Now its rent + utilities + parking ...

First 2 are from before the last email that came in today. They said it was fine but now they are saying the whole building is non smoking

For reference we rent a bedroom out of our landlords home.

My landlord is a monster, has gone against our lease, has threatened to kick us out over the smallest things, instigates arguments constantly, spams me with text messages almost every single day about whatever small thing she finds flaws in, heck her dog attempted to harm our kitten, and has injured her, and the landlord has shrugged it off and made excuses for the dog.

Today might be one of the most problematic things she has ever done. She doesn't want our windows open, and she doesn't want us touching the thermostat. We had to air out the room because my partner was smoking and blowing it out the window, I have a sensitivity to the smell, and our kitten had just blew up the litterbox. Once the room smelled less intense I had planned on closing the windows. Landlord gets home and yells at me over the window being open, I go to close it and inform her that I had it open to air out the room. Landlord told me that she ordered locks that she is going to put on the windows of our bedroom so that we will be unable to open them.

She can't be allowed to do this given that the windows would be our safety exit, right?

Two weeks ago, after a week of heavy rainfall I woke up to this beauty.
There was no water leaking inside or anything on the floor so I texted my partner a picture.
This is in our master bathroom/closet combo and he quickly sent this to the lady managing the home.
At first she tried to bait my fiancé into possibly doing the work on this to get money off of our rent.
I had to specifically speak to her to ask her to hire a third party to fix this.
Previously our sink/garbage disposal was broken and she convinced my partner to fix it and take money off of our rent payment. He fixed it and we both funded the parts and he spent his time fixing it for us.
The landlord later came back and said the homeowner who is an older man was not willing to reimburse the work he did.
So after she agreed someone would come out today she sent a ‘handyman’ at 8 this morning.
The handyman situation was an older gentleman and his wife that just came in and looked around at things.
‘Handyman’ seemed to be just a friend of the landlord and all they did was look at things and take pictures.
The wife was rapidly texting the landlord the whole time.
After they left the landlord called my partner.
Landlord explained that the ‘handy’ informants said that it looks like someone busted open the roof walking up there. The only way the damage would have happened is someone walking in the attic (I also discovered this issue while my partner was working out of state for three weeks).
Since there is no water damage it must have been our fault.
We both laughed at our landlord because there is nothing up there for us or anyone else to get to.
She keeps saying stuff like “hey we need you to get up there and send more pictures”.
It’s been two weeks with this busted open ceiling and I’ve found bugs and geckos indoors and in the laundry and on the carpet.
This is a month to month lease so we can leave at any time.
It sucks because the price is really good.
I feel like the exposed ceiling is messing with my asthma as well.
So yeah not really sure what to do here. We don’t have enough saved to move right now.

Guy is a fucking creep, and won't spend a penny fixing anything in the house, also he's using one of the roommates outlets. I found this about the guy online. I can confirm I've personality seen him do most of this, I wasnt around when he was beating his wife, she was gone before i moved in, but I have seen him blast the neighbors cat with a water hose into a corner.

"Don't move in here, Redacted for redit(Live-in landlord) is an animal abusing, wife beating, slumlord and needs to be put on the sex offender registry. I've seen him abuse the neighbors cats by kicking/blasting them with the water hose, go into the female roommates rooms and stand over them as they were sleeping, with some of them moving out after 1 night, and the neighbors telling me how he used to beat his ex-wife all the time. Also, he's a liar that will tell you anything to move into his falling apart home, like he will tell you how much he loves to play pc games(dudes 60+ years old), only to tell you when you move in that he doesn't want you to use any of the outlets in your room because of his shitty wiring and is afraid the house will burn down. I can say so much more, but it would be way too long, Just don't move here"

I moved out a couple months ago from the location on 18th and E and let me just say the whole time it was awful. It started off with a strange odor coming from my neighbors next door apartment. We eventually noticed that the odor was making me and my pets physically sick I was throwing up every day and was just ultimately feeling loopy. I reached out to the property manager when one of my other neighbors told me they smoke meth in the apartment I was smelling the odor from. I also reported they were sneaking homeless people in because half the time they would knock on my window thinking it was theirs and asking for meth. When I reported this the property manager did nothing just said sorry. Then a month past by and I hear banging and screaming in the hallway I peak my head out to see what was happening and a man was standing there with a loaded gun threatening the homeless person who they sold meth to, to get out. I reported this again and Kabredlos said they filed a police report but never did and said I wasn’t in immediate danger. I’ve also had a couple of homeless people in the halls try to touch me and get me to go somewhere with them. I am 18 years old at the time. I reported that as well and yet again no immediate danger. I could go on about 10 more other horror stories here but now that I have moved out they keep emailing me notices that I need to pay $1,300 for a move out and said the stain on my carpet costs $2,000 I have now ignored the 14day, 30day, 60day, and now 90day finale notice. I feel this is fair because I had begged my entire time there to get out and they did nothing. Not to add they had a laundry room closed for 9 months which resulted in me having to take my clothes somewhere else to be washed. I’m just curious what I should do. I don’t feel it’s fair I pay that after everything they put me through at 18 years old I was scared for my safety the entire time I was there.

So does anyone have any thoughts as to what I should do? Are they going to sue me for not paying that amount?

So I have been living in this 3-bedroom home for about 7 to 8 years now, and for the past 2 years I have been having issues with the stove not working. It is an electric stove with a glass top, but only 1 of the 4 burners works. The others don't turn on, and the one that works is the smallest one. I live in a family of 4, and we cook at home 6 out of 7 days a week, so cooking on one small burner is annoying.
We have filed complaints almost every month for the past year or so, and the complaints don't go straight to the landlord but instead to the neighborhood association. They have sent someone out to inspect the stove on a few occasions, but the person just comes, looks at the stove, says it needs a part, and never returns.
Recently I put in a new complaint and also called (like I have done every other time). This time the lady working for the association was just rude and even said, "You people don't know how to use a stove." So I threatened to go to court to force them to install a new stove or fix the broken one.
Within a week, they brought me a working stove. However, it is an old, used Whirlpool stove that cost around $75, in a house I pay $1,600 a month for (3 bed), which is considered very high rent for a home this size where I live. I have also never missed rent, ever. Now they give me this old, beat-up stove that is a complete downgrade when I'm paying $1,600 a month in rent, and it just pisses me off.
What can I do at this point to make them give me an actual stove, the kind that should be in a home with rent way higher than it should be?

I put way too much effort into this.

My wife and I made an Instagram page to highlight all of the crap our landlord has put us through, but this is my magnum opus. Hopefully, they'll take notice.

For the uninitiated, it's a "cover" of "Buenas Tardes, Amigo" by Ween. Praise Boognish.

Landlord retaliation.. what do I do?

Hi everyone! This will be a long post, but i want to add beforehand im already looking for a lawyer.

Around March, I needed a signed copy of my lease. But my landlord was unreachable for 2 months. I called, emailed, left voicemails, & stopped by the office. Complete silence. After 2 months, I called corporate.

Shortly after, the landlord(B) called me to the complex across the street where she also works. As soon as I came in, she asked why I was "calling corporate, causing problems". I told her she was unreachable for 2 months no matter how many times I attempted to reach out. She called me a liar & said she had been there the whole time. I told her other residents had been complaining, with one man threatening to sue her. I had asked 2 residents if they had seen her lately bc they live near the office. She told me if other residents were complaining, its because I was "riling them up". I offered to pull out my phone & show her how many times I attempted contact. She called me a trick of the devil. She also claimed the calls & emails I sent go to corporate prior to her... I knew that was a lie, but corporate later confirmed it.

I was scared to call corporate back at that point & left it alone.

In May, we got a new landlord. I received a failure to pay notice & went to speak to the new landlord (G). She said I did not pay. I gave her my reciept for my money order with the serial number. She said it proved nothing & I could've bought groceries with it & lied about paying rent. I asked her to backtrack the serial number & she said the burden of finding proof was on me. I took a whole day off work to get proof from the bank that issued it. I finally got a PDF scan of the money order proving it had been in their bank over a month.

IMPORTANT DETAIL: B had told me we were ONLY able to pay with money orders & there was no online payment method. G told me the same thing.

I once again went around the two landlords & asked corporate if they were sure there was no way to pay online. I was told there has ALWAYS been a way. I set up my account & paid June online.

I got an eviction / failure to pay notice for June. I submitted reciept numbers from both rent portals (it goes through two). I was told thats not enough. I asked G to contact their support team because I dont have knowledge on the inner workings of this stuff. She said no & once again told me the burden of finding proof is on me. I contacted customer support & got 5 more identifying numbers along with the property name attached. I emailed this to G & she accused me of doctoring (photoshopping) the images.

Once again, I had to call corporate because I had no way to fix this. Corporate lied & claimed the funds went into the wrong property. But customer support for the rent portal said otherwise.

Yesterday, I walked into the office to get a recertification packet. G was on the phone, talking about how she had not interacted with me more than one time & it was when I claimed B called me a "something of the devil" & claimed i was "crapping out". After she got off the phone, I told her I came in to get a packet. She asked who I was & i said "the person you were just talking about. Laughing about her calling me a trick of the devil is inappropriate".

G lied to my face & claimed she didnt laugh / never said that. I was recording the entire time but G was unaware. I got an email from corporate claiming I came into the office "screaming, yelling, & being aggressive". But I have video proof that was not the case. I sent the video to multiple people & asked for their opinions. Multiple people said i was talking in a "business manner" & said that G was being much louder than me.

This all started once I called corporate for the landlord being unreachable for two months. I think the fact I waited a full two months before complaining should speak for itself.

I'm writing this as therapy. Been a tenant to the same landlord for about 10 years. There's so many mean and belittling things my landlord did/put me through that I will leave out as this will already be too long but im going to write about the things that have affected my mental health the most that are just straight up evil. My landlord put a man next to me, my gf and our infant child 7 years ago. He told me he was on parole for drugs. The landlord lied about his last name so I couldn't confirm this. Right off the bat I knew something was very off about him. He started off talking to me when he'd see me getting out my car. The second time he talked to me he asked something like "are you going to burry your family in the yard". This guy was so off in the head after like a week me and my gf both decided it was best for her and our baby to stay with family, she was too terrified to live next to him. I told my landlord that and told him these insane things he was saying to me right away and my landlord would gaslight me and say things like he's just f***ing with you, he's not being serious, he's harmless. I started parking by the mailbox away from the driveway to try to avoid him as much as possible as he would try and talk to me when id go to or get out my car. He would knock on my door every single day. I opened my door to him sometimes (I know, how foolish of me) not sure why I did. I have ASD and didn't know how to handle this. I think I thought being kind to him would be the right thing to do. If I didn't answer my door, sometimes he would immediately go to my back deck and knock on my other door. He constantly would have his hands down his pants while talking to me with his boxers clearly over his wrist clearly implying he was touching his junk. He'd do this almost every time I opened the door. I never let him in, id only talk to him on my back deck or in my apartment complex hallway. He kept asking why my gf wasn't here and I lied and said we broke up. He kept telling me to get back together with her and "bring her home". At one point I lost my key to my apartment and I left it unlocked for like a week, came home and my living room was ransacked. I had no way to prove it as there was zero security cameras that could show any type of proof who it was but I am 99.99% sure It was him. Of course I tell my landlord this and he gaslights me again saying it was probably just a stranger walking down the road. I had to take off work a few days to guard my apartment until my landlord gave me another key. One day neighbor knocks on my door and asks me if he knows where I can get coke and a gun.. I obviously tell him no. He knocks on my door later that day to make sure I didn't tell anyone he asked me that. I still told my landlord this and ask him not to repeat this to him because I was scared this neighbor would take revenge on me. I told him this is getting out of hand and my family wants to move back in and to please evict him. Landlord gaslights says I'm being paranoid and tells me absolutely not. My neighbor knocked on my door to tell me he went to prison for "home invasion robbery." I ask landlord about this and he says something like "hes just messing with you, he's on parole for drug charges." I ask landlord his last name to confirm this but landlord gave me a fake last name. (Didn't know he lied until about a week before neighbor was evicted). One day neighbor knocks on my door, I open it and say hey hows its going. He doesn't give any type of greeting back, he just immediately says "did you know the landlords gf is a crackwe and the landlord is a crackhead?" Not sure why but I sort of defended my landlord asking why he'd say that and said he let you move in. He proceeded to ask me why I'm gay for the landlord and threatened to beat me up. This man was about 6'4 and 350lbs. Much bigger than me. I was terrified. Now this I didn't tell my landlord as I was scared he would bring this up to the neighbor and that would put me in danger. However I really did go off to the landlord about how this guy needs to go and again more gaslighting. Next encounter with the neighbor he tells me the landlord said he was going to evict ME. Then neighbor goes off on how if the landlord had said that to him he would "destroy the apartment and burn the whole place to the ground." I ask the landlord about this on a phone call but obviously leave out what neighbor said he would do of fear of revenge on me and he goes "yeah I did say something about that and hangs up on me." Another day I'm smoking on my deck and neighbor comes out his door (connected back deck) walks up to me with no greeting and asks me "what would you do if someone red your gf" now this made me furious and I for first time didn't care if I'd be in danger standing up to him. I tell him why tf would you ask me that and he says something like "I'm just curious" my response to this vile unhinged question is something im not sure i can put here but you can probably guess along the lines of what my response was. He gets offended and asks me whats wrong with me. Told him to stop knocking on my door and talking to me and he calls me a racist. I go inside and think back to all the random times he asked me why my gf isn't here and to bring her home and start thinking he'd actually try to do something like that to her if he had an opportunity. Furious I tell my landlord about this and he again gaslights me and tells me he's just messing with me. If anyone is wondering why I haven't invested in security cameras at this point it's because I was 22 working a minimum wage job and I was so broke I didnt even have wifi and my parents were helping me with my rent, so it really wasn't an option. So months go by avoiding this neighbor at all cost and me and my gf are so bothered not living together she moves back in after I legally buy a solid home defense weapon for protection. We would park by mailbox and rush to our door every day. I wouldn't let her walk outside or leave the apartment by herself nor would she be willing to do that. Our baby is also moved in with us by the way. My neighbor catches me walking to door and tells me my baby is too loud. I tell him babys cry, there's nothing we can do about that. He tells me to "shake the baby til it stops crying." I don't even think I responded to that I was so mad, just walked inside. Again, tell the landlord this. My gf and child have been in the apartment for only days at this point. One night I tell her I'm going to the gas station real quick. It's minutes away but she's so scared she doesn't want me to. I tell her she's okay, she has the home defense tool for protection and to call me if he comes to the door. This is 11:30 at night by the way. I'm in my car and see the blinds of my neighbors apartment open, clearly he was watching me. I left the driveway and my gf calls me a minute later crying and says someone's knocking on the door. I do an illegal uturn and a cop sees and pulls me over. I'm on the phone with her while she's panicking/sobbing at this point and I tell the cop what's going on. He forced me to hang up on her and told me that's no reason to do an illegal uturn for someone just knocking on our door. He asked me if he can search my car, I tell him no I need to get home right away and he was even talking about calling in a K9 before deciding to let me go. I get home and my gf is in tears. She tells me he knocked on the door for over a minute then stood in the hallways for minutes as she could hear him breathing heavily. We tell our landlord this and could you guess? Yep more gaslighting. It really seemed like neighbor knocked on the door immediately after I left hoping my gf would just open the door thinking it was me forgetting something I left in the apartment. We are both nearly positive he would have done something vile if she opened the door that night. We tell landlord this and said he was probably planning to assault her. Landlord literally responds to this with "yeah well he likes white girls"..I check my mailbox days later and see an envelope in my mailbox meant to be in my neighbors. Same first name, different last name than what my landlord told me about a year ago when he first moved in. I do a search of his name and like 7 different news stories with his picture attached pop up. He was in prison for catfishing, luring and r\\\ng a girl at gunpoint IN AN APARTMENT COMPLEX HALLWAY. He was constantly in my apartment complex hallway and was that night trying I mentioned trying to get my gf to open the door! I call my landlord basically demanding to evict him telling him what he went to prison for. My landlord with zero shock or surprise in his voice (because he obviously knew this before even letting him move in) tries to tell me I dont think that's true, he has a brother it was probably him he says and the he literally has the nerve to say word for word "whatttt?? I'm not going to evict him, he works right down the road, this place is perfect for him, HES A GREAT GUY". Then hangs up. Next to my gf and baby is the perfect place for a man like that? Wow. So a week or so later the neighbor unexpectedly moved out/was evicted. (Not sure landlord said something about not paying rent last month but didn't specify why he left). We actually move into that scary neighbors side of the duplex/apartment complex since it's bigger has a second bedroom. landlord says he will take off 100$ if we clean it. We are broke so we say sure. Well we find out why he offered that. There was literal poop rubbed on the bathroom walls and hallway clearly smeared with a finger. So now that insane neighbor is gone, new neighbor comes in, annoying stuff happens where landlord doesn't solve problems of course and gas lights then the guy and his wife break up. New guy moved in with the man. First two weeks he moved in he would hangout in the yard with a motorcycle helmet on as he has a scooter. He would stare at my gf everytime she took the trash out or checked the mail or got picked up to go go work without taking his eyes off her. She would tell me this every time and said he was creepy. I never saw his face yet. Also should mention after last neighbor at this point I let it affect me to a point I was struggling extra mentally. I was having daily panic attacks and constantly scared something awful would happen to me/us. (Always had high anxiety but that derailed me, also reminder im autistic and already had a PTSD diagnosis also.) I wasn't working at this point and was honestly struggling to leave the apartment at all. Also neither of us had a car anymore at this point so we think that new neighbor thought she was a single mom who lived alone as I wasn't leaving anywhere the past two weeks that guy moved in. When Im home alone one day some man i never seen starts yanking on my door when I'm watching a movie. I pause in fear for a few moments as he continues then start screaming for him to go away. He screams back in another language and continues. I keep screaming while frantically looking for my phone. He stops for a few moments, I peak out the window and he's standing a few feet away muttering to himself. He then comes back and starts yanking the door again. He finally leaves, I find my phone. My other neighbor who lived in my old side of the duplex saw it all out her window. I called my landlord and he was nearby and came over. Me and my neighbor explained and we didnt know who it was. It was first time i saw her face and I guess her too. Thought it might have been a friend of the neighbor who lived above my other neighbor as he was Brazilian which they guy trying to yank the door open also looked but maybe through adrenaline and anxiety without clear thoughts I somehow did suspect the creepy scooter guy. Well like a week after I finally see his face when he's in the yard with no helmet and it was the creepy scooter guy who tried to break in. My neighbor backed me up and said she thought it looked like him from her view. My landlord gaslighted me and said he was probably just drunk. Like 3 years go by and he's still living next to me. In the times he's been here me and my gf have both caught him trying to peak in our window multiple times and even try to open our window a few times along with going through our mailbox, him trying to discretely record her walking to our door and some other things. My landlord does not give af. We don't have a vent in our bathroom and my landlord said go open the window to avoid mold. I told him no he will climb through and he told me "no ones coming in your apartment" along with other statements to belittle me. My gf basically told him we can't handle this and we never missed rent all these years and we are trying to leave because of this. Landlord says he doesn't want us to feel unsafe LOL and said if he does it again he will be out of here. Welp he did again and my gf messaged landlord and he doesn't even reply. About a year ago I started hearing voices and seeing things that aren't there. I'm on anti psychotics for it but haven't been diagnosed. My psychiatrist thinks this has happened due to prolonged living in constant fear. Recently I went into full blown psychosis and thought some masked man was in my apartment trying to kill me when I was home alone and convinced myself it was my neighbor when I was home alone. It was really bad, ran to a nearby store and called cops and went to psych ward. My mental health is in shambles. I cry everyday and am constantly scared. And I'm so so so furious when I think about all my landlord put me through. It's like he mentally tortures me on purpose for his satisfaction because I'm autistic and maybe sees me as a weak target he can push around. Also forgot to say with the first neighbor I mentioned, the neighbors in the house next to us called the cops on him for banging on their door when their 14 year old daughter was home alone. The cops trespassed him but didn't arrest him. The landlord brought this up to me immediately after he moved out as if he wanted me to be more upset about how scary my neighbor was. Few months after he left that poor girl's mom told me that he was stalking that girl and creeping on her for months. She told me they even caught him looking at her with binoculars when she was in their family's hot tub one day. She told me she EVEN TOLD MY LANDLORD THIS when he was still my neighbor and he also didn't mention to her why he went to prison and gaslighted her. Also want to mention months before first neighbor moved out I asked my landlord to put a lock on the front door of our side of the apartment complex with the hallway as that neighbor was on other side of duplex not connected to our hallway, so he wouldnt ever be in our enclosed hallway trying anything as I want my family to be safe and my landlord said no to me. But when we moved in the other side and my new neighbor moved in my old place my landlord went out of his way to say something like "hey I put a lock on the front door of your old side, don't you think that was a good idea?" I told him yeah I asked you to do that for us when that violent felon lived next to us and you said no and he goes "no I dont think so." He just loves torturing me. Everything I mentioned isn't even close to all of what happened with the two scary neighbors or the gaslighting and the blatant belittling of me and making fun of me to my face which he's done regarding things I do based off my autism and anxieties. Anyways if anyone made it this far thanks for making it til the end. If there's typos or I worded anything in a way that doesn't make sense I'm too tired to proof read this right now. Even if no one reads this I wrote this as a type of therapy as well. Thanks for reading my story about how my landlord has absolutely derailed my mental health and who has I believe contributed largely to the voices and visual hallucinations I been experiencing for about a year now.

A friend suggested that I ought to share this story here, because I told him that I was feeling compelled to tell someone - anyone - what my landlord has put me through. (Edited also to clarify a couple of points.) The injustice of the whole situation has lit a burning rage in my heart and it feels like it's going to burn right through me if I don't get it off my chest. I am being deliberately vague about the specifics of who and where, because I don't want to complicate any legal situations for anyone involved, but just know that I live in the United States and all of this has all been happening within the past month. I can provide proof of my story if asked. Every word of this is true, as I experienced it, and I am hoping that sharing it will bring me some relief and maybe could help someone else as well.

So until very recently I (M33) had an arrangement with my landlord in which I served as the caretaker of the apartment building where I live. Basically I was living here for free in exchange for keeping the place clean and orderly. Very straightforward stuff, mostly. It was a weird sort of position from an employment perspective, because the contract was set up as an addendum to my lease rather than as actual employment. Part of the contract literally was "[My name] is not an employee of [landlord's property management LLC]" However this ended up working out for me just fine, because even though keeping this place in order is basically a full-time job, I have another side job that gives me just enough cash to get by and enjoy my hobbies while also keeping me eligible for my state's health benefits. Most days I would walk around the whole building at least once, to pick up trash and note any new messes that needed to be addressed. Then I would figure out which messes needed to be prioritized and which ones could wait, and I could clean the place on my own schedule. When I saw maintenance issues I would report them to the property manager. When I saw residents I would smile and wave and chat, and in this way I got to know most of my neighbors and built a lot of goodwill. Pretty much everyone I talked to had nice things to say about the work I was doing. And to top it all off with a cherry on the sundae, my partner decided to move into the unit adjacent to mine, so we each had our own studio apartment right beside one another which was perfect for us and our personal-space needs. (He is messy, I'm very tidy, but we love each other a lot so it was a wonderful balance.) In the whole of my adult life it has honestly been the most rewarding work I've had, and I have never felt more like I was part of an actual community of neighbors.

One of my neighbors in particular really captured my heart and became a dear friend of mine. I'm just going to call him Alvin - not his real name obvs. He was a trans man like myself, younger than me but an old soul. He'd led a hard life so far, and he said that as long as he could remember, he had struggled with depression and social isolation, and has a history of attempting suicide. However he had a very good and stable job, and a lot of close friends who he talked to online, and he also had a very supportive mother. When we met he had just gotten away from a very abusive relationship. The abusive partner had bullied him into using cough syrup as a recreational drug and he was struggling with an addiction to the stuff. But in the time I knew him, he made huge progress. As our friendship grew and time went on, he was gradually weaning himself off of it and logging his use, so I got to watch his progress and I could literally see the light return to his eyes. He had a lot of social anxiety and kept mostly to himself so I felt very privileged to be a trusted person that he could talk to. He sometimes engaged in cutting as a form of self harm, just to feel something and feel grounded in his own body. He came to me sometimes for wound care because he knew I would not shame him or share his struggles without his consent. I had recommended a while ago that maybe he would benefit from having a pet, for emotional support, and just a couple months ago he got himself a cat from the local shelter. He seemed to really be thriving with her. She was an adorable little black cat with jade-green eyes and a very soft "meow." He clearly loved her very much and I thought this was gonna be a huge turning point for him. I really thought he was on the up-and-up.

But then about a month ago, on a Saturday, I found a woman crying in the lobby of the apartment building. I asked if she was okay and told her I was the caretaker here, and I asked if I could be of any help. She said she was here to do a wellness check for her son Alvin because she had not heard from him in a while, and a friend he met online had reached out to her with concerns about his mental health. As soon as she said this I knew she was indeed my friend's mom. She looked almost exactly like an older, more feminine version of him. So I immediately believed her and told her I would help however I could.

She proceeded to tell me the whole situation, which had transpired as follows: On Wednesday she had picked Alvin up and had breakfast with him at a local restaurant. Then she dropped him off here and visited with him and his cat for a bit, and went back home. Then on Thursday she heard from a friend of his, someone in another state who he talks to a lot on Discord, and this friend expressed some concerns that got her very worried. According to the friend it sounded like he might be having a sudden flare-up of his mental health issues, and perhaps a relapse into his addiction, as he had been typing the way he typically would when he was using cough syrup. So his mom reached out to him and was very worried when he didn't answer his phone. She the reached out to his employer, who said that he had not showed up to work that evening. Next she tried to get in touch with our property management company so she could get into our building for a wellness check. When talking to the office staff and the landlord, she did not receive an appropriate or compassionate response. They talked to her as if she had no cause for alarm, and as if she was bothering them and making a fuss for no reason. On Friday, Alvin missed work again, and she called the police to ask for help. According to her the police reported that they came to the building, could not gain access, and left. She continued to try to make contact with the management of the building and they blew her off, hung up on her calls, told her she was being hysterical, etc. That brought us up to the present moment - she had been able to access the building by waiting outside until another resident came by and allowed her to come inside. She had gone straight to Alvin's apartment and knocked on the door, and there was no answer after she had been yelling and pounding the door for nearly an hour.

At this point I began to feel a rising sense of panic taking over my entire thought process, because I knew that Alvin had an extensive mental health history and I knew that if his mom was worried she was probably worried for good reason. The two of them talked almost every day so it was very worrisome that she was unable to reach him. First, I called my property manager on his cell phone and he did not answer. I went to the manager's apartment (he lives on-site) and knocked on the door. I could hear him moving around in his apartment and listening to some kind of sports event on TV. There was very clearly someone inside his apartment, and he is the only person who lives there. I pounded on the door and kept trying to contact him. Eventually I called a maintenance worker with the building, and he said he was out of town. I spent almost an hour trying to get my manager to open his door and I was getting nowhere.

Eventually I decided that the situation was urgent enough to call for extraordinary measures, so using a paper clip and a bobby-pin, I picked the lock on Alvin's door. The door only opened enough for me to barely see inside, as he had the privacy chain in place. I saw him on the floor, face-down, beside his bed, half-covered by a pile of blankets. I shouted his name. I thought I saw some movement under the blankets but he didn't respond, so in that moment, I assumed this was a medical emergency and I started kicking the door. At this point one of the neighbors was looking into the hall and asking what was going on. I yelled to him that the person in this apartment needs help, and I needed him to run downstairs and tell the woman in the lobby to call 911.

After about a minute of kicking the door and throwing my shoulder against it, I was able to rip the privacy chain off the doorframe and enter the apartment. I approached Alvin on the floor and I tried to roll him over, thinking he might need CPR or Narcan or something. The moment I touched him and moved him though it was clear that he was dead; his shoulders felt rock-hard and cold, his face was sunken and dark with pooling blood, and there was something dark and foamy dripping from his mouth. Moving him also made a horrible smell fill the room and I felt like I was going to vomit. I staggered out and back down the stairs, and the moments immediately after that are honestly kind of a blur in my head. The neighbor who I had sent downstairs was standing with Alvin's mother while she spoke on the phone with the 911 operator. He said later that I kept repeating, "He's dead. He's dead, my friend is dead" in a hoarse whisper before wandering outside and throwing up in the grass.

At this point the police and paramedics were showing up, and I waved at them to flag them down and I opened the front door of the building for them. I had to talk to the police and give them the rundown of the whole situation, because Alvin's mom had heard me saying "he's dead" and she was (understandably) just kind of wailing incoherently in her grief. The cops were pretty much what I expected from cops - cold and unemotional in a really insensitive and obnoxious way. I had to show them my ID and explain that I had been friends with Alvin, that I was familiar with his mental health issues and I had picked the lock and kicked the door open because I thought there might still be time to save him.

Finally the on-site manager came out and talked briefly with the cops. He claimed that he had just arrived home; however he was dressed in lounge-wear and I knew I had heard him inside the apartment earlier so I knew he was full of shit. He started asking me a bunch of questions and texting on his phone as fast as he could. I figured he was talking with the landlord because he was asking me stuff like "what time did you become aware of this situation? why did you let yourself into the apartment? how long has he been dead?" I just kind of stared at him for a while and eventually I shouted something like "I let myself in because it was a fucking emergency dude I don't know how long he's been dead do I look like a goddamn medical examiner to you?? do you think I'm qualified to answer that?? what kind of smooth-brained fuckwit question is that? fuck you, asshole!" I think he realized he was being pretty heartless because he mumbled an apology and shuffled away.

Alvin's mom started asking about his cat and wanting to know where she was, and I realized the motion I saw under the blankets that I thought was Alvin had probably been his cat. She had probably been snuggled up under the blankets beside him and she probably got startled when I opened the door. This realization, and the thought of his cat laying beside him waiting for him to wake up and play with her again, pushed me over the edge finally and I started to cry. I sobbed like a baby and sat down on the floor right in the middle of the hallway with my face in my hands, and I stayed there just crying like that until the paramedics had taken Alvin away in a body bag and the cops started grunting at me to get out of the hallway because animal control was coming soon to look for the cat and I was gonna be in their way. My partner ended up having to come get me and kinda pull me up onto my feet so he could lead me back downstairs.

Animal control ended up not finding the cat, which was very freaky for everyone because we knew she had to be somewhere in the apartment but the cops and the management both acted like that was not a factor whatsoever in the situation. The paramedics declared Alvin "dead on arrival" and the cops said everything at the scene was consistent with this being a suicide, based on the fact that there were several pill bottles open on the coffee table right beside his body, and his mom confirming that he had attempted suicide more than once in the past. The cops told my manager that they did not see any reason to seal the apartment off as a crime scene, and that they were going to "clear" the scene (basically, making it officially not a crime scene) as soon as they heard back from the medical examiner about their findings. Sure enough the medical examiner called a few hours later and confirmed that everything was lining up to look like a suicide - pills in his stomach, cuts with hesitation marks on his arms, etc.

So all of the above happened on a Saturday, and the call from the medical examiner happened the next day - so as of Sunday the apartment was officially cleared, and of course Alvin's mother wanted to go in there and get his cat. However the landlord and the manager were not acting like it was cleared. The manager kept reading my texts but not responding, and eventually I got a response instead from some lady above him at the main office, telling me that there is a "company procedure that must be followed" and that everyone needed to "be on the same page" about "upholding the correct process." She said the apartment was "off limits until there is a death certificate" and once the death certificate had been received there had to be an in-unit inspection performed by company-approved inspectors. Until the inspection took place there was to be nobody going in or out, or removing anything from the unit whatsoever.

This all sounded way off to me for several reasons - the primary reason being, the police and medical examiner had given the all-clear, and the death certificate was not going to be finalized until toxicology results came back. According to the medical examiner that could take months, and a cat can't live for months locked up in a studio apartment. I reiterated all of this to the lady who was texting with me, emphasizing that the cat was going to die if she wasn't found ASAP. The response I got was robotic and unfeeling. "[Landlord's name] is very grateful for your help in handling this difficult situation, but it's time for you to take a step back and trust that we will be following the correct and appropriate process" was all they would give me. Over and over just some variation of the same bullshit.

I shared all of these communications with Alvin's mother. By Sunday evening she had already been talking with her family's lawyer, who was saying that there is no law about inspections or death certificates or anything like that. The mother was the obvious next of kin, and if the unit had been cleared by the police and the medical examiner, there was no lawful reason to have the place sealed off. If the landlord wanted to push back on that, she would be able to take the issue to a probate court; but according to the lawyer, literally any judge would take one look at the situation and side with the mother pretty much automatically. In a case like this, she had been told, the unit was essentially hers for *at least* 60 days after the all-clear was given; and if the landlord wanted to do an inspection, that was neither helped nor hindered by removing the cat or Alvin's belongings. On top of all this, the lawyer had advised that there was a very strong chance she could press charges against the landlord for not taking her seriously when she first got in touch and said she was worried. She had used some key phrases such as "history of suicidal ideations and near-fatal attempts" and "imminent danger to himself" and "wellness check." By ignoring her and treating her like she was crazy, the landlord could be considered "grossly negligent" and "culpable in whole or in part for Alvin's preventable death." Depending on the details, after the death certificate was finalized, there would likely be more than enough cause for her to sue them and win. Needless to say, she was irate and ready to take the landlord to court if she had to.

After talking thru all of this with Alvin's mother, she said there was no doubt in her mind that Alvin could have been saved if the landlord had taken her seriously. Since I knew him well, literally all the landlord needed to do was call the manager and ask the manager to have me knock on Alvin's door. If that had happened on Thursday or Friday, things might have turned out very different. I always knew that landlords are all shady characters who care more about the rent than the lives of the people paying it, but this situation was just mind-blowing. Even if they gave zero fucks about the life of another human being, you'd think they would at least want to act right in order to avoid lawsuits! The mother and I both agreed that what was happening right now was the landlord's idea of damage control. We were both disgusted and furious. The mother asked me if I would help her get into the apartment in the next day or two in order to rescue the cat. Of course I agreed - I told her I would do whatever she asked of me, come hell or high water. I loved Alvin and I felt I owed it to his mother to help her in any way I could. Making sure she could get in there to secure his cat so the poor thing didn't die alone and hungry was literally the least I could do.

The next day, Monday, Alvin's mother called me around noon to tell me that she had asked the medical examiner to speak with the landlord. The medical examiner had set up a three-way call with the landlord and herself, and basically told the landlord that there was no reason to keep her out of the apartment and she had a legal right to enter and take whatever she wanted that had belonged to her deceased son. So with that, the landlord reluctantly granted her permission to enter the apartment. She had been told there would be someone waiting to let her in, and she wanted me to be there with her, primarily for emotional support but also as a witness and sorta for protection too. She said she didn't feel safe in the building because of how shady the management was acting, and I could not blame her one bit. I told her I would be at the front door when she arrived, and I went downstairs to wait so I wouldn't have any chance of missing her.

About fifteen minutes later she sent me a text message, saying: "On my way up. They are making me use the back door. So weird!!" I got up and ran up the steps to Alvin's apartment. I got there just after she did, and the door was open just a crack so I knocked gently and announced myself. The door opened just a bit more and to my surprise there was a low-level maintenance technician there glaring at me like a bouncer at a speakeasy. I was very confused to see this guy, because he was one of the newest people on the maintenance team and he was already known for having a pretty bad attitude - and also why would they have maintenance escort her to Alvin's apartment? I had thought they would be pulling out all the stops to treat her well at this point, to make up for how badly they had fucked up so far. I'd been expecting someone from the main office to be dealing with her and instead I was looking at the biggest, grumpiest dude they employed. He frowned at me and shook his head, and he said, "You aren't needed here for this-"

Alvin's mom immediately interrupted him and I could hear the outrage in her voice as she started to chew him out, saying "no, I asked for him to be here! I want him in here! This is exactly why I want him in here, because you're acting like I'm some kind of criminal for wanting to get my son's cat! Are you not aware that my son - my child - died in this apartment!?"

At this point the maintenance guy rolled his eyes - I couldn't believe what I was seeing, he seriously rolled his eyes at her as he opened the door - and he said "Okay, okay...fine. He can be in here but he can't touch anything."

This really set off Alvin's mom and she began to cry as she continued chewing him out, demanding to know why she was being treated this way, demanding to know the guy's name and what his role was with the company. He didn't answer any of her questions, he just crossed his arms and loomed over her and shouted back really generic stuff like "I'm just doing my job, MA'AM" and "you need to calm down MA'AM" while trying to raise his voice over her sobbing. He was really looming over her too, literally, because this woman is barely even five feet tall and the maintenance guy is like 6-ft-6 at least and built like a tank. It was clear he was trying to intimidate her and I found it appalling.

Alvin's mom was barely able to get words out over her own tears at this point and the guy was really encroaching on her personal space, so I started discreetly filming with my phone and once I was certain the camera was running I put my phone down on the coffee table. Then I put my arm around her shoulders and held out my other arm with my palm open and I said "Hey man, is this really necessary? Did management tell you what happened here? This woman lost her kid, he was only 20-something. Please don't be like that, can we have a little space please? Give a grieving mother a little bit of space" and I had barely even started saying this when he started shouting over me saying "I didn't have to let you in here ya know! You just gotta be sticking your nose in here where you ain't got no business, making more trouble for everybody! Now I'm gonna call the police up here and tell them you both are trespassing if you don't dial it back right now! Hurry up and find the damn cat before I call the police!"

The whole situation was about fifteen minutes of me pleading with him to stop mistreating my friend's mom, while she was scrambling to find the cat, and the maintenance tech just kept yelling that he was going to call the cops on both of us. Finally Alvin's mom realized she could hear something moving inside the bed and I helped her lift the mattress up, where we found the cat hiding inside the box spring of the bed. I had to tear the fabric to make a big enough hole for Alvin's mom to reach in and get her, but once she had her, it was pretty easy to get her into the kitty crate and we didn't waste a second of time getting out of that apartment.

Unfortunately when I picked up my phone from the table, the maintenance tech saw that my camera app was running, and he started shouting in my face "You been filming me?" I ignored his question and continued down the stairs and out the door with my friend's mom. After standing with her and comforting her for a short while, she left and I went back inside. I decided the best thing to do now was to report the maintenance tech's conduct to the landlord. I didn't know how much he would care but it seemed like the correct thing to do. However I received an email dismissing me from my position before I could finish writing up my own email. The email said:

"This decision is based on your conduct surrounding the recent incident at the property, including taking it upon yourself to forcibly enter a resident's unit without authorization from management, resulting in damage to the property. Management has also received a report that today, while a maintenance technician was at the property performing his assigned duties, you recorded the technician and stated that you were assisting another individual in gathering evidence against [company name]. These actions are outside the scope of your caretaker responsibilities and have created serious concerns regarding your continued ability to perform the caretaker role and follow management direction. To be clear, this decision is not being made because you raised a concern or reported an issue. The decision is based on the actions described above, including unauthorized entry and property damage, acting outside the scope of your caretaker responsibilities, and interfering with an employee who was performing assigned work at the property."

I immediately replied back saying this was inappropriate and retaliatory, that there had not been any property damage aside from the holes left behind in the doorframe when the privacy chain came loose, and that I hadn't interfered with the maintenance tech as I had only filmed him being a jerk. I received no reply. I have spent the past month or so researching what my legal options might be, and I have had virtually no luck. Basically all I can do is ask a local court to open a rent escrow case and give me a hearing, at which I would argue that the revocation of my caretaker position and the rent credit that went with it amounts to a retaliatory rent increase; however I do not have any rent money to put into escrow so I have no idea if that will even work. I am in no shape to represent myself in court or find a job. My mental health has been in the gutter, I can't sleep without having nightmares about the way my friend looked when I found him. I have reached out to every organization that allegedly provides legal help for renters and none of them have gotten back to me. I am basically up a creek without a paddle, and I am probably going to end up with an eviction notice. I won't be homeless, at the very least, because my partner will let me live with him in his apartment. But it's going to be a very tight fit for us and I will have to pack up a lot of my things to put them in storage, and the rent that I owe is going to fall back on my co-signer. I am a wreck, I am basically fucked and my credit is doomed all because I tried to rescue a friend who turned out to already be dead, and the landlord is upset about some minor damage to the doorframe. I have been advised by friends to start a fundraiser but I would feel like a jackass asking people for money just to hand that money over to my piece-of-shit landlord. I don't know what I am going to do, but I do know I'm fucked.

Edit: According to the law in my jurisdiction, I can take my landlord to court to make a case that my dismissal accounts to a retaliatory rent increase (since getting dismissed from being caretaker means I am on the hook for rent again). However the only way to do that also involves putting my rent into escrow, and I don't have any money to use for rent. In order to follow through with the rent escrow filing, you have to actually have the rent to put into escrow, and I don't. Aside from that I don't really have any recourse, as far as I know, and without some kind of pro bono legal help getting back to me I don't really have any options.

When is it okay as a realtor/landlord to insult and name call your tenants(example: “witch” “waste of life”)? I have been renting from this realtor who manages the property for the owner. In the beginning she was nice and professional. Or so what I thought. I never bothered with any requests or complaints, not even on my neighbors. Now the time that I did have to call for maintenance I was charged for something I fixed myself. In the policy it stated unless I broke it or was the reason why it broke & it needed to be serviced then I pay. No one came out , no one fixed it , I did . I fought the charge as it was not a true charge. This time there was a big water leak. The neighbors reported it as I don’t go to my back patio area often & it is basically their front yard . During these exchanges of communications she asked me if I knew about it? I stopped and paused before responding because I remembered the $70 charge. I responded with per the policy states i am not allowed to change the locks without your permission. Before she even read this she was already texting me multiple other things. Stating I was not answering yes or no & that she was sending maintenance over to verify my locks. What can I do? I feel like this lady lives to harass and intimidate me as a tenant . I’ve never been called an unhappy witch by even worse scum lords. I kept my recordings, emails , & whatever I could during our interactions.

Sharing a pretty wild thing I just discovered, which I think illustrates much of how completely fucked the social equity landscape is in Montreal:

Resto Plateau, a prominent community organization broadcasting itself as a social support and profession reinsertion organism, has as its president and highest ranking decision-making member, André Poulin, a well-known slumlord with multiple violations from the City of Montreal and a long history of abuses in the housing and business scene in the city (google his name).

And it gets worse: the second highest-ranking member of its board, the vice president, is none other than his lawyer, Eliot Barberger. The lackey he uses to pressure and intimidate tenants. Can't make this stuff up.

Isn't it pretty wild how landlords can very deliberately both generate suffering and insecurity in the social fabric, AND reap the rewards of it by playing savior? I feel like this needs more attention from the news. Reads like a blatant conflict of interest.

We had a good standing tenant-landlord relationship for 5 years.

I reported a gas leak to city utility company after experiencing adverse physical symptoms, they came out and confirmed a large gas leak.

Landlord came very angry that I didn't call him first, he shifted blame on me saying "I made the wrong decision" , and he got physical and grabbed me in his anger. A boundary was set to communicate with other tenant, not me, moving forward due to making me very uncomfortable and experiencing unwanted physical contact. He continued to communicate with me. This boundary had to be reiterated several times. Unit has no gas: no hot water, no heat, no working stove, for 10 days. Plumbers also confirmed a very large gas leak. He blames me for the delay because I reported the hazard to city utilities then subsequently gives notice a week later of raised rent 8.3% due to gas leak repair cost effective 71 days of notice date. He does not use emergency services to repair the leak. City permit officials confirmed they were not aware tenants were without gas during the repair. We ask for a rent credit for days of unit having no gas. He is irrate again and denies the rent credit.

We start exploring our housing options, apply to a new unit - we get approved with income, credit, background - we qualify. We gave 4 references and current landlord reference. Also giving current landlord a heads up about potential calls. After making 1 call to a reference and 1 call to current landlord- not the rest of them - our application was declined.

Then, we get a text from current landlord saying it's a very tight rental market and is trying to talk his way into the "good old days" to keep us . We are confused and saddened at the high chance our current landlord gave a false reference and for what- For reporting a safety hazard that could have potentially damaged his property and risk the safety of tenants? Is he doing this strategically to keep us from moving out?

We don't feel safe here.

New landlords want a current landlord reference. But he is not a reliable one. I don't want to disclose our situation to prospecting landlords because they'll think we're hiding something or see us a red flag - they won't take our word for it.

What should we do? I feel stuck in an unsafe environment where we're being punished for doing the right thing and speaking up.

Is there anything I can say or do to bypass another potential false or defamating reference from our current landlord to inquiring landlords?

We are honest people and value trust and respect.

In 5 years, we've only been late in paying rent 3 times - 1 day, 2 days, and 3 days late - due to a very unexpected layoff and we kept our current landlord in communication in advance each time and updated when a new job was found. To me, this is a reasonable isolated situation that should not disqualify us after our application is approved with proof of income.

Could this be disqualifying after our rental application was already approved? It would not surprise me if current landlord is saying this in a misleading way or without the context of our character. But are future landlords THAT black and white?

Please help. Anything helps.

“courtesy reminder” like they’re not legally required to give 24 hour notice pretty much everywhere

- you move in last May, cute older apartment. Owned by one guy, which you think is better than a big corp.
-first apartment so he makes you pay 2,000 dollars for your deposit and has a $50/per month maintenance fee and $50 for laundry and flat rate of $120 for water
-“complementary” air conditioner breaks in the first week, spits water into my apartment. He tells me to put it on the porch and waits 2 months to take it away.
-old fridge has a rly bad smell of dead stuff and he says it’s “normal”. Neighbor tells me last tenant complained abt the fridge not working.
-fridge part breaks in middle of summer, all my groceries go bad. Freezer still works
-he replaces it with another old fridge who’s freezer doesn’t work
-for 3 months I have two broken fridges and he won’t replace them
-finally he lets me buy a new fridge and takes it out of my rent
-but he waits weeks to move my old fridges
-now he has decided to neglect the shared Porch and puts a bunch of old appliances out side making the whole house look like a hoarder house
-he decides yesterday that “due to rules and regulations we have to shut down the laundry room for an indefinite period”
-I ask him if I can stop paying $50 for laundry
-he says the $50 covers repairs
-I remind him that I’m already paying a SEPARATE “maintenance fee”
-he ignores me

This is not the only thing in the house that looks like this