Landlord changed the contract after signed

[Allison Panila]

Hey everyone, I was talking to a friend of mine who’s renting a basement apartment from the landlord who lives upstairs. There’s a separate entrance to the apartment. What I found odd is that the landlord wrote into the contact that she could only have guests 3 times a month (she signed it without thinking it’d be a problem). The landlord then decided her boyfriend was over too much (he isn’t living there but the landlord must be watching and didn’t define the “three times” as specific time limits, so daytime guests count the same as overnight) THEN the landlord said that my friend would have to pay more per month ($50) to have guests up to 10 times because of “wear and tear” and utilities. She’s in Prince George’s County, MD and is wondering whether this is legal or not. She felt backed into a corner because she wants to be able to have friends over, but being a long time listener, something doesn’t feel rIght to me! I would love your thoughts. I’m going to search PG County tenant laws tomorrow. Thanks!

[Jim K.]

Hi,Allison.

When there are two people living in an apartment when once there was one, twice as much laundry is going through the washer and dryer, and they break down more frequently. When the refrigerator is opened twice as much, it lasts half as long. When the garbage disposal crunches through twice as much stuff, it dies faster.

The floor coverings wears down twice as fast. The cabinet hinges wear down. Things falls on the kitchen floor and beat it up twice as fast. Twice as much body dander is being produced and going through the furnace filter. The walls get twice as dirty. So does the ceiling. Why are these things not crystal-clear to you?

The landlord is upset because he obviously meant three times a month to mean three nights a month, and your friend seems to have decided that what the clause in the contract she signed really means is something more like three weeks a month.

What your landlord signed up for was a single lady living alone. What your landlord got was a lady living with a man who hasn't been vetted by the landlord. And of course, they both so openly believe the contract the tenant signed isn't worth the paper it was printed on that they have a friend like you asking for help to flout it on a website like this one.

I'm really glad I'm not your landlord, Allison, or your friend's, or your friend's boyfriend. You seem unable to even begin to put yourself in the shoes of the landlord here, to understand what it's like to have someone play games with you like this. I'd nail an eviction notice to your friend's front door so fast her head would spin, and do everything in my power to make absolutely sure that an eviction ended up recorded permanently in Prince George's County books, so that any search in the future would expose it.

And then your friend would never be able to sign a lease in the USA to live in any apartment where national record checks are run on possible tenants. She could just lay down her misguided head in a ghetto hovel or a country shack or a cardboard box in a back alley doubling as a public toilet for every wino stumbling by. Unless, of course, she managed to scrape up enough money for a down payment on her own property.

Those are the consequences of tenants with an entitlement mentality treating their landlord's rules like filth to be scraped off their shoes.