I am a LL junkie and I want tenant horror stories!

[Max T.]

Give us your best (worst) landlord experiencing stories. Don't be shy. Even if you messed up in how you handled it (we all do). Winner is the one who posts the most entertaining story, as determined by number of votes!

[James Wise]

Had a tenant poop on a couch in front of my partner @john Holton.

Contest over, HWPG wins. Thank you all in advance for your votes.

[Steve Vaughan]

My resident manager called - "I think they're finally gone. Why is there an extension cord running from the laundry room to their apt?"  So we went in and he immediately ran downstairs to dry heave.  The power had been disconnected so long all meat and stuff rotted in the fridge. The smell of the whole 2 bed apt was overwhelming. Helper #2 came in with me and we started clearing a path with snow shovels, garbage cans and respirators.  Even the tub was overflowing with junk and stinky clothes. Bathing or feeding their kids apparently wasn't a priority.  Woo-hoo!

I'd attach pics if I knew how.  Thanks for starting this @Max T.!

[Account Closed]

The Tenant who took our stairs

Rented a 3 bedroom house to a gal who worked in the office of the local school.  She rented from us for about 6 months.  When she moved out and my husband & I went in to access the house we found the stairs leading up to the bedrooms missing.  Completely removed.  Called the Police they said most likely they stored their stash (drugs) under the stairs and is why they are missing.  Came back to the house the next day and the stairs were there.  So they must have had an extra key to get into the place.  We hadn't changed the locks yet. 

Dear Martin

See my blog:

Shoot out on Auburn Street

Domestic violence issue.  Wife left, husband refused to leave.  Even after a Judgment served on him to move, he was still there.  (Husband and I carry a weapon because our properties were in Detroit.)  Husband goes over to the house to see if tenant moved.  House is empty, but husband sees all the bedroom doors removed and nailed crosswise  on the walls leading into the Kitchen to seal it off from the rest of the house.  Husband starts yanking off the doors nailed to the wall and in comes the husband.  Husband wants to know why he's still there.  Tenant says, because I'm not moving.  Husband says, the "heck" your not and the tenant starts to charge at him.  Husband opens his vest, pulls out his weapon and the tenant stops in his tracks, turns around and runs out of the house.  Husband follows him outside, the tenant  slips on the snow running to the car and can't get to it fast enough.  Gets inside and speeds away.  Later that night, the garage was shot up, but at least the tenant didn't shoot the house.

The Squatter

Did an eviction on a tenant for using drugs.  She was a single gal.  She moved and the place was empty when we first checked it out.   Went back to clean and fix it up and we were about to open the door when we hear a noise inside.  Husband knocks on door and says, "Whose in there".  I go around to the back door, to head whoever is in there off.  Husband pulls his weapon, I pull mine.  Husband walks into the apartment, and here is the guy standing in his underwear, one leg in his pant leg, when I come in through the back door.  His eyes were so big, I almost laughed.  Turned out he was the girlfriends boyfriend.  We told him to finish dressing and get out.  He did. He apologized and hubby and I cleaned the apartment, changed the locks and went out to dinner afterwards.  

SPEAK INTO THE MICROPHONE

We rented an upstairs unit in our 4plex.  It was winter.  Tenant complained about the apartment being drafty and cold.  (We just spent 100,000 to fix this 4 plex up, so everything is new).  I told the tenant that how could this be, everything is bran new, from walls to windows to lights and carpeting.  EVERYTHING. He said it was drafty.  I told him we would be out tomorrow to take a look. 

When we got there he and his wife were standing on the porch waiting for us.  They said, they called the building inspector out.  I asked him why, when we said we would be here today to check it out.  He said, because it's always cold in there and began arguing with us over everything.  

Now this guy is pretty tall.  I am only 5'2" . So he's reading us the riot act (close to rent being due) and of course we can't get a word in edgewise.  So I run to the car, grab my voice recorder, run back the porch, shoved the microphone under his nose and said, "now since you have so much to say, say it in the microphone".  The wife ran upstairs crying and he STOPPED TALKING.  

Just at that moment, I stepped back from him and notice the window to his apartment.  I said, this is why your cold.  THE WINDOWS ARE OPEN!!!    He didn't know what to say.  I sent him a Termination of Tenancy due to the breakdown of our tenant landlord relationship. 

OVERNIGHT GARBAGE DUMP

Tenant evicted from our 3 bedroom home.  Lots of damage.  Lots of yard clean up.  Just the yard alone cost us $1,000.00 to have the trash removed, grass cut, and shrubs groomed.  Everything freshly painted, curb appeal and ready to show.  Scheduled the open house for the next day.

Hubby and I pull up to the house and I couldn't believe my eyes!!!!  There were couches, TV's, washers and dryers, kids toys, and a ton of garbage bags all over our front yard and in less than 15 minutes we were going to show this house.  How embarrassing.  When a house is vacant in Detroit, the neighborhood dumps all their stuff on your lawn.  Police can't do anything about it because who did it?  We called the police and they were very sympathetic to us.  So they didn't give us a ticket.  But I had to dish out another $1,000 to have the trash removed.

Well, I'd better let others have a chance to tell their stories.

Nancy Neville

[Max T.]

All very good thus far. James Wise we need the backstory before you get my vote bud I'd say your the front runner

[James Wise]

Originally posted by @Max T.:
All very good thus far.

James Wise we need the backstory before you get my vote bud I'd say your the front runner

 He was in this house for a repair. 

She called him into the living room to talk about something, then pooped on the couch during the conversation. Really nothing more to it then that. He did not ask any follow up questions after that, just left. 

In all reality, what are you going to do in that situation other then just leave?

[Steve Vaughan]

Oh, it was a she @James Wise?  That's worth a 2nd vote!

[Mike Sedlacek]

Just had closing on a two family side by side. The seller couldn't let us see one of the units because the tenant was a Vietnamese Refugee that couldn't speak English and was deadly afraid to let anyone in. He would scream "Get Away". So we let it go at that. The day of closing we called Catholic Charities to bring someone over that speaks thier language to let us in. When we got there with the representative we found the front door was a jar. We went in to find all the electrical wiring pulled out of the boxes and walls as far as they could. We found the copper plumbing had been torn out thru out the apartment, the water was turned off at the inside main valve.  In the duck work of the force hot air furnace we found rotten fish just inside the vent covers.  Nobody knows where they went but we suspect a few houses down the street where there is another Vietnamese family.  Try that one on for size. 

[Joel Owens]

I do not miss the residential days!

4 -plex apartment building.

Tenant says you can't inspect unit as kids are sick right now. Unit one out of many that were inspected so closed. Landlord seller says tenant is being evicted anyways and writ is coming soon.

Notice placed on door after closing and they move mid-night. Open front door and had to jump back 4 feet. Literally a waterfall of roaches cascades down the front door onto the sidewalk. The air is so thick and so bad we cannot even step into the property. This building was in a very nice area but just a so-so street.

Called out national pest control company. They had never seen anything like it before. They brought a team over to wear full head to toe bio-suits and record everything for their future company training videos. They hit it a couple of times and it was 1 month before we could go in to try and even clean the place. Each time they went in to knock the population level down and they had to treat the other units to make sure nowhere for the roaches to go. The walls had turned a dark color from all the roaches and I didn't know it at the time but all the black specs on walls was roach feces. Corners of the walls looked like mold but was accumulation of feces in the corners. Roaches were going in and out of corners up into the walls. They were crawling everywhere on ceiling, walls, ground. 

The unit was finally ready 6 months later.

Walls had to be sprayed down, scrubbed, and sanitized with the ceiling. This family lived like animals. Stuff smeared on the walls, hanging from the ceiling, animal bones on the floor, cigarette butts in the sliders of the exterior room windows, kids wrote in toothpaste all over bedroom walls and let it dry, bathroom plumbing all clogged up with all kinds of stuff.  

[Jeremy Jackson]

Originally posted by @James Wise:

Had a tenant poop on a couch in front of my partner @john Holton.

Contest over, HWPG wins. Thank you all in advance for your votes.

 Now that's funny!

[Max T.]

Nice Joel Owens !