Imagine renting an apartment with some friends, and you have a nice front porch where you like to relax.

What would you do if you came home and the furniture on your front porch was missing?

That’s what happened to the renters in this story, and now they’re on a mission to try to get the furniture back.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

“No indoor furniture on the front porch as of NOW”

For the past few months my housemates and I have had a futon on our front porch. We all use it every day when we let out our dogs, smoke a cigarette, read a book, etc.

Nowhere in any of our leases does it state we aren’t allowed to have porch furniture and it has never been an issue until recently.

About 2 weeks ago we noticed that my roommates gaming chair had gone missing.

This chair has been on the porch for at least a year without issue.

They found out who took it.

Charles, one of the house mates, mentioned that our jerk landlord Mike (jerk for a variety of reasons, including not caring that we didn’t have a working shower for 2 months) had taken it because he wanted to clean the porch.

Cut to yesterday and now the entire futon is gone.

No warning, verbal or written, was given to us about having to move the futon for cleaning so I messaged the landlord.

What note?

The conversation went like this (I’m Me and AL is awful landlord):

Me: “Hi Mike. Wondering if you’d like us to move our other belongings off/away from the porch? Assuming you’re painting or something and that’s why you removed our futon and chair; when do you think we will be getting those items back?”

AL: “My note was for everyone to have there personal things off the porch and labeled in the basement. So I could have things cleaned up around there. Any thing left I said I would get rid of. I gave everyone a couple of weeks to do this. The city does not allow padded indoor furniture to be outside on the property. Your futon is in the shed. If you would like it back it needs to be inside your apartment.”

There was no note left. For any one of the tenants in the 4-plex.

He wasn’t going to trust anything the landlord said.

The shed is pad locked with my futon held hostage inside it. Which was outside as it was my porch furniture at my last (small) apartment in this same city/county with no issue.

Also notice he doesn’t say where the chair has disappeared to.

So I called up the local city building inspector – Dan – and asked if there truly is a code about padded porch furniture.

Dan asks who my landlord is and when I tell him Mike, Dan says he has gotten calls about this from Mike’s tenants before.

Dan also said that there isn’t an official code, it’s more something they try to enforce as upholstered indoor furniture being outside there’s potential of it getting wet, which can cause mold.

Dan seems quite helpful.

This I understand.

I inform him that the deck is covered with a roof so it rarely gets wet, the pad is removable just like any other porch furniture, and I didnt see the issue.

That’s when Dan said: “Hey, you’ve got an argument kid, use it. If you can remove and/or cover the pad so it doesn’t get wet then I can make an exception. Tell your landlord you talked to Dan and if he has questions he can contact me.”

They have a plan.

So right now I’m devising a plan with my house mates.

We are thinking if we pull the futon pad up behind the frame so its up against the house and cover it with plastic (like an old shower curtain) then we are in compliance with the city “code” and my jerk landlord will have to release my futon from being held hostage in his locked shed.

Not entirely sure how to tackle the last bit of compliance but will update when it happens!

A shower curtain sounds like a good idea or even a shower curtain liner. Those can be pretty inexpensive. But what about the chair?

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

A shower curtain may not be good enough.

They could take a completely different approach.

Yes, it sounds like he’s formulating a plan.

They have a horrible landlord.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.