September 18, 2024 at 6:23 pm

Terrible Former Tenant Did $50K In Damage, And Their New Landlord Was A Jerk, So He Said She Was A Great Tenant So They’d Get Stuck With Each Other

by Matthew Gilligan

Source: Reddit

I do not envy landlords at all

They have to put up with a lot of headaches and one of the major ones is bad tenants who abuse the places they’re renting.

This story from a landlord on Reddit has some twists and turns: are you ready to dive in?

Start now!

My Tenant Did Over $50,000 in Damages and Asked Then Asked Me For A Character Referral.

“When my wife (24F) and I (28M) were starting out, we had a little old rental house downtown that we leased to male students.

When we moved out of the county for a job I figured it would be easier to rent to one family rather than chase around six separate broke students for rent (shared bedrooms).

He let the wrong people live there…

The first family that we put in there turned out to be a bad choice on my part. Misty (40F) was fine for the first four months or so. When I visited in person the house was noticeably getting gross. They weren’t taking care of things.

This might’ve been somewhat forgivable but then Misty stopped paying rent on time. To make matters worse there was a plumbing issue that sounded expensive. The toilets were backing up and sewage was soaking the carpets in the basement.

The whole place stank. I didn’t even know why.

Oh, no…

The plumber ran a camera down the pipes to see what was happening. He informed me that the clog was a result of a build-up of needles.

You know, the kind one might use for illicit substances. I opted to pay $1,000 to have them use high pressure to flush out the system.

Unfortunately, my house was nearly a hundred years old so the high pressure destroyed the clay connector to the city’s sewage system. The only way to fix it was to shut down a major residential road and dig to it for $30,000.

Insurance wasn’t in any hurry to pay either. I didn’t have that kind of cash sitting around at the moment and Misty was still in there.

I wanted to evict Misty but it would be a long process and I knew that she would fight tooth and nail to stay as she didn’t want to go back to her parents, who lived just down the street.

This was BAD.

By this point, my house resembled a hoarder’s home and I suspected that illicit substances were being dealt there.

Rather than evicting Misty, I called the Health Department because they were living with no running water and a porta-potty that they rented in the backyard. It was gross.

They also had two girls there under the age of 10. It took a visit from a team of sheriffs to get her out and only well after the property was condemned.

This woman was crazy!

When Misty finally did leave she left about a hundred pounds of rotting meat on the front lawn.

She also left the house a giant mess and stole many of my things. I was so relieved that she was gone that I almost didn’t care.

She was a major source of stress in my life and in my marriage.

It ended up taking several hundred hours and over $50,000 to fix up the house.

Eventually, insurance came through for part of it.

I tried not to be resentful about the situation because being a illicit substance addict and living in a condemned building is its own hell. There wasn’t anything that I could feel good about doing to her.

She was already doomed to live poorly based on her own choices.

By this point in life, I felt like I was above petty revenge, besides, she had two kids.

Wow, she had some nerve…

Oddly, Misty had the gal text me to ask for a character referral for a new place since she didn’t have anyone else. (other than her parents presumably)

I was dumbfounded but texted back a thumbs up. Maybe I could save the next guy.

Eventually, I did get the call from the next guy asking about Misty.

He was a jerk to me on the phone. He was talking over me and talking down to me. He was an expert landlord doing his due diligence etc.

I tried to get my story about Misty in but then I paused.

I listened to him talk down to me some more (I’m a total stranger, what the hell?), and then I waited until it was my turn.

You deal with it!

I told him “You know, Misty was great, I had some major plumbing issues otherwise she’d still be with me. Also, she’s got a cute family.”

Treat me with disrespect? Good luck with Misty!! You two deserve each other!

Misty got the place and thanked me. Then I never heard from either of them again.

Petty me…”

Take a look at what Reddit users had to say.

This person shared their thoughts.

Source: Reddit

Another individual was impressed.

Source: Reddit

This person weighed in.

Source: Reddit

Another reader had a lot to say.

Source: Reddit

And this Reddit user spoke up.

Source: Reddit

She’s your problem now!

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.