Tenant wins $17,000 judgment. Landlords, maintain your rentals!

[Nathan Gesner]

This is a great example of how "saving" a little money by neglecting maintenance can cost you much more in the long run. If your rentals are well maintained, you'll get better-quality renters, they'll make more effort to maintain them, and the tenants are more likely to stay longer.

https://www.kcur.org/news/2021...

[JD Martin]

Reading the story, I'd say what sunk him was changing the locks, removing the thermostat, and removing the mailbox. That's a self-eviction, which as far as I know is illegal in all states. The electric panel stuff, well that should be stuff he wants to fix just to maintain a safe house.

Other parts of that story are ridiculous, however. How can the landlord "assure" a renter the electric bill is about $100/month? Electric bills are based on what you use. I have had tenants in the same property have electric bills more than $100 in difference between them. And the tenant sounds like a professional tenant to me, frankly. She's been a renter for 30 years, just happens to be on disability for a mysterious degenerative bone issue - notwithstanding a picture of someone morbidly obese having anything to do with her situation - and knows enough to get an advocacy group involved. Unfortunately for this slumlord he just rented to the wrong person.

So I don't see anything but one bum giving another bum their comeuppance.