Renting a home comes with many benefits, but there are also some potential problems.

What would you do if your landlord wouldn’t fix some issues but instead wanted to sell you the home for a discounted price?

That sounds like a great deal, but the renters in this story were upset by the situation and plotted to get revenge.

Check it out.

Landlord Wants a New Roof

Let’s go back two years, my wife and I were looking for a rental and got referred to a house that was for sale but the owner was open to renting it out.

He gives us a quick tour and tells us two prices, a lower price and a higher price which includes a stove and refrigerator.

He eventually failed to provide us the appliances but still kept the higher price.

He also mentioned that he lived in a house behind us?

That sounds like a great setup.

Apparently, both houses share a water line and to save us trouble he would pay for the water bill.

(Keep this in mind)

The first year of renting went smoothly.

After our contract ended we decided to stay another year.

This is where things started to go downhill, we started to see how manipulative he really was.

He wouldn’t get us a yearly contract but would do a month-to-month agreement promising he wouldn’t kick us out.

He kept our deposit and continued to charge us the higher price.

Never fixed our leaky hot water pipe but asked us to close it.

That is just mean.

He would threaten to sell the house, telling us to not be alarmed if we seen a for sale sign outside.

He did this for another year, so we would always be worried whether or not this would be our last month or not.

So, my wife and I hatched a wonderful idea.

He’s wanting to sell, why not buy it?

We’re already living in one of the houses.

That is a really good deal.

We ask him what he wants for both homes, he wants $150K.

What a steal!! BUT there’s a catch.

He’s afraid his home won’t appraise for the sale price because he needs a new roof and wants us to pay for it.(Red Flag #1)

We tell him get it in writing and lower your asking price.

Ok, but you aren’t required to sign it.

He gets a lawyer to write him a contract and conveniently leaves out that he would reimburse us if our deal falls through PLUS he can back out whenever he wants.(Red Flag #2)

Finally, one day while talking he slips up and tells us he owes two years worth of house taxes so if he did sell to us we would have ended up paying for those.(Red Flag #3)

Revenge.

After months of going back and forth and the deal falling apart we find a house and close within a month.

That is just mean.

We stopped up keeping the rental, turned on the leaky hot water pipe (LOL) and are leaving with a one day notice and will be turning in our keys instead of handing him money.

He tried to screw us and now he’s got to fix his walls, his pipes and will not be making money since the house will stay empty.

It sounds like the landlord was in a tough financial spot, and these people intentionally made it worse.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say.

This is a good idea.

They should have left a while ago.

I’ve never heard of this before.

Here’s a smart idea.

This would just be mean.

Everyone in this story sounds awful.

Takes one to know one I guess.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.