Dealing with Manipulative Landlords

Landlords rank right up there with used car salesmen. While you occasionally encounter an honest, decent, upfront person, the majority are manipulative and shady characters who will nickle and dime you to death.

I have experienced both types of landlords. I am relatively young and have spent the bulk of my life living under my parents' roof or in a college dorm. So when it was time to strike out on my own, I was quite naive about a lot of things concerning apartments and landlords. What you do not know, you learn fast, however, or become a tenant that get stepped all over.

My mother and I had moved into an apartment together immediately following my college graduation. It was not the best apartment ever, but the landlord gave us permission to paint and put holes in the walls via nails and screws to put up pictures and shelves in hopes it would be cozier and more homelike. He was also great about fixing any problem we had, such as fuses blowing, the gas heater breaking down, or pipe problems. He was always approachable and never tried to manipulate us in any way.

A year later I returned to dorm life in pursuit of my second degree. When the school year came to a close, my boyfriend at the time and I decided to find an apartment close to campus for the summer and upcoming school year. We both had jobs at the college for the summer, and discovered most apartments were incredibly cheap. After some searching, we decided to take a four bedroom apartment only a block from campus, and then two others would join us when school began.

The landlords seemed incredibly sweet and sincere the entire year we lived with them. If anything went wrong, they were right there to fix it. Since we were college students, our livelihood depended on our student loan checks, and if these were stalled for any reason, they were incredibly understanding about it and let us know it was okay to pay our rent later than originally decided upon. During the winter, our driveway was always plowed and salted, and they were amazing at calling us ahead of time to let us know when there would be an inspection or apartment walk-through.

As the school year waned, they bought another apartment house even closer to campus and offered me an apartment there for the following school year. They made promises about how great this apartment would be once they renovated it, and that we would be able to move in by the beginning of summer. I had no reason not to trust them, and since I had built a relationship with these seemingly kindhearted folk, I agreed to take the apartment.

The new apartment took longer than they had anticipated to renovate, and either they were frustrated with the apartment, or they found some reason to dislike me personally. Their sweet side went into hiding and instead a snake-like persona emerged. When they finally completed the renovations two months later than originally expected, they called me one evening, telling me I had until the next evening to move in. By this time I had take several law and history classes, as well as read up on rights as a tenant. Most towns offer a pamphlet that spells out everything a tenant should know about living in an apartment. Everything from fines due to noise disturbances, to furniture on the porch and lawn, to pets and parking are listed. So I knew that they had to give me more than 24 hours to move from one apartment to another, which was impossible as I had no truck to move my stuff, and I had to work three different jobs the following day. I told them as much, and was given five days to move.

The lease that every tenant signs states exactly what they are signing up for. Most leases share the same basics: how much and when rent is due, what happens if that rent is not paid, policies concerning painting, decorum and pets, rules about overnight guests and noise, parking spots, etc. The lease I signed shared many of these qualities, but there were some key points that were either left off, or could be used against my landlords. For instance, when I became incredibly sick during the fall of 2006, I decided to leave school at the end of the semester to regain my health. When I disclosed this to my landlords, they took it as some sort of personal attack against them and demanded I pay more money to make up for me not being there, or at least find someone to take my place. I refused on both points. You see, my landlords made their own lease up, and stupidly forgot to put on it how much money I was to pay and when it was due. So according to the lease, I did not owe them anything ever! And since I was leaving a roommate behind, it was not up to me to find a replacement. Strike one and two against my landlords.

They then proceeded to make an issue over the fact that my roommate had a pet chinchilla. I will acknowledge that we broke the rule by having a pet. The lease clearly said that no pets of any kind were allowed. But my landlords shot themselves in the foot on this point, as well. If a tenant living in the same apartment building has a pet and the landlord is aware of this at least three months prior to charging you with having a pet, that charge is void. The people living in the apartment in front of us had a little yappy dog, and they had been there since May. I knew that my landlords knew about it because I had seen the husband out in the front lawn petting the dog! So they could not charge or evict either one of us for having the chinchilla.

As my moving out date quickly approached, my landlords decided to try to scare the money out of me by having papers served to me. This again backfired on them. Taking counsel from my mother, I learned that these papers did nothing other than put a threat in writing. When I discussed them with my landlords, they realized that they had been outsmarted by a college kid and were not going to get anything from me. Taking me to court would only cost them money in the long run.

Knowing your basic rights as a tenant is extremely important. College kids especially should pay attention to them because a lot of landlords think that college kids are completely naive and therefore they can be exploited. With a little knowledge, and perhaps a big vocabulary, it is easy to see through shady landlords and their manipulative ways and call them on it. Then they will the ones left red-faced, and not you.