If you live in a rental property, you exist in a strange reality in which sure this is your home, but it isn’t really your home.

And that precariousness – knowing that the landlord could evict you, could order renovations, could inspect the property – understandably makes people jumpy, especially if it comes out of the blue.

That’s why protocols and legal precedents are in place to make sure that, when a tenancy is legally observed, landlords can’t just pop round, nor can they evict you with no notice, without cause.

But when the landlords in this story went to visit their property, they were surprised to see what was going on there, even with a long-held inspection appointment.

Read on to find out how they offended their tenant by reacting to what they’d found.

AITA for putting our health before our tenant’s honor?

Three weeks ago, my girlfriend and I went to our rental apartment to see our tenant, because we have some renovations planned and wanted to get an overview.

We had an appointment for this.

Beyond that, my girlfriend wanted to see the apartment from the inside anyway, since the tenant, an old good friend of mine, has been getting into more and more trouble.

He was never the cleanest person, but we had heard that the apartment was increasingly turning into a hoarder’s den.

And it became quickly clear that there was reason for their concern.

When we arrived, she was immediately surprised because it smelled strongly of formaldehyde.

Even though we had an appointment, the tenant and his dad were just setting up a very cheap cabinet that was likely full of solvents.

What many don’t know is that there are limit values for harmful solvents in furniture within the EU, but there are none for goods imported from non-EU countries!

We know that most people here will think that if it were harmful, it wouldn’t be allowed to be sold in Germany, but that’s not the case. This isn’t about the normal smell of new, cheap cabinets; it smelled worse than a medical school anatomy course.

So the couple decided to take action.

Since we had to stay in the apartment for a while, my girlfriend decided to drive home quickly to get a mask that protects against such fumes.

We then took the cabinet apart together, because we had offered my former friend to buy a different one.

We ourselves pay attention to maximum health compatibility with everything, and before we have months of fumes in our apartment, we’d rather buy him a new one.

Among other things, we also wanted to pick up a TV that I wanted to buy from him.

But then the couple’s actions started to unsettle the tenant.

In the meantime (or rather, before taking apart the cabinet) my girlfriend had also put on yellow cleaning gloves.

This is partly because she simply finds him disgusting (and always has), and also because she found an old, dried-up booger on the TV.

Since she knows exactly what he watches on that TV besides normal movies, the decision to put on cleaning gloves was clear for her from the beginning.

He got massively upset about her outfit, felt disrespected, and started an argument.

Let’s see how the man responded to the drama between his tenant and his girlfriend.

When it comes to the mask, there’s no discussion for me. We can argue about the gloves, but I think others would have kicked him out long ago.

Nevertheless, I understand that it humiliates him that people from a completely different social class appear so “provocatively” in his space and practically protect themselves from things that are part of his daily life.

I would also feel bad if someone wanted to protect themselves from my furniture.

Were we wrong for putting our health and well-being before his honor, thus possibly humiliating him?

AITA?

This couple are absolutely not wrong for protecting them from what they considered a health hazard – and cleaning another person’s home, particularly given the presence of harmful chemicals, is a situation in which it’s definitely okay to don protection.

But if this guy’s girlfriend thought the tenant was so disgusting, you have to wonder why she decided to go to the apartment in the first place.

They’re right to be visiting for an inspection if they have concerns, and it seems like their concerns could be warranted – but they need to be sensitive to the fact that this is the place where he lives too.

Let’s see what folks on Reddit had to say about this.

This person agreed they were quite right to wear gloves.

While other Redditors suggested that the tenant might have felt embarrassed.

Meanwhile, this person thought that the couple were out of order during the inspection.

It’s difficult to be respectful of someone while clearly thinking that they are gross, and the girlfriend didn’t do a good job of not showing her disgust for the tenant.

And it’s also difficult to know where the line is – the apartment is the couple’s property, and as landlords they have a right to maintain it and request it is kept to a certain standard.

But the apartment is also the tenant’s home, and he is allowed – within reason – to live there in whatever way he is most comfortable.

Perhaps he’s embarrassed about the way he’s living, or perhaps the couple really did make him feel like they were looking down on him, but there’s one thing for sure – this situation doesn’t seem to be working.

Something needs to change.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.