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i once rented the downstairs of a house that the previous building owners (before my landlord) had installed an illegal underground swimming pool in the garage. the entire house was filled with black mold that was clearly growing deep in the wood and would bust through any cracks in the paint. when asked repeatedly, the landlord consistently told us "yeah the house is wet, but there's never been a mold problem. so you must've somehow brought it with you".
that same landlord lived in the upstairs of the house and about 6 months into my stay there, i realized there was a peephole into our bathroom from upstairs and he could hear and see everything that went on in that room.
I saw an ad for a london flat, the room was a shed with blacked out windows placed in the living room of the flat
You should look at some Dublin rentals, they're insane. I once saw a room that looked about 3x3m with a camping bed, an oven, a mini fridge and a counter going for €1200 a month
I rented a room in an apartment together with a couple (they rented it from a company and subrented me the room). I knew them from before, so was expecting it all to be pretty cool. Over time it got weird... the girl was pretty much the guy around her finger, and had a very insanely passive agressive way of letting you know something is wrong. Now, it gets weird when ... well if I put too much garlic in my food it would be a serious problem. If I come back home late (around 10-10:30 usually) and made food that would be a problem. If I was to have someone over I had to inform her a week or so in advance, was not supposed to invite more than 2+3 people, and whenever people were over you could see that she isnt very comfortable, even with people she does know. To add on she had the personality of a sheet of paper left too long out in the sun, and I had a lot of things in common with her bf, including games so I could feel some tension around that. It got to the point, that where we never were in open conflict, I tried to do my best to go back home only to sleep and spend as much time away as possible. I did move out soon after, but it was super weird, because it really messed up my mind, and I still cant explain quite how ... The first thing I cooked on the very day I moved into my new place, with barely any cutlery and tools was a plate of pasta with tons and tons of garlic and fried bacon....
Before that I was looking for a room and was desperate. A friend of a friend had a room and after talking over facebook, and sending me photos it looked good. So I went there, ready to move in immediately. Well, turned out the room actually had no door. And there was another room where this guys cousin lived, where the only way to enter was through the room I would be renting. I could see also the guy was super weird, immediately talking how we would do this, and do that and stuff. Anyway, didnt have a place to stay so stayed overnight, and left early in the morning before everyone woke up. Texted the guy that I will not be renting, and he send me some weird messages how I am missing out so much, how I am a horrible person to betray his trust and stuff like that. Bullet very very narrowly dodged.
One place had lots of wiring done with extension cords. You couldn't run the clothes dryer and the toaster at the same time without tripping a breaker, even though they were two rooms apart. There were holes in the walls and eaves, which allowed raccoons to live in the attic and snakes and mice to get in the heater vents. My room was in the basement and had no windows. There was no drain in the stairwell to the basement so it flooded when it rained.
That wiring/electrical part is the same issue I had at one of the places I used to live in as well. Landlords really do cheap out on absolutely everything
my first apartment was a shitty 1 bedroom. when it started raining hard in the fall the ceiling started to leak so i had to put out bowls and pots to catch the water. the ventilation was so bad that the windows would fog up all the time especially when someone took a shower and then black mold started to grow everywhere, so i had to scrub the walls every few weeks. and the bathroom was fucking HUGE, just a little smaller than the bedroom. literally a third of the apartment was just wasted space taken up by the bathroom.
I once rented a place where, during a heavy rain, the water would come in through the front door, flow in a stream along the wall, and pool in the recessed area by the back door, where it would eventually find its way outside. And because I was young and naive, I actually took the time and money to clean and repair any damage we may have caused when moving out and they kept the deposit anyway because they're slumlords. Never made that mistake again lol
I had one guy stand over my bed while I was sleeping and mess with shit in my room. I had to start sleeping with a big ass kitchen knife under my pillows bc one time we got into a big argument and he tried fighting me with like... 20 of my people around me. So when they came to my defense, he was like "yeah I'ma strangle you in your sleep". Fucking psycho. I still wish he had tried it, dude would have ended up dead and I'd have a case on me.
It is absolutely batshit insane to me that in the US, a landlord can enter the property you're renting from him. How can you ever feel safe at home ? here in France, not only can't he enter while you're renting (it's trespassing, with just the same penalty as if he had absolutely no link to the flat), you can change the locks without even informing him - just have to give out the new key when you leave.
It may depend on the state but generally speaking your landlord can only entrr during an emergency or else it requires 24 hour notice
In theory the law is supposed to prevent them from entering, but in practice many ignore this rule, because what are you gonna do about it? It's happened to me several times.
Setup a 24 7 web cam. When they enter without notice call the police for trespass, file a police report, and if it keeps happening file for a restraining order.
Both are still insane to me. If you're renting he shouldn't have the right to set one foot inside, period.
The premise is that they need to enter for maintenance, and if you live somewhere crappy or very small they'll also enter to show prospective renters if you aren't renewing.
Here, landlords are also responsible for maintenance; but the way it happens is you take pictures of the damage, they pick a professional contractor to come take a look at it (without them present), and then a contractor comes take care of it on your timetable - you pick when they come.
If the landlord is unresponsive, you can also call a contractor yourself and the landlord will eventually need to reimburse you.
It's pretty trivial but the water level of my toilet is too high, and I dunno if it's something you can adjust. When I take a leak it tends to ricochet and splash all over the edge of the bowl.
you should be able to adjust the floating thing in the reservoir so it will stop filling up sooner
granted I don't know shit about toilets, I just fill them
I've had a lot of luck with housing actually. The worst was first year out of residence I lived in a single room rented to me by the owner and resident of the house, a single woman. She didn't have much money but volunteered a lot at the dog shelter, and had two of her own dogs plus three others she was taking care of when I was there. There was constantly dog piss everywhere. At one point she developed a scheme to buy fruit at the farmer's market and resell it to people near campus for convenience, but that fell through quickly and she ended up with dozens of crates of fresh food rotting in her basement. She had me look after the two dogs she owned for a week and only gave me $20. I think the only way she stayed afloat was renting out rooms. The guy across from me was an alcoholic that hermitted in his room and left Youtube videos on repeat which sucked up all the internet.
