“Anyone Can Fool Someone For A Month”: Homeowner Takes Revenge On Agreement-Breaking Tenant

Being a landlord is like playing Minesweeper; you can predict which people/cells might be less likely to cause trouble, but you’re never quite sure. Eventually, one of them results in the game being over.

Redditor u/mechpaul recently told the ‘Malicious Compliance’ community about renting a bedroom to a person who appeared to be not the right fit for it. Even though the tenant seemed great at first, he started breaking certain agreements, resulting in malicious compliance from the landlord himself. Scroll down to find the full story below.

In order to learn more about the importance of lease agreements, Bored Panda turned to Manager of Housing Law at Community Legal Services, Jerika Mobley, who was kind enough to answer a few of our questions. You will find her thoughts in the text below.

Image source: mechpaul

In a recent interview with Bored Panda, Manager of Housing Law at Community Legal Services, Jerika Mobley, pointed out that knowing your rights and responsibilities as a tenant may not only help prevent legal issues that might arise during the tenancy, but also empower you to enforce your rights when necessary. One of the ways to make sure everyone is on the same page and familiar with all the necessary information is signing a lease agreement.

“A detailed and informative lease agreement is important, so the parties have a clear understanding of the terms and conditions, as well as their rights and responsibilities during the tenancy,” Mobley emphasized.

She added that before signing a lease agreement, it’s important to read it in full and ensure the terms and conditions are fair, reasonable, and able to be met. It’s also necessary to make sure “the names of all tenants and occupants, the rental amount including additional charges and fees, the due date, and the expiration date are accurately reflected in the lease agreement.”

The expert also pointed out that it’s important to identify if application fees are reimbursable deposits or not, and inspect the property in person to ensure it is habitable before signing the agreement or paying any money.

Jerika Mobley suggested that making sure everything is alright before signing the lease is important because once it is signed, the options for early termination are limited and can be costly. Moreover, “failure to comply with the terms of the lease can lead to an eviction being filed, which is a public record that cannot be sealed or expunged.”

Eviction Lab revealed that there have been nearly 2.5 million eviction cases since March 2020, based on data gathered from ten US states. This week alone has seen nearly 15 thousand of such cases. According to a 2022 study, there are roughly 2.7 million households nationwide that are threatened with eviction every year.

Ruby Home revealed that as much as 34% of US households—adding up to roughly 44 million of them—are renters. This means that the OP is far from the only one dealing with the struggles of finding the right fit for their rental. His situation shows that even when you think you’ve found one, things might not work out the way you expect them to; however, some people in the comments believed the OP was being too harsh with the tenant.