Rental Nightmare

[MarblesMom]

Just when you think the Nauglers are your worst nightmare, there are these folks.

http://www.keloland.com/news/article/investigates/the-zimmer-experience

From Florida to the heartland, these folks just leave love behind.

[Diggingupdirt]

wow!! This is why i am terrified to rent my old house!! It's on the market for sale but if it doesn't sell soon, my husband and I are thinking about renting it. Reading articles like this make me scared to rent out the house.

[LadyCrow1313]

I'll freely admit to not being the best housekeeper, but that shit's just nasty.

A coworker friend experienced a similar situation with a former tenant in the house she's renting an apartment in. He was taken away & is currently in a psych ward, & she showed me pictures of his apartment. It was trashed just as nastily as the houses in the above link.

[Flossie]

My mom has a house she rents.  She's mostly had good tenants, but there was one that scared her, especially since she lives next door to her rental.  Well, she lives in the country so while there was no chatting over the yard fence going on, the houses are in sight of each other.  But one time Mom slipped up rented to what seemed like a nice man, his wife, and their two small children.  It was her first time renting to a nonrelative or a longtime friend of someone Mom trusted.  They were moving into the area from out of state so it was more difficult to check their references, which later turned out to be fraudulent.  

Mom's first clue was right after they moved in, there were more children there than just two littles.  And a motor home was parked next to the house, with a middle aged couple in it.  Mom gave it a few days in case the extra people were just there to help with the move, then called the renter.  She was told that the motor home belonged to the man's father and stepmother.  The extra kids were the man's kids from his first marriage, just visiting.  The grandparents would be taking the extra kids home at the end of the week.

Of course the motor home never left, the extra kids stayed (turned out their mom was in jail and the kids would be living with their dad for at least the next year), some dogs appeared that weren't on the lease.  They were pitbulls that were running free and showed an interest in mom's henhouse (but surprisingly the dogs enjoyed barking at the chickens, but never tried to get at them).  More adults and kids moved in, and Mom felt intimidated when she called over to see what was happening and was told it was none of her business, and stop looking at them every time she stepped outside.  Luckily, one of my relatives works in the county court system and put Mom in touch with a county judge who also rented out houses.  

The judge told Mom how to properly check out the new tenants and Mom was shocked to find out they had a history of jail time, drug offenses, theft of services, evictions, etc.  When they started putting in a green house Mom really flipped out.  She figured out people who wouldn't mow their lawn or put in a garden were probably using a greenhouse for some other, not so legal purpose.  And they were already behind on the rent.  She contacted a lawyer and her new friend the judge.  The new tenants were put on notice that they needed to do something about their dogs because neighbors had been complaining about them running free and menacing people.  Then the county sheriff had his deputy's drive by a lot.  The tenants got the message and moved out without notice after three months.  Mom watched them pack but didn't call over to say anything about the nearly two months rent they owed.

Mom had to replace all the carpets, but she figured it was about time for that, anyway.  She wasn't happy about replacing some large windows that had been cracked.  She pretty much expected to find the stove and fridge gone, all the light bulbs removed, and all the walls needing repaired and repainted.  Some of the kitchen cabinets needed to have their doors rehung and one drawer replaced entirely.  But she was relieved to find that the large bathtub with the water jets was OK, the toilets were dirty but not stopped up, and someone had drilled holes in the back deck, but not in the siding of the house.  Of course there was a lot of garbage left behind.  And there were signs that the storage shed had been in the process to be set up for use as a drug lab, but no real proof because no actual chemicals were left behind.

It cost Mom several thousand dollars, and some of that was when during clean up it was discovered that the roof had started leaking in one part of the house.  She went without the rental income for about three months, plus what she didn't get when the renters were staying there, but she counted it as a learning experience.  Good luck trying to rent from her now if you have past issues with landlords, spotty work histories, etc.  Mom knows how to check on those things now.  She's been renting that house for 30 years now, and she keeps her renters for about 7.5 years on average.

[47of74]

Before we moved into our 19th century farm house, my dad rented it out for the first few years that he owned the farm while while he was getting the then new barn built and the farm ready for him to eventually use.  He had a series of quite, shall we say, interesting characters that lived in the house before we moved in full time in late 1979. 

 

[Shadoewolf]

We're good tenants, but have had a couple of landlords from hell. Worst was an FRG wife and "friend" who rented us their house in town without telling us it was in the process of foreclosure. The roof leaked, it had severe electrical issues, bad plumbing, no smoke detectors, you name it. When we witheld the rent, the husband came over, threatened to bust the door in to "deal with" me, and when I proceeded to call the cops, went out and poured gasoline all over the backyard and shed, creating a Hazmat situation. We had the city housing inspector come out, the house was 2 points off of being declared condemned. Suddenly a week or so later, there were was an auction notice posted on the door. The house had been foreclosed on and was up for auction. Explained why they refused to fix anything! 

The house we rent now is older and needs some work, but for 4 bedrooms and the amazing school district, we don't mind putting in some of the effort. 

[BlackberryGirl]

I posted this last year about a local rented house..

We live in a rural village in the farthest northern reaches of Appalachia. Our village has a  good public water system, good sewers and a state of the art sewage treatment plant. About 20 years ago we got a notice from the village. A house up the street (and uphill) from us was going to be demolished... and all residents were urged to remain inside, and especially keep children and pets inside..

As it happens, the local gas company had sent a meter reader into this house to arrange for a new meter. and he discovered their gas meter and connections were buried under 3 FEET of human waste. The meter (and the house,) a gorgeous old Victorian, were immediately condemned as unfit for habitation, the people were given temporary shelter by the Red Cross, and the village bulldozed the house the next day.  The waste was pumped out by a septic tank truck.. (multiple runs) Then the house was bulldozed into the cellar, then everything was dug  up and hauled away. the foundations, the cellar, everything...gone.

The stench was damn near unbearable, and the cockroaches were falling off the trucks that drove by  hauling  the contaminated crap ...someplace..The village had a mosquito sprayer truck from the nearest city driving up and down our street and following the debris trucks spraying  everything for roaches.

The complete cleanup from initial condemning to filling in and paving (Hell I think they even salted the earth.) over the house's footprint took about a week and had a crew of about 10 men. The cost, for our little village was astronomical.. all because these people decided to  a. shit through a hole in the bathroom floor instead of getting the toilet repaired, and then b.  when their bathtub didn't work, decided to shit into that until the weight of it made it fall through the fucking floor.

At least the Zimmerman landlords kept the house.

 

[MarblesMom]

 @BlackberryGirl this story is just so.... so... 

Well, I am glad the scenario has been taken care of.

Sorry on the loss of the gorgeous old Victorian house... I hate to see historical homes go.