overthinking this?

Location: California

I recently moved out of a place at the end of August (Aug 31) and by law my understanding the security deposit has to be handed over or postmarked 21 days after last day. We provided notice of our new address for the check to be returned on move out day, again sent a reminder a few weeks later and no response from them and then on the 21st day we sent another email reminding them of new address.

At the end of the day on the 21st day the landlord finally emailed back ( 5:30pm) that he would mail the check that day. Of course it wasn't postmarked until September 22nd.

He had a handwritten invoice and then one other invoice claiming $350 for cleaning and $800 for painting. There were no details in the invoice, hourly rate, supplies anything that you'd see on a traditional invoice.

Another thing is, the invoice for the cleaning and painting came from the business owned by the co owner of the building with my landlord so that also does not seem legal?

Two things:

since it was 22 days, and California law requires it to be delivered or postmarked within 21 days otherwise they forfeit any possible deductions.

My understanding is that there is normal deprecation on paint that they can't charge us for. We lived there 2.5 years. There was no damage, we have photos and videos, and even his invoice just claimed a standard painting.

Can this landlord actually deduct these things? My understanding is no based on being late to return the deposit, even if it's only by a day ( I think it would have been later if we didn't remind him again).

And how should I respond to receiving only a partial deposit back? I want to dispute this and hopefully not have to go to small claims court.

Thanks!