Living in an apartment building comes with its challenges in the best of circumstances, but when the landlord fails to do even basic upkeep, it can be a nightmare.

That was the situation that the people in this story were in, so when a potential new tenant asked one of them what he thought of the apartment, he was completely honest with her. Not surprisingly, this drove that person away and several others as well.

The roommate who was honest thinks he was helping them to avoid living in such terrible conditions, but his partner says he should have lied and said that the apartment was fine. He claims it was wrong to mess with the landlord’s livelihood.

Read on to grab the full details and see which of the two people you think is right.

AITA for telling possible neighbors how bad this apartment is?

So I (28F) am in a slumlord situation and my lease is up in June.

Landlords really can be the worst in certain areas.

My landlord has refused to fix many things wrong with this apartment.

There is a roach infestation, bad wiring, windows that don’t shut (Or open), leaks in the roof, no heat for the winter, and no air conditioning for the summer.

This really is not a safe living condition.

We live in Alabama. I have a partner (35M) and two young children (both 7F).

Today I noticed that the landlord has an open house for the apartment above mine. All day, there have been possible neighbors coming to see the open units.

I bet those potential new tenants hated that.

My dog barks LOUD and REPEATEDLY when he hears someone pull up into our parking space and when he hears people talking outside.

He started barking as someone had pulled into our parking space (I can tell the difference between his barks) and I went to open the door, thinking it was my partner. It wasn’t.

She asked him for his opinion, he was honest. There is certainly nothing wrong with that.

It was a young woman looking at the apartment upstairs. She asked me candidly “How do you like living here?” so I told her the truth.

She was horrified and left right away. This has happened about three times total, and I’ve told the truth each time I’ve been asked.

No way. He would be messing with the potential tenant’s entire life by not warning them.

I just talked on the phone with my partner who is at work and he said it was an AH move of me to “mess with the owner’s money” by warning possible future tenants.

So I’m here to ask this. Was I wrong for telling them the truth? Or should I have just grinned and said “it’s fine” and let them find out like we did?

AITA?

No way, this guy saved those tenants from months of heartache and problems. If the landlord wants to make money, he should keep his apartments in at least livable condition. It really isn’t that hard. This guy did what all decent people should do.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a son who is left wondering how to hold up a collapsing fence while his dad runs for the nails.

Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say about this story.

They don’t owe the landlord a thing, that’s for sure.

He has no reason to help the landlord.

Now this is a genius idea.

The landlord is the jerk in this story, that’s for sure.

This commenter thinks he did the right thing.

I can’t imagine what his partner is thinking. They don’t owe this awful slumlord a thing, and certainly not loyalty. If the landlord wanted tenants to give the apartments a good review, he should keep it in good condition.

Lying to potential tenants is just wrong, and could set them up for issues with them if they do move in. How would his partner feel if new neighbors move in, realize how awful it is, and then blame these two for lying about it. At the end of the day, this guy was honest, and that is a good thing.