Article created by: Viktorija Ošikaitė From our experience, becoming a landlord makes someone pick one of two paths. They either become the living embodiment of wholesomeness and are so welcoming they’re practically family to you. Or… they embrace the dark side and go full Darth Vader in their quest for power, domination, and easy victims to squeeze dry. An exaggeration? Perhaps a tad. But you never really hear about the landlords that are ‘just all right’; it’s the heroes and villains that capture the imagination. And it’s the latter that we’ll be talking about today. We’ve collected a whole bunch of stories about tenants who got revenge on their landlords by doing exactly what was asked of them, as featured on the internet powerhouse that is the r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit. Be careful how you phrase things because someone following your instructions to the letter can one-up you so badly that you might consider being less of a jerk in the future. Karma is real (it just needs a bit of help from our imagination, creativity, and courage), and the proof’s in this list. Scroll down for some of the best landlord revenge stories, and remember to upvote the ones that impressed you the most, Pandas. Oh, and do drop on by the comments to tell us about the relationship you have with your own landlord. Remember, though, good landlords do exist out there, too! Bored Panda was interested to learn about how much we should all be ideally spending on rent, and how to get along with difficult landlords. We reached out to Sam Dogen, the author of ‘Buy This, Not That: How to Spend Your Way to Wealth and Freedom’ and the founder of Financial Samurai, as well as to personal finance expert, investor, and best-selling author Rick Orford, to get their opinions. (Spoiler warning: good communication is essential for a working relationship between tenants and landlords.) Check out what they told us below. Read More: Sweet Revenge: 40 Times Tenants Followed Their Malicious Landlords’ Instructions To The Letter To Teach Them A Lesson #1 He Wanted It Painted. They Painted It My grandfather was born in 1943 and was sailor in the 60s. He subscribed to a very tight honour code when it came to taking care of one's friends and community. So when a little old lady who had lived in her house as long as anyone could remember had her rental lease passed on to a new owner, no one was pleased when he evicted her, after higher rent. My grandfather, however, offered to help with the exit maintenance, and the landlord requested a new paint job. So paint it he did, in one day, with all his sailor mates. Every interior wall, floor and roof with black ship paint. You know, the stuff that's supposed to withstand being at sea. My grandfather said he was irate, but couldn't do anything because all he had requested was a paint job with no other stipulations, and that's what they had done. Image credits: [deleted] #2 Landlord Advertises All Of Our Company’s Equipment For Sale To Our Competitors. Best Follow Our Eviction To The Letter Tl;dr (SPOILERS) landlord gives us 7 days to vacate our leisure business from the building, he thinks we cant empty the business during lockdown, and proceeds to advertise OUR equipment for sale to our competition. We sell everything in 7 days and destroy the rest. Enjoy no rent and the loss of your potential buyers. I work for a leisure company, think soft play, indoor soccer, laser tag (can't be specific) Prior to lockdown, Managers and the big bosses were negotiating the renewal of the lease on one of our parks. Things were going mostly smoothly, however, the landlords were difficult to contact. Then 2020’s shit hit the fan. All of our sites were closed, and everything was thrown into a mess. Negotiations began to slip down the priority list; nobody thought the landlord would push an eviction for an expired lease during this period. Especially with it still getting rent, despite the sites closure, and the closure of every business and restaurant in the immediate area. We were wrong. A few days ago we received a letter saying we had 7 days to leave the premises and take everything with us. We are reminded that anything left in the building after 7 days will become the landlord's property! (that line is very important). Now a lot of construction goes into installing our equipment into a new building, which makes emptying one even harder. Add a lockdown, with no staff and most businesses shut, it meant that saving much of our assets would prove to be extremely difficult. To lose a profitable site and all of its assets is definitely a blow to our company. But here is where it gets worse; A few days into our 7-day eviction, we find out that the landlord has been advertising our park to our competitors. But he isn’t offering just the building, he is offering ALL OF OUR STUFF PRE INSTALLED. “Ready to go, just needs re-branding.” The landlord has evicted us from the property in an attempt to increase rent and make a solid profit from our equipment installed because he thinks we won't be able to empty the park. We were furious. And here is where the malicious compliance came in, we were told we had 7 days to move everything we owned out of the property. so that's what we did. Local businesses from all around offered up free space to store our things, a few people came back out of lockdown and they all spent the rest of the week removing, selling or destroying everything that was related to us. We didn't even leave light fittings. In every other sight vacation we have seen, we always end up leaving thousands of $$ worth of disco lights in the ceilings because they’re too hard to get. We leave most the construction in, as well as things like the bars and kitchens that all stay intact (recognisable as what they once were) but not this building. We ripped up the flooring we installed, tore down the walls that were not part of the original structure (Wooden walls to divide up the space) ripped apart our manager's offices and removed all artwork, and locke The landlord now has every new deal he has been making dead in the water, a large renovation bill to install new flooring etc. (or a company willing to do it themselves like we were). Lockdown has been extended another 4 weeks, so he has at least another 4 weeks without rent (we were paying) and won't have any potential buyers. Silver lining: The assets we got out of the site (fridges, tv’s, equipment, food, tables) have all been sold, and the lack of rent and additional income has helped the business and paid staff wages. UPDATE Here is what happened next: We handed in the keys and it was probably the quickest handover we’ve ever had. The landlord Cleary didn’t want to make any kind of conversation and there was definitely an elephant in the room, but he definitely said NOTHING about the lack of our equipment. Complications did arise when we went to get back various deposits, But he had no case to withhold the deposits from us as the building was in excellent shape. (we had conducted much of the maintenance work ourselves, so the building was in a significantly better condition than we found it, (we also cleaned up 99% of the rubbish and dirt from our demolition crusade so he couldn't bill us for cleaning) ) A very minor bit of pressing from our legal team meant that we received everything owed back in full! The building is still Vacant and as of yet we don't know of any potential buyers. Image credits: poshbo #3 I Made A Point To Print Out A Dozen Copies Of The “Landlord Tenant Act” Of My City, Highlight All The Areas She Had Tried Scam Us Over As I was moving out of my duplex, my landlord looked in the window - saw a mess of boxes, bags, papers and shipping supplies and told us we were “messy” and she was raising our rent $200-300 more a month. She said we could pay that or leave. I told her we would be out by the end of the month. Come the end of the month, we are out and even shampoo’d the carpets (didn’t have to). The landlord dragged her feet and said she was keeping our deposit because of a laundry list of damage to the duplex. I emailed her back with a slew of photos of said damage on the day we moved in and told her that if I didn’t see my security deposit, in full, I was taking her to court. Got it 2 days later. I made a point to print out a dozen copies of the “Landlord Tenant Act” of my city, highlight all the areas she had tried to screw us over (the last few years) - then I took those booklets, looked up her properties online - and gave a copy to each of her tenants. Image credits: Disorderly_Chaos #4 You Would Like Me To Adhere To The Contract? In That Case I Require A Hotel Until You Resolve All Of These Issues A few years ago, I moved back to the city in which I was a university student. As I was now 'a young professional', and had experienced significant issues with housemates in the past (non-payment of bills, having to do all the cleaning) I decided that I would rent a small flat from a reputable agency which specifically catered for 'young professionals' such as myself. I went and viewed the property, which was quite messy, and needed to have a few things addressed (ie the vinyl flooring in the kitchen was ripped, one of the drawers in the freezer was broken). But seeing as tenants were still living in the property, and the agency assured me that between tenants the landlord would clean the property, and resolve any small issues prior to moving in, I happily signed a contract, and wrote a cheques for the deposit, and first month of rent. Two months later, I moved into the property, and was welcomed with the following issues (note, I just happened to stumble upon the list I made at the time when clearing out an old hard drive a few days ago): General: The entire property had not been cleaned Fire door wouldn't close (breach of fire regulations) The previous tenants had left much of their belongings behind, namely clothes and bedding General waste was present in all rooms (bins had not been emptied) Batteries had been removed from all of the fire/smoke alarms (by law, they were meant to be hard wired in rented property) Half of a lightbulbs had been removed from the property Hallway: Mains supply & circuit breaker ripped from wall (incredibly dangerous) Carpet soiled Bedroom: Slats on bed broken (so would not have been able to sleep on it) Mattress torn and ripped Vinyl floor ripped up Window jammed closed Bathroom: Faecal matter on light switch Mirror broken Toilet had not been cleaned (still had faecal stains in Shower door broken off hinges Vinyl floor torn up Kitchen/Living Room: Washing machine broken All draws in fridge freezer absent or broken beyond repair Gas cooker, missing burner caps and pan rail (therefore unusable) Two cupboard doors hanging off Vinyl floor ripped up Curtain pole ripped down It was very clear that two things had occurred here. The first being that the previous tenants had done a bit of a number on the property. That they had not respected the property, and had left quite a lot of damage in their wake. They did not even have the decency to empty the place of their contents, and at bare minimum, take the rubbish out before leaving. The second issue however, is that the landlord had evidently not made any significant attempt to bring the property back into a habitable state prior to me moving in. Being the reasonable guy that I was, I called the landlord and asked if he could resolve these issues immediately. Primarily as the property was genuinely in a dangerous, and non-inhabitable state. I did not want to be a dick about it, however, at the bare minimum, the flat should be safe to inhabit. The landlord dismissed all of my complaints, and stated that his wife (he was on a business trip to Dubai) had inspected and cleaned the property a few days before, and all was fine (a blatant lie). I told him that I was extremely unhappy with the situation, and he told me to 'adhere to the contract which I had signed'. He subsequently put the phone down. Any sympathy I had for the landlord evaporated at this moment. He was happy for me to live in a dangerous property. So I went through my contract line by line, and found two key pieces of information: If a property is deemed to be in breach of fire regulations and/or is deemed uninhabitable by a suitable representative, it is the responsibility of the landlord to resolve such issues immediately If the landlord cannot resolve such issues immediately, it is the responsibility of the landlord to provide alternative accommodation to the tenant until the property is returned to a habitable state. Fortunately, a close member of my family at the time was a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. Within the hour I had a formal letter stating that the property was uninhabitable, and dangerous. I had this emailed to the landlord (address helpfully listed on the contract). Within 10 minutes, I had a call from him arranging emergency accommodation at a local hotel until he returned from his business trip, 3 days later. On his return, he drove directly to the property from the airport, and returned the cheques for my deposit and first months rent to me, and asked me to move out. Which I gladly did. Unbeknownst to him, a copy of the letter had been sent by my family member to the Housing Ombudsman, and the local authority. The last thing I heard is that this bloke ended up being investigated, heavily fined, and had to sell the house. TLDR: Landlord rents me dangerous property, and tells me to adhere to the contract. I adhere to the contract, and get a weekend in a hotel, all of my money back, and he is heavily fined and sells the property. Image credits: low_myope #5 You Want To Follow The Lease To The Letter Of The Law? Let’s Dance So, about 10 years ago my husband and I were renting a house while we tried to buy a place. The landlord seemed so nice, and it was a great situation. When we found a place to buy, we gave him our forwarding information along with the keys. It took about two months to get our deposit back, and we were shocked to say the least. He had taken $400 out. He had an enclosed porch that had screens with no glass. It had outdoor carpeting that was gross, and we bought a remnant to cover the carpet since we had little kids and it was questionable (no doubt due to the year round screens - including rain storms, etc). It wasn’t ideal, but it was a rental. When we left, we rolled up the carpet and threw it out. Anyway, the landlord stated in his letter that he was taking out the $400 because we had broken the lease by having a dog - and his proof was the condition of that carpet. We did not have a dog, and that carpet was gross when we got there. We tried to explain that, but he was having none of it and would ignore our attempts to reach out (plus, how do you prove the absence of something?). Cue malicious compliance: you want to follow the lease so carefully as to make up animals? Well, perhaps you should read the laws a little better. According to our state, landlords have exactly one month to send the deposit back. He took two. According to the law, you can be held liable for three times the amount (1800, in our case). So we sued. We no longer wanted the $400 back; we wanted $5400. While it was somewhat painful (he dodged attempts to serve him, he had out of state attorney friends try to intimidate us) he eventually had to hire an attorney, and we settled on $2000 (in addition to the $1400 we got back). We filed with the help of a friend so we didn't owe an attorney - just filing fees. He ended up paying $2000 plus attorney fees instead of our $400 for a phantom dog. Know your rights as tenants! Image credits: leigh10021 #6 Tell Me I'm Not Allowed To Make Any Unauthorized Repairs On My Residence? Fine By Me, It's Your Problem Now It's about seven years ago. I'm living in a trailer (like, legit trailer, not a double wide) in a trailer park because it was my own place and it got me the hell away from my parents and didn't cost me an arm and a leg for rent. Cramped? You bet. But living on my own was a freedom I can't understate. That price came with its own price, though: The landlord was...kinda lazy. Hell, I didn't even get a tank of propane when I signed the lease, I had to pay for it myself! But rolled into the rent was all utilities besides electricity, which, oddly enough, the landlord was responsible for adding that to our rent every month. (This led to some interesting issues that eventually got resolved but that's not within the scope of this sub.) Other than that, landlord paid everything. My trailer already had issues, mostly parts of it breaking from just old age. But one of the bigger things was the outdoor lighting. You see, there was this very small step that went up to the concrete platform my trailer sat on, and it was small enough that I have no idea why it was put there but big enough that you'll easily trip over it. The landlord had put down those cheapo solar lights to keep it lit, but those had since died. I brought it to the landlord's attention. Promises it'd get fixed. This went on for weeks. Finally after a particularly bad day at work, I decided I had enough once I tripped over it for the umpteenth time. Went to the Homeless Despot and picked up some better solar lights and stuck them where the old ones were. Finally, bliss and not having visitors and myself trip up on their way to my front door. ...or so I thought. Couple days later I come home from work, my solar lights are (crudely) ripped out of the ground and tossed aside, and there's a notice taped to my door that essentially said RESIDENTS ARE NOT ALLOWED TO MAKE THEIR OWN REPAIRS OR MODIFICATIONS TO ANYTHING ON THEIR PROPERTY, IF YOU NEED ANYTHING PLEASE CONTACT $LAZYLANDLORD (For those curious, for the entire year and a half I lived there, no, they never replaced the lights. I did, however, stick a directional light on the one outdoor light I was allowed to replace, and aimed it right at the offending step.) This becomes relevant later. I just sighed angrily, and went about the rest of my day. Now, remember when I said things were breaking on my trailer from old age? A few months later, I come home from work to hear running water near my trailer. I round the corner, and notice that the big water hose feeding my trailer water had basically disintegrated from being old and worn, and was spewing water everywhere. I also remembered that 1. The landlord pays the water bill, and 2. They were lazy and never did anything, and 3. When I did try to correct for their laziness they went HAM on me for daring to make my life somewhat better. So I turned around, went back to my car, called my mom, and asked if I could stay the night at her house, to which she agreed. Sure, I knew exactly where the shutoff valve was for the water line going to my trailer. Could I have engaged it? Sure. But seeing as the last time I did something good I was screamed at for making "my own repairs", nope. Landlord was going to pay for ALL that water. And her laziness too. (Seriously, that hose should have been swapped LONG ago, and wasn't.) The landlord did try to hassle me over it (the irony is she lived directly adjacent to my trailer, so her not noticing the GUSHING WATER is next-level laziness), but I pointed out that she specifically told me I'd get a paddlin' if I tried to do anything on my own again, and figured I'd leave water issues to the "professionals". And maintenance of the water system was never spelled out in my responsibilities to the property. She eventually got relieved of her job a couple months after that whole thing went down. Her replacement was much better about things. Image credits: Kolbentine #7 Sure, I’ll Reimburse You For What The Carpet Is Worth! This is a story that I was told conversationally at a camp. Guy telling me the story: N His brother: B Landlord: L So this guy (N) had a brother (B) who was renting a home. He was one of those long-term renters who stayed at the same location for 10+ years. B was moving out, and the landlord (L) was trying his best to get every penny out of B that he could. L looked around the house and tried to charge him for every little thing: stains on the wall, the cupboard that was broken before he moved in, etc. The biggest, most expensive offense was the carpet. The carpet was not pretty. Stains everywhere, a big hole where a cigarette was dropped, threads showing, etc. The carpet was clearly old when he moved in, but B wasn’t very prepared and didn’t think to take pictures before he moved in. N devised a plan to help his brother out. He knew the law pretty well, and went with B to sign the final paperwork. I don’t know why the landlord thought he could charge the renter beyond his deposit. Maybe they had an agreement that he left out of the story, or the laws were different when this happened? Regardless, he was going to have to pay for all of the brand-new carpet because of the one hole he caused. So the landlord smugly pulled out the paperwork to have B sign. N took one look at it, smirked, and told B to sign it. They got done with all of it, shook hands, and the landlord started bragging about how much he was going to make off of B. Then N dropped the bomb. The paper said that he had to reimburse the carpet “for what it was worth.” According to the law that he had a copy of in his pocket, carpets are worthless after 10 years of use, which his brother alone fit as a qualification. The landlord was flabbergasted. Apparently he ended up just using some leftover carpet that he had in storage to replace the square where the cigarette burn was located, instead of replacing the whole carpet. TL;DR - Landlord wanted tenant to replace the carpet for what it was worth. He did just that, because the carpet was worthless. Image credits: nudist_reddit_mom #8 You Illegally Remove A Bike Rack In Front Of My Home/Business, Just Wait I live in the same building that I work in. I manage a sandwich shop in a heavily urban area. The landlord of the building is an angry old man, who we all love, but can be crotchety at times. He took upon himself to remove the bike rack in front of my building, illegally. His thinking was it would cut down on people leaning on it to smoke cigarettes. So I emailed the department of transportation, stating that if they continue to be removed, we'll potentially miss out on business from cyclist, on the theory that if they have no place to securely lock up their bikes. My landlord is on vacation, when he comes back on Wednesday, there will be a brand new 20 foot bike rack installed directly in front of the building, courtesy of the city. Image credits: fatheraabed #9 I Should've Read The Lease? Well You Should've Read The Law! It was coming up on renewal time, and my landlord had just sent renewal paperwork with a big rent increase. Knowing I could find a cheaper place nearby, I sent in my written notice to vacate, which was required 60 days before my move out date. The landlord rejected my notice, and told me that if I read the lease I would know that notice to vacate was required 60 days before the first day of the month that I wanted to move out, not 60 days before the move out day itself. As a result, they were going to force me to submit a new notice the following month and pay an extra months rent (at the new higher rate). I was offended by their attitude, but accepted that they had won - at least until I checked the lease against local rental law. While they were right about the required date of my notice to vacate, they had failed to send me notice of rent increase on time, because I was supposed to have a minimum of 2 weeks AFTER receiving their notice of rent increase to put in my notice to leave at the end of my original lease term! I wrote back to them with a screenshot of the relevant city law and said "while you are correct about the due date of my notice to vacate, you also failed to send me timely notice of rent increase. You can't require me to send you notice to vacate at the end of my lease term before knowing how much you will be raising rent! So how do you plan to remedy your breach of the lease?" After what must have been a tense call with their lawyer, my landlord agreed to accept my original notice and let me move out on the day I planned. Since I had already paid my last months rent, they never got another cent from me! Image credits: FatCats2fat #10 You Like Building Codes? I Love Building Codes! My lease is ending soon and my landlord has been showing my apartment to anyone with a pulse, non-stop, for months. During a couple of these showings, my bedroom door was locked. The landlord got mad about this and told me he was coming to remove my bedroom door handle and replace it with a handle with no lock. He said city fire codes do not allow locks on interior doors and he wanted everything up to code for the new tenants. I responded that getting everything up to code was a great idea! I offered to schedule an inspection from the city so they could get all their maintenance done at once and really be sure things were ready for the new tenants. Best to do the whole building, I think I saw signs of rodents in the basement... Suddenly building codes weren't so important. My bedroom door is now locked during all showings. edit: Guys look, we're famous! https://ift.tt/hHAYBjU A huge thank you to Newsweek for giving me something perfect to tape to the apartment door before showings! Thanks to everyone here for all your ideas and words of support! Image credits: conandy #11 Reason Required To Move Out This happened a long time ago. I was young and had just come back from traveling in Europe. I wound up renting an apartment that I was not happy with, but it was in my home town, and was affordable. I was hoping to move out, and was able to do so once a better opportunity came along. The apartment was generally depressing, so I was looking forward to moving out. I talked to the landlord and building manager about moving out, and to see if I could move out mid-month to save on some rent. They said that was not possible, and I would have to wait until the end of the month to move out. Fine not a big problem. The building manager says I need to fill out some forms before I can move out, so I go to his office and do so. He was not a very friendly guy, but honestly I had not had any interactions with him prior to this, and had no hard feelings about him. One of the questions on the form was "Why are you moving out". I left it blank. What business is it of anyone's why I am moving out. The building manager handed me back the form and said "You have to fill this in". I told him that I didn't feel like giving a reason that I am moving out, and didn't understand why it was mandatory. He insisted that I "HAD" to fill it in or he would not process my move out paperwork to end the month to month lease. I said OK fine, and filled in "I do not like the building manager". He was shocked when he read it. I told him I didn't want to put anything down, but rules are rules. Image credits: FuriousLafond #12 “Guests Cannot Spend The Night At My Property.” Back when I was in college, I lived in a 2-bedroom apartment with a nice German student. He was a nice guy, and he would often have his friends over. I didn’t mind it at all because I just moved to the are and needed new friends anyways. Our landlady though, she was a nightmare. She was this small grumpy lady who would complain over the smallest things. She doesn’t live with us, but tries to control everything - the color of our sheets, the scent of candles that we light, where we put our stuffs, etc. Needless to say, we hated her. We pay for our electricity and water, so it doesn’t matter if we have our friends / family stay over once in a while because whatever they consumer more of we will foot the bill ourselves anyways. My sister visits me once a month for one night, just whenever she’s in town. One day, my landlord found out and got so mad she wanted to call the cops on us for not respecting the rule of “guests cannot spend the night” at her property. The only reason she does this is because she feels if a guest would stay a night they would have to pay her the full rent for the month. THE MONTH. But que malicious compliance... When one of my German roommate’s friends was laid off from his main job, he was left homeless with only a grave shift part-time job. He asked if he could stay with us for about a week or two. I told him I didn’t mind but my landlady might mind. They told me not to worry. And she was fuming when she found out (easily, the day after he decided to stay with us because she checks on us unannounced every other day, and has security cameras outside our door). She threatened to call the cops on us again, and all my roommate said was: “But you told us explicitly no one can spend the NIGHT at your property. He is never here at night because he’s working, so there’s no rule broken here.” She had nothing to say and left. We could hear her screaming from inside her car that was parked right outside. Edit: I had to pull my copy of the contract out, and we didn’t have a specific clause on overnight guests, nor do we have a clause on visits. It did say at the end though that whatever isn’t explicitly stated, when questioned, will pivot on California state laws. So this was totally illegal. My roommate and I were just young, stupid international students who let her get away with it. But it definitely makes for a fun story though. Image credits: justgnnathrow #13 Landlord Wants A Professional To Install My Smoke Detectors? Ok Whenever I move into a rental, I replace the smoke detector with a brand spanking new one, and usually add a second battery operated one as well. I leave them in the units after I leave, but for my piece of mind, and because I have grown up with fire safety drilled into my brain, I want to be sure they will work properly, and that they will not fail. One landlord I had told me a certified fire protection company had to install the battery operated smoke detector I bought (wtf, it is 2 screws) AND that an electrician had to replace the other hardwired one. (I tried getting the maintenance guy to do it, but he wouldn't.) Finally my dad (who owned a fire protection company at the time) came and installed it, not before asking if that was the detector installed in all units. When they said yes, he brought down the wrath of the fire inspector. (The smoke detectors were over 40 years old and beyond life expectancy). After that, they never asked me to get a professional to do anything. (I wonder why...) ETA: for clarification, an electrician is not required for an install since no new lines were being run, so no permits needed to be pulled. Also, a professional did not need to install it, since it was being installed in a residence. They are only required if it is in a commercial area. I tried to explain, and show them the codes, but they would not listen. So my dad the professional installed it for me free of charge, and then reported them. What happened was they got fined, and had to replace every smoke detector. Funny how when head office got the report and stuff, they bought all new detectors and had the maintenance guy install them since no permits are needed. Image credits: tdlm40 #14 Tenant Asking Landlord (Me) To "Be More Professional" I am a small-time Landlord, with just 4 tenants. Earlier this year, I had two sisters that didn't respond to my requests to add of the gal's husband to the lease, though he was living with them. Not a BIG deal... but did I mention the pit bull they also brought home, without permission? I DO allow pets, and had previously approved their other dog. I asked nicely in person and by email in the months leading up to the malicious compliance... They also did not respond when I asked if they were happy there, and wanted to renew their lease for the following year. I asked again... Then I emailed them notice that I would start showing the unit 2 days later. I try to be a nice Landlord... I do. They had a newborn, as well, so I scheduled all of the showings within a 2 hour window on the same night so I could be in their space as little as possible. Also, because they had not responded, and it was now serious "crunch time" for getting another tenant and my spouse worked all the following two weeks during evening showing hours, I had the delightful inconvenience of bringing my 2 and 6 year old children with me to the showings. Because I'm not a corporation - I'm a small-time family Landlord with kids. Try to imagine how difficult it is to conduct business meetings with 2 kids, right? Then imagine staggering showings every fifteen minutes, with prospective tenants who are also bringing their own kids. Just to further clutter your imagination, this is an 800 square foot 2 bedroom apartment with a cozy entryway. So I arrive with my two kids, to find that my tenants are still at home, along with the husband, the newborn and the other sister's boyfriend. So that's 7 people in a small kitchen already. Then the first prospective tenants start arriving. Husbands, wives, with kids, and some showing up early so there's two sets of them. That's 14 people in a small kitchen... And I'm a mom. I have magical powers. So I'm holding my toddler, my daughter is safely under the dining table coloring, and I'm chatting with the prospective tenants and directing traffic while my actual tenants prepare to depart. If you didn't know this already, it's common practice in the US to leave the premises during real estate or apartment showings. This was their first apartment, so I actually emailed them ahead of time to let them know what is generally expected at showings (e.g. a relatively tidy apartment, and that they can leave, for their own convenience). They do eventually leave, after the boyfriend tells a prospective tenant that he, in fact, ALSO lives there. And I carry on with an exhausting scheduling of showings. And have my new tenants all picked out and lease signed by the next day. Awesome, right? The next night, I get a voicemail from the husband (who is NOT my tenant). I saved it, and just listed to it again, because it still gives me that same delightful shiver of malicious compliance.. In his voicemail, he told me how awful it was that MY children touched HIS infant's things (they didn't, because I keep my kids entertained with magical mommy toys, but prospective tenants also brought children), and how they had to sterilize everything to keep their infant from being sick, and how inconvenient it was to have showings with only 2 days notice, and how very unprofessional I was to bring my children, and asked if I could just be more professional in the future. You can hear it, can't you? The deep shiver of malicious compliance vibrating through my offended being. The next morning, I started issuing professional Lease Violation Notices. One for the extra residents of the unit (hubby and boyfriend). One for the extra dog. And a few additional ones for building concerns I noted during the showings. They ignored the violation notice, which I sent by certified mail and, thoughtfully, also by email. I decided to be even more professional 30 days later, and issue a 5-day notice to vacate. And I called their mom, who is their emergency Image credits: nygibs #15 Dealt With A Lying Landlord By Threatening To Run Up Their Bills I had a landlord in the past who slipped a 90 day notice requirement into the rental contract after I had signed it. I was house hunting, so at the end of my lease I asked to go to a month to month lease to make it easier to leave when the time came. Landlord and I agreed on a higher monthly price to compensate them for the lack of security, and I signed the contract at the office of a business they also owned downstairs. Landlord wasn't actually present, but one of their employees handled it. So, contract is signed and they go to make me a copy for my records, but are "having an issue with the copier". After a few minutes they ask if they can text me when they get it to work. I naively agree, and head upstairs. 30 minutes or so later, they text me saying they got the copier to work, and I come pick up my "copy". I didn't think to double check everything at the time. So, for the next few months I just pay my monthly rent while I look for a home. Finally found the right place, and the closing date was about 4 weeks out, so I immediately notified my landlord that I would be leaving on said date. Landlord responds that it's nice I found a home, but I would be responsible for the next 2 months rent after that as well due to the 90 day notification requirement in the contract. I'm totally confused, so I go check my copy of the contract, and sure enough, there is a stipulation in there about that. I also notice that my initials from the top and bottom of each page, verifying that I have read that page, have somehow mysteriously shifted to being doubled up at the top of the page after this stipulation, with none on the bottom of that actual page. This was because they had inserted 2 lines of text detailing the 90 day reporting requirement, after I had already signed the paperwork. They didn't notice the formatting error it created, which was a dead giveaway of what was going on. I inform the landlord of this, and notify him that this is not a legally binding contract due to this issue, and state that I will not be paying any further rent beyond this month, and expect my deposit back without penalty. Unfortunately he persists with stating that this is a legally binding contract, and he will pursue it in court in addition to withholding my deposit if I fail to pay, blah blah blah... I know I am legally in the right, but I don't want to have to deal with courts to settle it as that takes forever, so I come up with an alternative plan. The one thing he hadn't thought about was the fact that the contract included all utilities, as the unit didn't have separate meters, and did not have any language forbidding excessive use of them. It just so happened to be a particularly cold winter, so I informed my landlord that if he wanted to persist with his demands, I would be inclined to leave all of the windows open, crank the heat as high as it would go, open the refrigerator door, run the water 24/7, etc, and if he entered the apartment without my permission to turn any of these items off, I would report him to the police. I got confirmation that he would not pursue the extra month's rent or security deposit within 20 minutes. :) Edit: Just so everyone knows how the story ended, this happened around December of 2016 if I remember correctly, and I did get my security deposit back, etc. Didn't pursue legal option because I didn't think it would end up being worth the time and trouble, though I understand the sentiment. Image credits: feeshta #16 During My Junior Year In College I Lived In An Apartment Complex Where The Landlords Didn't Give Any Prior Notice Before Showings As the title states, during my junior year in college I lived in an apartment complex where the landlords didn't give any prior notice before showings. What they would do is give you a card with all the days and times there could be showings with most of them circled. They always argued this was enough of a notice. I realize it's illegal, but knew that I'd probably have to go to court to deal with it that way. Another tenant had tried to discuss this with the landlords who told him he was "just a college student and they were a complany. They'd just say they gave notices and they would win." They also made a snide comment about my partner and I sleeping when they came unannounced one morning. I started leaving any sex toys or supplies I had out in plain view all over the apartment whenever I left. Vibrators, condoms, a pair of handcuffs... just as uncomfortable as I could make it look. Kept it up for about two weeks. Then, one day, I got a phone call from the landlord. She was informing me of a showing the next day between 2:30 and 3. From then on, I got regular notices for showings. Image credits: neptunewasp #17 Hoa Won’t Let Us Fly Our Modest Pride Flag, So We Just Follow The Rules Due to some neighbors flying BLM flags, Thin blue line flags, and other opinion flags, our HOA decided last month that we’re only allowed to fly the USA flag, and nothing else. They day after the decision, we receive an email that someone reported our Pride flag (that we had in our house since 2016), and that we needed to take it down. We complied and removed the flag. Looking through our new rules, we noticed that removable lights are permitted without restriction so... we bought 6 colored flood lights, and we washed our house in pride colors. A little less subtle than our simple flag. A lot more fun for anyone complaining about the flag itself and what it represents. *edit to point out that the flag was displayed on the front porch, not inside the house. It was a typo when I wrote “we had in our house...”) *SECOND EDIT: JUST CLARIFYING THAT I DON’T HATE MY HOA, I DON’T THINK THEY CHANGE THE FLAG RULE TO ATTACK ME PERSONALLY, AND THAT I DECIDED TO DO THIS TO SHOW MY INDIVIDUALITY WHILE STILL FOLLOWING THE RULES. Image credits: memon17 #18 Read My Lease, You Say? Apologies if there are any formatting issues since I'm writing this on mobile. Anyway, this grudge has been simmering for almost a year now and has only just come to fruition. It began with my nextdoor neighbor leaving me a passive aggressive note for having trash outside my door while I was cleaning my apartment. Two important points here: I was deep cleaning because the landlord sent a note saying the adjoining apartment (my neighbor's) had roaches. I needed to clean so the exterminator could see if my apartment was infested as well. The trash was by my door for 30 minutes at most. I was trying to save a trip to the dumpster and doing a final sweep of the apartment before heading down. Now, prior to this incident, this neighbor had already pissed me off by constantly blaring their loud music to the point where my apartment walls vibrated. Fortunately for them, I prefer to avoid confrontation so I never called them out on it. After the passive aggressive note calling me a pig though, all bets were off. She wrote that I should "read my lease" since I left my "nasty trash" everywhere. Ok bitch, it's on. I read my lease like I was snorting coke off it. Every time they played their music loud, I filed a noise complaint. When I got a whiff of pot coming from their apartment, I filed another complaint. The lease says tenants must comply with the state's drug laws or risk eviction so, hey, another win for me. Finally, they brought a dog into the apartment despite the no pet policy's exception only being for service animals. This was obviously not a service dog since it howled day and night betraying no semblance of training. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who complained after that final stunt since my landlord said the noisy dog problem was being taken care of through litigation and my next door neighbor's lease would not be renewed. Guess she should have read it. :) Image credits: hrghprgh #19 Nothing Beats Scummy Landlords During Covid Shutdown I hated my old apartment, needed to desperately get out and right when I was looking for rentals last year, coronavirus hit and everyone shut down. With less than a week on my lease, I had to jump at the first available home. Didn't even get to inspect it.I ended up with equally horrible property managers. I didn't have a key on day one, had to break in to move in, they didn't tell me about the German roach infestation (it's okay, I used to do pest control so I managed) and so forth.Right when I lost power during Christmas (also okay, I live in the south, I didn't get too cold) I tracked down the original property owner and asked her if I could get out of the contract and just pay her directly. We investigated many options and the best way to get out of the contract was to just pay for the last remaining months and write a 30 day notice. They call me and tell me that I have to write them a notice, signed and sent and received on the exact date 30 days from the leases end to be accepted or I will lose my $1,000 security deposit. They really stressed it had to be mailed and definitely on time or they won't be able to accept it. Cue my pettiness. I wrote a template letter, with a generic "this is a [number of days till lease end]- day notice .... I'm writing to terminate my contract and to receive my security deposit as stated...".I sent one out on my 103 day notice. Then another one on 89 day notice. Then another one on 73 day notice and so forth, basically whenever I remembered about it, I would change the date around, print it, sign it and then mail it. They call me saying this is very unnecessary and that they got my message loud and clear. But they sounded pretty rude about it so I sent some more. I then received some passive aggressive emails that they will honor the contract and leave me the $1,000 deposit as I have sent them a 30 day notice. But they can be tricky and as I haven't technically sent them an exact "30 days" notice, I have some more letters to send. Plus again, they sounded pretty rude over e-mail. Cue the final 15 day countdown till my 30 day notice letter. I upped the ante. I now have one letter per day to send and I have changed the fonts on each letter ranging from Papyrus to Jokerman to Comic Sans. My favorite one is the one where it's all bright yellow and barely legible. It jsut hurts looking at. Oh and better yet, I got the last batch sent as certified mail so I get an email that they received it AND that they had to sign it. On my 34th day notice letter (now probably the 20th letter I've mailed), I received my cashiers check back. No message or anything.Fortunately I have four more letters to send. The best $43 on stamps I've ever paid. TL:DR I spam the lease office with 30 day notices till they gave up on holding to my security deposit Image credits: ccomplishedWardrobe #20 Make Him Repaint For No Reason? You’ll Love The Result My friend had a long-term lease on a home (5 years) which stipulated that he has to repaint every room the day he moved out. So he found popular neutral paint colors, hired a handyman, and had the place freshly painted the day before his moving truck showed up. Well, his landlord showed up waving their contract, yelling. The wording said the DAY he moved out, not the day BEFORE. The landlord was convinced that the movers would scuff up the walls. He wanted the house left pristine. He really was ready to take the case to court. My friend was crushed. Between painting, moving, and the deposit on his new place, he had no money to repaint or to go to court. I was furious with this landlord. I went to the house and saw the paint job was fine, not scuffed. My friend and I met that night at the old house. Per his contract, we repainted every wall. SOLID BLACK. We even did some ceilings. (Would’ve done them all if we had time.) I don’t know if it’s just me; I have a fascination with hidden images. I took clear glow in the dark paint and illustrated demons in the closet walls and in shadowy corners. (They were all pretty shadowy by the time we left.) We left a copy of the contract for the landlord. Walls freshly painted the day he left. He never specified the color. We also had before and after photos printed out. EDIT: This was over ten years ago, and there was no fallout. The same letter-of-the-law mentality that would’ve allowed the landlord to take the renter to court also allowed us to get away with this. The glow in the dark paint was fun, but didn’t work very well- so the pictures are just a really ugly black apartment. TL;DR: landlord made my friend repaint a day after he painted because of some specifics in the contract. We painted the house black with hidden glowing demons. Image credits: RandomRavenclaw87 #21 Dumb Landlord Refuses To Fix A Leak... It Destroys Other Suites Regular I wouldn't say our landlord is malicious, just dumb and lazy. I live in a condo tower where each unit is privately owned, and I rent from the owner of one suite. Recently, my bathtub faucet developed a small leak. I emailed my landlord about it, and he ignored it. A couple of days later, it had gotten bigger, so I emailed again. No reply. 3rd time, now it's a constantly running stream of hot water. I texted, and he said he isn't going to fix it. Awwrighty, buster, have it your way. So, I let it fester, and it keeps getting worse and worse. Two weeks in, I get an urgent call from the condo board that they need emergency access to my suite because a leak from my suite is coming into the floor below and damaging several areas. Of course, I say "yes 😈," and they dispatch a plumber for the leak and numerous contractors to repair the rooms below that have been damaged. Eventually, my landlord gets the bill ($8,000) from the condo board for the repairs and finally emails me in a tantrum asking what this bill is for... So I reply forwarding him the original emails and text saying he was not going to fix it. I never heard back. (Half malicious compliance, half regular revenge?) Image credits: CatheterZetaJones #22 Landlord Demands Building Be Restored, So Air-Con And Fine Reception Is Ripped Out A long time I was working at a well respected and expensive consulting business who were renting an office. They'd spent good money installing air-con and making the reception area pretty decent and other work like interior walls, shelving, high quality decor etc. When the tenant company wanted to move out, the contract said they had to restore the building back as it was, but they asked the landlord to allow them to walk away and not return the building back to the more basic shell it had been, which would have meant leaving the aircon in and not having to remove the fancy reception area, (re)move walls, partitions, shelving, etc. This would have been a win-win for both parties. For some reason the landlord said no, and despite attempts to persuade them, they were adamant. The tenant said OK, and ripped everything out including 10's of 1000's of aircon, leaving the landlord with an empty shell again which proved harder to rent out and attracted lower rent. The building was empty for quite a while. About four years later I worked there when another company had leased it. The building was horribly hot in summer because of the lack of air con, and the reception looked cheap and nasty, nowhere near as nice as it had been. The offices were carpeted but obviously the cheapest stuff was fitted. I told my new employer that the building had been much nicer and with aircon and they were stunned that the stupid land lord had wasted the opportunity! Image credits: speculatrix #23 Not So Handy Landlord Won't Properly Fix Washing Machine And Dryer About 20 years ago and I was dating the man I would later marry. He had an apartment that was a quad but wasn't surrounded by the best neighbors. It was sold, but he was kept on as a tenant by the new landlord. He wasn't a bad landlord per se, but he fancied himself a handyman. And he was cheap. So the washer and dryer (included in the rental) both break, and the landlord comes in to fix my boyfriend's set up. It works, but only temporarily, and they keep breaking, over and over again. It goes on for months. Boyfriend (who is a model tenant) finally complains lightly, saying that he's been going over to his mom's to do laundry, but sometimes he has to do it late, so he's been having to spend money at the laundromat. The landlord says that my boyfriend can bill him for the laundry, and the landlord will reimburse if things break down again and to make sure it's all documented by time, date, and amount. Then the landlord says he's going to take a look at it right now, confident, somehow, in the skills that he hasn't shown. They broke again. I'm far less tolerant about these things, but my SO doesn't like to be any trouble to anyone. Still, he's really tired of not being able to do his laundry at home, but thought it was really good of the landlord to offer to pay for his quarters at the laundromat. Bless his heart and cue Malicious Compliance. This problem has gone on for 6 months, and I'm going to be solving it. I tell my boyfriend that he'll then have to keep track of the quarters he spends, by date time and amount, and since there's no receipt, they might have to fight it out over the amount. And I just know he hates conflict. Plus, there's the time and gas he spends, which, while he could bill for it, any lawyer would argue that he would have spent time awaiting his laundry anyway at home. I tell him to send his laundry out for service because a service provides receipts. "But won't that be expensive?" he asks. I grin inwardly and say: "It might be, but it's the only way to provide adequate documentation he's asking for. You can't prove what you spent at a laundromat. But you can with a laundry service. You'll include a copy of the bills with your rent, and a note saying that you've subtracted the amount that it cost to do your laundry this month, as a washer and dryer has been included in the rental agreement and hasn't been working consistently properly for six months. Since there isn't documentation for the last six months, of course, we won't be retroactively billing him. Don't worry sweetheart, I'll write the note, and I will be SURE to thank him for providing this in lieu of getting it fixed. It really is nice of him." "Ok," he says, "that sounds good, but how do you even arrange for that? I know dry cleaning, but this is just laundry." "I'll take care of the details, no problem," I reply. They charged by the pound and load, so I made sure to also include all the stuff he had put off washing since it wasn't a top priority. He'd only been doing the essentials for fear one or the other would break mid-cycle, and because he felt he was taking advantage of his mother. And boy howdy, it really WAS expensive having a laundry service do all his laundry. I arranged for regular pick up and drop off that was convenient for my SO. They even folded his underwear. The rent check he handed over was substantially lighter by more than $200. But all receipt copies did have the time, date and amount. Faced with the prospect of such a "bill" each month, the landlord scheduled an actual repairman to fix the machines one day after rent was handed over. Image credits: spare_princess #24 My Own Special Passive Aggressive Revenge On Our Landlord My own special passive aggressive revenge on our landlord after everything he put us through… was depositing our rotten Halloween pumpkins in the mulch of the beautiful tree he cut down… I’m gonna let him deal with the giant pumpkin patch in the front yard Image credits: _FizzeePop_ #25 Landlord Kept Showing Out Apartment On Super Short Notice, Turns Out It's Illegal Real estate agents kept getting permission from out landlord to show our apartment. We're not moving out, but they're renovating the building one apartment at a time, and they want to show a done apartment like ours I get it. The problem was that we would get a message to gist of "I'm a stranger with your landlords permission to bring a stranger to your house in 3 hours." As any normal human, I'd imagine, would agree there are many reasons that might not be ideal or at least desired. So we asked them to give us more notice. Their response was "we only have to give you one hour, so we're coming, but as a courtesy we will notify you 24 hours in advance in the future." Weirdly this did not make me or my girlfriend any happier about the situation, so she called a friend who is a real estate lawyer! Turns out you can't show my apartment with an hour's notice, or otherwise, unlesse trying to rent my apartment. So we replied that they may not come, but they can call our lawyer if they want, and they didn't even reply. Right now they're downstairs looking at the unfinished apartment like good little elves. Image credits: godweasle #26 You Want To Kick Me Out Of Our House When You Can't Pay Rent? ...ok! I lived with an entitled roommate and her brother for a year. Well, almost a year, before I was kicked out. Let me set this up a bit. She's disabled with a chronic auto-immune disease. She's on disability and doesn't work. Her brother hasn't worked a job ever as far as I'm aware, so he's on welfare. He was a nomad for 9 years and came to live with his sister when she was diagnosed, a year before I met them and moved in. (I know, I'm honestly kind of an idiot for not seeing the signs.) For what it's worth, I work full time. We got along quite well, in general. It didn't really bother me that they would take my food - coffee, pasta, butter, milk, eggs, cheese, you name it - or that I was often asked to take care of the dishes even though 80% of them were hers and her brother's, not mine. I felt for her, and was fine with helping them out. The problem was, I was happy. I was working hard, making money, writing music, and starting a new romantic relationship with an old friend. She wasn't happy. I would give her gifts and food and friendship, but it wasn't enough to counter her jealousy - and, I guess, something just snapped. I came home on March 20th and before the door had even closed behind me, she said, "plscanunot, you need to move out." "Why?" "You just... do. This is my house (she paid the same rent I did and was often late), my brother works hard (at being her caretaker I guess?) and he deserves his own room (there were only two rooms - mine and hers, he lived in our living room) so you need to figure something out." Here comes the MC. I knew she expected me to stay for April. She and her brother would really have to squeeze their funds to make it work to pay the upcoming full rent (her brother didn't pay while I lived there). But was I about to stay in the home for 5.5 grueling weeks with someone who had randomly turned on me? Kicked me out of my home? And in retrospect, guilted me into giving them household help and free food? I don't think so. I applied for 30 houses that day alone. By the weekend, I had signed a new lease. If you ask me to get out, no problem - I'll be out ASAP. I got my security deposit back from my landlord, who passed that info on to my roommate. She stormed into the kitchen: Her: "So you just got your security deposit - do you have somewhere else to live?" Me: "Yeah. I signed a lease yesterday and have arrangements to move all my stuff two days from now." Her: "So... You're... Not paying for April??" Me: "No." That was the last time we ever talked. She stormed out of the room, said a few choice words about me to her brother, and slammed the front door. I almost feel like she expected me to hand her $800 gift-wrapped, and still get out of "her" space. I didn't stay in my room ever again, moved out quickly and quietly, and haven't heard from her since. Don't tell me to move if you're not ready to pay the full rent. Bye felicia. TL;DR: jobless roommate tells me to leave our shared living space at the end of March without expecting that I'd be able to find a new place within a week for April - wasn't ready to pay the full rent, had another thing coming. Image credits: plscanunot #27 Landlord Insists On Charging Me A $100 Late Fee? Okay, I’ll Hold My Rent Payment As Long As Possible Then It looks like my bank returned my rent payment to me that I submitted to my landlord last Friday. I called the leasing office about this and it turns out this hasn’t appeared in their system yet; it shows I have a zero balance. So, I offered to bring in a money order immediately after our call so they could still receive their payment in anticipation of the ACH Return. Therefore they still receive the funds today either case. However, they told me to include an extra $100, since the system will classify the payment as late. Nope. Nevermind. If you’re deciding to charge me a $100 late fee, I’m taking full advantage of it being “late” and will no longer be coming in to pay today. I told them that. They can expect their payment on the “pay by” date of the eviction notice they file this month. EDIT: State law requires a seven day notice before an eviction is filed. Earlier, I meant waiting until the last day of this notice. Not the eviction. My intention is to pay before the eviction notice for the sake of my rental history. UPDATE: My bank gave me a courtesy credit of $130 for their system error, and then my landlord ended up waiving the $100 late fee! Free $100! Rent is now paid. Image credits: taylrbrwr #28 Housemate Terminated The Lease Without Asking, So I Moved Out Immediately With The Fridge This happened some years ago, I was reminded of it by reading stories on here. I'd just moved to Sydney, and had been living in a sharehouse for a few months, that I found though a flat-share website. We got on ok, would go out to parties together etc. Most of the stuff in the house was theirs, I only brought my fridge, and they had just thrown theirs out, considering it replaced. I'm about to get the week's groceries and ask my housemate if she wants anything, no she's good. I get lots of food to cook for the week and come home, to find her standing awkwardly with her boyfriend. She had "weird news." They had decided to move out together! How exciting! Ok, so I guess that means I take over the lease? Nope, they considered themselves the last in a long line of friends who'd leased the house, and being the last to go, thought it fitting to terminate the lease. They had notified the landlord prior to speaking to any of us. They figured I could stay with my sister, jack was only in the country another month, and Sarah was hardly here anyway. Ok so I didn't have a leg to stand on, legally, I wasn't signed on the lease, so I had 3 weeks to vacate. Househunting is like a part time job, and I already had a full time job. No time to cook all that food I guess. Would have been good to know before the shop. I got lucky and found a house just down the road on the same day. Nice people, good spot, and close enough that I could move my things in by hand, immediately if I like! I slept in my new house that night, but I always like to think you haven't really moved in until your fridge is in, and don't worry I had that sorted too. The others in the house found new places quickly too, leaving the happy couple home alone. I came back to pick up a couple of loose ends 3 weeks later and got to see their fridge workaround in all its slumly glory. An Esky full of food floating in melted ice. The revenge was petty and small, proportionate to their actions. Image credits: get_in_the_tent #29 Oh, You Mean Right Now? Ok! Let me (25M) introduce you to the key players in this story. First, we have my dog. She is a service animal, and as a result, is very well-trained. Up next, my annoying and petty neighbors. I live in a small duplex, with an even smaller front yard that isn’t fenced in. The only thing separating the duplex and the neighbor’s house is a very narrow driveway. It’s important to note that when I refer to “the neighbors,” I am NOT referring to the residents of the connecting unit of the duplex, but the owners of the house a driveway over. My neighbors have a history of annoying behavior. For starters, they are extremely socially awkward. They watch over us like hawks, have never been able to hold a conversation with us despite us being friendly and trying, and are some of the most passive aggressive people on Earth. Maybe it’s because we’re college-aged and they have something against the yutes, but whatever the reason, they have it out for us. The neighbors have called our landlords to tell them that we are partying at all hours of the night. The family (with infants) in the connecting unit… the unit that shares a wall with us… have never once complained. When the landlord asked them about these complaints, they always denied it. For reference, aside from me, none of the other residents of the house even drink. I drink on occasion (once every few months), but never at the house, out of respect for the sober people. The neighbors called the city over the course of several months and got one side of the street turned in to a “no parking zone,” because we have 4 cars in total (one for each person that lives in our unit) and have to park on the street. This obstructed their view. As a result, we started parking in front of their house on the legal side of the street. One day, while we were gone, they moved their truck from their drive way (that has ample parking) to the street to block us from parking there. Their truck didn’t move for ~6 months. Any time my dog goes #2 in the yard and it sits for more than a few hours, they call the landlord to report it. Because of my disability, I can’t always get to it immediately. My landlord understands this, and understands how the neighbors are, so she had stopped saying anything aside from laughing with me about how ridiculous/annoying these people are. This is just a short list of my grievances with our neighbors. I could go on, but by now you get the point. Well, yesterday morning, I let my dog out as per usual. I was in my underwear, which are thin and tight-fitting, as I had just rolled out of bed. Let’s just say that they don’t hide much of anything. I’m standing in the doorway where my neighbor’s house is blocked from my view. As my dog is sniffing around in our yard, I look down at my phone. A few seconds later, I hear our neighbor (the wife) shout “No! No! Don’t do that here! Get out of our yard! Stop that!” in a very panicked voice. Turns out, they were all sitting outside. By the time the neighbor had shouted, it was too late to call my dog back over, she was in the process of gifting them a big present. I shout “Hey, I’m sorry about that. I’ll come get it, give me a minute,” and call my dog back inside. Dead silence. About 15 seconds go by. I was on my way to my room to throw some pants and a shirt, when I hear a muffled shout from the husband, “COME PICK THIS UP RIGHT NOW!” I chuckled to myself, and shouted “OK!” with a huge grin on my face. I knew what I had to do. I dropped the pants that I had grabbed, I turn right around, picked up a doggie bag by the door, and made my way out of the door and in to view of the husband (who is standing cross armed near the pile of poop with a rude expression and posture), the wife, and the daughter. Watching the look of anger turn in to shock was so satisfying. He was truly speechless, as was the rest of the family. I’m just happy to have a story I can finally share on here. I also think the family is LDS (Mormon) so that is proba Image credits: No_Push_5003 #30 Electric Bill Still In Our Name After We Move Out? I'll Make Sure We're Not Charged A Cent We moved out of an apartment 2 months early (school housing contracts, blegh). Since we couldn't get anyone to move in for only two months, we were on the hook for the 2 months of rent which was a fortune to poor college students. We were told by the on-site manager (also a poor college student being paid in free rent) that we'd be responsible for the electricity bills in the apartment over the next two months despite already doing our official move-out. No, they can't be changed back to the landlord's name. Fine. I'll pay the electric bills, but I'll make sure they're zero. So when we left I turned off all the breakers. I still had the keys because we were supposed to mail them back to the property owner (at our expense) since I guess he lives far away and only comes in to town at the beginning and end of each semester. A few days later we realized we had forgotten some items in the bathroom, and since the apartment was on my way to school I decided to swing by and grab them before mailing the keys back. When I walked in, I was startled to find someone inside. It was the property owner with a box of tools looking very dirty. Apparently the hallway lights weren't working (and in violation of building safety codes) and he couldn't figure out why. The security system also seemed to be non-functional. It looked like something had tripped all the breakers, he said. I said yeah, that something was me since the electric bill was still in our name. He pointed out that not powering the hallway light was a safety concern, and also that having the power off would ruin the refrigerator. I pointed out that I couldn't care less about the safety of an apartment I didn't live in, I already had a signed move-out document saying all the appliances were in good shape, and also that him being there was technically a landlord violation since we were still paying rent and he hadn't given us notice that he'd be entering the apartment. We looked at each other for a few seconds. I was wondering if I was technically trespassing or not since I had already signed move-out documents. He was probably thinking about how much time he had wasted for something like 13 cents worth of electricity, and how he couldn't really stop me from simply dropping by any day after school to turn the breakers off again. Finally he said he'd take the electric bill out of our name. I grabbed my loofah, left, and didn't hear anything about it ever again. Most importantly, I never paid another cent (except, of course, the two months of rent, but small victories!). TLDR: Was being charged for the electricity in an apartment I no longer lived in so I shut off the power, putting the landlord in violation of safety regulations and making him drive in from out of town to investigate it. This happened over a decade ago and I'm now a homeowner several states away. I'm not going to pursue any legal action. I've been relatively successful in life, and my time is worth more than I'd ever get out of it. I was surprised that the outside hallway light, which was a public area, was affected by the breaker inside the apartment. It definitely sounds like that's illegal or at least against standard wiring practices. I did my final walk-through and sign off with the on-site manager, not the property owner. I'd actually never met the property owner before. We were moving to a newer, much nicer apartment on a long-term lease where we didn't pay for electricity. We actually never ended up having an electric bill in that state in our name again. I'm not actually sure if the electric bill was in our name, or if they were just going to deduct any electric charges from our deposit, or some third option I don't remember. I just remember I was going to be charged for electricity after we moved out and I thought it was stupid. There were multiple items left in the bathroom, including a towel that was part of a matching set. I just remember the loofah most distinctly, and it made for a great sentence. Yes, I could have just propped the door to the fridge and freezer open to prevent mold, but I didn't think of that. I'm also not sure what I would have propped them open WITH, since the apartment was completely empty. Image credits: Erik_Withacee #31 Kick Out The Tenant-Then Ask Him To Showcase The Place Mid 2010s I was on a hunt for a place while crashing on a friend's couch. I was checking out a place for 40% of monthly minimum wage and having arrived at the agreed upon time found an obese middle aged lady telling an agitated nephew that he can't freeload in his room anymore. So I talk to her and always the marketer offer to do some free digital marketing tips (basic stuff that people just ignore) before checking out the rooms, it never hurts to offer something valuable and low-cost for free before negotiations. I found an amazing room that made me feel like a vampire count with thick ornate columns, high ceilings, velvet drapes, with the only light coming from the glass wall on one side that casted my silhouette towards the entrance and kept my face obscure sitting behind the desk. But I should scope out the place right? So the landlord tells me she was bad knees and asks the nephew she just kicked out to show me around and upstairs, specifically to the room that just freed up (his). Um what? That's not wise... Not surprisingly he showed me the place flippantly, occasionally bad mouthing it, and let me know that there's rats. Okay nope! I said my thanks, left the lying landlord. That should've been the end of it. Two days later, the landlord calls me in the middle of work and asks if I made a decision on the room and if I could show her the digital marketing tricks to which I gave her the benefit of the doubt and refused sternly. That should've been the end of it. Yet she kept on calling, even when I blocked her she found other numbers to call from over the next two weeks. One day I was in a foul mood so I finally agreed if only to get her out of my life, except she then directs me to the nephew she's kicking out (as soon as his room is rented) because she's not good with tech. Um what? That's not wise, but meh its what she wanted. It turns out the freeloading nephew was a natural and he managed to rank landlord's apartment on the top 10 search results complete with dead rats, dangerous fire escapes, fire hazards and all. The landlord was found in violation of numerous codes and I now had a capable and admiring digital marketer who eventually helped me get employed after CoVid layoffs. Image credits: CareBear177 Sweet Revenge: 31 Times Tenants Followed Their Malicious Landlords’ Instructions To The Letter To Teach Them A Lesson Reviewed by New Viral Feed on 14:53 Rating: 5

Article created by: Gabija Palšytė Let me tell you, when your mashed potato gets served in a glass vase or your soup is poured in a stiletto, you’re at a crossroads. One one hand, you can call the absurdity out, complain to your waiter but don’t expect much. After all, if that restaurant is guilty of anything, then it’s trying hard to impress you. Another option is to ignore the serving and enjoy its content, but that would end in a strong longing for simple life where plates are a thing. However, such try-hard food servings seem to be everywhere and it’s become impossible to ignore them. And the internet’s beloved project “We Want Plates” is a safe space to talk about hard things, aka the plate drought in restaurants. According to their website, it’s “the global crusade against serving food on bits of wood and roof slates, chips in mugs and drinks in jam jars.” It’s also home to an impressive collection of some of the craziest, most wondrous, and ‘what is dat thing?’-kinda food servings people encountered. Psst! More pics of, let’s be honest, barely edible craziness can be found in our previous posts with “We Want Plates” here, here and here. More info: wewantplates.com | Reddit | Facebook | Instagram |Twitter Read More: 30 Times People Would've Rather Had Plates And Glasses Instead Of These Disasters (New Pics) #1 Beautifully Plated, But Not A Plate, Not Even Over A Plate Image credits: MrMarkAhsac #2 Got Sandy Feet As A Dessert Image credits: Texoe #3 Caesar Salad Or Charlie Brown Christmas Tree? Image credits: nonsonosvizzero #4 First Patio Since Covid And This Is What I Get. I Told The Owner I Was Going To Post On This Sub And He Said He Would Bring Me The Sandwich On A Plate Next Time If This Post Blows Up Image credits: entrepreneurialCan #5 Chocolate "Horse Turd" Truffles On A Manure Fork. Just No Image credits: pacingpilot #6 Can You Spot My Lamb Chop? Image credits: Mesmerizes #7 Blood Pancakes In A Mask Image credits: louiseverard #8 Whats Up With All Of This Food On Your Hand Trend? Image credits: vitorgj #9 My Cocktail Came In A Box Image credits: Sanchezq #10 Our Corn Chips Came In A Rusty Bucket Image credits: mezzoforte24 #11 So I Went To Alinea This Weekend Image credits: dabuttmonkee #12 Japan Image credits: MakeMeTea #13 Friend's Mother Went To A Restaurant And Got A Glass Of Pasta! Upside Down! Image credits: VinWing13 #14 Nachos On A Rusty Bin Lid Image credits: mrwringe #15 Especially In This Times, Don't Want To Eat From One Table With Like 10 Other People Image credits: Ronin2406 #16 Why Image credits: piper2112 #17 Gravy In A Urinal Image credits: TheBrontosaurus #18 Uhm.. How Do I Drink It..? Image credits: lmews #19 Please Take A Charcuterie And Have A Seat Image credits: valicat #20 Can You Spot Our Appetizers? Image credits: hyattpotter #21 A Friend Ordered Tiramisu In Scotland. Why Sugar The Lid? Image credits: NoBid9404 #22 I Just Thought You Guys Were No Fun, But I Get It Now…. Image credits: EZZE__________ #23 The Sauce Was Dripping From The Holes Image credits: JJsjsjsjssj #24 At A 2 Michelin Starred Restaurant Image credits: jazlyna #25 Served In An Ashtray Image credits: perrotini #26 Saw This On Instagram And It Sent Me Into A Fit Of Rage Image credits: claudiabonana #27 The Churro Shoe Image credits: TheCazaloth #28 Venison Cubes On A Deer Antler (Was Actually Incredible) Image credits: dayda #29 Syrup Kept Spilling Over Image credits: huevosrancherosjr #30 Please Feed Me Too Image credits: RiaanDun 30 Times People Would’ve Rather Had Plates And Glasses Instead Of These Disasters (New Pics) Reviewed by New Viral Feed on 13:53 Rating: 5