She Paid Rent to the “Master Tenant” in a Rental Home—Then Discovered the Neighbors Were Hostile and the Master Tenant Was Running an Illegal Sublet Scam
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When you have a landlord or roommate who you don’t get along with, life can be made miserable.
That is what happened to the young lady in this story when she had to quickly move into a bedroom in a home with very little notice.
While things started off fine, she quickly discovered that her roommates and especially the landlord (who also lived there) were awful.
Read through all she went through in the story below and see what you think she should have done.
My manic master tenant kept opening my mail, going into my room without any notice or permission & made my move out process miserable.
I moved into a house with two couples in February of this year after my studio apartment had mold, and my landlords refused to acknowledge it.
Having to move suddenly like this is terrible.
Due to the mold, I was extremely sick and most of my home belongings, like my mattress, furniture, kitchen items that kind of thing were all ruined.
I had to move very suddenly and I had found a place on Facebook not that far from where I was living with a private bedroom in a house that had a lot of cool amenities.
I signed my sublease with one of the roommates who was the master tenant and her boyfriend’s father was the property owner.
They aren’t the best roommates; that’s for sure.
The first few months it was OK. I had noticed the master tenant’s girlfriend and boyfriend were constantly fighting so loudly (1-4x a week) that I would have to turn on the air or leave the house or sleep with headphones, but I tried to reason with it that it was not a big deal because it wasn’t my business and wasn’t directly involving me.
The consistently tense energy was definitely impacting me, but I was trying to be empathetic. Other issues included pretty common kitchen issues where I was often taking out the trash and recycling when I had made usually less than 10% of that trash and it was overflowing all day/weekend while I was out at work and they were home and avoiding taking it out.
She is trying to make things work.
Nonetheless, I made sure to communicate politely and clearly in our group chat and made a constant effort to be open to anything they had to say about me as a roommate.
I noticed a lot of passive aggression in their communication styles, which I could understand because they were a few years younger than me, but I still kept my cool and stayed solution oriented in our conversations.
Why would she throw away her mail like this?
The master tenant roommate also continuously opened my mail that was directly addressed to me “by accident.” One time I was taking out the kitchen recycling, and when I dumped everything from the bin, I noticed a letter for me at the bottom that was opened and hidden under all of the junk mail.
I texted our group chat saying hey guys I’m not sure why this was here but if you accidentally opened my mail, please just give it to me and she admitted yet again that it was her and that it was “by accident.”
Honestly, this ‘master roommate’ is way out of line.
Everything came to a boiling point the first week of August after they began accusing my cats of misbehaving, despite no one seeing it was from my 2 cats, and their other 2 cats in the house having a long history of it wey before I moved in that they told me about a few times early in my tenancy there.
Because of that, I felt I had no choice but to keep my cats in my room 24/7, even if I was home, until I got to my new living situation this past week.
I was still open to trying to find a solution in this living situation until the master tenant roommate went into my room while I was not home (this is not the first time), let out my cats, and went all the way into my room and opened my curtains and turned off my fan that I had on for my cats.
They just aren’t making this easy.
I know was her because I never once touched the curtains and she later admitted it to me in text.
Fast-forward to now: I just fully moved out. I have only communicated with the master tenant over text or email for the last few weeks, and she has given me misleading, inconsistent, and inaccurate information about the move out process that she contradicts herself in writing, often just days or weeks before.
How did she not notice she was being overcharged?
I noticed that she had been overcharging my monthly rent, and at this point probably calculated to at least $1100 in the seven months I was there for the listed house amenities on the sublease, which I could only come up to barely less than half of the overcharges each month, and she would not tell me what the remaining $164/month was for.
I tried to find a replacement for me in the house and reached out to over 20 people and no one wanted to take it. At this point, I’m glad that I was not involved in bringing someone else into the house because it’s become so clear to me that this is a very unsafe toxic environment.
It is good that she is trying to handle this like a mature adult.
The master tenant roommate started sending me unprovoked, hostile texts that attacked my character and were clearly large projections of her own unhappiness in her relationship in her life.
To this day, I never once disrespect, disrespected her in any way in our communication. I kept it very matter of fact and very formal. This was very hard to do, but I knew that it wasn’t worth letting this person take me out of my character.
Come on, just let her go.
When I went to drop off my keys yesterday, I emailed her earlier yesterday before I did that there was a USPS change of address letter going to the house that was not actually addressed to my name, but I screenshotted the USPS email I received with the exact scanned front of letter showing that that letter was for me specifically.
She replied and said it wasn’t my mail, and I had no right to claim it despite my evidence, and when I went to pick up the keys later on, she had already opened the letter.
It isn’t a bad idea to report her.
There are so many other things that she did that were super illegal, and I am so glad that I am officially done with that very awful living situation, but I do want to know if it’s worth it to report some of these illegal activities anywhere.
At this point, I don’t really feel I want to do it for my sake, but more for whoever comes after me and may want to live there. I don’t want anyone to have that experience— especially a woman younger than me that may not be as familiar with the legalities of tenant rights in California and may have a harder time advocating for herself.
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Not much would happen from a report like this.
I really don’t use this term often, but unfortunately, these people in the house were master manipulators, and I started to question my own sanity for a while too, and I do not want anyone else to have to experience that if they don’t have to.
Is it worth reporting the mail opening or anything else to the authorities? I would love some insight.
That sounds like a nightmare, and I’m glad that she got out of it. If the only illegal stuff that happened was the mail opening, I don’t think she should pursue it. If there was something more, however, it is worth looking into.
Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say.
Now this is a great idea.
Only if she could prove it.
Here is someone who says to report the landlord.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a neighbor who wants their shed gone, and won’t listen to any arguments.
This commenter thinks she should report it to the authorities.
It is good that she got out of that house because things would have only gotten worse. If there is anything she can do to protect future tenants, she should do it.
That being said, it is unlikely that she will be able to prove that the landlord broken any laws, so it might not be worth the effort.
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