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BlogArrowLandlording & Rental PropertiesArrow12 Tenant Nightmare Stories I Swear Are Actually True
Landlording & Rental Properties

12 Tenant Nightmare Stories I Swear Are Actually True

Kevin Perk
Expertise: Landlording & Rental Properties, Real Estate Investing Basics, Flipping Houses, Business Management, Personal Development, Mortgages & Creative Financing, Real Estate News & Commentary
210 Articles Written
landlord-surprises

I used to think that I knew what nightmares were. Then I became a landlord. I’ve seen so many types of nightmares since I began this landlording journey, things I did not even know could exist. I’ve seen mold so thick it even covered the spider webs. I have seen rotten floor joists holding up tubs and thought, if the tenant was only 10 pounds heavier, then crash!

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I have seen squirrels trapped in the walls and clumps of roaches coming out of refrigerators when you open them. But I have discovered that people create the biggest nightmares.

People can do some really crazy, nightmarish things, and most of the time, you would neither know nor care about what they are up to. But when it is your tenant in your property doing it, then it becomes, at least in part, your nightmare.

Related: How to Dodge the Bad Tenant Bullet

12 Tenant Nightmare Stories

landlord-nightmare-tenant

Here are just some of the more memorable tenant nightmares I have had at the time of this writing. I swear to you, every one of them is true. Even the mind of Stephen King could not make some of this stuff up.

  1. A tenant was handing out flyers for porn parties at his apartment. “Bring your own video!” Another tenant saw it and informed us. That is not something you want your address associated with.
  2. A tenant constantly had loud arguments with her boyfriend. She tore every door in the house off its hinges by slamming them.
  3. A tenant installed a stripper pole in the living room. They screwed it right into the hardwood floor. But it was just for exercise.
  4. A tenant got blackout drunk, passed out, and left her kitchen sink running in an upstairs apartment. All that water eventually made its way downstairs.
  5. A tenant got blackout drunk (a different one), bumped his gas stove and accidentally turned the gas on before passing out. Another tenant in the building smelled it and called the utility company, which then turned off the gas to the whole building. That in turn created another sort of nightmare. Thankfully, he did not smoke. He was not supposed to be there, by the way. His mom had rented the place surreptitiously for him. I wonder why she wanted him out of the house.
  6. Speaking of smoking, one tenant burned my triplex down because he was sure the cigarette he placed in the trash can was out. Thankfully, no one got hurt—and at least he apologized.
  7. A few tenants were selling cars off the back lawn. “What do you mean we can’t do that?!”
  8. I once rented to a tenant who turned out to be a hoarder who abandoned the property in the middle of the night. They never leave any good stuff.
  9. A renter who turned out to be violent broke out all my windows after a Memorial Day bender and ended up in jail. You would think it would be easy to serve an eviction notice to someone in jail.
  10. One tenant neglected to call us when the heater went out. He just used his stove instead. “I did not want to bother you.”
  11. Another tenant was apparently having real nightmares and spent hours every night screaming as loud as she could. I think my other tenants in that building had a worse nightmare than me on this one. Thankfully, I think she ended up getting the help she needed, and I hope she is in a better place.
  12. Finally, there was the woman who was “just having fun” by shooting her pistol out of the back window of her apartment.

Still Want to be a Landlord?

Female hand holding key house shaped keychain.

Here is the thing, though: We did not create most of these.

Many of these nightmares were not our own creation. By that, I mean that most of the nightmares I describe came with the property when we bought it. We inherited them. It was these nightmares that likely made the property a good deal to buy. The landlord wanted to get away from these nightmares by selling.

The lesson here is this: Some folks say that a tenant is lying every time they open their mouth. I say the landlord who is selling is lying every time they opens their mouth. “They are all great tenants. Everyone pays on time. No problems at all.” Yeah, sure. Don’t take their word for it.

These nightmares are unfortunately part of the business. As you grow and buy properties, tenants who have not gone through your screening process come into your life. Sometimes you will know what you are getting into, and sometimes you will not. These tenants will eventually go away, but it can be nightmare in the meantime.

Related: 3 Things I Love & Despise About Being a Landlord

Some of the nightmares were our own creation. Sometimes you just have to learn the hard way. You learn from experience and start to notice the flags to look for during the tenant screening process. These are things like the long sleeves in the summer, the alcohol on the breath during a showing, and the parents who seem way too eager to get a place for their kid. These are all signs that perhaps something is not quite right.

If a nightmare gets passed you, all you can do is learn from it and move on. Change your lease, change your policies, or change your screening criteria to prevent the same from happening again—and remember that hindsight is 20/20 for a reason.

To close, let me say that we have had and continue to have many good tenants who we are very thankful for. In fact, most of our tenants have been decent, prompt, and respectful folks. But you always seem to remember the bad ones, don’t you?

So, let’s hear it. Do you have a story of a nightmarish (or conversely, awesome) tenant experience?

Share with a comment below!

By Kevin Perk
Kevin Perk is co-founder of Kevron Properties, LLC with his wife Terron and has been involved in real estate investing for 10 years. Kevin invests in and manages rental properties in Memphis, TN and is a past president and vice-president of the local REIA group, the Memphis Investors Group.
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62 Replies
    Stephen Bourne
    Replied over 2 years ago
    Hello everyone. I’m completely new to REI’ing and do not currently own any properties. I have set the goal to make my first purchase in 2022, which gives me plenty of time to research this industry (and change my mind). Regarding all of the stories above, I have a few questions: (1) where does insurance fit into this. (2a) How much of the repairs are out of pocket to the landlord, (2b) when does insurance cover the damages, and (2c) if and when insurance covers the damages, how do premiums increase.

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    Bernie Neyer Investor from Chanute, Kansas
    Replied over 2 years ago
    I had one tenant that used cement blocks as some sort of furniture. They weighed too much for her to pick up, a boyfriend must of carried them in, she drug them across the floor when she moved the furniture. Ruined every square foot of flooring in the place. This one ought to teach those landlords that allow pets. We don’t allow dogs or cats outright, but do others. We didn’t think a cute little bunny could damage anything. WRONG! Rabbits nibble on pretty much everything. The new carpet in the bedrooms were ruined. The tenant tried to claim it was her vacuum the pulled a snag in the carpet actually blaming the carpet claiming it damaged her vacuum. I informed her it was the other way around and she would be responsible for restitution. She wasn’t pleased This same tenant turned on the HVAC when it got cool. There was some dust on the heat exchanger which set off the smoke alarms. There was no fire, no smoke and no evidence of either. She called 911 and when the firemen arrived, she claimed all sorts of magical happenings so the firemen crawled up in the attic to examine the central heating unit, and promptly fell through the ceiling. He got stuck and so to extracate him, they chopped more holes in the ceiling. Let this be a lesson. This tenant was Sec. 8, (never again) and I wasn’t renewing the lease for a whole lot of issues. This actually became a way for her to vandalize the property and not be held accountable. The insurance didn’t cover the damages because there was no emergency or fire. They suggested I sew the fire department, which I wasn’t going to do. I would of sewed the tenant, but she had zero dollars so why bother. True story.

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    Account Closed from Arlington, Texas
    Replied over 2 years ago
    Thanks for sharing! A lot of people don’t talk about their problems they run into and all these stories give a lot of good ideas of things to watch out for and think about. I’ve had a couple issues renting rooms in the past, mostly trying to fight over being evicted, but never anything like this.

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    Vanesa Gonzalez Rental Property Investor from Miami Beach, FL
    Replied over 2 years ago
    Great post! Same here since my worst tenants came with the property. Going through and eviction right now… thank you for sharing. Informative and funny!

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    David Haven from Houston
    Replied over 2 years ago
    I rented to a doctor (M.D.) who had relocated from Brazil. No way to do background check other than to verify employment. “But he’s a Doctor…..riiiiight. This was a nice, middle class subdivision home with a pool. Guy turned out to be a pain. Always complaining about something. This is in an are of Texas that barely has winter, but about every 15 years, can experience a HARD freeze. One of those fronts was arriving, so I told him to make sure the pool circulating pump was left on 24 hrs a day for 3 days to keep the surface from freezing, expanding, and then cracking the pool. He argued that agitating the water would cause the water to loose heat faster and cost him too much money for electricity, so it should be left still to hold in heat. I finally told him to just run the pump and I’d give $30 for power. He didn’t run the pump. Pool froze. Pool cracked. He started complaining that the pool was leaking, that he’d be in Brazil for 3 weeks, and he wanted that pool fixed before he returned because he was paying extra for that amenity. So while he was gone, I rented a Bobcat loader, took down a section of fence, and proceeded to fill the pool. Laid a pallet of grass sod to make this beautiful green little hill, and planted an oak tree in the very middle. Dr. Pain-in-the-Rear returned and blew a gasket. Knocked holes in the walls, kicked holes in the doors, smashed the toilets and sinks, just really tore up the place. I got an attorney to go after his Doctor income. He ran back to Brazil. I was screwed. Lots of hard-learned lessons on that one.

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    Karen Hamblet Investor
    Replied almost 2 years ago
    We have had rentals for many years, but never thought to check the dryer vent inside the units (we do check outside), assuming that the dryer has not been moved and is still hooked up. (We include washers and dryer.) There was a bad bathroom leak (not reported) and had to remodel the bathroom, then discovered mildew issues on walls, in the carpeting etc. We thought it was from the bathroom leak, then I noticed crud around the laundry area and insisted the appliances be pulled out to see what was wrong. The mildew was from a unhooked dryer vent, for who knows how long. The tenant fancied himself a “handyman” of sorts and had pulled out the appliances to insert some kind of foam piece between the washer and dryer (who knows why) and had pushed the dryer in without making sure the vent was in place. Ended up with a lot of repairs. Lesson, we now do inspections more often and when tenants are a pain ask them to leave more promptly.

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    Rob D. Investor from Riverside, California
    Replied almost 2 years ago
    Leone Of these stories are incredible. Had a tenant who thought it was ok to let pets do their business in the house. The stench was indescribable. Imagine a moldy mop soaked in ammonia being placed on your face. That would be pleasant. One room was painted whorehouse red. The paint was not normal paint. It actually would soak up the primer. Ended up having to skip and texture the whole room. Kitchen was trashed. Literally redo all the way to the studs. They never called for a leak so the whole floor upstairs in the bathroom buckled up aboit 8 inches. Closet doors and entry door to garage missing. Was told the doors were never there when they moved in. After I dumped the tenants I got mail. Seemed like a whole lot kid people lived there because they all had the same mailing address. Total damage to the property to repair was 60,000 dollars One day I’m gonna write a story about the lesson learned when renting to friends

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    Scott White Rental Property Investor from Austin, TX
    Replied almost 2 years ago
    While I understand you’re not a fan of the tenant having screwed a “stripper” pole to the hardwood floor – I wouldn’t be either – her claim of using it for exercise is probably true. I’m an amateur acrobat here in Austin, and know a couple dozen people who do pole fitness for fun and exercise. It’s a legitimate aerial arts discipline and can be breathtakingly beautiful to watch. It can look like they’re walking on air. The practitioners generally become hella strong and they get awesome bruises to boot!

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    Bernie Neyer Investor from Chanute, Kansas
    Replied about 1 year ago
    You can screen all you want, and should do so diligently, but that doesn't necessarily mean you'll end up with good tenants, or that they won't go bad. I've had tenants that passed the background check with flying colors, but then the plantifs found them and there was a spiraling vortex of disaster. My favorite tenant issue are those that pass all the background checks, but use pot. It doesn't matter how good they started out, drugs will always destroy people's reasoning and will to work, every single time. If I could, I'd get drug test for every tenant.

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