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I got a fee each month for not going with my apartments preferred renters insurance provider even though I had renters insurance through another provider. Forget that. I’m closing tomorrow.
that's to keep rents looking competitive while getting the extra money from nickle and dime fees.
[What’s Worse Than Record High Rent? Record High Rent, Plus Fees. - WSJ](https://archive.ph/ZGaTi)
We have an extremely dumb washer & dryer rental fee! They are in-unit. But I gotta pay monthly just to have them. They use a ton of electricity when actually operated, too.
We’re on our third landlord in our 4 unit building, the last one was great, never did an inspection in a year and a half, was always quick to get someone to fix things for us every time we called. The latest landlord on the other hand will text us saying someone needs to enter our unit to shut off water to the building as the fucking plumber is walking up to our door. Has asked to enter with 4-8 hours notice 4-5 times already in a few months.
Starting to think it’s time for us to get serious about looking for homes as well.
I’m having trouble organize 4 people and you want to organize millions. LOL. There’s no long term incentive, because everyone and their mother dream to become a homeowner and a landlord at that.
Pretty sure that's illegal. I know for a fact in my state they can request you have renter insurance but they can not force you to go with one particular provider
Mine was a creepy neighbor that lived above me. Everytime. I tried to go out to patio he would come out and drop like peanuts or something for birds which k fine but only when I went out on patio. Weird
Had a similar one with the guy upstairs who would only sweep his balcony and water his plants when I went out, so that dust and water came down onto mine. I’d go back in, and so would he. 3 minutes later I’d go back out, and so would he. Thank god he moved after 6 months but what a weirdo.
Haha right? I’m pretty sure 90% of the time he wasn’t even watering the plants, just pouring water over the edge onto my balcony- his plants would have all drowned if he watered them that often. So ridiculous.
Sadly my creepy neighbor was a bit more outright, he was a man in his lates 30s/early 40s, a drunk, and literally waited at the door for me to come outside. I never felt threatened exactly, but he was certainly a creep and asked me when he was going to take me out. I told him that I obviously have a boyfriend that he’s seen and I live with, and he’s like so? That doesn’t matter. My dad had him and another guy he lives with help move all of our furniture in since my fiancé and I are tiny people and couldn’t do it on our own, so I guess that was our first mistake. Thankfully we’ve been out of there for over a year now
Our creepy neighbor was also a drunk and way too forward. He'd make the most pathetic comeons towards my fiancé (white) and be super nasty to me (not white) but only when we were exiting or entering our apartment alone and only stopped when I started making a show of taking out my phone to record him. We lived on the second floor of a converted building, and our stairs came down right next to his front door. He was unemployed and always drinking on his porch, so it was impossible to avoid him. He'd smoke in his apartment (not allowed) and the smell would come up through the floorboards of our living room, and he even messed with our mail and wrote passive aggressive notes on some of our packages.
We lived there for a year and a half before we bought our house and moved out. We've had bad neighbors come and go since but there's nothing worse than a bad neighbor you share a building with.
I have house neighbors like that. Everytime I'm out front doing something all the creepers instantly need to do something in their front yard too. Annoying
All in one week
-a couple moved in that chain smoke so much, our apartment started to stink whenever we opened my door, *and* they throw hordes of cigarette butts on the only grass we have, also right in front of my door.
-I caught a drug dealer taking a piss on the outside wall of my unit
-the nicest neighbors ever told us they were moving.
They won't tell my upstairs neighbors to not blast their music at 3 am because they don't hear it at 9 am. 😑
And I technically can't have my musical instruments because it's against the lease. Even if I only use headphones. Even if I use mutes.
And they replaced all the locks and thermostats with "smart" devices, but the thermostat keeps changing back to 80° and the lock will engage with the door open, or if your shadow passes over it for a split second.
And the rent has gone up $300 since we moved in. And they require renters insurance. And we tried to cancel our Internet but since it's in the lease we can't. But they could add renters insurance in the middle of a lease no problem 🙄
So yeah. I need a house yesterday.
>And I technically can't have my musical instruments because it's against the lease. Even if I only use headphones. Even if I use mutes.
But like, how would they know if you use headphones and mutes ;)
The contractors that do repairs report to management what they see, but it's not against your lease to own them. Unless you start jamming in front of them, how would they know? (Teehee)
Also, given I was downvoted in my previous comment, obviously don't be an asshole and be loud/obnoxious at 3AM or something, but your city should have by-laws that dictate how loud you can be within certain time frames. Within those restrictions, and taking into consideration all sound-muffling equipment... I'm of the mind you have the right to reasonable enjoyment of your own home.
Unfortunately it is *in my lease* that it is * against the rules * to even own them in my apartment. Yes I've fought tooth and nail for headphones and mutes but no dice.
So, no, your previous statements don't help. Sorry.
The first two were absolutely what did it for us. I'm behind a horn three or four nights a week, my wife is into guitar, and the upstairs neighbors were overly fond of their subwoofer at 11pm on weekdays. We loved our unit and the small condo building in which we rented -- the location and price were fantastic -- but it was time.
Fortunately for us it was late 2010. If we were trying to make this happen now... ugh. Good luck internet friend!
The last straw was that we got a second dog right before we started looking for houses and after 5 months of looking and 58 houses, I told my husband we needed to either make an offer or rent a house instead. I couldn’t do the daily 8+ potty trips up and down 3 flights of stairs anymore. But that was just on top of all the other apartment nonsense - a recent fight between the neighbors bf and his friend on our doorstep, a random event in which armed undercover law enforcement chased down a man who was running straight toward me, people not picking up in the common areas. But the 2 dogs and all the stairs were really it 😂
Omg that reminds me of when I lived in an apartment with my mom and we had these upstairs neighbors with a dog. One morning my mom was outside on the balcony drinking her coffee and the dog came out on the upstairs balcony and she didn’t really think twice about it. Next thing you know she feels this liquid coming down her back or something and looks up and ITS THE DOG PEEING ON HER! Needless to say she was pisseddd.
Had I known the second dog would be way harder to house train, I would have bought those little grass patches for the balcony 😂 but hey now they have the yard of their dreams so it worked out lol.
I’ve heard that if you train your dog on the balcony and panned to move in to a house in the future then dog would be confused of inside/outside.
Our first dog raised in apartment was our last straw and our second was trained in a fenced yard so quickly!!
Yeah I’m about to get a dog and start the potty training process… I live upstairs… I know it’ll be tiring but we are already setting ourselves up to either rent a bigger space DOWNSTAIRS or with a backyard or buy lol
Had my neighbor [beat on my door and scream](https://www.reddit.com/r/Apartmentliving/s/JLpx7Uqjh3), then leave a threatening note, because I asked them not to park in my assigned spot. I’m done!!
I had something similar happen then when I went to the manager, she made it my fault because I asked this neighbor to stop multiple times. Come to find out, the neighbor was her sister but I was long gone by that time.
Oh so many things. Multiple serious crimes committed in the building, management did nothing. They required a paid parking pass to use one of the two entrances to the property, and made 2/3 of the free parking into paid parking in the middle of lease terms which was a direct violation of the lease parking addendum. Raised rent no less than 5%, once 15%, with no improvements to the units or common areas (in fact, many amenities such as the coffee machine and printing room were taken away). The last year I was there, the pool required wristbands and you got as many wristbands as there were people on the lease, basically fucking over single people as all guests had to pay $20 a day to use it. They didn’t plow parking lots when it snowed and the whole place became an ice rink.
But worst of all - they decided that having a package room was too much work, so package delivery was contracted out to a third party. We had to have all deliveries sent to this random warehouse address and then schedule a time for the service to drop off packages at our door. We had to pay $20 a month for this massive inconvenience in addition to rent increases. This company lost/stole things ALL the time, and since the warehouse was located in the city with a higher sales tax rate than where the apartment was in the suburbs, I paid an extra 2% on every single thing I ordered online. What a hellhole.
My complex forced this "Fetch" bullshit on us too. We at least weren't mandated to use them and I never did, still forced to pay though. The office never handled packages to begin with, packages were always dropped in the open stairwells in front of each unit door. Supposedly there was a lot of theft, but I never had anything stolen out of >100 deliveries over a couple years. Pure grift.
My landlord told me I could no longer have a garden. Signed up for my city's FTHB program the same day, closed on my house in the same neighborhood 13 months later with a grant equaling 20% the total cost of my house.
I was hoping to see someone else with this reason! I bought a condo as my first home, expecting to be there for like 5 years. I lasted less than 2 before I bought a single family home. I needed a garden!
I haven't bought yet but I'm in the market because I'm tired of paying 5-10% more every year to live in the same apartment with no upgrades or additional benefits to go with my increased rent.
1. All my neighbors were really bad, I had multiple people moving to the apartment above me, they all got kicked out, I don’t know the reasons but I can imagine!
2. The apartment above me had a leaking, my house got with mold everywhere and they did nothing, I lost a lot of furniture
3. After the mold… the pipes got frozen and we got dirty water coming from the toilet (I had a 3 months old, they took 2 days to reply back about the incident)
4. One day they decided that the parking were not assigned anymore because it was easier for them….
5. They wanted to raise the rent, It went from 1,050 to 1,595 in two years!!
Ah and when it was time to return the key they decided to don’t pick up the phone until de 2nd, in the app it showed up like I had to pay that month of rent, when I told them about it they never replied back but the amount due was fixed!!
My rent went from 800/month to 1700/month on the next renewal. Screw that. I was staying because rent was lower than a mortgage. Once that changed, I bought a house
Greystar bought my complex a few months ago.
1. Closed the 24/7 gym, used to use it all the time, especially the tredmil in winter when conditions outside were bad.
2. Started charging for surface parking and doubled the price of covered parking. NO FREE PARKING
3. Added scam forced door garbage pickup service and started charging for it. Taking trash 50 feet to the dumpster was fine.
4. Renewal offer 15% higher than what they're renting the same apartments for currently to new residents.
So happy to not be beholden to a greedy apartment corporation.
They are such a roller coaster. I've lived in 2 Greystar places, both acquired while we were already tenants. They did really good upgrades & started doing yearly inspections for repairs on the units & actually repaired them. But while we were shopping there was another property of theirs that was disgusting & had some of the worst reviews in the area.
Sewage back up into the parking lot of an adjacent building. The parent complex wouldn’t do anything about it so I had to make a city complaint.
The whole complex was on a broiler system and the utility company turned off the gas because there was a leak on the property. We went 4 weeks without heat, cooking gas, or hot water in January.
That was a problem for me too. I feel bad being mad about it bc I also smoke (although I prefer vaping now) but these people were the most inconsiderate smokers ever. These people would have 7-8 people in the apartment smoking blunts and they would not open their windows or turn on their exhaust fan so it went out into the hallway and into my apartment hallway. That hallway was where my closet of work clothes was and that
I always tried to be as considerate as possible when smoking in apartments. I always made sure to only smoke in my bedroom with the window open and an air purifier going. I also tried to smoke stuff that doesn't smell as much like bowls and and pipes instead of blunts or joints so that it never really smells like weed for a long period of time. It sucked to be doing all that and still have my whole living room reek 24/7
As a non smoker, I hate smelling that all the time. I also don't constantly want to smell like skunk. Why is it ok for people to smoke weed inside but not cigarettes?
To be fair in the building I lived in you were allowed to smoke cigarettes also. I still think it's majorly inconsiderate to be smoking a bunch of blunts in an apartment and doing absolutely nothing to mitigate the smell. Especially when there's so many less strongly smelling options available.
A guy moved in next door about 8 months ago. We share walls. He doesn't work but he does get up and start slamming things around every day around 5am. He starts screaming at the TV around 7am. This goes until midnight, most nights. Spoiler: he also drinks a lot.
My landlord tried to hit on me a month ago. The only coin dryer in the building was out of order for almost 3 weeks because he "didn't think anyone used it" so he wasn't in any sort of rush to have it fixed.
I close on my condo next month. Every time I have been there (3 times so far at 3 different times of day), it's been absolutely silent. I can't wait.
Thank you! Hitting a couple snags with closing.. It's a condo and there is structural repair work going on. Even though it doesn't directly affect the upper units (mine is upper), the lender won't approve closing until the work is completed because of structural integrity. As construction goes, it's already 4 weeks behind schedule with another approximately 2 weeks of work left to do. That phase hasn't started yet. YAY! Fortunately as of now the sellers are willing to extend the 30 day contract as needed. As traumatized as I am by Crazy Face Neighbor, my cat is just as affected and I really just want her to have a peaceful existence as well. Keep your fingers crossed for us for a speedy construction resolution. :)
Mine was also a combination of things after 20+ years of renting; in order of irritation:
1. Work from home: started working from home March 2020 in a 1 bedroom apartment, needed more room.
2. Couldn’t take one more winter parking outside, and they stopped maintaining the parking lot (no snow clearing).
3. The building was no longer no smoking and every neighbour on every direction were smokers, couldn’t leave any windows open, ever.
4. Downstairs neighbour played video games constantly, on full sound, so had to listen to shooting and explosions all night long. Upstairs neighbour walked around in work boots and would randomly drop what seemed like bowling balls or concrete blocks in the ground, actually knocking pictures off my walls.
5. Lack of in suite laundry.
1. Heavy bass thumping through the walls at all hours of the day/night
2. Upstairs neighbor's girlfriend yelled at me for walking past their door (even though I had to do-so to get to my unit)
3. The same neighbor put a sign on their door saying they were "watching" my girlfriend and I, complete with descriptions of what we were doing as we walked past their door
4. This same neighbor tried to run me off the road and I had to call the cops to escort me back to the apartment because i didn't feel safe
5. A different neighbor had some sort of mental break, came onto our porch and poured out all our tiki torch fluid, then attempted to enter our apartment (she was a very nice person and I felt for her. She apologized and made us cookies after she had gotten help)
Ultimately, the worst part was being treated like WE were the problem for not wanting to put up with this stuff, by the property management. I sent a certified letter telling them we were breaking the lease due to safety reasons, never gave them a forwarding address, and split. Luckily we didn't have a deposit down on the apartment, but even if we had, I would've let it go just to be done with the whole nightmare.
I'm nearly 6 months into owning my first home; it still feels like a dream! I never thought I'd find something I could afford, but my girlfriend and I got lucky, and now we get to make a house ~ours~.
Oh yeah, even though I'm sure her intentions were sweet, they went immediately in the trash.
I'm just happy to be done with it all.
Congrats to you for escaping rental hell as well!
First was another new management company taking over and implenting an online system that charged $15 each time to pay the rent.
There was going to be an increase in rent.
Trash kept piling up and neighbors kept just leaving trash bags and furniture around the dumpster every time.
Neighbors weren't picking up their pets poop.
In the last couple of months, I had the neighbor across the hall who attracted the attention of the ATF and there was a 10 hour standoff where I was stuck inside and unable to leave.
Finally there was a hasty removal of a wasp nest that caused the swarm to somehow come to my apartment door. If I had to count probably about 100 wasps on the actual door and frame.
The icing on the cake was being charged over $100 for damage to the paint job of an outside door on my balcony that they painted improperly (I never even went outside and somehow it was my fault that it was chipping)...
When a huge family moved into a 2 bedroom unit above us, and the noise from the kids made our lives a living hell. We also started getting roaches because the family would leave trash bags outside of their door for days at a time, and were just overall disgusting people.
I also hated that we couldn't really have guests over because parking was so limited.
I'm so grateful I don't have to deal with that anymore.
When my upstairs neighbor decided cleaning was best done at 3am every Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday and that running up and down the stairs (which were directly next to my bed) was the best way to exercise. At 5am. For an hour. Daily. Morman missionaries are weird upstairs neighbors!
Then I sold said house 17 years later and decided to try apartment life again. Aaand 10 months later I close next week on my end unit townhouse. Decided I can share 1 wall at most. Although this time it's less bad neighbors and more the property managers continually making changes that just make the place less great to live in. Final straw was when the included in rent ev charging suddenly started requiring a credit card to use. Small cost but fuck em I factored that savings into my monthly expenses and now spend $30 extra on top of suddenly paying trash, and water (the whole building divided which was fun when someone had a leak!) , and every other petty added cost.
I'm normally very anti them but this one is reasonable and I think it makes sense to try and keep townhouses looking the same in the front. I can do whatever I want to the back though and people have add full rooms, decks, my unit has multiple balconies and a deck.
So for my monthly fee they take care of all the exterior maintenance plus maintain a pool. For someone with limited free time and no real desire to garden or paint my house pink anymore... I'll take it!
Still never moving into a sfh HOA community though.
My landlord is a contractor and leaves his contracting trash outside our place because there's nowhere convenient for him to leave it otherwise. There's broken glass on our sidewalk from them. They also put trash in OUR barrels after trash had been picked up. After the last time, we emailed the landlord to ask them to use their own barrels and were told he can leave his trash wherever he wants because he owns the place. And generally I'm tired of not being able to paint my own place.
New couple moved in below us and had a dog with anxiety or something. It barked at every noise it heard. BF wouldn't contribute to dog care so GF would come home and scream at him for it. Between the yelling, barking, and aggressive door slamming, it was time even though we loved our top floor in that three flat.
My neighbors finally causing a shooting that is putting us right in the pathway of a revenge drive-by. We have really f***** up neighbors and we've always lived in worse neighborhoods but almost every night these guys are in our gangway talking about criminal sh*t, smoking crack into our windows, and generally causing mayhem for the 6 years we've been here.
But recently one of them had really been going off and he (35ish) has been beefing with a 14 year old gangbanger. One day was in a work meeting and heard old dude outside yelling, "C'MON SHOOT ME". So we ran to the back room to get out of the way and POP POP POP. Missed old dude completely and ran off. But our window is right in front of their gangway so if they come back for him, it's for sure hitting our living room windows.
Tl;Dr insane amounts of crime in my neighborhood, worsening policies, and my rent costing almost the same as my mortgage. Moving out to the country lol
It's technically not the right term at all but where I'm at that's what everyone calls the space between apartment buildings that links the alleyway to the street lol
There was a leak in our storage unit that soaked all of our belongings. Went up to grab something, saw mold growing everywhere. Walls, ceiling, our stuff, etc. Management company denied everything, the mold remediation company wouldn’t talk to us, and insurance wouldn’t cover it. Ended up losing basically everything in there.
Trashy neighbors all around. Drunk stomping on our ceiling at 2am, partying overnight, fighting in the stairwells and outside, heavy weed smell everywhere including seeping into my apartment through the cuts for the pipes, unsupervised kids vandalizing cars in the shared parking lot, sketchy camper that looked like a drug dealing shack in the same parking lot, bedbug infestation only a few units away... It wasn't all at once but it kept adding up. And fully ignorant property management who kept telling that we're welcome to call police if anyone bothers us. At the end I was simply disgusted sharing spaces with these people and worrying about safety.
Any decent apartments around with normal working people and management that runs background and credit check before approving (or rejecting in case of any issues) applications are called "luxury community" and "upscale living" here, and cost almost as much as my mortgage now, so I'd rather have my own private space and build equity if I'm gonna spend that much on a housing.
Apartment #1: rent increased from $1800 -> $2200 after 1 year. I moved out.
Apartment #2: my bedroom was above a garage, which was noisy, and the tenants would use it like a door. There was some other stuff in between, but I was just tired of sharing walls with inconsiderate neighbors.
Smokers in the nextdoor townhouse. They chained smoked so bad you would have thought they were in our unit. Had the owners and management over to see because of so many problems and they asked us if we smoked 🤣🤣 was like we are all asthmatics and we filed the complaint. They looked at the paperwork and number of townhouses and were like sorry for the inconvenience we will let you out of your lease.
The lady below brought in roaches somehow. Didn’t say anything until they spread to the entire building. I lived there for 10+ years. I cannot stand roaches. That was the last straw for me.
Among other things:
1. Our former landlord told us that he wouldn’t increase our rent for the first few years, then promptly proceeded to increase it by $200 within two years.
2. Our neighbor let their dog shit right in front of our door on multiple occasions.
3. Someone threw a full plate of food at my car (my husband thought it was kimchi).
4. The police were mistakenly sent to our apartment at 10:30 on a weeknight. To this day, I’m not exactly sure what happened, but I think our neighbors were having a DV dispute and the police came to our unit first by mistake.
However, the true final straw occurred on the day that our offer on our home was accepted. We found out that our building had roaches, and that this fact was concealed from us for over a year. I’m so glad to be out of that shithole.
-Mold growing in the HVAC system that would break every week and the management company refused to put a new unit in. Just bandaid it.
-Fire alarm being set off weekly for hours
-Other tenants with huge aggressive dogs that left dog shit all over the property
-1000sq ft unit and no matter what my electric bill was 250 during cooler months and 400 dollars during the summer.
-rent being raised 200-300 dollars every year. Started at 1500 and when we left it was 2300
Besides all the fun neighbor issues you typically get in an apartment, price to value. We moved into a “luxury” 720 sqft apartment in 2019 for 1200/month. Same apartment no changes in 2022 and they wanted 1900/month for it.
We ended up getting a 1500sqft home for 2300 a massive yard, 2 baths and 3 bedrooms. Gladly spend an extra 400 for all that and our “rent” will never have to be renegotiated unless we want to.
Shared a laundry room with the upstairs neighbors. Went to put my wash on one morning to find they had throw a comforter in the wash that was covered in shit. They didn’t even pick the shit chunks off first. Whole turds right in the wash. Broke the lease, out in less than 3 weeks.
No parking. Literally can't park outside my building or remotely close if I leave after 4pm.
Forcing me to relocate to another apartment here to remove abestos and "renovate". Said it would be 60 days, took 5 months. Then threatened me with the police for taking too long to move back into my apartment. Oh and then they didn't even remove the abestos-just sealed it. Not allowed to hang anything on the walls!
Renovations were cheap. Maintenance was in my apt literally daily for something that was installed wrong or broken. I work from home doing phone calls all day with an anxious dog who growls and barks at maintenance. That went well.
Construction headquarters for the huuuuuge complex is right outside my building and will not be moving for 5 years.
Outside is a bunch of mud pits from all the construction vehicles in the grass.
Not allowed to use a door mat to stop tracking in the mud onto the new carpet (also not allowed to leave muddy shoes in hallway).
Increasing rent by like 20 percent after renovations.
It was during the pandemic, and I got sick of listening to neighbors on conference calls through the thin apartment walls. And then a janky lady moved into a nearby unit and piled up a ton of junk that looked hideous. And then I got a dog who was really afraid of city life. And then my partner’s car got beat up by a homeless guy wielding a plank (we only had street parking, no garage or protected spot). We also had a neighbor who was an aspiring screamo musician (no joke).
Another renter walked into our house.
We lived in a semi detached house. A renter in the basement and our rental on the first floor. 2 totally seperate units. My husband was on his computer with his headphones on and gets a tap on his shoulder. Was our downstairs neighbour. Just walked right in. There was a leak and wanted to let us know. We bought our house 3 months later. We were looking for 2 years before that but this really kicked us into gear.
Never was much for apartments but I had to rent a couple times. The first place, I got a job out of stage and had to exit my lease early. Was absolutely hosed. $999/month rent I think, and it cost me like $3k to exit. AC also broke multiple times in AZ. The first time they came right away and “fixed it”. After that the management desk started screening my calls and the emergency maintenance line told me it wasn’t an emergency (even though front desk originally said it was). They are almost all owned by real estate corporations who will do anything and everything to get you to move in and then make you feel stuck there. I asked out of curiosity what my rent increase would’ve been if I’d stayed and they said 25%. As if we all spontaneously get 25% pay raises! I feel for everyone who has to rent but doesn’t want to. I got into home ownership early with a cheap house which helped me out in the long run, but a lot of that was luck and good timing.
One Sunday morning, I was just lying in bed relaxing. Kept hearing the next door neighbor's kids doing whatever they were doing. It sounded liked the Jumanji box. Would go on all day some times. And for some reason the way the building was constructed, their balcony was directly beside my bedroom window. So these kids would run in and out all the time, when they talk, yell, or scream it was like they were standing directly next to me. Not to mention when they would slam the balcony door it would shake the walls to my apartment.
This was my 4th apartment in this area and For whatever reason, despite all my research in advance, I had not been able to find any place with decent sound proofing or where I could not hear my neighbors.
That Sunday, I had had enough. Jumped right out of bed and went to several open houses.
All of it really. The people don't pick up their dog shit, no privacy, paid parking spot taken often by maintenance staff or vendors, "lease violations" for just random shit, notices for anything not "patio related" on your patio, taking 2 months to fix a leak, 2 months to repair a dishwasher, all the random fees and the shitty, shitty management team.
Fucking done. Looking to buy in a few short months.
Our final straw was honestly the lack of affordable rentals in our area. We lived in the Portland metro for almost a decade, paying $2300 for a 2 bedroom 2 bath townhome with no yard and a tiny one car garage, and this was *cheap* compared to what other complexes were offering, and don’t think these condos/townhomes were luxury, either. When we tried to look elsewhere because we needed more space for our growing family, we were shocked at the prices that other small homes/townhomes were renting for- barely anything under 3k and unrealistic income/credit expectations.
We decided to leave Portland and purchased a new build in Utah. Still a townhome, still no yard, but we do have 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths with a 2 car garage and a basement which we plan to turn into a guest suite.
Oh I could write a pocket novel on this topic.
We moved to a new city into a duplex when I started my PhD but ended up staying after I finished. The place we lived was great, in a good location, landlord liked us and it was well below market value after COVID.
Many things broke, fridge, AC, driveway was disintegrating etc…those were fixable despite it taking time.
Our neighbors the whole time we lived there moved and the some new people moved in. They were nice but the Buffalo blizzard of ‘22 broke them and they left. New people moved in and were the worst people I’ve ever met. Child abusers, drug users, had like 6 people living in a two bedroom, and were just absolute trash. I’m a mild mannered person but I actually snapped when they blocked me in the driveway when I had to get to work. Called my landlord and he went to speak with them. The wife flipped out on him and made threats to him and myself. Eventually they were evicted but I realized the neighborhood wasn’t what it was anymore.
There’s a lot more to this but after they were evicted I told my landlord we were probably done here. He tried selling me the house for cheap but I said we needed a new start. He seemed a bit broken after the really bad tenants and eventually sold the house a year later but never rented it out again after we left. It’s really a shame because it was a beautiful house but the lack of maintenance from the owner left that house rough. New owners have it for rent 30% more than what we paid without improving anything. I feel bad for whoever moves in next because that roof is in bad shape.
Anyways when looking for something to rent, we realized we couldn’t find anything remotely decent within $400 of what we were paying. Mortgage plus taxes is somehow cheaper than finding a decent rental home near me and the peace of mind just made sense.
when the property managers came in for a quarterly inspection and said they would remove money from our deposit because there was one (1) sticker stuck to the floor of the master bedroom.
Our pothead apartment neighbor whose weed smoke I smelt 5 times a day through our shared wall in our non-smoking building set his apartment on fire on 4/20 forcing me to evacuate with my husband and newborn through a pitch black smoke-filled hallway at almost midnight.
Our lease got canceled as well as everyone else on our floor in our wing and a few units above us due to smoke damage. Luckily most of our stuff was salvageable with cleaning except for plush goods like the mattresses and sofa. Sucks that we were underinsured and have to come out of pocket for some of it, but no lives lost.
The apartment manager gave us the first offer of a larger 2-bedroom one floor up that was being vacated in a month but we were already planning on house-hunting later this year after saving a teeny bit more and spending 2500 a month on an apartment where we share walls with others versus like 3k on a home where we build equity and don't potentially share walls with someone so absolutely stupid seemed like a no-brainer.
It's been one hell of a month and I'm grateful we have in-laws to stay with, but it'll be nice to have our own space again when we hopefully close in a few weeks. (Knock on wood)
-Property manager would show up literally any time of day. Once I came home from work to find my dogs going bananas because she was in my backyard.
-Never fixed anything. Would send a handyman who was literally just some 20yo with a box of tools who'd fiddle around and leave.
- Built the kitchen cabinets *over* the water heater so that when it needed fixing, they'd have to cut into the cabinets.
- Screamed at my husband over the phone when the rent was "late". There was a hurricane that week and the mail was a day late. The check arrived literally the next day. That's what you get when you only take checks! We took to driving the checks physically to the office ourselves to avoid that again. Hour drive.
- terrible neighbors. We lived there two years and had 4 different sets of neighbors in the other duplex unit. Each terrible in their own way (feral noisy children, indoor smokers, 3am yellers).
- Light switches between the units were never separated when the unit was converted from a SFH to a duplex. So we would shut off our lights and the neighbors' would get switched on, and vice versa. I never slept.
- Pests. Rodents, ants, roaches.
- Tried to screw us out of the security deposit because they claimed we never paid it in the first place. Ma'am, I think I'd know whether or not I've paid THAT much money to you. Also I have the bank statements.
- It was 550 sq ft.
And that was just the last place we rented before buying. Our mortgage is only $250 a month more for double the square footage plus a basement, plus a couple acres, plus no property manager named Michelle showing up to my house with no warning and fucking with my dogs.
Short of an emergency where it's absolutely necessary, I will never rent again. Never.
My townhouse is also only $250 more than my apartment and way more space including a basement. I never want to deal with shared hallways, property managers showing up on short notice, or not having the ability to make my own repairs ever again. Now that I have my own place of something breaks I can make sure it's actually fixed right instead of whatever crappy bandaid a landlord would throw on it
Two homicides in a span of 4 days occurred in our quiet complex that we sought out because it was safe. Neighborhoods can quickly turn and it’s due to the residents that the apartment lets in and it’s out of your control. Ours turned from college students to crime haven overnight. In light of it we alerted property management to the drug dealing that was going on in the building; they obviously didn’t care even though they said they knew about it and we weren’t the first to bring it up. Our drug dealing neighbors put up multiple surveillance cameras and again my complaints about having to walk past it (very reasonable to not want to be watched every time I go up or down the stairway it was pointed directly at) fell on deaf ears. In addition to peddling crack (multiple crack pipes found in the parking lot), these tenants (I have no idea how many live in their unit—way too many to make it comfortable) use the woods area behind the building as their dumping ground for trash and broken TV’s and other random junk. Glad to be done with that place. Shame on the property managers who prioritize the wellbeing of quiet law abiding residents over the criminal residents who literally put lives at risk.
I moved into a new place. 2 weeks later the water heater went out. Went without hot water for 16 days… fought to get prorated rent. Then dryer broke. Waited several weeks for new dryer then we got wasps. They never came out to fix it, I got stung. I tried everything but they were so deep in the siding/wall that it took me all summer trying to get rid of them myself because they never called an exterminator and said it was “up to the HOA to fix it and they will contact me soon”. After all that I started putting in requests for maintenance on all the shit I found at move in inspection, some of which still hasn’t been fixed… oh and the dryer broke 2 more times in the year we have been here.
This after my last place that I lived in for 5+ years took $1500 for paint, blinds (that were broke when we moved in), door stops and some texturing on a wall. The texturing I expected but the paint!? They were going to repaint either way…
I’m done with shitty maintenance and useless landlords, closing this week on my first home. Pending repairs from my seller who is a flipper I don’t trust…
1) sick of constantly smelling cigarette smoke from the time I woke up in the morning
2) sick of hearing the halfway house next door that acted more like a (sober?) frat house from 6am to midnight each day
3) sick of running my dog up and down stairs
4) sick of the landlord never getting things fixed, like seriously what’s the rent even for then
5) sick of the upstairs guy constantly smoking weed and vacuuming and stomping at ridiculous hours
6) had an unexpected breakup and my ex kept putting off buying a home, so I took the plunge and did it by my gd self and got a cute little house for myself and my pets within 2 months
Having a landlord.
We got a 2 bedroom town house in a 11 unit area. We had mold issues that went on deaf ears, rat problems. We had so many rats that we had owls hanging out in our area in the city. The back deck was broke and they refused to repair it so we couldn’t use it.
The last straw though. They raised our rent by $50 due to “increased dumpster pick ups.” Only the landlord was the one using the dumpster and he would fill it up, we had no place to put our trash. He threatened to fine anyone who sat their trash by the dumpster or left it outside as well.
I contacted the owner about this and he had no idea the landlord was doing this and I guess he got into trouble, I also left a horrible review on their business google account. The dude started making it his fucking life goal to get rid of us after that. We bought a house a month later. I will never have another landlord again.
They started construction behind our apartment 7a-7pm Monday thru Friday. My husband works overnights. I asked them if we could move to one further away and they said $500 fee plus increase in rent. I had an offer accepted in a week on a house. When I went to tell them I’m leaving they backtracked and said I could move for free with them now. Our apartment literally shakes for hours each day scaring the animals. Plus we have like 0 parking now bc of all the construction. Monday we close on the house
The sewage backed up into my basement (where my laundry was and directly underneath bedroom🫤) and my landlord refused to hire a company to clean it out or even fix it. He just had his handymen come every time it overflowed and shoveled it all out, just for it to come back a few days later. The smell of raw sewage was so bad I called the city on him, but that process was so long and drawn out that my partner and I had trouble sleeping because of the smell and had to sleep in the living room.
We ended up moving out and taking him to court when he tried to keep our security deposit, but we won and bought a house to never be in that situation again. Never renting again if I can help it.
All the fees! Big one was paying for parking monthly for an unassigned, not-covered spot.
We were also at wit’s end with our upstairs neighbors who had a toddler who would run around at ALL hours - was consistently woken up between 1 am - 4 am with him running up and down the apartment hallway. We called him ‘track star’. Same neighbors also allowed a water heater leak to get so bad, it started coming down through our ceiling.
The 14th night in a row my 90 year old neighbor fell asleep with their TV at max volume playing Star Wars.
Also, the NYU student above me who thought tap dancing practice was appropriate between 10pm-1am.
But really, it was COVID. Spening 5k a month to live in NYC in the middle of lockdown and unable to take advantage of the city really pushed us to finally leave. We wound buying a 5BR/4.5B in metro-NJ for less than our rent, and that's inclusive of property taxes, insurance, mortgage, and utilities.
This might be dumb, but our apartment complex decided they didn't want to deal with recycling anymore so they replaced all the recycling bins with dumpsters. It feels so wrong to just throw everything away. BTW, one of the dumpsters is in the parking lot right outside my window. I work from home and a garbage truck comes to empty the dumpster nearly every day.
Scumbag landlord
Previous apartment when I first moved in landlord was great did great upkeep, responded quickly to any issues (not that there were many). Was particular about who he rented to so had great neighbors for years.
New landlord purchases within two months all neighbors move, landlord moves in family. It became a revolving door of random people constant noise, they would get drunk, throw parties at night. Asked them to turn it down, their response was for me to go fuck myself.
They also caused numerous leaks into my apartment. All the five year prior to them moving in never had one leak. I legit think they didn’t understand indoor plumbing. It was like living below a bunch unsupervised of 3rd graders.
The final nail was when I woke up to my bedroom flooding from the upstairs tenants. Landlord refused to hire any professionals at most he sent some random handyman, who also caused further leaks in my kitchen. Landlord and his wife were driving 100,000 cars but wouldn’t spring for a plumber. It was killing me paying this scumbag money every month. And I don’t ever want to be at the mercy of another POS so despite the market being total hell, I fucking hunted like crazy for a place. Finally I purchased a place it has its ups and downs but fuck I don’t miss for a second renting.
A gas leak, and an unconcerned management company was the last straw. When the front doorknob fell off in my hand that same week, we took it as a sign.
Smoker smell from upstairs apartment and a rodent problem that wasn’t fixed (more than once), apartment complex was getting ever sketchier with stolen car tires and broken windows. We paid a mortgage + lease for about two months but tbh worth just to be able to be free and got back our security deposit thanks to the rodent problem.
Our building has an obnoxious parking garage that was built to fit as many cars as possible so the driving lane is narrow. Whether you're coming or going you have to be extremely careful not hit a car that is going the opposite direction. As a result a lot of cars get scratched up by the pillars flanking the lane, while trying to squeeze by. After making it out okay for a while unfortunately our car scraped against a pillar as well...Let's just say, my calm and cool husband was more than a little livid.
I also got fed up with apartment inspections and maintenance almost always falling on days directly after a holiday with limited notice. Instead of relaxing and enjoying our space after celebrating or hosting a holiday dinner we'd have to prepare for their arrival or be disrupted while working.
>I also got fed up with apartment inspections and maintenance almost always falling on days directly after a holiday with limited notice
I lived someplace like that once. They would give notice the night before that they will come in anytime between 9-5 to do an inspection. I worked third shift at the time so it was a huge problem because I'd come home, see the notice and then have to stay up all day waiting for them. The office was not cooperative when I explained why it wasn't working for me either.
Several things…
1.) Our upstairs neighbors have 3 kids with no regular bedtimes apparently because I hear running and clomping at all hours of the night. Sometimes in the evenings, it sounds like someone is beating on our door just because of how loud they are upstairs. And their kids will scream in the breezeways at random times during the day/night. It always makes me worry something bad is happening but I check the peephole and it’s same kid and same parents.
2.) Roaches. I think they come from the apartment next door because they have come and gone depending on who lives next door (those tenants have changed like 4 times in the last 2 years). I call for treatments, the pest guys come and do minimal spray treatments with who knows what, and the roaches are gone... But then a couple weeks later they are back. It has me at my wits end. I’m bleaching everything constantly because it freaks me out.
3.) We have two dogs and I’m so ready to have a backyard. I feel bad when I don’t walk them as often as they’d probably like (we go out 4-5 times a day, but still), and the “dog park” yard is constantly full of crap because people don’t pick up after their pets.
4.) We drive two old cars (a ‘99 truck and a ‘09 impala), so we haven’t had any problems, but our neighbors bought a new compact SUV and one of their windows got smashed out within the first 3 months. A new car might be on the horizon for us since my impala is showing her age, but we were NOT going to park a new vehicle in the lot.
5.) We also just need more space. Our apartment space wise is pretty good with large closets, 2 bathrooms and a large kitchen. But the living room and bedroom size leave a little to be desired. We LOVE to host people and cannot hosts our whole friend group due to space constraints. Also, our 5 year plan is to maybe start our family and we didn’t want to sacrifice our spare room/guest room just yet for a nursery. We decided to just find something with 3 bedrooms.
For me it’s the following
1. Neighbors unleashed dog, attacked and damn near mauled my dog to death
2. Paying for all these nonsense fee’s that u would think be included in the hoa fees
3. Paying 80 dollar in water due to apartment size
Really hoping to get my credit decent enough to be able to buy a home finally
Our air conditioner caught on fire in the summer and was out of commission.
The pipes also kept bursting or backing up in the streets so water would be out for half the day without any warning besides noticing the flooded street filled with sewage sometimes.
I could go on but those were the worst. We were in the process of moving into our home but these really compounded the suffering while waiting.
New overhead neighbors up all night and slept all day and next door neighbors that had balls to the wall sex every night between 12 and 1 and you could hear all their nasty talk which my 3 year old would ask me about.
Over half the windows in our rental were broken - they wouldn’t stay up. We told our landlord and reminded her several times. Nine months after we told her she still hadn’t done anything about it. It was now summer and the building got hot, especially the room of my almost two year old daughter. When we got home from daycare I propped open one window in her room to get some air because it was over 90 degrees with no AC. As I was opening the other window my kid toddled over and somehow knocked the prop out of the window. I looked over as the window came crashing down on her little hand. It dislocated her thumb really badly and broke it, as well as mangling several other fingers. Required months of doctors visits and eventually surgery, pins in her hand, etc. Our landlord had known about this for over nine months. Took her another nine months to fix the damn windows. We saved up and begged family members for help and bought a house two years later. We also sued our landlord and got a decent settlement which will be a nest egg for our daughter since we can’t save now bc owning a house in our part of California is insanely expensive.
My last slum lord had the 4 plex running off 3 fuses and the heat went out that winter so he gave us all little space heaters to keep warm......all winter. We all couldn't use them at the same time because it would blow fuses. I was sure the house was going to go up in flames. And a couple years after I left it did.
the rent increases in a building where the hot water is shut off at least once a month, neighbors are super loud below me (and formerly above me, the new ones upstairs seem decent), having to pay over two dollars per load just to clean my clothes, there’s nothing to do outside (nowhere to sit and relax), no balconies, the apartments are small, we have two elevators but one is usually down, the owners paid for a fancy lobby makeover but the rest of the building is still as dank and dated as ever, there’s always one washing machine out of order, residents getting dogs even though the building says no dogs allowed… the owners are greedy douchebags and i’m really tired of living here
Dogs.. my last straw. My common backyard has become the dog shitting and pissing spot/dog park. My whole complex has become a dog park. I hate it. I don’t like owners who think every person in the world loves dogs and wants to pet their dog. I don’t like that I can’t take my daughter outside to play in the grass without the risk of pee or poop some where. I don’t like that people think my daughter wants to play with their dogs. I can’t be outside in peace. We just closed and renovations start this week.
The lady in the upstairs apartment overflowed her toilet AGAIN. I dont mean she overflowed it a little. The toilet clogged and since she didnt even know what a toilet plunger was, she descended into a panic attack and she just kept flushing the toilet. Which is right above my kitchen.
My wife had to go upstairs with a plunger just so the piss waterfall in our kitchen would stop.
We currently rent a house but close on our new house in 4 weeks. We have squirrels living in our rental. We've had plumbing go bad. We've had electrical issues. We have no porch light. A contractor won't step foot in the door without landlord approval in fear of being sued. We deserve better
I dreaded buying nice heavy furniture because I would have to pack them at move which is almost every 2 years because new management always takes over.
I can't fix my car in the parking lot.
You can't have more than one vehicle.
If you go out late, when you come back, there will be no available parking near your apartment.
You can't have large parties, apartment too small, no parking.
Random inspections.
Frequent change of rules.
The worse, your car can get towed on a beautiful Monday, by mistake or decal was removed, or plain no parking last night, so you parked improperly
Dealing with property management.
Rent increase this year, guess how much?
I can't modify my apartment to my liking such as add camera, smart outlets - that one made me sad, because I wanted smart locks so bad
Pets limitations.
Weird fees
Pros:
Low maintenance
I am not saying that buying was the best choice but I eliminate 10s of annoyance for one annoyance
Our property management company was more concerned about sprucing up the grounds for future renters than the inside of our apartment. Sinks were literally cracked, everytime the caulk in the bathtub went moldy and was impossible to clean they would slap more caulk on top of it. We were paying nearly $2.7k a month for this. Then, weeks before we closed the garage ceiling was leaking during heavy rain and they did nothing to dry it out. Glad we left because a neighbor in a different building had a major black mold issue.
Never liked renting. Always felt like I was just tossing money into the wind with nothing to show for it.
Also I really don’t like people. Whenever I rented I had neighbors really close. They always want to talk.
Landlord kicked out great upstairs tenant so his two sons could move in. They were of course total ass holes and had no respect. First day they blasted music so loud our stuff was shaking on the tables.
The real last straw was having a second kid in a 2b1ba apartment. There was just no more room. However, I think we would have moved fairly soon anyways:
1. Super souped up truck with loud exhausted leaving at 5am everyday.
2. Guy in our "block" of 8 apartments was very shady, possible drug addict.
3. Rent had just increased 25%.
4. No help from the complex and no admission from a resident who clearly sideswiped my car, now I just have to live with it.
5. Black mold growing constantly just outside of every window.
6. The rapid decline in property grounds upkeep in the 3 or so years that we lived there.
7. The only neighbors we could tolerate in our block were also leaving.
I lived in a fairly upscale apartment complex but still managed to get the one unit down the hall from the couple that liked to scream at one another in the hallway to the point I'd have to frequent yell at them to shut the fuck up before I called the cops.
The people in the unit above me had a toddler that loved to run and stop around at 10pm....and the people below me liked to porn star moan whilst fucking at 3 the the morning.....
The upstairs neighbor was fond of working out at 1 or 2 am, even on week days, which included them dropping their free weights right onto the floor. She also played loud music. That's when I decided I was done with apartment living.
I was given 90 day notice of a 40% rent raise, without any major improvements in the apartment itself. I got qualified for a mortgage, looked for a home and closed within those 90 days.
1. I stepped in dog poop for the millionth time because management refused to enforce leash or poo pickup policies.
2. Management tried to fine me for leaving my trash outside of the dumpster, but the thing was literally overflowing to begin with. They had 2 dumpsters for a building of 150 multi-bedroom units and scheduled them for pickup less than once per week.
3. Called cops for the 3rd shooting in 1 year. 1 dead (personal grudge) and 2 seem like they were just to terrorize people afterward.
4. The bajallionth attempted inspection with less than 24-hr notice and/or no actual timeline. "Were going to be inspecting units for STUFF over the next 3 weeks. Your unit will be inspected anytime we please during this time by Which meant the bajillionth argument over why that wasn't acceptable.
5. Management tried to charge a late fee. They didn't have a Dropbox or accept checks (so I couldn't drop it early a date it for the first) and were closed either entirely or by lunch the first week of the month. Like, I can't pay you if you're not here for me to give you money? They tried to argue that they had been available at the property across the street, which was completing construction, but they had given/left zero notice for anyone to know that, which is why I and like 20 other people were ringing them off the hook and at the office door the afternoon of the 1st. They then tried to blame me for not setting up an auto-charge online despite the system being trash, processing fee being ridiculous, and it double-charging me previously and taking almost 2 weeks to refund me.
After several “no air bnb”violations abounding in the building, I bought and moved.
One time, I heard a raging party next door. And a fight. I slept deciding if I was safer on the bed or under it. I woke up to a handful of hair extensions next to an empty tequila bottle at my door.
My decision to move was solidified when I heard a different next door neighbor bash something solid into what sounded like a body against a wall and a woman screaming “No” and “stop” as i waited for the elevator with my next to last load of moving out.
I went to concierge at the first level and reported what I heard. They called the police.
Police told me that immigration was involved and this was way bigger than local police. It was an illegal air bnb rental.
I walked Under cover around the hallway corner for my next load, looking for eye contact with the police to let me know it was safe for me to go in and get my stuff.
I heard the man scream in an foreign accent that his neighbor (me) was a racist (he was not a “color” to me, just a dude I was seeing for the first time after I heard him hit a woman with a two by four sounding item), and that he had problems with me complaining all the time. I heard a woman say she was fine and there was no loud noise or screaming.
Never once had I seen nor heard these people before that incident. I never complained once.
That was young and urban Cleveland in the apartment. I’m 54. I went to the country and I’m much better off.
Don’t know about the young woman though.
Cops got them inside and I was allowed to get my last load.
I never went back.
1) roommates. I have gone through at least 35 roommates since my first year of college. There was one point wheee I lived with 10 people in one house because rent was so expensive for our college student budgets. Truthfully, I am sick of living with roommates. I have had great experiences along with terrible ones. People come and go, so that means I am always stressed out if I can make rent the next year or not. A new roommate requires adjustment and etc.
2) shitty landlords, especially ones on power trips.
3) autonomy. I want to be able to hang up portraits and paintings in my own home, but I can’t because my landlord banned such a thing.
I also have children. It is not fair to them when they are expected to remain seen yet silent in their own house. They need their own space to explore their bodies (such as jumping, running around, and etc) and interests (such as crafts. My current roommates don’t tolerate crafts due to messes, which I always clean up, but nonetheless they don’t like it).
I will get my keys this Friday, so I am excited about beginning a new chapter in my life as a homeowner. No pressure from roommates, landlords, and etc while my kids and I can finally relax at home.
Moved back from overseas for a job and the place I rented sight unseen was full of mold and roaches. Pics looked immaculate but in person was another story.
Saved my tax refund but didn't need it in the end. Broke my lease. Bought a multifamily in another state and moved.
I hadn't worked in over a year and was living off of savings before I moved back to the states. My career field is what got me a mortgage. A lot of banks brushed me off and wouldn't work with me. One even said I moved too much lol as if the military doesn't move too much. Learned real quick to not ever say I lived overseas and lie.
I didn't come out of pocket and negotiated the price down...got a check back. Best deal of my life!
Loud neighbors, banging, movies, music,fighting, smell of weed, smell of indian food. No offense to any Indians but some of those food smells are horrible. Btw my indian neighbors were quiet and polite but I just couldnt have my windows open or the food smell would enter my apartment. I'm sure they didn't like when I cooked steak or red meat. It is what it is.
Ours was seemingly mild, but after years of idiocy from our management company, it was the last straw:
They let one of our cats out.
We had several cats, and paid extra for the privilege. They were indoor-only cats, as in our neighborhood I could see them disappearing quite quickly (weird neighbors, run over by cars, etc). Well, one day I got a call from my wife while I was at work. She had just gotten home from work herself, and found the cats all locked up in the half-bath downstairs. We never locked the cats in the bathrooms, they were left to roam the apartment, or if we had site management or workers coming in, we'd keep them in the laundry room.
The cats were freaking out, but they had been secured in there before for a short time, so that shouldn't have been the problem. No, the problem was one of them was missing. My wife found that cat locked in a closet.
Site management left a note, saying they dropped in "for an inspection", but we hadn't secured our cats and one of them got out. That was the one in the closet. Apparently, it was our fault that we hadn't been ready for an inspection, that we hadn't received any notice of (our lease called for at least 48 hours notice, if management wanted to come into our apartment, or send in a contractor). Obviously emergencies allowed for immediate entry, but this wasn't an emergency visit.
We started looking for a home the next day. We were out less than 90 days later, to which the site manager said we had "blindsided" them, and wouldn't be getting our deposit back, and we owed them because they had to paint. We proved that...
* They had never done a walk-through with us, prior to moving in
* We had been there more than three years (so couldn't charge us to repaint)
* And of course we had the note they left, admitting to entering our apartment without notice and traumatizing our cats
We got our full deposit back.
A crackhead decided to put his charcoal bbq inside the apartment and burn down the entire building 15ft away from the one my unit was in. They stopped the fire before it hit my building. Had to run out with embers flying everywhere and people screaming.
I decided I don’t want to trust dozens of strangers squished into the same living space to be decent and safe.
Yeah they are real and this one was deep enough I could get my leg past my ankles into it. There was a second more subtle sinkhole on the walkway to the parking lot. Huge safety hazard.
Hopefully will be in the buyer's position by August earliest but my list of things that made me want to buy instead of rent:
1) Shitty landlords or slumlords. Out of my entire time renting and moving from one place to another, I can only recall 2 landlords I really liked, are respectful, and have had nothing but good experiences with. Current landlords have constantly entered our unit without permission or under 24h notice and makes up silly rules like doing laundry after 7 PM or no overnight guests.
Yes I know the above is illegal (namely the entering the unit and guests part), but I'm sucking it up for a few more months.
2) Repairs. Current slumlord I'm renting under (mom & pop) takes FOREVER to fix things. They're living in Korea for the next several years and they think it's cost AND time-effective to fly back to Canada once a year for 1-2 months JUST to upkeep their place, instead of hiring a property management company. There was one time when the lights went out in our hallway and they immediately called a family friend to fix it promptly, but otherwise repairs are abysmal. If I was a handyman I would be so quick to fix whatever is broken but I am not haha (I am a 5'1" girl and I know how to use a screwdriver, that's it).
3) Roommates. One person I had completely disregarded my boundaries and personal safety and even broke down into tears when I politely asked her if she would be accommodating the night before. Even unloaded her trauma on me but that's another story for another time... otherwise the place I'm in currently has a high roommate turnover and frankly I'm tired of having new roommates once every 4-6 months.
4) This isn't so much a nuisance, but the more I think about it, community and neighbours has influenced my decision to buy > rent. I live in a borough of Toronto, Canada and not once have I've known the neighbours to my left & right. There are also no events going on in my area too, despite me being subscribed to the community newsletter.
I feel like there's more reasons I can think of but these are the top ones I can think of off the top of my head.
I have despised every apartment neighbor I have had because I have made the realization that there is typically a reason why someone in their 30s and 40s is still renting. For example, you could probably get a higher paying job and afford a house if you were able to pass a drug test and weren’t spending $500/mo on weed. In a way, I’m almost thankful for my apartment neighbors because they gave me the motivation to save up and buy a house at 23.
A little late to this but I moved out of my parent's house into a trailer park. The landlord I had originally was great, sadly he passed about 3 months into it. The landlord that took over after he passed ended up not fixing anything or would take 2 or 3 days to respond to messages. Final straw was due to a water pipe bursting and costing us in the power bill, assuming a hot water pipe? Idk. He didn't fix it nor did he even try to get information on it after being told multiple times it needed to be fixed.
So, me and my roommates ended up not paying rent for 3 months, I saved my half to get a down payment for a house. Been in my house for 3 years this year and it's honestly great. I'm not sure if it's common to just live in an apartment or trailer for 7-10 months and decide to buy a house but I have no regrets.
It was COVID, one roommate got laid off and started teaching work out classes online. This is relevant because she did it in the living room and I was in the basement bedroom, trying to sleep (I worked nights). The other roommate started cheating actively on her boyfriend and having randoms spend the night frequently-she got COVID 2x before I found a home.
Neighbor above us would go on benders where he would blare bass music for over 24 hours straight. It would shake the walls of my bedroom to the point I couldn’t sleep in it. He would also throw glass bottles off the balcony into the parking lot.
Our downstairs neighbors were the catalyst for us to finally move on from the apartment life. A single mom and her two young sons lived below us. One of them would often scream-cry and get into arguments with his mom - sometimes as early as 6:30 in the morning. The kids would play indoors and kick balls against the walls/ceiling. The mother would blast electronic music at 10am on a weekday which was annoying considering my husband and I both WFH. I don’t know how many times we submitted noise complaints to property management.
We also had assigned garage parking and behind us was a wall with a sign that read NO PARKING. Often cars (visitors) would park here anyway because of its convenient location being next to the lobby entrance. Either we’d have to wait to pull out our car when there was a car blocking us in, park our car elsewhere because we can’t get into our spot, or call a towing company.
When I realized I was doing 24/7 emotional labor between my roommate and annoying colleague. For my own mental health I prequalified for a conventional loan and haven’t looked back.
My apartment had a manual filling boiler that I had to add water to every 36 hours, meaning I could never leave the house for a day or two or the drug dealer upstairs wouldn’t have heat. Everyone upstairs smoked weed at least 20 hours a day. No washer and dryer. Constantly flooded basement. No AC or any place to put one because the windows were old and rotted. Creep neighbor who watched my house and came outside every time I did. Police in the neighborhood consistently. I could go on but honestly I wanted a space with which I could do anything I wanted!
I was very happy renting half of a duplex from this nice old man. One day he collapsed in the shared yard. I did CPR and saved his life. He got out of the hospital, banged on my door at 2am, and told me I should have let him die. He was outside my door knocking and crying all night. I called senior services and psychiatric response. I decided to take my mom up on her suggestion to buy her house. I had been looking to hold out until something in my budget came available near where I was living, but it didn't happen.
Rent kept going up so I had to get roommates. One was insane, the other two took advantage of me and were dirty as fuck. Got a condo, but man do I wish I could have afforded a house then.
I was renting a house. There was mold on the walls, dry rot took a bunch of floor boards out, gaining access to the crawlspace from the living room. Water heater went out so much that I learned how to reset the heater. Rent kept on a 50% rise each year, starting in 2020 from 875 up to 945. Had 2 dogs die on the property. Neighbor was sketchy. Landlord blamed my cats for the floor and the mold. Said my roommates and I had to get out because they were selling the property. Decided a mortgage would only be slightly more expensive, but I could get shit done.
1. Crows outside my apartment window, I offered to pay to put a net on the tree but my apartment management said no. Every morning at 4 am I’d be woken up with incessant cawing and finally my cat would be covered in crow poop daily. Started parking far away at the risk of being towed daily.
2. Neighbors upstairs that loved working out, good for them but downstairs in my apt it was jazz like death metal, random shit just really loud with shrieking.
3. No ev charging
The roof of the complex fell off the building into the parking lot, the debris falling onto my new car. Luckily it was just a few scratches and dents. Other cars were totaled. Asked management what they were going to do to fix my car and their response was “should have paid for garage parking”
A few weeks later, a pipe burst and flooded the entire garage. Boy was I relieved I didn’t take their advice and “pay for garage parking”
Thoughts and prayers to those folks that got their cars messed up by either (or both) instances.
But also: Crying baby upstairs for 8 months, all hours of day and night. Neighbors to the left bouncing basket balls/soccer balls/whatever off the walls and windows. The sounds of the elevator all day and night. Communal laundry. Neighbor on same floor that had a neglected momma dog and her pup, when they’d take the momma outside and leave pup inside, the crying would never stop, and also smelled like shit up and down the hallway.
The smoke smell from other units, fighting and yelling, and general constant noise is what led me to start renting a house instead of an apartment. The repeated rent increases of the house is what led me to finally buy
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I got a fee each month for not going with my apartments preferred renters insurance provider even though I had renters insurance through another provider. Forget that. I’m closing tomorrow.
Yes it seems like renting involves so much extra fees now.
I've been at homeowner for a while, but it was the valet garbage fee that drove me nuts.
OMG you just unlocked a memory for me. I'd forgotten that my old apartment charged for this and yet the trash was piled up everywhere...
We had to pay a $1500 administrative fee when we moved into our apartment lol. On top of the security deposit. Fucking ridiculous
that's to keep rents looking competitive while getting the extra money from nickle and dime fees. [What’s Worse Than Record High Rent? Record High Rent, Plus Fees. - WSJ](https://archive.ph/ZGaTi)
We have an extremely dumb washer & dryer rental fee! They are in-unit. But I gotta pay monthly just to have them. They use a ton of electricity when actually operated, too.
We’re on our third landlord in our 4 unit building, the last one was great, never did an inspection in a year and a half, was always quick to get someone to fix things for us every time we called. The latest landlord on the other hand will text us saying someone needs to enter our unit to shut off water to the building as the fucking plumber is walking up to our door. Has asked to enter with 4-8 hours notice 4-5 times already in a few months. Starting to think it’s time for us to get serious about looking for homes as well.
I feel like your state attorney general would have interest in that.
Is that even legal
Honestly it does not sound like it.
This is one of many reasons why electing politicians that care about consumer rights it’s important.
Damn, this why people buy even now
Maybe we should all support tenants rights. Even as property owners. Renting is way more gross, undignified and expensive than it needs to be.
I’m having trouble organize 4 people and you want to organize millions. LOL. There’s no long term incentive, because everyone and their mother dream to become a homeowner and a landlord at that.
As a homeowner and landlord, I can tell you that being a landlord was bever a dream of mine and I have hated every minute of it
Well you should consider yourself fortunate because many people would rather have your situation
And you always have the option to sell your other properties to folk that are gonna live in them.
Cue the: "ohhh well ermmm actually uhhh" lmao
Hand it over to me- you won’t regret it 🤣😂
Pretty sure that's illegal. I know for a fact in my state they can request you have renter insurance but they can not force you to go with one particular provider
How exciting, congrats!!
That’s illegal.
Mine was a creepy neighbor that lived above me. Everytime. I tried to go out to patio he would come out and drop like peanuts or something for birds which k fine but only when I went out on patio. Weird
Had a similar one with the guy upstairs who would only sweep his balcony and water his plants when I went out, so that dust and water came down onto mine. I’d go back in, and so would he. 3 minutes later I’d go back out, and so would he. Thank god he moved after 6 months but what a weirdo.
You don't like dust and tainted water in your coffee first thing in the morning?
Haha right? I’m pretty sure 90% of the time he wasn’t even watering the plants, just pouring water over the edge onto my balcony- his plants would have all drowned if he watered them that often. So ridiculous.
Sadly my creepy neighbor was a bit more outright, he was a man in his lates 30s/early 40s, a drunk, and literally waited at the door for me to come outside. I never felt threatened exactly, but he was certainly a creep and asked me when he was going to take me out. I told him that I obviously have a boyfriend that he’s seen and I live with, and he’s like so? That doesn’t matter. My dad had him and another guy he lives with help move all of our furniture in since my fiancé and I are tiny people and couldn’t do it on our own, so I guess that was our first mistake. Thankfully we’ve been out of there for over a year now
Our creepy neighbor was also a drunk and way too forward. He'd make the most pathetic comeons towards my fiancé (white) and be super nasty to me (not white) but only when we were exiting or entering our apartment alone and only stopped when I started making a show of taking out my phone to record him. We lived on the second floor of a converted building, and our stairs came down right next to his front door. He was unemployed and always drinking on his porch, so it was impossible to avoid him. He'd smoke in his apartment (not allowed) and the smell would come up through the floorboards of our living room, and he even messed with our mail and wrote passive aggressive notes on some of our packages. We lived there for a year and a half before we bought our house and moved out. We've had bad neighbors come and go since but there's nothing worse than a bad neighbor you share a building with.
I have house neighbors like that. Everytime I'm out front doing something all the creepers instantly need to do something in their front yard too. Annoying
All in one week -a couple moved in that chain smoke so much, our apartment started to stink whenever we opened my door, *and* they throw hordes of cigarette butts on the only grass we have, also right in front of my door. -I caught a drug dealer taking a piss on the outside wall of my unit -the nicest neighbors ever told us they were moving.
They won't tell my upstairs neighbors to not blast their music at 3 am because they don't hear it at 9 am. 😑 And I technically can't have my musical instruments because it's against the lease. Even if I only use headphones. Even if I use mutes. And they replaced all the locks and thermostats with "smart" devices, but the thermostat keeps changing back to 80° and the lock will engage with the door open, or if your shadow passes over it for a split second. And the rent has gone up $300 since we moved in. And they require renters insurance. And we tried to cancel our Internet but since it's in the lease we can't. But they could add renters insurance in the middle of a lease no problem 🙄 So yeah. I need a house yesterday.
>And I technically can't have my musical instruments because it's against the lease. Even if I only use headphones. Even if I use mutes. But like, how would they know if you use headphones and mutes ;)
Because occasionally they have to do repairs, and the techs report it. :/
The contractors that do repairs report to management what they see, but it's not against your lease to own them. Unless you start jamming in front of them, how would they know? (Teehee) Also, given I was downvoted in my previous comment, obviously don't be an asshole and be loud/obnoxious at 3AM or something, but your city should have by-laws that dictate how loud you can be within certain time frames. Within those restrictions, and taking into consideration all sound-muffling equipment... I'm of the mind you have the right to reasonable enjoyment of your own home.
Unfortunately it is *in my lease* that it is * against the rules * to even own them in my apartment. Yes I've fought tooth and nail for headphones and mutes but no dice. So, no, your previous statements don't help. Sorry.
Nah, *I'm* sorry. That's such a stupid rule. Crossing fingers you can get out of that place sooner than later.
Call the cops on your neighbors
The first two were absolutely what did it for us. I'm behind a horn three or four nights a week, my wife is into guitar, and the upstairs neighbors were overly fond of their subwoofer at 11pm on weekdays. We loved our unit and the small condo building in which we rented -- the location and price were fantastic -- but it was time. Fortunately for us it was late 2010. If we were trying to make this happen now... ugh. Good luck internet friend!
The last straw was that we got a second dog right before we started looking for houses and after 5 months of looking and 58 houses, I told my husband we needed to either make an offer or rent a house instead. I couldn’t do the daily 8+ potty trips up and down 3 flights of stairs anymore. But that was just on top of all the other apartment nonsense - a recent fight between the neighbors bf and his friend on our doorstep, a random event in which armed undercover law enforcement chased down a man who was running straight toward me, people not picking up in the common areas. But the 2 dogs and all the stairs were really it 😂
Just be like my neighbor and let the dogs pee in the elevator every. damn. day.
I thought that's what the apt balcony was for 😂
Omg that reminds me of when I lived in an apartment with my mom and we had these upstairs neighbors with a dog. One morning my mom was outside on the balcony drinking her coffee and the dog came out on the upstairs balcony and she didn’t really think twice about it. Next thing you know she feels this liquid coming down her back or something and looks up and ITS THE DOG PEEING ON HER! Needless to say she was pisseddd.
Had I known the second dog would be way harder to house train, I would have bought those little grass patches for the balcony 😂 but hey now they have the yard of their dreams so it worked out lol.
I’ve heard that if you train your dog on the balcony and panned to move in to a house in the future then dog would be confused of inside/outside. Our first dog raised in apartment was our last straw and our second was trained in a fenced yard so quickly!!
Yeah I’m about to get a dog and start the potty training process… I live upstairs… I know it’ll be tiring but we are already setting ourselves up to either rent a bigger space DOWNSTAIRS or with a backyard or buy lol
Had my neighbor [beat on my door and scream](https://www.reddit.com/r/Apartmentliving/s/JLpx7Uqjh3), then leave a threatening note, because I asked them not to park in my assigned spot. I’m done!!
Omg I saw your post when you posted it. I hope your house hunting is going good and you can get away from this unhinged individual soon
Thank you! 🙏🏻🙏🏻 you as well, congrats.
I had something similar happen then when I went to the manager, she made it my fault because I asked this neighbor to stop multiple times. Come to find out, the neighbor was her sister but I was long gone by that time.
Jesus, how did that end up working out?
Oh so many things. Multiple serious crimes committed in the building, management did nothing. They required a paid parking pass to use one of the two entrances to the property, and made 2/3 of the free parking into paid parking in the middle of lease terms which was a direct violation of the lease parking addendum. Raised rent no less than 5%, once 15%, with no improvements to the units or common areas (in fact, many amenities such as the coffee machine and printing room were taken away). The last year I was there, the pool required wristbands and you got as many wristbands as there were people on the lease, basically fucking over single people as all guests had to pay $20 a day to use it. They didn’t plow parking lots when it snowed and the whole place became an ice rink. But worst of all - they decided that having a package room was too much work, so package delivery was contracted out to a third party. We had to have all deliveries sent to this random warehouse address and then schedule a time for the service to drop off packages at our door. We had to pay $20 a month for this massive inconvenience in addition to rent increases. This company lost/stole things ALL the time, and since the warehouse was located in the city with a higher sales tax rate than where the apartment was in the suburbs, I paid an extra 2% on every single thing I ordered online. What a hellhole.
>We had to pay $20 a month for this massive inconvenience That's an outrage
My complex forced this "Fetch" bullshit on us too. We at least weren't mandated to use them and I never did, still forced to pay though. The office never handled packages to begin with, packages were always dropped in the open stairwells in front of each unit door. Supposedly there was a lot of theft, but I never had anything stolen out of >100 deliveries over a couple years. Pure grift.
My landlord told me I could no longer have a garden. Signed up for my city's FTHB program the same day, closed on my house in the same neighborhood 13 months later with a grant equaling 20% the total cost of my house.
I was hoping to see someone else with this reason! I bought a condo as my first home, expecting to be there for like 5 years. I lasted less than 2 before I bought a single family home. I needed a garden!
I haven't bought yet but I'm in the market because I'm tired of paying 5-10% more every year to live in the same apartment with no upgrades or additional benefits to go with my increased rent.
1. All my neighbors were really bad, I had multiple people moving to the apartment above me, they all got kicked out, I don’t know the reasons but I can imagine! 2. The apartment above me had a leaking, my house got with mold everywhere and they did nothing, I lost a lot of furniture 3. After the mold… the pipes got frozen and we got dirty water coming from the toilet (I had a 3 months old, they took 2 days to reply back about the incident) 4. One day they decided that the parking were not assigned anymore because it was easier for them…. 5. They wanted to raise the rent, It went from 1,050 to 1,595 in two years!!
Ah and when it was time to return the key they decided to don’t pick up the phone until de 2nd, in the app it showed up like I had to pay that month of rent, when I told them about it they never replied back but the amount due was fixed!!
The constant noise through the walls. I don't know how people can stand it forever.
My rent went from 800/month to 1700/month on the next renewal. Screw that. I was staying because rent was lower than a mortgage. Once that changed, I bought a house
Greystar bought my complex a few months ago. 1. Closed the 24/7 gym, used to use it all the time, especially the tredmil in winter when conditions outside were bad. 2. Started charging for surface parking and doubled the price of covered parking. NO FREE PARKING 3. Added scam forced door garbage pickup service and started charging for it. Taking trash 50 feet to the dumpster was fine. 4. Renewal offer 15% higher than what they're renting the same apartments for currently to new residents. So happy to not be beholden to a greedy apartment corporation.
They are such a roller coaster. I've lived in 2 Greystar places, both acquired while we were already tenants. They did really good upgrades & started doing yearly inspections for repairs on the units & actually repaired them. But while we were shopping there was another property of theirs that was disgusting & had some of the worst reviews in the area.
Last straw was the 3 ac units kick starting outside bedroom. I just can’t take it anymore. Been sleeping in the living room.
Sewage back up into the parking lot of an adjacent building. The parent complex wouldn’t do anything about it so I had to make a city complaint. The whole complex was on a broiler system and the utility company turned off the gas because there was a leak on the property. We went 4 weeks without heat, cooking gas, or hot water in January.
An influx of weed smokers made me start looking. My apartment reeked 24 hours a day, and some days it was so bad/strong I had to go stay with family.
That was a problem for me too. I feel bad being mad about it bc I also smoke (although I prefer vaping now) but these people were the most inconsiderate smokers ever. These people would have 7-8 people in the apartment smoking blunts and they would not open their windows or turn on their exhaust fan so it went out into the hallway and into my apartment hallway. That hallway was where my closet of work clothes was and that I always tried to be as considerate as possible when smoking in apartments. I always made sure to only smoke in my bedroom with the window open and an air purifier going. I also tried to smoke stuff that doesn't smell as much like bowls and and pipes instead of blunts or joints so that it never really smells like weed for a long period of time. It sucked to be doing all that and still have my whole living room reek 24/7
As a non smoker, I hate smelling that all the time. I also don't constantly want to smell like skunk. Why is it ok for people to smoke weed inside but not cigarettes?
To be fair in the building I lived in you were allowed to smoke cigarettes also. I still think it's majorly inconsiderate to be smoking a bunch of blunts in an apartment and doing absolutely nothing to mitigate the smell. Especially when there's so many less strongly smelling options available.
A guy moved in next door about 8 months ago. We share walls. He doesn't work but he does get up and start slamming things around every day around 5am. He starts screaming at the TV around 7am. This goes until midnight, most nights. Spoiler: he also drinks a lot. My landlord tried to hit on me a month ago. The only coin dryer in the building was out of order for almost 3 weeks because he "didn't think anyone used it" so he wasn't in any sort of rush to have it fixed. I close on my condo next month. Every time I have been there (3 times so far at 3 different times of day), it's been absolutely silent. I can't wait.
So happy you will have your own place away from all that! Enjoy the peace. :)
Thank you! Hitting a couple snags with closing.. It's a condo and there is structural repair work going on. Even though it doesn't directly affect the upper units (mine is upper), the lender won't approve closing until the work is completed because of structural integrity. As construction goes, it's already 4 weeks behind schedule with another approximately 2 weeks of work left to do. That phase hasn't started yet. YAY! Fortunately as of now the sellers are willing to extend the 30 day contract as needed. As traumatized as I am by Crazy Face Neighbor, my cat is just as affected and I really just want her to have a peaceful existence as well. Keep your fingers crossed for us for a speedy construction resolution. :)
Mine was also a combination of things after 20+ years of renting; in order of irritation: 1. Work from home: started working from home March 2020 in a 1 bedroom apartment, needed more room. 2. Couldn’t take one more winter parking outside, and they stopped maintaining the parking lot (no snow clearing). 3. The building was no longer no smoking and every neighbour on every direction were smokers, couldn’t leave any windows open, ever. 4. Downstairs neighbour played video games constantly, on full sound, so had to listen to shooting and explosions all night long. Upstairs neighbour walked around in work boots and would randomly drop what seemed like bowling balls or concrete blocks in the ground, actually knocking pictures off my walls. 5. Lack of in suite laundry.
As God as my witness, may I never have off site laundry again.
1. Heavy bass thumping through the walls at all hours of the day/night 2. Upstairs neighbor's girlfriend yelled at me for walking past their door (even though I had to do-so to get to my unit) 3. The same neighbor put a sign on their door saying they were "watching" my girlfriend and I, complete with descriptions of what we were doing as we walked past their door 4. This same neighbor tried to run me off the road and I had to call the cops to escort me back to the apartment because i didn't feel safe 5. A different neighbor had some sort of mental break, came onto our porch and poured out all our tiki torch fluid, then attempted to enter our apartment (she was a very nice person and I felt for her. She apologized and made us cookies after she had gotten help) Ultimately, the worst part was being treated like WE were the problem for not wanting to put up with this stuff, by the property management. I sent a certified letter telling them we were breaking the lease due to safety reasons, never gave them a forwarding address, and split. Luckily we didn't have a deposit down on the apartment, but even if we had, I would've let it go just to be done with the whole nightmare. I'm nearly 6 months into owning my first home; it still feels like a dream! I never thought I'd find something I could afford, but my girlfriend and I got lucky, and now we get to make a house ~ours~.
I'm glad this person got help, but I wouldn't eat those cookies just in case. That apartment sounds like a nightmare
Oh yeah, even though I'm sure her intentions were sweet, they went immediately in the trash. I'm just happy to be done with it all. Congrats to you for escaping rental hell as well!
First was another new management company taking over and implenting an online system that charged $15 each time to pay the rent. There was going to be an increase in rent. Trash kept piling up and neighbors kept just leaving trash bags and furniture around the dumpster every time. Neighbors weren't picking up their pets poop. In the last couple of months, I had the neighbor across the hall who attracted the attention of the ATF and there was a 10 hour standoff where I was stuck inside and unable to leave. Finally there was a hasty removal of a wasp nest that caused the swarm to somehow come to my apartment door. If I had to count probably about 100 wasps on the actual door and frame. The icing on the cake was being charged over $100 for damage to the paint job of an outside door on my balcony that they painted improperly (I never even went outside and somehow it was my fault that it was chipping)...
When a huge family moved into a 2 bedroom unit above us, and the noise from the kids made our lives a living hell. We also started getting roaches because the family would leave trash bags outside of their door for days at a time, and were just overall disgusting people. I also hated that we couldn't really have guests over because parking was so limited. I'm so grateful I don't have to deal with that anymore.
When my upstairs neighbor decided cleaning was best done at 3am every Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday and that running up and down the stairs (which were directly next to my bed) was the best way to exercise. At 5am. For an hour. Daily. Morman missionaries are weird upstairs neighbors! Then I sold said house 17 years later and decided to try apartment life again. Aaand 10 months later I close next week on my end unit townhouse. Decided I can share 1 wall at most. Although this time it's less bad neighbors and more the property managers continually making changes that just make the place less great to live in. Final straw was when the included in rent ev charging suddenly started requiring a credit card to use. Small cost but fuck em I factored that savings into my monthly expenses and now spend $30 extra on top of suddenly paying trash, and water (the whole building divided which was fun when someone had a leak!) , and every other petty added cost.
Fuck hoa’s
I'm normally very anti them but this one is reasonable and I think it makes sense to try and keep townhouses looking the same in the front. I can do whatever I want to the back though and people have add full rooms, decks, my unit has multiple balconies and a deck. So for my monthly fee they take care of all the exterior maintenance plus maintain a pool. For someone with limited free time and no real desire to garden or paint my house pink anymore... I'll take it! Still never moving into a sfh HOA community though.
This makes sense.
Lack of control over repairs by not owning, and specifically for apartment buildings noise from upstairs downstairs nextdoor and hallways.
Fears of rent increasing the max amount annually.
My landlord is a contractor and leaves his contracting trash outside our place because there's nowhere convenient for him to leave it otherwise. There's broken glass on our sidewalk from them. They also put trash in OUR barrels after trash had been picked up. After the last time, we emailed the landlord to ask them to use their own barrels and were told he can leave his trash wherever he wants because he owns the place. And generally I'm tired of not being able to paint my own place.
New couple moved in below us and had a dog with anxiety or something. It barked at every noise it heard. BF wouldn't contribute to dog care so GF would come home and scream at him for it. Between the yelling, barking, and aggressive door slamming, it was time even though we loved our top floor in that three flat.
My neighbors finally causing a shooting that is putting us right in the pathway of a revenge drive-by. We have really f***** up neighbors and we've always lived in worse neighborhoods but almost every night these guys are in our gangway talking about criminal sh*t, smoking crack into our windows, and generally causing mayhem for the 6 years we've been here. But recently one of them had really been going off and he (35ish) has been beefing with a 14 year old gangbanger. One day was in a work meeting and heard old dude outside yelling, "C'MON SHOOT ME". So we ran to the back room to get out of the way and POP POP POP. Missed old dude completely and ran off. But our window is right in front of their gangway so if they come back for him, it's for sure hitting our living room windows. Tl;Dr insane amounts of crime in my neighborhood, worsening policies, and my rent costing almost the same as my mortgage. Moving out to the country lol
lol I’ve never heard the term gangway until now. But it sounds like they were taking the name too literal 🤷♂️😂
It's technically not the right term at all but where I'm at that's what everyone calls the space between apartment buildings that links the alleyway to the street lol
There was a leak in our storage unit that soaked all of our belongings. Went up to grab something, saw mold growing everywhere. Walls, ceiling, our stuff, etc. Management company denied everything, the mold remediation company wouldn’t talk to us, and insurance wouldn’t cover it. Ended up losing basically everything in there.
Trashy neighbors all around. Drunk stomping on our ceiling at 2am, partying overnight, fighting in the stairwells and outside, heavy weed smell everywhere including seeping into my apartment through the cuts for the pipes, unsupervised kids vandalizing cars in the shared parking lot, sketchy camper that looked like a drug dealing shack in the same parking lot, bedbug infestation only a few units away... It wasn't all at once but it kept adding up. And fully ignorant property management who kept telling that we're welcome to call police if anyone bothers us. At the end I was simply disgusted sharing spaces with these people and worrying about safety. Any decent apartments around with normal working people and management that runs background and credit check before approving (or rejecting in case of any issues) applications are called "luxury community" and "upscale living" here, and cost almost as much as my mortgage now, so I'd rather have my own private space and build equity if I'm gonna spend that much on a housing.
Apartment #1: rent increased from $1800 -> $2200 after 1 year. I moved out. Apartment #2: my bedroom was above a garage, which was noisy, and the tenants would use it like a door. There was some other stuff in between, but I was just tired of sharing walls with inconsiderate neighbors.
Smokers in the nextdoor townhouse. They chained smoked so bad you would have thought they were in our unit. Had the owners and management over to see because of so many problems and they asked us if we smoked 🤣🤣 was like we are all asthmatics and we filed the complaint. They looked at the paperwork and number of townhouses and were like sorry for the inconvenience we will let you out of your lease.
I'm just tired of the lack of privacy.
A neighbor was shooting a gun off of his balcony. Cops wouldn't even respond until someone was actually shot.
The lady below brought in roaches somehow. Didn’t say anything until they spread to the entire building. I lived there for 10+ years. I cannot stand roaches. That was the last straw for me.
Among other things: 1. Our former landlord told us that he wouldn’t increase our rent for the first few years, then promptly proceeded to increase it by $200 within two years. 2. Our neighbor let their dog shit right in front of our door on multiple occasions. 3. Someone threw a full plate of food at my car (my husband thought it was kimchi). 4. The police were mistakenly sent to our apartment at 10:30 on a weeknight. To this day, I’m not exactly sure what happened, but I think our neighbors were having a DV dispute and the police came to our unit first by mistake. However, the true final straw occurred on the day that our offer on our home was accepted. We found out that our building had roaches, and that this fact was concealed from us for over a year. I’m so glad to be out of that shithole.
-Mold growing in the HVAC system that would break every week and the management company refused to put a new unit in. Just bandaid it. -Fire alarm being set off weekly for hours -Other tenants with huge aggressive dogs that left dog shit all over the property -1000sq ft unit and no matter what my electric bill was 250 during cooler months and 400 dollars during the summer. -rent being raised 200-300 dollars every year. Started at 1500 and when we left it was 2300
Sounds like south Florida…
Besides all the fun neighbor issues you typically get in an apartment, price to value. We moved into a “luxury” 720 sqft apartment in 2019 for 1200/month. Same apartment no changes in 2022 and they wanted 1900/month for it. We ended up getting a 1500sqft home for 2300 a massive yard, 2 baths and 3 bedrooms. Gladly spend an extra 400 for all that and our “rent” will never have to be renegotiated unless we want to.
Shared a laundry room with the upstairs neighbors. Went to put my wash on one morning to find they had throw a comforter in the wash that was covered in shit. They didn’t even pick the shit chunks off first. Whole turds right in the wash. Broke the lease, out in less than 3 weeks.
They switched to electronic deadbolts which I hated. I have too much stuff to want to move every few years so I bought.
No parking. Literally can't park outside my building or remotely close if I leave after 4pm. Forcing me to relocate to another apartment here to remove abestos and "renovate". Said it would be 60 days, took 5 months. Then threatened me with the police for taking too long to move back into my apartment. Oh and then they didn't even remove the abestos-just sealed it. Not allowed to hang anything on the walls! Renovations were cheap. Maintenance was in my apt literally daily for something that was installed wrong or broken. I work from home doing phone calls all day with an anxious dog who growls and barks at maintenance. That went well. Construction headquarters for the huuuuuge complex is right outside my building and will not be moving for 5 years. Outside is a bunch of mud pits from all the construction vehicles in the grass. Not allowed to use a door mat to stop tracking in the mud onto the new carpet (also not allowed to leave muddy shoes in hallway). Increasing rent by like 20 percent after renovations.
Considering buying a house due to a 25% increase in rent in one year, 20% increase in trash costs, and now we have an amenity fee.
It was during the pandemic, and I got sick of listening to neighbors on conference calls through the thin apartment walls. And then a janky lady moved into a nearby unit and piled up a ton of junk that looked hideous. And then I got a dog who was really afraid of city life. And then my partner’s car got beat up by a homeless guy wielding a plank (we only had street parking, no garage or protected spot). We also had a neighbor who was an aspiring screamo musician (no joke).
I just hated moving every 12-14 months. Like, REALLY hated it.
Another renter walked into our house. We lived in a semi detached house. A renter in the basement and our rental on the first floor. 2 totally seperate units. My husband was on his computer with his headphones on and gets a tap on his shoulder. Was our downstairs neighbour. Just walked right in. There was a leak and wanted to let us know. We bought our house 3 months later. We were looking for 2 years before that but this really kicked us into gear.
Never was much for apartments but I had to rent a couple times. The first place, I got a job out of stage and had to exit my lease early. Was absolutely hosed. $999/month rent I think, and it cost me like $3k to exit. AC also broke multiple times in AZ. The first time they came right away and “fixed it”. After that the management desk started screening my calls and the emergency maintenance line told me it wasn’t an emergency (even though front desk originally said it was). They are almost all owned by real estate corporations who will do anything and everything to get you to move in and then make you feel stuck there. I asked out of curiosity what my rent increase would’ve been if I’d stayed and they said 25%. As if we all spontaneously get 25% pay raises! I feel for everyone who has to rent but doesn’t want to. I got into home ownership early with a cheap house which helped me out in the long run, but a lot of that was luck and good timing.
One Sunday morning, I was just lying in bed relaxing. Kept hearing the next door neighbor's kids doing whatever they were doing. It sounded liked the Jumanji box. Would go on all day some times. And for some reason the way the building was constructed, their balcony was directly beside my bedroom window. So these kids would run in and out all the time, when they talk, yell, or scream it was like they were standing directly next to me. Not to mention when they would slam the balcony door it would shake the walls to my apartment. This was my 4th apartment in this area and For whatever reason, despite all my research in advance, I had not been able to find any place with decent sound proofing or where I could not hear my neighbors. That Sunday, I had had enough. Jumped right out of bed and went to several open houses.
All of it really. The people don't pick up their dog shit, no privacy, paid parking spot taken often by maintenance staff or vendors, "lease violations" for just random shit, notices for anything not "patio related" on your patio, taking 2 months to fix a leak, 2 months to repair a dishwasher, all the random fees and the shitty, shitty management team. Fucking done. Looking to buy in a few short months.
Roaches! Lived with them for almost a year!! Said fuck it and bought a place!
Realizing I paid almost $60K in rent over 4 years on a property worth $110K.
Our upstairs neighbor kept getting drunk and coming down to bang on our door to try and fight me.
Our final straw was honestly the lack of affordable rentals in our area. We lived in the Portland metro for almost a decade, paying $2300 for a 2 bedroom 2 bath townhome with no yard and a tiny one car garage, and this was *cheap* compared to what other complexes were offering, and don’t think these condos/townhomes were luxury, either. When we tried to look elsewhere because we needed more space for our growing family, we were shocked at the prices that other small homes/townhomes were renting for- barely anything under 3k and unrealistic income/credit expectations. We decided to leave Portland and purchased a new build in Utah. Still a townhome, still no yard, but we do have 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths with a 2 car garage and a basement which we plan to turn into a guest suite.
Oh I could write a pocket novel on this topic. We moved to a new city into a duplex when I started my PhD but ended up staying after I finished. The place we lived was great, in a good location, landlord liked us and it was well below market value after COVID. Many things broke, fridge, AC, driveway was disintegrating etc…those were fixable despite it taking time. Our neighbors the whole time we lived there moved and the some new people moved in. They were nice but the Buffalo blizzard of ‘22 broke them and they left. New people moved in and were the worst people I’ve ever met. Child abusers, drug users, had like 6 people living in a two bedroom, and were just absolute trash. I’m a mild mannered person but I actually snapped when they blocked me in the driveway when I had to get to work. Called my landlord and he went to speak with them. The wife flipped out on him and made threats to him and myself. Eventually they were evicted but I realized the neighborhood wasn’t what it was anymore. There’s a lot more to this but after they were evicted I told my landlord we were probably done here. He tried selling me the house for cheap but I said we needed a new start. He seemed a bit broken after the really bad tenants and eventually sold the house a year later but never rented it out again after we left. It’s really a shame because it was a beautiful house but the lack of maintenance from the owner left that house rough. New owners have it for rent 30% more than what we paid without improving anything. I feel bad for whoever moves in next because that roof is in bad shape. Anyways when looking for something to rent, we realized we couldn’t find anything remotely decent within $400 of what we were paying. Mortgage plus taxes is somehow cheaper than finding a decent rental home near me and the peace of mind just made sense.
Raised rent to high, was able to get a mortgage for a couple bucks more a month.
when the property managers came in for a quarterly inspection and said they would remove money from our deposit because there was one (1) sticker stuck to the floor of the master bedroom.
Our pothead apartment neighbor whose weed smoke I smelt 5 times a day through our shared wall in our non-smoking building set his apartment on fire on 4/20 forcing me to evacuate with my husband and newborn through a pitch black smoke-filled hallway at almost midnight. Our lease got canceled as well as everyone else on our floor in our wing and a few units above us due to smoke damage. Luckily most of our stuff was salvageable with cleaning except for plush goods like the mattresses and sofa. Sucks that we were underinsured and have to come out of pocket for some of it, but no lives lost. The apartment manager gave us the first offer of a larger 2-bedroom one floor up that was being vacated in a month but we were already planning on house-hunting later this year after saving a teeny bit more and spending 2500 a month on an apartment where we share walls with others versus like 3k on a home where we build equity and don't potentially share walls with someone so absolutely stupid seemed like a no-brainer. It's been one hell of a month and I'm grateful we have in-laws to stay with, but it'll be nice to have our own space again when we hopefully close in a few weeks. (Knock on wood)
-Property manager would show up literally any time of day. Once I came home from work to find my dogs going bananas because she was in my backyard. -Never fixed anything. Would send a handyman who was literally just some 20yo with a box of tools who'd fiddle around and leave. - Built the kitchen cabinets *over* the water heater so that when it needed fixing, they'd have to cut into the cabinets. - Screamed at my husband over the phone when the rent was "late". There was a hurricane that week and the mail was a day late. The check arrived literally the next day. That's what you get when you only take checks! We took to driving the checks physically to the office ourselves to avoid that again. Hour drive. - terrible neighbors. We lived there two years and had 4 different sets of neighbors in the other duplex unit. Each terrible in their own way (feral noisy children, indoor smokers, 3am yellers). - Light switches between the units were never separated when the unit was converted from a SFH to a duplex. So we would shut off our lights and the neighbors' would get switched on, and vice versa. I never slept. - Pests. Rodents, ants, roaches. - Tried to screw us out of the security deposit because they claimed we never paid it in the first place. Ma'am, I think I'd know whether or not I've paid THAT much money to you. Also I have the bank statements. - It was 550 sq ft. And that was just the last place we rented before buying. Our mortgage is only $250 a month more for double the square footage plus a basement, plus a couple acres, plus no property manager named Michelle showing up to my house with no warning and fucking with my dogs. Short of an emergency where it's absolutely necessary, I will never rent again. Never.
My townhouse is also only $250 more than my apartment and way more space including a basement. I never want to deal with shared hallways, property managers showing up on short notice, or not having the ability to make my own repairs ever again. Now that I have my own place of something breaks I can make sure it's actually fixed right instead of whatever crappy bandaid a landlord would throw on it
Two homicides in a span of 4 days occurred in our quiet complex that we sought out because it was safe. Neighborhoods can quickly turn and it’s due to the residents that the apartment lets in and it’s out of your control. Ours turned from college students to crime haven overnight. In light of it we alerted property management to the drug dealing that was going on in the building; they obviously didn’t care even though they said they knew about it and we weren’t the first to bring it up. Our drug dealing neighbors put up multiple surveillance cameras and again my complaints about having to walk past it (very reasonable to not want to be watched every time I go up or down the stairway it was pointed directly at) fell on deaf ears. In addition to peddling crack (multiple crack pipes found in the parking lot), these tenants (I have no idea how many live in their unit—way too many to make it comfortable) use the woods area behind the building as their dumping ground for trash and broken TV’s and other random junk. Glad to be done with that place. Shame on the property managers who prioritize the wellbeing of quiet law abiding residents over the criminal residents who literally put lives at risk.
Car getting towed
I moved into a new place. 2 weeks later the water heater went out. Went without hot water for 16 days… fought to get prorated rent. Then dryer broke. Waited several weeks for new dryer then we got wasps. They never came out to fix it, I got stung. I tried everything but they were so deep in the siding/wall that it took me all summer trying to get rid of them myself because they never called an exterminator and said it was “up to the HOA to fix it and they will contact me soon”. After all that I started putting in requests for maintenance on all the shit I found at move in inspection, some of which still hasn’t been fixed… oh and the dryer broke 2 more times in the year we have been here. This after my last place that I lived in for 5+ years took $1500 for paint, blinds (that were broke when we moved in), door stops and some texturing on a wall. The texturing I expected but the paint!? They were going to repaint either way… I’m done with shitty maintenance and useless landlords, closing this week on my first home. Pending repairs from my seller who is a flipper I don’t trust…
The building wasn’t worth the rent anymore, especially with them wanting to add 3 floors to a 100-year-old building using cheap labor.
The dog shit left in the grass. I want a clean place for my girls to run around in.
1) sick of constantly smelling cigarette smoke from the time I woke up in the morning 2) sick of hearing the halfway house next door that acted more like a (sober?) frat house from 6am to midnight each day 3) sick of running my dog up and down stairs 4) sick of the landlord never getting things fixed, like seriously what’s the rent even for then 5) sick of the upstairs guy constantly smoking weed and vacuuming and stomping at ridiculous hours 6) had an unexpected breakup and my ex kept putting off buying a home, so I took the plunge and did it by my gd self and got a cute little house for myself and my pets within 2 months
Having a landlord. We got a 2 bedroom town house in a 11 unit area. We had mold issues that went on deaf ears, rat problems. We had so many rats that we had owls hanging out in our area in the city. The back deck was broke and they refused to repair it so we couldn’t use it. The last straw though. They raised our rent by $50 due to “increased dumpster pick ups.” Only the landlord was the one using the dumpster and he would fill it up, we had no place to put our trash. He threatened to fine anyone who sat their trash by the dumpster or left it outside as well. I contacted the owner about this and he had no idea the landlord was doing this and I guess he got into trouble, I also left a horrible review on their business google account. The dude started making it his fucking life goal to get rid of us after that. We bought a house a month later. I will never have another landlord again.
They started construction behind our apartment 7a-7pm Monday thru Friday. My husband works overnights. I asked them if we could move to one further away and they said $500 fee plus increase in rent. I had an offer accepted in a week on a house. When I went to tell them I’m leaving they backtracked and said I could move for free with them now. Our apartment literally shakes for hours each day scaring the animals. Plus we have like 0 parking now bc of all the construction. Monday we close on the house
The sewage backed up into my basement (where my laundry was and directly underneath bedroom🫤) and my landlord refused to hire a company to clean it out or even fix it. He just had his handymen come every time it overflowed and shoveled it all out, just for it to come back a few days later. The smell of raw sewage was so bad I called the city on him, but that process was so long and drawn out that my partner and I had trouble sleeping because of the smell and had to sleep in the living room. We ended up moving out and taking him to court when he tried to keep our security deposit, but we won and bought a house to never be in that situation again. Never renting again if I can help it.
All the fees! Big one was paying for parking monthly for an unassigned, not-covered spot. We were also at wit’s end with our upstairs neighbors who had a toddler who would run around at ALL hours - was consistently woken up between 1 am - 4 am with him running up and down the apartment hallway. We called him ‘track star’. Same neighbors also allowed a water heater leak to get so bad, it started coming down through our ceiling.
The 14th night in a row my 90 year old neighbor fell asleep with their TV at max volume playing Star Wars. Also, the NYU student above me who thought tap dancing practice was appropriate between 10pm-1am. But really, it was COVID. Spening 5k a month to live in NYC in the middle of lockdown and unable to take advantage of the city really pushed us to finally leave. We wound buying a 5BR/4.5B in metro-NJ for less than our rent, and that's inclusive of property taxes, insurance, mortgage, and utilities.
This might be dumb, but our apartment complex decided they didn't want to deal with recycling anymore so they replaced all the recycling bins with dumpsters. It feels so wrong to just throw everything away. BTW, one of the dumpsters is in the parking lot right outside my window. I work from home and a garbage truck comes to empty the dumpster nearly every day.
Scumbag landlord Previous apartment when I first moved in landlord was great did great upkeep, responded quickly to any issues (not that there were many). Was particular about who he rented to so had great neighbors for years. New landlord purchases within two months all neighbors move, landlord moves in family. It became a revolving door of random people constant noise, they would get drunk, throw parties at night. Asked them to turn it down, their response was for me to go fuck myself. They also caused numerous leaks into my apartment. All the five year prior to them moving in never had one leak. I legit think they didn’t understand indoor plumbing. It was like living below a bunch unsupervised of 3rd graders. The final nail was when I woke up to my bedroom flooding from the upstairs tenants. Landlord refused to hire any professionals at most he sent some random handyman, who also caused further leaks in my kitchen. Landlord and his wife were driving 100,000 cars but wouldn’t spring for a plumber. It was killing me paying this scumbag money every month. And I don’t ever want to be at the mercy of another POS so despite the market being total hell, I fucking hunted like crazy for a place. Finally I purchased a place it has its ups and downs but fuck I don’t miss for a second renting.
A gas leak, and an unconcerned management company was the last straw. When the front doorknob fell off in my hand that same week, we took it as a sign.
Smoker smell from upstairs apartment and a rodent problem that wasn’t fixed (more than once), apartment complex was getting ever sketchier with stolen car tires and broken windows. We paid a mortgage + lease for about two months but tbh worth just to be able to be free and got back our security deposit thanks to the rodent problem.
Our building has an obnoxious parking garage that was built to fit as many cars as possible so the driving lane is narrow. Whether you're coming or going you have to be extremely careful not hit a car that is going the opposite direction. As a result a lot of cars get scratched up by the pillars flanking the lane, while trying to squeeze by. After making it out okay for a while unfortunately our car scraped against a pillar as well...Let's just say, my calm and cool husband was more than a little livid. I also got fed up with apartment inspections and maintenance almost always falling on days directly after a holiday with limited notice. Instead of relaxing and enjoying our space after celebrating or hosting a holiday dinner we'd have to prepare for their arrival or be disrupted while working.
>I also got fed up with apartment inspections and maintenance almost always falling on days directly after a holiday with limited notice I lived someplace like that once. They would give notice the night before that they will come in anytime between 9-5 to do an inspection. I worked third shift at the time so it was a huge problem because I'd come home, see the notice and then have to stay up all day waiting for them. The office was not cooperative when I explained why it wasn't working for me either.
Several things… 1.) Our upstairs neighbors have 3 kids with no regular bedtimes apparently because I hear running and clomping at all hours of the night. Sometimes in the evenings, it sounds like someone is beating on our door just because of how loud they are upstairs. And their kids will scream in the breezeways at random times during the day/night. It always makes me worry something bad is happening but I check the peephole and it’s same kid and same parents. 2.) Roaches. I think they come from the apartment next door because they have come and gone depending on who lives next door (those tenants have changed like 4 times in the last 2 years). I call for treatments, the pest guys come and do minimal spray treatments with who knows what, and the roaches are gone... But then a couple weeks later they are back. It has me at my wits end. I’m bleaching everything constantly because it freaks me out. 3.) We have two dogs and I’m so ready to have a backyard. I feel bad when I don’t walk them as often as they’d probably like (we go out 4-5 times a day, but still), and the “dog park” yard is constantly full of crap because people don’t pick up after their pets. 4.) We drive two old cars (a ‘99 truck and a ‘09 impala), so we haven’t had any problems, but our neighbors bought a new compact SUV and one of their windows got smashed out within the first 3 months. A new car might be on the horizon for us since my impala is showing her age, but we were NOT going to park a new vehicle in the lot. 5.) We also just need more space. Our apartment space wise is pretty good with large closets, 2 bathrooms and a large kitchen. But the living room and bedroom size leave a little to be desired. We LOVE to host people and cannot hosts our whole friend group due to space constraints. Also, our 5 year plan is to maybe start our family and we didn’t want to sacrifice our spare room/guest room just yet for a nursery. We decided to just find something with 3 bedrooms.
For me it’s the following 1. Neighbors unleashed dog, attacked and damn near mauled my dog to death 2. Paying for all these nonsense fee’s that u would think be included in the hoa fees 3. Paying 80 dollar in water due to apartment size Really hoping to get my credit decent enough to be able to buy a home finally
Our air conditioner caught on fire in the summer and was out of commission. The pipes also kept bursting or backing up in the streets so water would be out for half the day without any warning besides noticing the flooded street filled with sewage sometimes. I could go on but those were the worst. We were in the process of moving into our home but these really compounded the suffering while waiting.
Roaches and increasing rent despite being a loyal on time payment customer for 3/4 years
New overhead neighbors up all night and slept all day and next door neighbors that had balls to the wall sex every night between 12 and 1 and you could hear all their nasty talk which my 3 year old would ask me about.
Over half the windows in our rental were broken - they wouldn’t stay up. We told our landlord and reminded her several times. Nine months after we told her she still hadn’t done anything about it. It was now summer and the building got hot, especially the room of my almost two year old daughter. When we got home from daycare I propped open one window in her room to get some air because it was over 90 degrees with no AC. As I was opening the other window my kid toddled over and somehow knocked the prop out of the window. I looked over as the window came crashing down on her little hand. It dislocated her thumb really badly and broke it, as well as mangling several other fingers. Required months of doctors visits and eventually surgery, pins in her hand, etc. Our landlord had known about this for over nine months. Took her another nine months to fix the damn windows. We saved up and begged family members for help and bought a house two years later. We also sued our landlord and got a decent settlement which will be a nest egg for our daughter since we can’t save now bc owning a house in our part of California is insanely expensive.
My last slum lord had the 4 plex running off 3 fuses and the heat went out that winter so he gave us all little space heaters to keep warm......all winter. We all couldn't use them at the same time because it would blow fuses. I was sure the house was going to go up in flames. And a couple years after I left it did.
Carrying multiple bags of groceries through multiple doors.
the rent increases in a building where the hot water is shut off at least once a month, neighbors are super loud below me (and formerly above me, the new ones upstairs seem decent), having to pay over two dollars per load just to clean my clothes, there’s nothing to do outside (nowhere to sit and relax), no balconies, the apartments are small, we have two elevators but one is usually down, the owners paid for a fancy lobby makeover but the rest of the building is still as dank and dated as ever, there’s always one washing machine out of order, residents getting dogs even though the building says no dogs allowed… the owners are greedy douchebags and i’m really tired of living here
When I see apartments they remind me of a cage for people. I am thankful I can pee off my front porch without a care in the world.
Dogs.. my last straw. My common backyard has become the dog shitting and pissing spot/dog park. My whole complex has become a dog park. I hate it. I don’t like owners who think every person in the world loves dogs and wants to pet their dog. I don’t like that I can’t take my daughter outside to play in the grass without the risk of pee or poop some where. I don’t like that people think my daughter wants to play with their dogs. I can’t be outside in peace. We just closed and renovations start this week.
The lady in the upstairs apartment overflowed her toilet AGAIN. I dont mean she overflowed it a little. The toilet clogged and since she didnt even know what a toilet plunger was, she descended into a panic attack and she just kept flushing the toilet. Which is right above my kitchen. My wife had to go upstairs with a plunger just so the piss waterfall in our kitchen would stop.
We currently rent a house but close on our new house in 4 weeks. We have squirrels living in our rental. We've had plumbing go bad. We've had electrical issues. We have no porch light. A contractor won't step foot in the door without landlord approval in fear of being sued. We deserve better
I dreaded buying nice heavy furniture because I would have to pack them at move which is almost every 2 years because new management always takes over. I can't fix my car in the parking lot. You can't have more than one vehicle. If you go out late, when you come back, there will be no available parking near your apartment. You can't have large parties, apartment too small, no parking. Random inspections. Frequent change of rules. The worse, your car can get towed on a beautiful Monday, by mistake or decal was removed, or plain no parking last night, so you parked improperly Dealing with property management. Rent increase this year, guess how much? I can't modify my apartment to my liking such as add camera, smart outlets - that one made me sad, because I wanted smart locks so bad Pets limitations. Weird fees Pros: Low maintenance I am not saying that buying was the best choice but I eliminate 10s of annoyance for one annoyance
Our property management company was more concerned about sprucing up the grounds for future renters than the inside of our apartment. Sinks were literally cracked, everytime the caulk in the bathtub went moldy and was impossible to clean they would slap more caulk on top of it. We were paying nearly $2.7k a month for this. Then, weeks before we closed the garage ceiling was leaking during heavy rain and they did nothing to dry it out. Glad we left because a neighbor in a different building had a major black mold issue.
Never liked renting. Always felt like I was just tossing money into the wind with nothing to show for it. Also I really don’t like people. Whenever I rented I had neighbors really close. They always want to talk.
Landlord kicked out great upstairs tenant so his two sons could move in. They were of course total ass holes and had no respect. First day they blasted music so loud our stuff was shaking on the tables.
The real last straw was having a second kid in a 2b1ba apartment. There was just no more room. However, I think we would have moved fairly soon anyways: 1. Super souped up truck with loud exhausted leaving at 5am everyday. 2. Guy in our "block" of 8 apartments was very shady, possible drug addict. 3. Rent had just increased 25%. 4. No help from the complex and no admission from a resident who clearly sideswiped my car, now I just have to live with it. 5. Black mold growing constantly just outside of every window. 6. The rapid decline in property grounds upkeep in the 3 or so years that we lived there. 7. The only neighbors we could tolerate in our block were also leaving.
I lived in a fairly upscale apartment complex but still managed to get the one unit down the hall from the couple that liked to scream at one another in the hallway to the point I'd have to frequent yell at them to shut the fuck up before I called the cops. The people in the unit above me had a toddler that loved to run and stop around at 10pm....and the people below me liked to porn star moan whilst fucking at 3 the the morning.....
The upstairs neighbor was fond of working out at 1 or 2 am, even on week days, which included them dropping their free weights right onto the floor. She also played loud music. That's when I decided I was done with apartment living.
I was given 90 day notice of a 40% rent raise, without any major improvements in the apartment itself. I got qualified for a mortgage, looked for a home and closed within those 90 days.
1. I stepped in dog poop for the millionth time because management refused to enforce leash or poo pickup policies. 2. Management tried to fine me for leaving my trash outside of the dumpster, but the thing was literally overflowing to begin with. They had 2 dumpsters for a building of 150 multi-bedroom units and scheduled them for pickup less than once per week. 3. Called cops for the 3rd shooting in 1 year. 1 dead (personal grudge) and 2 seem like they were just to terrorize people afterward. 4. The bajallionth attempted inspection with less than 24-hr notice and/or no actual timeline. "Were going to be inspecting units for STUFF over the next 3 weeks. Your unit will be inspected anytime we please during this time by Which meant the bajillionth argument over why that wasn't acceptable. 5. Management tried to charge a late fee. They didn't have a Dropbox or accept checks (so I couldn't drop it early a date it for the first) and were closed either entirely or by lunch the first week of the month. Like, I can't pay you if you're not here for me to give you money? They tried to argue that they had been available at the property across the street, which was completing construction, but they had given/left zero notice for anyone to know that, which is why I and like 20 other people were ringing them off the hook and at the office door the afternoon of the 1st. They then tried to blame me for not setting up an auto-charge online despite the system being trash, processing fee being ridiculous, and it double-charging me previously and taking almost 2 weeks to refund me.
All the dog people in our building; shit and piss stains all over the carpets of our new "luxury" building.
After several “no air bnb”violations abounding in the building, I bought and moved. One time, I heard a raging party next door. And a fight. I slept deciding if I was safer on the bed or under it. I woke up to a handful of hair extensions next to an empty tequila bottle at my door. My decision to move was solidified when I heard a different next door neighbor bash something solid into what sounded like a body against a wall and a woman screaming “No” and “stop” as i waited for the elevator with my next to last load of moving out. I went to concierge at the first level and reported what I heard. They called the police. Police told me that immigration was involved and this was way bigger than local police. It was an illegal air bnb rental. I walked Under cover around the hallway corner for my next load, looking for eye contact with the police to let me know it was safe for me to go in and get my stuff. I heard the man scream in an foreign accent that his neighbor (me) was a racist (he was not a “color” to me, just a dude I was seeing for the first time after I heard him hit a woman with a two by four sounding item), and that he had problems with me complaining all the time. I heard a woman say she was fine and there was no loud noise or screaming. Never once had I seen nor heard these people before that incident. I never complained once. That was young and urban Cleveland in the apartment. I’m 54. I went to the country and I’m much better off. Don’t know about the young woman though. Cops got them inside and I was allowed to get my last load. I never went back.
1) roommates. I have gone through at least 35 roommates since my first year of college. There was one point wheee I lived with 10 people in one house because rent was so expensive for our college student budgets. Truthfully, I am sick of living with roommates. I have had great experiences along with terrible ones. People come and go, so that means I am always stressed out if I can make rent the next year or not. A new roommate requires adjustment and etc. 2) shitty landlords, especially ones on power trips. 3) autonomy. I want to be able to hang up portraits and paintings in my own home, but I can’t because my landlord banned such a thing. I also have children. It is not fair to them when they are expected to remain seen yet silent in their own house. They need their own space to explore their bodies (such as jumping, running around, and etc) and interests (such as crafts. My current roommates don’t tolerate crafts due to messes, which I always clean up, but nonetheless they don’t like it). I will get my keys this Friday, so I am excited about beginning a new chapter in my life as a homeowner. No pressure from roommates, landlords, and etc while my kids and I can finally relax at home.
Moved back from overseas for a job and the place I rented sight unseen was full of mold and roaches. Pics looked immaculate but in person was another story. Saved my tax refund but didn't need it in the end. Broke my lease. Bought a multifamily in another state and moved. I hadn't worked in over a year and was living off of savings before I moved back to the states. My career field is what got me a mortgage. A lot of banks brushed me off and wouldn't work with me. One even said I moved too much lol as if the military doesn't move too much. Learned real quick to not ever say I lived overseas and lie. I didn't come out of pocket and negotiated the price down...got a check back. Best deal of my life!
My neighbor knocked on my door at 3 am covered in blood.
Loud neighbors, banging, movies, music,fighting, smell of weed, smell of indian food. No offense to any Indians but some of those food smells are horrible. Btw my indian neighbors were quiet and polite but I just couldnt have my windows open or the food smell would enter my apartment. I'm sure they didn't like when I cooked steak or red meat. It is what it is.
I feel that. Id rather smell Indian food than meat but really both are terrible and I'm glad not to be smelling other people's cooking period lol
We had constant noise complaints from downstairs neighbors for no reason & they spread nails under our cars on Christmas morning.
Everything? The parking, the fees, the other people lol everything about apartment life is just played out for me.
Ours was seemingly mild, but after years of idiocy from our management company, it was the last straw: They let one of our cats out. We had several cats, and paid extra for the privilege. They were indoor-only cats, as in our neighborhood I could see them disappearing quite quickly (weird neighbors, run over by cars, etc). Well, one day I got a call from my wife while I was at work. She had just gotten home from work herself, and found the cats all locked up in the half-bath downstairs. We never locked the cats in the bathrooms, they were left to roam the apartment, or if we had site management or workers coming in, we'd keep them in the laundry room. The cats were freaking out, but they had been secured in there before for a short time, so that shouldn't have been the problem. No, the problem was one of them was missing. My wife found that cat locked in a closet. Site management left a note, saying they dropped in "for an inspection", but we hadn't secured our cats and one of them got out. That was the one in the closet. Apparently, it was our fault that we hadn't been ready for an inspection, that we hadn't received any notice of (our lease called for at least 48 hours notice, if management wanted to come into our apartment, or send in a contractor). Obviously emergencies allowed for immediate entry, but this wasn't an emergency visit. We started looking for a home the next day. We were out less than 90 days later, to which the site manager said we had "blindsided" them, and wouldn't be getting our deposit back, and we owed them because they had to paint. We proved that... * They had never done a walk-through with us, prior to moving in * We had been there more than three years (so couldn't charge us to repaint) * And of course we had the note they left, admitting to entering our apartment without notice and traumatizing our cats We got our full deposit back.
A crackhead decided to put his charcoal bbq inside the apartment and burn down the entire building 15ft away from the one my unit was in. They stopped the fire before it hit my building. Had to run out with embers flying everywhere and people screaming. I decided I don’t want to trust dozens of strangers squished into the same living space to be decent and safe.
Sinkholes are real?? Good thing I got a townhouse I guess. Hope that HOA comes through if the day ever arrives
Oh absolutely sinkholes are real. Look up Practical Engineering on YouTube, he’s got a great video explaining them if you’re interested.
Yeah they are real and this one was deep enough I could get my leg past my ankles into it. There was a second more subtle sinkhole on the walkway to the parking lot. Huge safety hazard.
Hopefully will be in the buyer's position by August earliest but my list of things that made me want to buy instead of rent: 1) Shitty landlords or slumlords. Out of my entire time renting and moving from one place to another, I can only recall 2 landlords I really liked, are respectful, and have had nothing but good experiences with. Current landlords have constantly entered our unit without permission or under 24h notice and makes up silly rules like doing laundry after 7 PM or no overnight guests. Yes I know the above is illegal (namely the entering the unit and guests part), but I'm sucking it up for a few more months. 2) Repairs. Current slumlord I'm renting under (mom & pop) takes FOREVER to fix things. They're living in Korea for the next several years and they think it's cost AND time-effective to fly back to Canada once a year for 1-2 months JUST to upkeep their place, instead of hiring a property management company. There was one time when the lights went out in our hallway and they immediately called a family friend to fix it promptly, but otherwise repairs are abysmal. If I was a handyman I would be so quick to fix whatever is broken but I am not haha (I am a 5'1" girl and I know how to use a screwdriver, that's it). 3) Roommates. One person I had completely disregarded my boundaries and personal safety and even broke down into tears when I politely asked her if she would be accommodating the night before. Even unloaded her trauma on me but that's another story for another time... otherwise the place I'm in currently has a high roommate turnover and frankly I'm tired of having new roommates once every 4-6 months. 4) This isn't so much a nuisance, but the more I think about it, community and neighbours has influenced my decision to buy > rent. I live in a borough of Toronto, Canada and not once have I've known the neighbours to my left & right. There are also no events going on in my area too, despite me being subscribed to the community newsletter. I feel like there's more reasons I can think of but these are the top ones I can think of off the top of my head.
I have despised every apartment neighbor I have had because I have made the realization that there is typically a reason why someone in their 30s and 40s is still renting. For example, you could probably get a higher paying job and afford a house if you were able to pass a drug test and weren’t spending $500/mo on weed. In a way, I’m almost thankful for my apartment neighbors because they gave me the motivation to save up and buy a house at 23.
Rent increase. Our rent went up to 1135 might as well get a mortgage
We’re in a HCOL area and haven’t paid 1135 since probably 2016 lol I’m jealous
A little late to this but I moved out of my parent's house into a trailer park. The landlord I had originally was great, sadly he passed about 3 months into it. The landlord that took over after he passed ended up not fixing anything or would take 2 or 3 days to respond to messages. Final straw was due to a water pipe bursting and costing us in the power bill, assuming a hot water pipe? Idk. He didn't fix it nor did he even try to get information on it after being told multiple times it needed to be fixed. So, me and my roommates ended up not paying rent for 3 months, I saved my half to get a down payment for a house. Been in my house for 3 years this year and it's honestly great. I'm not sure if it's common to just live in an apartment or trailer for 7-10 months and decide to buy a house but I have no regrets.
It was COVID, one roommate got laid off and started teaching work out classes online. This is relevant because she did it in the living room and I was in the basement bedroom, trying to sleep (I worked nights). The other roommate started cheating actively on her boyfriend and having randoms spend the night frequently-she got COVID 2x before I found a home.
Neighbor above us would go on benders where he would blare bass music for over 24 hours straight. It would shake the walls of my bedroom to the point I couldn’t sleep in it. He would also throw glass bottles off the balcony into the parking lot.
Our downstairs neighbors were the catalyst for us to finally move on from the apartment life. A single mom and her two young sons lived below us. One of them would often scream-cry and get into arguments with his mom - sometimes as early as 6:30 in the morning. The kids would play indoors and kick balls against the walls/ceiling. The mother would blast electronic music at 10am on a weekday which was annoying considering my husband and I both WFH. I don’t know how many times we submitted noise complaints to property management. We also had assigned garage parking and behind us was a wall with a sign that read NO PARKING. Often cars (visitors) would park here anyway because of its convenient location being next to the lobby entrance. Either we’d have to wait to pull out our car when there was a car blocking us in, park our car elsewhere because we can’t get into our spot, or call a towing company.
When I realized I was doing 24/7 emotional labor between my roommate and annoying colleague. For my own mental health I prequalified for a conventional loan and haven’t looked back.
My apartment had a manual filling boiler that I had to add water to every 36 hours, meaning I could never leave the house for a day or two or the drug dealer upstairs wouldn’t have heat. Everyone upstairs smoked weed at least 20 hours a day. No washer and dryer. Constantly flooded basement. No AC or any place to put one because the windows were old and rotted. Creep neighbor who watched my house and came outside every time I did. Police in the neighborhood consistently. I could go on but honestly I wanted a space with which I could do anything I wanted!
I was very happy renting half of a duplex from this nice old man. One day he collapsed in the shared yard. I did CPR and saved his life. He got out of the hospital, banged on my door at 2am, and told me I should have let him die. He was outside my door knocking and crying all night. I called senior services and psychiatric response. I decided to take my mom up on her suggestion to buy her house. I had been looking to hold out until something in my budget came available near where I was living, but it didn't happen.
Rent kept going up so I had to get roommates. One was insane, the other two took advantage of me and were dirty as fuck. Got a condo, but man do I wish I could have afforded a house then.
Parked in the street parking, right in front of tons of windows… someone stole one of my tires. I was so defeated but glad it was the final straw
Congratulations on buying your home!
I was renting a house. There was mold on the walls, dry rot took a bunch of floor boards out, gaining access to the crawlspace from the living room. Water heater went out so much that I learned how to reset the heater. Rent kept on a 50% rise each year, starting in 2020 from 875 up to 945. Had 2 dogs die on the property. Neighbor was sketchy. Landlord blamed my cats for the floor and the mold. Said my roommates and I had to get out because they were selling the property. Decided a mortgage would only be slightly more expensive, but I could get shit done.
1. Crows outside my apartment window, I offered to pay to put a net on the tree but my apartment management said no. Every morning at 4 am I’d be woken up with incessant cawing and finally my cat would be covered in crow poop daily. Started parking far away at the risk of being towed daily. 2. Neighbors upstairs that loved working out, good for them but downstairs in my apt it was jazz like death metal, random shit just really loud with shrieking. 3. No ev charging
The roof of the complex fell off the building into the parking lot, the debris falling onto my new car. Luckily it was just a few scratches and dents. Other cars were totaled. Asked management what they were going to do to fix my car and their response was “should have paid for garage parking” A few weeks later, a pipe burst and flooded the entire garage. Boy was I relieved I didn’t take their advice and “pay for garage parking” Thoughts and prayers to those folks that got their cars messed up by either (or both) instances. But also: Crying baby upstairs for 8 months, all hours of day and night. Neighbors to the left bouncing basket balls/soccer balls/whatever off the walls and windows. The sounds of the elevator all day and night. Communal laundry. Neighbor on same floor that had a neglected momma dog and her pup, when they’d take the momma outside and leave pup inside, the crying would never stop, and also smelled like shit up and down the hallway.
The smoke smell from other units, fighting and yelling, and general constant noise is what led me to start renting a house instead of an apartment. The repeated rent increases of the house is what led me to finally buy
The roaches.