hi! me and my gf just moved into a new place about a month ago, on our first day the landlord said to try to avoid talking to this lady out back that lets her dog out there since she’s a “high anxiety person”, and we have been until today.
there’s a communal back yard which our shower window faces. and sometimes we let our cats kind of peak through the window since they don’t get to go in the bathroom a lot due to some of the plants in there. the lady that lets her dog out was out there and she screamed at us “get your fucking cats away!!” my gf grabbed one and said “fuck you” since she started off aggressive (which we both know wasn’t the best idea, she said it was more of a reflex,) then as she was grabbing one i grabbed the other that hopped up there after, and when she saw the other cat she shouted “really??!” and i said “im grabbing here, jesus” and slammed the window.

who is in the wrong and could either of us get in trouble with the landlord? this is only our 2nd place we’ve rented. i just don’t see how our cats looking out a window in our house is a problem, the dog wasn’t even barking or anything too.
thank you for everyone who responds!

My lease ends in about 7 weeks and management emailed me saying they’re going to start showing the apartment.

Fine, expected that.

What I didnt expect was coming home yesterday and finding an electronic lockbox attached to my door. I called the office and apparently they want to start doing self guided tours where prospective tenants get a temporary code and just let themselves in.

They said I’ll get an email at least 24 hours before each tour, but nobody from management will actually be there with them.

I have a cat, a gaming PC, work stuff and obviously just all my normal personal belongings in here. I really dont like the idea of random people walking around my apartment unsupervised.

My lease does say they can enter with notice for showings, but I assumed that meant the landlord or an agent would actually be present.

Am I overreacting or is letting prospective renters enter an occupied apartment alone actually unusual?

We broke our 4500/mo lease in a moderately hot market. Assumed we would have to pay for a month or two till a new tenant was found. We let our landlord know 60 days in advance. Our landlord then listed the property for 5200, required new tenant to pay for gardener. Required new tenant to pay for tree trimming(on a property with multiple 50 ft tall trees). Required new tenant to pay 7000$ deposit.

For context every comp within half a mile is in the 4100 to 4300 range. They pay for the gardener. No property in the entire county demands tenant pay for tree service. Every comp has deposit at or below rent.

My question is... Did my landlord give us a gift here? It's pretty plain and simple that landlord has not listed the property in good faith to rent it out. We had planned to pay rent till a new tenant is found but I don't think one will be found with this price and terms. If they have not posted it in good faith they cannot claim damages, no,?

I think landlord wants to renovate as we were long term tenants but that is besides the point.

Pay or don't pay?

I posted yesterday and got a lot of attention from people. Mainly negative. So I’m gonna provide more context this time. My roommate has a disabled cat with no control over her bladder, as such over the three years we were in the unit she had quite a few accidents. Despite my best efforts to clean it seems the carpet still needs replaced. I’m not arguing that. But I’ve heard from different sources that carpet depreciates year after year. We were in the unit for three years and I would bet the carpet is twice that. I’m curious if I have to pay the full price for replacing the carpet or if it has depreciated over time. I reached out trying to negotiate with the rental company and received this. Any advice would be great.

Update! The Lender nor complex entered my house when they said they would. Who isn't surprised? Lol

So my a/c vents have started looking nasting. Guess I need to get my own mold, radon, asbestos testing asap. Any helpful advice would be appreciated. Adding pictures in the comments

Last Tuesday, they had an inspection on the building that I was unaware of. It was my own fault for not checking my email, they gave ample notice. The night before I had company over and didn’t really clean well after as I had work the next morning. They were completely in the ok to have given me the notice because there was 2 trash bags that I didn’t have time to take out and dishes were completely overflowed. Other than that, I didn’t have issues in my apartment as I had company so I wouldn’t have left it messy anywhere else.

They gave me 2 weeks before a reinspection and told me to just get it clean or else I’d have a lease violation. Fair enough. So I’ve spent the last few days deep cleaning a different room in my apartment each day. On my hands in knees in crevices just to be sure it wouldn’t happen. I was happy I was given that amount of time because it gave me time and an excuse to just take my time cleaning areas I haven’t cleaned since I moved in.

Well, yesterday less than 24 hours ago they told me they’d be coming to do maintenance. That was fine, I’d spent the last days cleaning. It wasn’t as perfect as I wanted it as I thought I had more time, but it was little things. Dishes from breakfast in the sink, clothes I wanted to organize on my couch. That was really it.

I got a lease violation 30 minutes ago. I’m really confused. I’ve been in my bedroom the whole time. Nothing is worth of a lease violation. Tbh I’ve had maintenance when it was messier. Also, I’ve been home the whole time in my bedroom. The maintenance men didn’t say ANYTHING. Is there anything I can do? I’ve never had a lease violation, they didn’t send me any in depth details, and I’m just nervous. I love my apartment and my building I really would like to renew here as long as I can. I’ve never had an issues here before even when others in the building have. I’m not sure what to do. Any advice would help. I’m planning on talking to them tomorrow if they don’t send me another email tomorrow

Looking for advice about my landlord withholding part my security deposit. I moved out of my previous apartment at the end of July and my former landlord just reached out to me about returning my security deposit. She’s withholding part of my security deposit, $1000, due to damages and repairs. She provided photos of the damage. But it doesn’t seem like it was $1000 worth of damage and she didn’t provide any invoices/receipts for the cost of the repairs/cleaning.

Damages she listed include; marks to hardwood floor, damage to window sills cause by my cat (claw marks, chipped paint), repairs to toilet/kitchen and bathroom sinks/bathtub (all she showed me was a picture of mildew in the bathtub and some rust around the kitchen sink drain, also claimed she needed to replace the toilet seat but I had purchased a new toilet seat when I moved out, just needed installation), and cleaning up cat fur and sanitizing apartment. I had cleaned the apartment after I moved my furniture out and thought I left the place in good condition, but she’s claiming there was a lot of cat fur.

In addition, she waited more than 30 days to contact me regarding the security deposit and damages. In the state I live in (MA), landlords are required to return the security deposit, or provide an itemized list of damages and repairs to justify withholding all or a portion of the deposit, within 30 days of the move out date or they forfeit the right to withhold the deposit.

I’m looking for advice about how to talk to my former landlord about more information regarding these damages she’s deducting. I’d be ok with forfeiting part of my security deposit if she provided more detail and evidence for the damages and repairs, even though according to the laws in MA she lost the right to withhold my security deposit by waiting more than 30 days to provide a list of damages. I really don’t want to pursue or threaten legal action over this. If anyone has been in a similar situation and has advice, it would be appreciated.

I have an obnoxious rude tenant below me who continues to play extremely loud music every weekend since February. The duration is anywhere from 4-8 hours Saturday & Sunday. The bass travels through my apartment causing my appliances to hum.

I haven’t had luck with my property manager yet, although I recently issued a certified letter. Has anyone had success with their management company taking action on habitability?

Hey everyone, as the title says, my partner and I need help breaking the lease on our apartment after a domestic dispute between his younger siblings and his parents led to the kids being placed in our care.

To make a VERY long story short, the kids (teens) have been with us since March, and there has been an insane fight with CYFD to get us custody or funding for taking care of the kids since we got them. We finally found a house that should be within our budget (once we receive state funding), and now this issue is terminating our current lease. Our apartment, according to our contract, looks like it will charge a minimum of $5k for us to terminate early. This is a 1-bedroom apartment, and we don't have that kind of money. We would love to stay where we are, but we are legally required to ensure the children have a place with adequate space, as they have been sleeping in our living room for months (not that we don't want them to have their own space; we just weren't planning on taking them in permanently). We have a house lined up that we're just waiting for a move-in date on, but that will be even more money we will have to spend that we simply don't have.

I have seen that leases can be ended early due to a domestic dispute. Could I say the abuse situation we pulled them out of is the reason we're moving? Would that even fall under that category?

Are there any other ways I can at least lower the cost for move-out? This feels like it's an excessive amount of money to charge, and we're already struggling enough financially.

Other issues that feel applicable to mention:

We still do not have legal custody of the kids; the state does. We are in the process of formally fostering them, but like I said, dealing with CYFD has been a nightmare.

We have tried asking the caseworker for a letter to give to our apartment to hopefully assist with explaining the situation/say we legally have to accommodate the space the kids need, so maybe they would waive the fees like they do if you are deployed. However, we have asked multiple times and still have gotten no response or letter.

I was only given 1.5 days notice for this. I may not be home. Lease ends a little under 30 days. Nothing is broken. It’s all mostly clean. Mostly clean as not done packing yet and still have fridge/freezer items. I have pantry in the cabinets I can reach as short person. I use my dishwasher for storing my dishes. Room is mostly clean as I still have items like clothes in my clothes, luggage, etc items. Do I need to do any cleaning in advance before Thursday? The paint fumes from another apt seems to be gone for now with hallway residue not my fault. Hallways will be checked before moving even though any mess not my fault. USA resident. Thanks in advance.

I’ve had multiple bad experiences over the years with various landlords and property management companies. The latest one at our brand new building is a huge wasp nest has appeared on our balcony, it’s been 5 days since I raised this with the property management company and absolutely nothing has been done, despite me following up several times.

We are the customer, they offer a service and we pay them our money, in any other industry/market the customer gets treated fairly and with respect. Why not with renting??

My landlord lives in one unit in the building and I live in the other. I never realized I don’t have my own mailbox until they started sticking my mail in my door.

They’re not opening my mail but I still find it off putting that we’re sharing a mailbox and they’re sorting my mail. It’s a privacy issue to me. Even if it’s not opened I don’t need anyone seeing who is sending me mail

Hi everyone, I recently moved into a new apartment and am having troubles I haven’t experienced before so I want to get all the info I can to avoid my new landlord trying to pull one over on me (sorry for the cynicism).
I had the TV running with the AC going and our breaker tripped. I reset it and within a few minutes it tripped a second and third time. I would move things around but it turns out all of our outlets in the living room and kitchen are on this circuit, including our fridge and oven. If this is an overloaded circuit, I don’t think there’s much I can do on my end to move things around. My use (the TV) would constitute normal use to me and right now I can run it without losing power in 80% of my apartment and even ruinjng my groceries. What would the right course of action for an electrician and my landlord be in order to fix this?

For context, we live in Georgia. We just moved into a new apartment in an older complex and we just this week unpacked everything. We had a very tumultuous move. We ended up having to sign our lease almost a week and a half earlier than we originally wanted to because they forced us due to a special. We were a little desperate so we ended up signing it. Once we moved in, there were already issues in the apartment, mainly with wear and tear and maintenance, it’s definitely an old building. We’ve been inviting our tongues, not to complain too much just because we do love the area we’re in and It’s a decent price. Well, much to our surprise yesterday we received an email stating that they would be doing a three week piping project in our apartment. They said it will be happening during working hours during the work week. This is news to us as we of course thought that our apartment would be in working order before we signed a lease. It’s also incredibly difficult for us because 1. One of the residents of this apartment has heart issues and is not supposed to be under a lot of stress, especially after this move. 2. We have an elderly cat, he’s 16 years old and we are very concerned because in the letter they wrote us they claimed we would have to crate our animals during the day or put them somewhere else. We have nowhere to put our animals nor can we afford boarding. To make it worse we will not be here every single day during working hours because some of us are in school or have a job. We are incredibly worried about the well-being of our cats as well as our mental health as they claim they would be opening up several of our walls for this project and that we suddenly after unpacking everything would have to remove things from closet, closets, counters, bathrooms, laundry, room, rooms, etc. We are just at a loss of what to do at this point. Any advice?

Hi,
sorry if this is a stupid question but I just moved out of my first apartment on July 25th, and heard back from them on August 24th with just the cleaning deduction from the security deposit.

They then asked me to sign a thing saying they have authorization to credit me back, and I thought that was that.

Today (August 31) I received this with a ton of charges building up to somehow me owing them money? I already asked for an invoice of the painting and reason+ why conservice was separate than the rest of the utilities. You're gonna have to take my word for it, but painting was entirely unnecessary as the apartment was left in very good condition, with nothing left inside.

If you've read all this and have more experience than I do please lend a hand, I was honestly banking on getting some of that deposit back but having to pay anything is gonna flip things on me a bit.

What would you do?

I moved to a 2 year old townhome in Aug. After two days of living there, I noticed the kitchen sink backed up a lot. I walked away to let it drain and came back to my entire kitchen flooded. I realized it drained into the dishwasher and since that wasn't sealed correctly, it then leaked onto the floor. That issue was fixed within a few days but the next day the upstairs toilet started to bubble... Just air bubbles but still. It happened when I ran the shower and then wouldn't flush. The landlord had a plumber come and snake it which seemed to clear the issue. Then a week later the same issue. The same plumber said it was the tp and his solution is to not flush tp down the toilet but to instead put it in a bag and throw it away.

As a tenant, I don't find this acceptable. How can I not use two toilets and now have to go downstairs. If I was elderly that wouldn't be possible. I told my landlord that it's not a solution and she refuses to get a second opinion. I told her I was going to try and use a thinner ply and she said fine but if it happens again then I'm responsible for the plumber.

I'm one person and never in my life have I had this kind of issue. I know thes townhomea are shit quality but this is basically tenant rights to have working plumbing. I asked for the Sept rent to be lowered considering how much I've been put out but she refused (as is her right) but she's not willing to find a solve.

Does anyone have recommendations on how to deal with this?

UPDATE: landlord refuses to give me any discount. Which again is her right but she says bc the leak was fixed fast then she can't provide discount. But my argument is it shouldn't have happened in the first place

And I'm wondering if I can use this to my advantage, as I'm about to put in a 30 day notice to leave (month-to-month lease) due to many issues that I have complained about.

I think it may not be registered properly or up to code, because I went to the USPS website to forward my mail, and I couldn't - because USPS claims that my old address is registered as non-residential/business. The house USED to be a business; a lawyer's, I think.

I don't know how to verify if it's registered properly. I did some searching, but came up with nothing - but I'm also quite tired and burnt out, so it's possible I missed something obvious somewhere. I also tried to find if I could get out in less than 30 days, but the laws around inhospitable living conditions seem to be more about the physical properties of the house, and I don't think are applicable to my situation.

(Side note on livable conditions: there are two bedrooms rented out in the basement. As far as I know, there is only one exit from the basement. Would that violate fire code?)

Thanks for any help with this.

Edit: took out some info that was too specific