Imagine living in a rental house owned by a landlord who doesn’t repair anything and doesn’t reimburse you when you repair anything. Would you keep living there and keep fixing everything yourself, or would you move out and find a landlord who actually does his job and owns a decent property?

In this story, one man is in this situation, and he eventually decides to move out, but the situation gets worse, to the point where he decides to move out earlier than he had originally planned. Thankfully, his new landlord sounds awesome, and he had friends and even a lawyer who helped him out.

But the slumlord proved to be extra crazy, and things just kept getting crazier after the tenant moved out. It’s really bizarre how far this slumlord went to basically get revenge on himself without realizing it.

Let’s read all about it.

Greasy Landlord gets his

I needed a place to stay and did not have much of a choice in the matter. The price and location were right so I had to rent from this slumlord.

The Landlord

He is a self proclaimed “Handy Man”. He drove a gutted out junk pile of a van filled with cheeseburger wrappers and junk.

Acted less than interested in any of my problems as a tenant (I went through 3 fridges (used ones, not new of course), Hundreds in groceries, Lost a bunch of clothing and furniture when the house flooded twice in one week, there was a faint but constant smell of natural gas, the furnace only worked when you lit the pilot light (which you had to do every time you wanted heat in the winter), and half a freaking tree that landed on the roof during a storm, but was never removed).

OP sounds like a great tenant.

Me

Minnesotan (tend to be too God Damn nice at times), ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS pay my rent on time, Took care of all of the utilities and general upkeep (mowed, shoveled snow, cleaned the lawn, etc etc) of the property during my tenancy.

Good Tenant

I have too many stories about this cat, but I’ll get to the revenge part of this.

Moving seemed easy enough, at first.

I had finally had enough and I had decided to move out of this slum. I had lost thousands in my own money to use on the upkeep of the property (since the Landlord had no intention on helping me ever).

I had found a new place and had told my Landlord the news when I handed him a check for a month and a half and told him that I would be moving out in a set number of days.

We agreed and it seemed to go quite well.

Not so fast. It wasn’t nearly that easy.

This is when all of the trash really started running downhill.

He showed up in my apartment one day, unannounced, and was looking for something. To this day, I don’t know what, but I confronted him and he ran out of my apartment like he had been just caught snooping in a woman’s panty drawer.

Then when I am at work he starts leaving me this really creepy messages, saying I didn’t pay him rent and that I have been destroying the property.

I brush it off, take a few days off of work, and move out of my place after I call my new Landlord explaining my dilemma.

The new landlord sounds amazing to let OP move in early.

My new Landlord agrees to let me move in early free of charge, AWESOME.

I move out and get a couple of friends to help me DEEP clean the place (its amazing what you can buy with a case of beer and some pizza). We clean the place and its spotless.

After we finish, I get this weird feeling and I take pictures. Tons and tons of pictures of every room.

Feeling content, we pack up the rest, lock the doors and leave. We had a good night and I bought pizza and beer for my friends that came out to help.

The slumlord eventually noticed that OP was no longer there.

A couple days go by and Slumlord Larry calls and asks where I went.

I explained that I really wanted to move and I worked out a situation with my new Landlord that would allow me to move in early.

He started shouting at me on the phone, going off about how I still owe him money and I couldn’t terminate my lease (which there was no such thing by the way, just a verbal agreement and the exchange of money.).

I had enough of his business and I hung up.

It wasn’t over.

A month goes by, I hear nothing from the Slumlord.

Then, all of a sudden, I get a certified letter from him in the mail along with some pictures (how in the HECK did he get my new address, I think to myself).

I open the letter and dude is going to try and freaking sue me. Stating that I damaged his property (with supposed pictorial evidence) and for the neat sum of $5,000 dollars it would all go away and we would not need to take it to court.

I say forget this and I call up my parents to get the number for their lawyer.

The lawyer had some great advice.

I explain everything to him and tell him about the pictures I saved. i ask my Lawyer if there is anything that I could do about this. I’m steaming and I want blood.

My Lawyer laughed it off and told me to go check and see if the property was listed under a rental property in the city that I lived in.

The next day I go down to the government center and I find out that the Slumlord does not have it listed as anything other than residential. I turn him in and I also find out that the property cannot be rented and a permit for someone to even come look at the property to make sure it was up to code (in the county I lived in) was $5,000.

Jubilant would not even begin to describe my mood at this time. I was “White Guy” celebrating the heck out of the lobby.

This is crazy!

I call my lawyer as I am leaving the government center and tell him the good news.

As I am leaving town I decide to drive past my place and see if anyone is living there.

As I pass, I can’t believe my freaking eyeballs. I see the Slumlord and a buddy of his “Toothless Dave” outside the house DESTROYING the siding.

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I also see that they had messed up every exterior part of the house to try and pin their misdeeds on me.

He eventually found out what happened to the house.

MONTHS go by, I hear nothing, my Lawyer hears nothing (despite multiple tries to contact Slumlord. At this point, I am filled with an overwhelming sense of joy as I stuck it to that loser.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!!!

I was telling this story to a buddy of mine at work one day and he knew exactly what house I was talking about. His dad is the county building inspector and he was telling me about how is dad had stated that the property was so damaged that the house was to be condemned.

All I’m left thinking about is what did he do to that freaking place to condemn it after I moved out.

Yikes! That landlord was crazy!

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a tenant who walked away from their lease after the landlord hassled them over renting month-to-month.

Let’s see what Reddit thought of this story.

It checks all the boxes.

Here are some pro tips.

This is a good point.

Here’s a good suggestion!

That slumlord really messed up! Destroying his own home was absolutely a crazy thing to do. Although, that last comment makes a good point about insurance. It’s possible that the landlord ended up getting an insurance payout. That’s definitely something worth OP looking into as a follow-up for revenge.

But let’s not let the slumlord’s crazy ways overshadow the good in this story. OP’s friends were there for him to help him move in exchange for pizza and beer, and those are the best kinds of friends. And, let’s not forget about the new landlord who let’s him move in a little early for free. I have trouble wrapping my mind around the idea of a landlord agreeing to do that! That guy sounds amazing!

If there’s a lesson here, it’s to always take pictures, and it doesn’t hurt to ask a lawyer for advice. In fact, it can be game changing!

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a tenant who decided to stop returning his neighbor’s misplaced laundry after two years.