It never ceases to amaze me how many slumlords are still out there.

It seems like such an outdated term, but here we are and it seems there are just as many horrible landlords as ever.

Today, we’re gonna go back in time to the early 1990s for a Reddit story about how a guy got some petty revenge on a bad landlord.

Check out what happened!

Won’t give me my deposit back..ok.. Hello, fire department?

“Back in 1993, I lived in an old house in Vancouver’s east side. Big old houses that were later split up into little apartments. This place had 6 units. I had very convenient access to my apartment via an outside staircase that served as the fire escape.

At first the landlord was pretty cool. He gave me access to a leaky old garage out back. At 24 y’o, I patched the roof and hauled a ton of furniture that had been left by former tenants. I did this for free, and he never charged me extra in rent for it.

But things changed…

A year plus later, the landlord is beginning to be a jerk to my roommates and myself because I kept pointing out problems within my unit. I point out that the outside staircase, that climbs 3 flights up is pulling away from the house…(there’s even a ladder from that point that went to the attic unit). It wasn’t safe.

He told me not to use it and use the front door and use the inside staircase. Eventually, we couldn’t stand his constant bull **** and gave him our one-month notice. I cleaned everything, brought in a carpet cleaner. The apartment was left as mint as it could be.

He was unhappy about this.

He refused to give me my deposit back. He states “that’s for the garage. I’m not giving it back” I was choked. I had been a good tenant. Paying on time. This came out of the blue. This was unfair. He had never asked for extra $ for the garage, nothing.

“Ok…Greg.. ( yeah that was his name)… fine” If he wasn’t going to return what was rightfully mine, he was going to pay my deposit to someone, guaranteed. And he sure did.

He got busy…

Revenge 1 )

I called the fire department, and formally complained about the fire escape. Told them how much space there was between them and the house. How you could see them flex as you used them. They were very interested. I put my name in it. I was legit. No anonymous bull ****.

All the tenants had been friendly, some were true friends and buddies. The old guy, Mike, in the basement was a car guy like me and he had a stall in the garage (no charge either) We were tight. He didn’t like Greg much either.

He kept in touch and invites me over to his place months later, still in the basement. His door at the foot of a brand-spanking new fire escape.

“Well look at that. Greg had to fork out for a new staircase” I smirked. Mike knew I had called the FD.

Oh that’s not half of it, Mike explains.

Whoa!

Greg was such a belligerent jerk that when bylaws came to visit, he got himself arrested! The cops came, cuffed him and put him in a paddy wagon! He got a massive fine and ordered to fix his stairs. That cost him over $16,000 .. which was a lot back then.

You could not believe the satisfaction I felt.

But it’s not over yet.. a little icing on cake.

There was more!

Revenge 2 but not of my doing:

My roommates really didn’t like Greg. And by some sort of alignment of the stars, they rented an upper floor apartment together that was directly across the street from where Greg actually lived. Parking in the neighborhood was all street parking.

Greg parked in an unfortunate spot one night, unfortunate for his car, as on that night a watermelon fell from the sky.

$16,000 > $400 .. sure it was petty revenge but I probably kept future tenants from dying by collapsing stairs or being stuck in a burning house.”

Reddit users shared their thoughts.

This person was impressed.

Another individual spoke up.

This reader shared their thoughts.

You gotta love it when a slumlord gets what’s coming to them!

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.