If you were living in a rental unit, and if your renal unit had a rule that you couldn’t operate a business out of the unit, would you consider it a business if you were providing a free service out of your rental, or would that be an exception to the rules?

In this story, a renter and her landlady disagree about this rule, but when a friend’s lawyer dad gets involved, they find out something that completely changes how the story plays out.

Let’s read all about it.

Always Respect Your Rent Agreement

3 years ago, I was in college studying business with a minor in photography. I had aspirations of becoming a freelance photographer.

While attending college, I was renting the basement of a house from a woman who lived near the college. She and I got along great up until this dispute.

The basement of this house had an extra room that I wasn’t using. It was a small room but big enough, I had decided, to turn into a home studio. So I set up my studio lighting set and backdrop and began advertising my services.

I was working for free as I wanted to build a portfolio and I figured that was the best way to attract people who would let me use their photos. Basically the deal was, I’ll take your photo with professional equipment free of charge as long as you sign a contract that says I can include the photo in my portfolio.

The landlady didn’t like this setup.

Landlady eventually started to notice that I had guests a few times a week, and that it was rarely the same people more than once. So, she asks what that’s about.

Fair enough. I explain it to her and suddenly she flips her lid.

Says I’m in violation of my contract because the rent agreement says that I’m not allowed to run a business from the basement. She tells me if I don’t tear down the studio and stop immediately she’ll evict me.

The landlady wasn’t completely honest with OP.

One of my friends at the college is studying law because her father owns a small firm and she wants to inherit the business. So, I brought the rent agreement to her father to make my case. It says I can’t run a business, but a free service is not business.

He agrees and says he’ll see what he can do for me.

In his research he finds out she is actually renting the whole house from someone else and is subletting to me. My rent agreement has a clause that prohibits subletting and, while he didn’t have a copy of the agreement she signed with the actual owner, he figures hers probably did too.

He eventually managed to find out who the actual owner of the house is and lets me know.

Now, it’s getting good!

Now, keep in mind, I don’t actually know whether she’s prohibited from subletting so I would have no reason to avoid contacting him. I sent him an email asking for permission to continue running my studio free of charge.

The very next day, he comes to the house and absolutely loses it on her. Saying she violated her contract, that she needs to find a new place to live, and that he’s going to sue her.

And the best part?

He let me stay and let me keep my studio. Also, he used my services a few times for himself.

I love that the actual owner of the house let OP stay and even used her photography studio setup! That’s a great ending to the story.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

Here’s a somewhat similar situation with a different ending.

This person got a discount on their rent.

This is a good question.

Here’s the real lesson.

This is true.

If you’re hiding something, don’t give anyone a reason to dig up dirt.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.