Landlord Horror Stories

The following are the stories from some of our members:

 "I leased my home to a tenant who promptly defaulted on her lease. When I went to the property to see her, I discovered she was stealing my appliances. I called the police to come and stop her from taking my washing machine. When the police arrived the tenant  said I was trespassing on her property and she did not know who I was. I insisted that I owned the property, but the police did not believe me. They told me if I did not leave the premises they would arrest me. So, I sat in my car in disbelief while I watched my tenant steal my appliances from MY HOUSE!" ....Frustrated landlord 

"My husband left me and my two children. I was left with a large mortgage payment, so I rented out my home, and moved to a cheaper apartment. The tenant seemed so nice! However, she did not pay any rent for the first couple of months and I had to start a second job just to pay the rent on my home and my apartment. She appealed eviction and the judge upheld it. She has now been in my home for 3 months. I lost my apartment and had to move back in with my ex-husband and his girlfriend. I am working two jobs to pay a mortgage payment and extensive legal fees. I recently found out she has done this twice before. She is a professional tenant".....

Did you know this could happen? "We rented one of our rental homes to a family. They decided to fix up our house by replacing the lanolium in the bathrooms and kitchen. We did not give them permission to do this, but we did not complain either. Next, they built a deck that covered our entire backyard. They did this without our permission also. Finally, they decided to replace the carpet. They removed the carpet in the master bedroom, but did not replace it immediately. They were late on their rent last month, so I charged them a late fee. They responded by saying they did not have to pay this fee when they had put so much money into the house. They also refused to replace the carpet in the master bedroom. Now they are moving and taking the deck with them. We do not have carpet in the bedroom and the grass in the backyard will be ruined. I will lose the cost of repairs and it will take time to find a new tenant who doesn't mind a mud hole in the backyard".....is this fair?

 "A nice dressed man came to rent my property. He drove a very nice car and said he had a good job. When I asked him if I could run a background check on him, he said his wife had recently died and he wanted to rent now! He flashed alot of cash and I agreed. He never paid rent again, after the first month. When I started to evict him, I found out he filed bankruptcy. By law he did not have to pay me rent while he was in bankruptcy court. I was considered a creditor. He lived in my home for seven months without paying a dime. I still had to pay my mortgage. I found out later, he had done this repeatedly"......Realtor 

"I had a bad tenant who lived in my rent home. When I evicted him, he destroyed my property. He stole the air conditioner and the copper line that went with it, and the aluminum from the windows. He had stored garbage in the attic, because he did not pay his garbage fees. The garbage rotted and maggots formed. It was hideous. He also kicked in all of the doorknob holes with a sledge hammer. This required replacement of all of the doors and windows. But, the clincher was how he literally walked thru my walls, leaving an outline of a body throughout my sheetrock. He did a total of $5,000.......This stinks!"

If you would like to add your stories to our website please email us at landlord@nail-usa.com.