In case no one's reminded you recently, go ahead and test the batteries in your smoke alarms ! Don't roll your eyes: it seems minor, but it could save your life. You might not need to check your smoke detector if it goes off every single time you cook. Then you know it's working! But heaven forbid there was ever a fire in the middle of the night, that detector would be loud enough to wake you so you could get outside to safety. It's not the kind of thing you should neglect, as u/tdlm40 knows af…

Warning: Hilarious Katsaridaphobia triggers ahead.

The problem with renting is that no matter how long you've lived somewhere, you never know when your landlord might ask you to leave or serve you a notice to vacate. Outside of maybe some mutual respect, there's really nothing giving you the security that you have when you live in your own home. At that point, only the bank will come after you if you default on your mortgage. Even if you've had a long-standing good relationship, there's no telling when your landlord might flip their switch—as i…

Landlords really do not seem to care about leaning into the parody versions of themselves. Every summer, I cringe at the lease renewal process that I have to undergo in order to argue my way out of a ridiculous rent increase. The worst part of it all is that most landlords I have had to interact with are not even savvy negotiators, yet the desperation to not have to move always ends up taking over. Here, we have a couple of tenants who were specifically told by their landlord that he would be d…

Is it smart or unethical to use squatter and tenant rights against squatters?

It's hard to respect thy neighbor when thy neighbor is asking for it. Here, we have two Karens living in the neighboring apartment who were practically begging for some petty revenge. Not only did they frequently park their car in such a way that blocked this Redditor's driveway, but also they ignored the numerous attempts and requests for them to amend their behavior. Things escalated pretty quickly when the Redditor found the notes they left for the Karen nuisances back on their doorstep. The…

The 'World's Worst Landlord' Award goes to...

This is what your rent money goes to

Don't mess with college kids–what they lack in financial resources, they make up for in social alliances.

Having a fully grown adult crash on your couch for weeks on end can be wildly frustrating. Sure, it's fine for a night or two. Maybe it's even fine for a week if the circumstances behind the situation have been rough. But if you live in a tiny apartment as is and this person becomes nothing more than an inconvenience, then Houston, we have a problem. Now, what about a couch surfer who stays with you for months and repeatedly trashes your place, only to leave a ton of their belongings behind aft…

Let's face it, we're all getting a bit tired of tipping culture. The Girl Scouts at the grocery store want a tip, our cable guy wants a tip, and now it seems that even our landlords want a piece of the gratuity.

Would you rather your house always be too cold , or too hot? Depending on the way your house is heated or cooled, you probably already know your answer. It's hard to get your home to the perfect temperature for everyone, since some people are always wrapping themselves in sweaters, while others are sweating it out. However, these college kids had to experience the worst-case scenario: having a freezing house for a whole winter, and being ignored the whole time. These poor college students just…

Another day, another greedy landlord trying to collect.

While renting, it's generally up to your landlord to maintain the premises and repair anything that breaks. But if you've ever dealt with a landlord, you'll know that they're often reluctant to do so, regarding any such request with disdain and thinly veiled hostility and insinuation at the fact that you're somehow responsible for their 20-year-old dishwasher breaking a week after you moved in. So, over time, you get in the habit of just doing things yourself, even if they're not your responsib…

I can still remember that one landlord who was so stingy that it was almost remarkable he owned any land at all. The roof had been leaking for months, and one night it began cascading down the wall like a small waterfall. I called my perpetually absent landlord up but he never answered. Voicemail… great. He never did fix that roof and I ended up moving, but I can understand what having a cheap landlord is like. A couple of college students were living together throughout their semester, and the…

It's rare to see a tenant win one over his landlord. All matters of negotiations and disputes may feel stacked against the tenant, but every so often, justice decides to show up and be useful. This thread was posted to Reddit's r/LandlordLove subreddit by u/LS-CRX , who shared the story of how he broke his lease and was almost given just one-third of his security deposit despite a prior agreement. His landlord thought he could get away with claiming that the conditions of the apartment were les…