Man…some property management companies are just THE WORST.

And it sounds like this guy got a real doozy of a company lording over him.

Check out how he handled this precarious situation.

Property Management tells me not to fix anything, ok!

“Back in the 2008 housing crisis, I did some work on the side for a customer’s computer system. We got to talking and he had a cheap 1bdrm “Duplex” for rent that was too good to be true.

It was a detached garage converted to a one bedroom little apartment and it was as plain and basic as they come.

The actual house was being rented out and he was charging the full amount priced for the area (which was high) so the little garage conversation was pure profit for the Landlord. I signed a lease for a fixed price that was almost half of what the going rate was for 1 bdrm apartments in the area.

It is what it is…

It was no frills, plain as can be with the cheapest appliances and amenities possible. Light fixtures from the early ’80s, cheapest faucets and countertops money could buy, you get the visual.

The elderly landlord and I had an arrangement, I could fix it up so long as I could keep the rent low and he would allow me to pay for the remaining balance on upgrades if/when things broke.

Sounds like a good deal!

Years go by and I’m still in this 1 bdrm garage conversation and making progress on updating the features. Kitchen faucet is gone, new fancy sprayer head faucet with a bar style glass cleaner installed. Old toilet replaced with an water saving tank and bidet installed. ’80s lights are gone, LED smart home fixtures installed.

Around 7-8 years go by and my rent is still half of the normal going rate for the area and my landlord is happy with our arrangement. Sadly, he has a heart attack and surgery saves his life. He is no longer able to maintain his active lifestyle and hands the reigns of being a landlord to a property management company.

Uh oh…

This company is as shady and money hungry as they come. They get a percentage of the monthly rent for their role in taking over the Landlords duties.

They IMMEDIATELY don’t like me and my rental agreement from the start. The month they take over, my rent goes up the maximum limit of 10% plus 5% the cost of living increase for 1 year.

Two can play at that game.

I’m not happy with this as this is a significant bump in my costs. I suck it up but as a silent protest, I stop making upgrades to the house that first year.

12 months later exactly, I get a notification that my rent will increase another 10% plus 5% cost of living increase. This is yet another blow to my finances but I can’t really complain as my rent is still well below the average cost for the area.

Here we go again…

Another 12 months and another 10% plus 5% cost of living followed by another the following year. This whole time I had been saving a good portion of my paychecks as a down payment for a house but these rent hikes were hurting my ability to set aside money for this purpose.

My landlord was not happy with the Property management company he hired but couldn’t get out of his contract because they were doing maintenance and facility repairs like clockwork.

Covid hits and I had been in this place for 12 years by this point. My rent was still under the average for the area but not by much. Seeing as this was now just a gross 1 bdrm apartment, I was looking for houses to buy to get me out of this rent gouging arrangement I was in.

Right at the peak of the Covid scare in 2020, a pipe burst in the kitchen and floods the floors ruining the gross cabinets, the carpets and the furniture I had nearby.

I had renters insurance that covered most of the costs to what I had lost. Not the nicest furniture, but my couch was a total loss, my desk, entertainment center and my speaker were severely damaged.

In comes Property management to assess the repairs and gut out the damaged wood and carpets. I offer to pay for the upgraded wood and countertops as well as request hardwood floors.

Hmmmm…

Nope! They deny my requests. I offer to do the work myself as I’m fairly handy, again denied with an actual written letter stating im not to do ANY WORK or maintenance on the apartment.

I contact my landlord who has his hands tied because this was the arrangement we had. I’m at a loss of what to do because this Property management company is not setting me up with a temporary place to live.

Doing all the work while I’m working from home to watch my possessions. There is a literal door sized hole in my wall as they spend two weeks fixing all the damage.

They throw out my upgraded faucet (which was undamaged and worked perfectly fine), the upgraded sink, the light fixtures the tile work I had done, the bathroom faucet (which wasnt even part of the floor damage).

They then removed an outlet originally part of the apartment to save on costs. I was mad at them and complained via letters, via phone calls and talking to the maintenance supervisor.

This wasn’t good.

It took 2 full months to do all the repairs and at the end, they sent me a notice that my rent was going up due to some loophole in the “neglect” the apartment was in and not reported. I was done with this bull **** and I pooled my resources, called in all the favors I could and found the house I wanted.

I gave 30 day notice to leave at the end of my lease along with an invoice of ALL the repairs I made to the appartment over the 12 years I was there. I attached a copy of my original lease agreement, a copy of all photos I took of before and after repairs I made, a bill of the costs, and a request of a refund of the past 6 months of additional rent hike due to “neglect” like they stated in the letter.

He knew he was right.

I had a running talley of with all the receipts, work performed and the cost of not being allowed to live in motel during the work being performed to over $9,700. At the same time, I submitted all this to the courts as I knew they would contest all of it.

My landlord was on my side during the court hearing, giving testimony he in fact allowed me in the rental lease agreement that I could do my own repairs. I won within 4 hours and awarded $4,700 (the judge removed all billable hours I included).

Judge was harsh to the lawyer for the property management saying his client must obey the law and put a tenant up for housing during construction.

Nearly 4 years later, I finally got my lump sum including penalties and late fees which totalled up to $7,500.

Sadly my old landlord passed away and his properties passed to his son who immediately fired the Property management company some time early last year.”

Here’s what folks had to say on Reddit.

This reader spoke up.

Another person shared their thoughts.

One Reddit user is thankful for a good landlord.

This person had a question…

Another Reddit user is going through a hard time…

Good thing he kept track of everything!

Nice work!

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.