Renters in America are running out of options

Most of my life, I lived in apartments. Almost all my landlords were utterly horrible people.

Maybe that is just in my economic strata...which has mostly been poverty.

Maybe wealthy folks who pay big rent get treated much better, I don't know.
 
Oh, here's a fun one.

Come back to my apartment.

There is a 3' X 3' hole in my wall!!!

Called the landlord. He said that one of his workers got stuck in the basement and had to cut a hole in my wall to get out.

Can't make that up. Plus, it was said with disdain, like "well, we just had to do it, what's the problem?"

Almost all my landlords illegally entered my apartments at some point.

One apartment was two blocks from a street with a lot of gunfire (not joking). Upstairs neighbor was a kid about 16, who already had 30 arrests as a juvenile. Gals across the hall...both of their boyfriends were drug dealers (who carried guns).

And I lived in that place for 7 years.

Mind you, I literally had cousins who are millionaires. Not one lifted a single finger. And, all that time, in addition to everything else, I was also in horrible health, dangerous health. Did not lift a single finger to help. Not one, not once.

Really, many of the disabled folks in this country are treated like trash. Eventually it really starts to feel like people would rather you just die and stop annoying them by being alive.

And, well, a bunch of disabled folks do commit suicide from all the disdain and mistreatment.
 

I rented houses most of my life. I never really wanted to buy one. I have dealt with a few anal pore land lords. I tended to cut them some slack though. They have a hard row to hoe dealing with some renters. Late rent, general complaints and such.
 
oldpop said:
I rented houses most of my life. I never really wanted to buy one. I have dealt with a few anal pore land lords. I tended to cut them some slack though. They have a hard row to hoe dealing with some renters. Late rent, general complaints and such.
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Oh, I tried, I tried, I tried. I would actually clean up the property, even parts that were not connected to my apartment. I would do as many minor repairs as I could, and not ask for compensation.

One place, the downstairs neighbor was the landlord's mother. I was very very nice to her. She got dementia, called the police on me. I did not even complain, just asked if she was ok.

And, just did not matter how hard I tried to do right, when push came to shove, I was just a dollar amount to these people.

Truly, I don't know how folks can live with themselves, the kind of stuff they pull.

You know, I am German on my father's side. I have that German thing, of hating to be late.

Not only did I always pay the rent on time...sometimes I would pay a few months in advance. That was not really to be extra nice to the landlord, more just to allow myself to write out less checks and take care of "business" easier. But still. It certainly benefited them to get paid in advance.

Still treated us terribly.

Oh, I get that many tenants are terrible. Is that somehow my fault? Is it the landlord's right to treat me terribly, because of the behavior of others? Everything is about them. It's all me, me, me, me. They could care less about anyone but themselves.
 
Ruthanne said:
Didn't watch the video yet but ive always rented and mostly had landlords from hell. Not sure about the current one yet, they just took it over last September.we shall see soon
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Yup, that's the way it goes. Thanks for backing me up. I think that people who have not had the bad ones, tend to doubt they are really that bad.
 
JonSR77 said:
And I lived in that place for 7 years.

Mind you, I literally had cousins who are millionaires. Not one lifted a single finger. And, all that time, in addition to everything else, I was also in horrible health, dangerous health. Did not lift a single finger to help. Not one, not once.

Really, many of the disabled folks in this country are treated like trash. Eventually it really starts to feel like people would rather you just die and stop annoying them by being alive.

And, well, a bunch of disabled folks do commit suicide from all the disdain and mistreatment.
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I have noticed that when someone has a real problem, their much wealthier relatives don't step up to help. I don't count myself in that category, thanks to my cousin.

I've had 2 landlords in the past 13 years. Rent on each house was $1,000. Both landlords were terrific.
 
WheatenLover said:
I have noticed that when someone has a real problem, their much wealthier relatives don't step up to help. I don't count myself in that category, thanks to my cousin.
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Thanks for responding, I appreciate it. So, I guess it is a "thing," right? What is it? I mean, I really don't get it.

I am not talking about bankrupting people. I am talking about very very basic stuff, oh, like...hey, it's been a cold winter, do you have an old blanket that you are not using? I literally knew examples, where I asked if there were some old items that they were going to throw out anyway. And they refused to give them to me. And then, two months later, they threw them out. Literally.

What is it with people?

Are they paranoid that they think you are trying to scam them?

I don't get it.
 
I took my family into family counseling. It did calm them down a bit, but not much. Things like I mentioned above...to, say, give me stuff they were going to throw out anyway...I was able to make progress with some issues like that.

Or, say, my knee was going out a lot and my knee brace was old. A new one was $15 and I asked if they could throw me $15. They said no, then two months later they were literally on a ski vacation in Colorado.

I mean...$15? Really? And for a knee brace, not a cocktail...

That is not a precise incident, but it gives a feel for the type of things that happened.

Oh, here's a good one. Driving home from visiting my dying grandmother...my brother is driving me home. Radio is loud, his kid is crying a lot...and I am talking about the news on the radio. Just out of the blue, my brother punches me in the back of the head. You know, because that is what you do when you want someone to shut up. You don't say, "hey, the radio is loud, please turn it down. Or, the baby is crying a lot, could we talk about this later?" Nope, you just clock someone in the head. And we weren't teens at the time. We were both in our early 30s.

I was very angry with him. And, at the time, in a physical fight, I would have done some real damage. But he was my Dad's kid, so I could not hit him. So, exiting the car, I punched the door. He goes to me, "you know, you could cause a dent doing that."

This guy just punched me in the head, but I am the guilty one?
 
JonSR77 said:
I took my family into family counseling. It did calm them down a bit, but not much. Things like I mentioned above...to, say, give me stuff they were going to throw out anyway...I was able to make progress with some issues like that.

Or, say, my knee was going out a lot and my knee brace was old. A new one was $15 and I asked if they could throw me $15. They said no, then two months later they were literally on a ski vacation in Colorado.

I mean...$15? Really? And for a knee brace, not a cocktail...

That is not a precise incident, but it gives a feel for the type of things that happened.

Oh, here's a good one. Driving home from visiting my dying grandmother...my brother is driving me home. Radio is loud, his kid is crying a lot...and I am talking about the news on the radio. Just out of the blue, my brother punches me in the back of the head. You know, because that is what you do when you want someone to shut up. You don't say, "hey, the radio is loud, please turn it down. Or, the baby is crying a lot, could we talk about this later?" Nope, you just clock someone in the head. And we weren't teens at the time. We were both in our early 30s.

I was very angry with him. And, at the time, in a physical fight, I would have done some real damage. But he was my Dad's kid, so I could not hit him. So, exiting the car, I punched the door. He goes to me, "you know, you could cause a dent doing that."

This guy just punched me in the head, but I am the guilty one?
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Sorry he was so do rude.
 
Edit: Owners want far too much rent money for run down and bug riddled apartments. Plus they don't want to have things repaired by professionals. They want to do it themselves which doesn't always go well.
 
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At this point in my life, renting is the best option for me.

I've had good luck with outdated no-frills apartment buildings in gritty neighborhoods.

I've been in my current two-bedroom apartment since 2010, and the rent has been raised by $15.00/month during that time.

I'm confident that if things change, I will be able to find another apartment with limited appeal to others that will suit me just fine.

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I moved into my apartment in 2018 and I still love it. My rent goes up a little bit every year but not that much. We have a maintenance man so when something needs fixing he does it. Pretty quickly too. The rent in this building is based on your income and I don't see that going up too much since it is SS.
 
katlupe said:
I moved into my apartment in 2018 and I still love it. My rent goes up a little bit every year but not that much. We have a maintenance man so when something needs fixing he does it. Pretty quickly too. The rent in this building is based on your income and I don't see that going up too much since it is SS.
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Ditto.
I moved into my current apartment in Spring 2018. It's a nice, fairly new apartment complex.. the rent has inched up slowly, but it's manageable, and compares to others in the area.

Maintenance Mgr. and his crew are the best. They stay on top of any issues.
They even checked out my A/C unit last month before I even asked for a yearly check-up.
 
I rented a place in a converted home into 8 apts. The owner had his gas shut off for nonpayment in the middle of January. So he hooked up the boiler to my gas line. My gas bill went from $1.25/month to $400. What amazed me was he didn't think I'd notice.
I lived in NYC. There apts. are super small. My present living room was the size of my entire apt. in NYC.
 
Bonnie said:
Ditto.
I moved into my current apartment in Spring 2018. It's a nice, fairly new apartment complex.. the rent has inched up slowly, but it's manageable, and compares to others in the area.

Maintenance Mgr. and his crew are the best. They stay on top of any issues.
They even checked out my A/C unit last month before I even asked for a yearly check-up.
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Every year we have a yearly inspection and they ask while here what you need repaired or have problems with and then make notes. Within a couple of months they fix those things. The year before I got a brand new refrigerator, much bigger than my old one. This year a new modern toilet. If anything needs repairs during the year, just fill out a form and leave it at his door and then he takes care of it.
 
Here in the Province of Ontario, rental amounts are Government controlled. This year the maximum allowed rent increase is THREE percent per year. My Wife and I own a two story house. We have renovated the basement into a one bedroom suite, with a private entrance, and the second floor is a 2 bedroom suite, also with a private entrance. We live on the main floor. The combined monthly rental income is enough to cover our home insurance, utility bills, city property tax, and put a small amount into our "fix it account ". We own the house outright with no mortgage.

Our 3 tenants are all well educated professionals who we carefully vetted before offering them a space here. Our rental amounts are about 15 percent lower than comparable places in our Toronto neighbourhood. One of our contractual requirements is that the tenants must purchase their own "renters insurance policy " with a $25,000 coverage. We insure the house, they insure their contents and valuables. The house has a all floor fire sprinkler system, plus a hard wired fire and smoke alarm system, and a C O 2 monitor on each floor. We have a list of 5 people who would move here if one of the current tenants should decide to move. JimB.
 

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