Why is renting such a struggle? | Internet Analysis
internet analysis: the hellscape of RENTING! // Thanks to Kitsch for sponsoring today's video! Use mykitsch.com/collections/bott... and my code TIFFANYFERG to get 25% off your first order. Shipping in the US and internationally.
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TIME STAMPS:
0:00 - intro
0:45 - renting is hard and expensive
2:24 - the landlord special
4:41 - shout out to today's sponsor
6:01 - just apartment complex things!
8:04 - maintenance issues
10:38 - terrible property management companies
12:22 - "The Beleaguered Tenants of Kushnerville"
13:52 - the security deposit struggle
15:08 - Forever Renters feel they cannot decorate their living spaces
18:36 - pet deposits and pet rent
19:36 - dangerous living conditions that landlords don't fix
23:50 - move-out condition (and who is responsible for deep cleaning??)
26:56 - final thoughts
RESOURCES & REFERENCES:
"The Beleaguered Tenants of Kushnerville" by Alec MacGillis (2017) - www.propublica.org/article/th...
Bronx Fire: Mayor Revises Number Killed to 17, Including 8 Children - www.nytimes.com/live/2022/01/...
TENANTS' UNIONS AND RESOURCES:
abolitionnotes guide to tenants' unions in US: abolitionnotes.org/a-quick-gu...
YIMBY, yes in my backyard! - yimbyaction.org/2021/
TIKTOKS FEATURED...
LANDLORD SPECIAL TIKTOKS:
brismithbri - www.tiktok.com/@brismithbri/v...
/ realestatemogulstephen28
www.tiktok.com/@longrealestat...
/ sfparttime
www.tiktok.com/@youmattered/v...
/ n0nsm0ker
www.tiktok.com/@userpoopoo19/...
POV you ask your landlord to do literally anything (your.personal.fangirl) - www.tiktok.com/@your.personal...
when your landlord forgets what it means to be a landlord (timdrugan) - www.tiktok.com/@timdrugan/vid...
Peeling bathtub (chaotic_rayn420) - www.tiktok.com/@chaotic_rayn4...
Landlord showing whether tenants get deposit back or not - (thebestiny) / thebestiny
DIY tiktoks:
can't decorate balcony (jenna.hnz) - www.tiktok.com/@jenna.hnz/vid...
www.tiktok.com/@payton_fathma...
www.tiktok.com/@kenny_jean/vi...
www.tiktok.com/@staybycorisam...
www.tiktok.com/@laverynder/vi...
/ imaniathome
dangerous conditions tiktoks:
www.tiktok.com/@waynewaldrop/...
www.tiktok.com/@shelleygruenb...
www.tiktok.com/@hana._not._ha...
mold tiktoks:
/ tiedyyedragon
www.tiktok.com/@jeffneverhadj...
Tiffany Ferguson (she/her), 26 years old. Here on Tiffanyferg, my main series is called Internet Analysis, where I research and discuss topics related to social issues and media.
#internetanalysis #landlordspecial #apartments
Business Inquiries: tiffanyferguson@select.co
This episode was co-written by Sheriden Smith!
FTC: This video is sponsored by Kitsch. Links with * are affiliate, meaning I am compensated monetarily if you join or make a purchase.
time to vent about renting!!
Nothing like a good rent vent 👍🏻
Great work, yet again! Thank you!
Stop whining… you don’t like it , paint it and then paint it back. Christ… if you don’t like your apartment go back to school and contribute more to society , get a better job and an nicer apartment. Also … renters don’t have to pay rent. I have a tennant you hasn’t paid rent in a year. I can’t do shit about it. My first apparent after university in 2004 was in Vancouver bc . It was 650 $ a month and it was a shit hole. I invested my time and money into it. Laid new floors , painted , fixed up the kitchen . I had no rent increase for 8 years and lived in a fantastic apartment. Instead of whining about it , I made a smart investment that paid off in the end. I saved WAY more than I spend
@@stankythecat6735 How did you do all that with no opposable thumbs?
@@sadem1045 I have a long muscular fluffy tail
When I was in college in Oregon I rented a beautiful loft for a very reasonable price from a hippie man with a ponytail (who changed his last name to Happy), and he was the best landlord. He built the house himself and took really good care of it, had a gardener friend give me and his other tenants a tour of all the native plants in our yard, and he even gave us a Christmas gift every year (one time he paid our December electric bill). I sit now in my sad grey house and think of him….he didn’t even have a cell phone…
I'm crying, this is so beautiful 🥺😭
My mom and stepdad have rented the same house for the past 8 years in a very desirable suburb of the greater Houston area, and their landlords have never raised their rent. The property value in that neighborhood has only increased which makes this basically miraculous. I appreciate their landlords for this bc my mom struggles with some physical disabilities that have put her out of work multiple times, leaving my stepdads income to cover the household. I don’t want to imagine the extra burden that would be put on them if they had shitty people for landlords. It’s super disheartening that good landlords are the exception rather than the rule.
You were very lucky
I want Mr. Happy as my landlord
This could only happen in Oregon 🥲
Renting in Pakistan as a woman is hell. The overwhelming majority of landlords don't want to see a woman if she's without a father or a husband. They ask her to make either of them her guarantor on the lease. Many will straight up refuse, even if she fulfils those requirements, because women living alone are seen as a threat to the social and sexual order. They're accused immediately of being sex workers (nothing wrong with that) who'll bring clients into a ~decent~ neighborhood, seduce the married women's husbands away from them and influence the children into thinking (GASP!) that women can live alone. Some women get followed and stalked to their homes by male colleagues who find out they're living alone or with roommates so they have to wear a ring and pretend to be married or living with their birth family. Escaping abusive families is so difficult because the housing market hates single women.
God saves the women… Wait western countries are atheist
This is so horrible. I’m sorry you have to experience that!
These are real problems that need addressing.... not the OMG the landlord painted over a cord, or won't rent to me even though I've been evicted from the last few places I've lived in.
@@sexyinnc we don't need a hierarchy of problems. Those can also count. This isn't a competition because under capitalism, we all suffer.
Sounds similar to my experiences as a renter in the US, especially with the stalking. Living alone as a woman shouldn't be such a risky experience instead we should be able to just live in peace and comfort.
I find it disturbing that there are people who think housing isn't a right.
Oh man I had a time explaining to my co-worker that everyone wants and should have access to a safe and healthy home.
@@erynflynn8467 oddly there are people who don’t believe in that either. Pure heartless I’ll say 💔
@@lashaye3627 It's because they're thinking along the lines of, 'If everybody has a safe and secure home, that devalues my own'.
It really is sad. I really thought it was common sense, none of us asked to be born so the least we can try to do is make life as easy for most people as possible. Not In this world
@@GH23d7sL45 given how I doubt anyone watching this video covers all the hats this sort of policy would require, no one can provide a concrete plan. But yeah the government should at least be putting out livability guidelines and have a team to reinforce them. My friend and I make jokes all the time that you would only need to hire one or two people and have them spend 30 minutes on kijiji/facebook marketplace and have over 50 apartments that don't meet proper codes. Things such as illegal basements, discriminatory screening on tenants, illegal fees, etc.
Renter: “The tap on the kitchen sink isn’t working” Landlord: “I will never financially recover from this”
* Landlord increased rent 6 months ago and is making an extra $200 a month:
I had this really bad landlord who was guilty of many of these sins, but the worst of which was that there was a gas leak by the dryer in the unit and we could smell it and we asked her over and over again to check it out and she told us it wasn't a problem, that a guy had come and checked it out and it was fine. So eventually, we called the gas company ourselves, and they were like "we have to turn off your gas immediately because you have a bad leak and it must be repaired because this could have been really bad" so we made the landlord fix it even though she had denied the problem. So we were like, LITERALLY gaslit by our landlord.
Oh my god that’s actually terrifying. Your apartment could have literally exploded. Glad leaks are no joke that’s so insane. I’m so glad you didn’t take her at her word and you called the gas company.
@@jasminelambert3753 thank you, it was more my roommate than me, I'm glad she made the call she did!! Cause yeah that house was cursed in a myriad of ways. Don't get me started on the bamboo growing through the walls and the annual mattress-destroying ceiling leak.
Can't believe we live in a society where you would have almost no rights to sue the shit out of that landlord for not meeting standard health quality and then repeatedly denying to check out or fix possibly lethal issues 😖😖
Ah that’s so scary! I’m glad you are okay. Horrifying that a landlord could write off a problem as serious and dangerous as that
@@abbyzinger WTF?!?! Sounds so disgusting.
A few years ago, I had a landlord that refused to change the stove because it wasn’t working…I called her and explained to her that I need to cook food to survive. She continued to postpone the fixing, so I called her again and said: you know what, I’m not paying you rent until you come and replace this. She came in the next morning and took care of that. Long story short, I didn’t renew the lease.
As you should, I had a similar situation my landlord just rented without a care bcs she wanted to sell it,so the conditions were shit and the excuse was that she does not want to put money in It as she will sell it🤦♀️then got mad when I wanted to leave and after begged me to stay, crazy lady
my grandparents landlord sold the property recently. the new owner gave less than 2 months notice that the rent was going to DOUBLE. the price is outrageous for the unit but the fact that the price went up SO much and SO quickly should be criminal. my grandparents were in tears and distraught trying to find a new place. of course the market is insane where i live and they had to move in with family, 45 minutes away from my grandfathers doctors in town. they are elderly and disabled and somehow make too much for income based housing. it’s absolutely ludicrous and has been heartbreaking for the whole family.
This just happened to my sister in law’s grandmother. Shes lived there for 10 years and suddenly they double the rent.
Is this legal I’m the US wtf?!?!
@@vngela unless local government imposes some kind of rent freeze, it’s completely legal. Land lords here and basically given free reign to do whatever the hell they want. The only thing that really have to follow is fire code and that’s only enforced if someone who knows the fire code reports them for it (most people don’t know what the fire code in their area is)
@@vngela it is illegal in some states! You need to look into your local laws to know, which is easier said than done.
Sounded like a good oppertunity to put cement in the vents before leaving
To anyone renting, please, for the love of everything holy, look up your rights as a tenant. They vary by state, but you have them! If they’re not fixing issues that they’re required to by law, call the city/ county inspectors. They HATE slumlords. DO NOT let your landlord bully you. TENANTS HAVE RIGHTS.
Yup and every place in the US has an implied warranty of habitability
THIS
In Arkansas we basically don't 😎
you must understand that in big cities these agencies are beyond overworked. i started the process to get my slumlord in trouble for my apartment having gaping holes in the roof that let giant rats in, and for the water being brown at times. they don’t help you in time. i had to move out and i still haven’t gotten a call back
@@No-sw5td this though - they are overworked af and landlords will do anything in their power to do the minimum they can manage to slide by.
When I was a student, I found a place for $2000 in Beverly Hills. The landlord wanted each applicant to prove they earned 3x the rent per month. So as grad students, we each needed to earn $6000 for a basic apartment 😒
Oooh man student housing is a whole other can of worms too! I think I need a part 2 just dedicated to that. (Especially considering how many grad students are way underpaid and don’t receive enough stipend to survive!)
@@tiffanyferg yes! And if you do earn a stipend and dare live in university-owned housing, that might mean you pay back the university more than half of that stipend.
The bank makes you prove the same thing to get a mortgage, that’s a standard formula.
@@tiffanyferg Indiana University is a prime example of a university that charges way too much for a degree, while letting grad students who do so much teaching/labor starve. When they tried to unionize, the provost even allegedly threatened to fire any grad student unionizing, and allegedly fire any professor who would support the grad student workers' union.
@@Kthb80 yet, when you wanna buy a home, renting doesn't boost your credit score. It's fucked. Even if you pay more in rent than the mortgage would cost.
I went full Karen on my first college apartment because my roommate was an international transfer and her room was not clean when she moved in and she was trying to figure out walking to the store a mile away to get cleaning supplies. I literally gave her a script to call down to management and within a few hours they cleaned her room. Use your privilege ladies
A Karen is someone being loud and entitled for no reason. You’re not a Karen, you’re just a caring human
I cannot underscore how demoralizing it is to know the level of control a landlord has on even the most basic choices in your life.
Real estate agent here. I can’t tell you the amount of houses I’ve seen in absolutely horrible condition that I then look on the seller’s disclosure and see “Seller has never lived in the property. Was used as a rental”. Most of the homeowners that rent their house out don’t do a damn thing to it for the several years that they own it and then expect to make a profit on the sale despite letting the house physically deteriorate for years
And they will do nothing to update or fix it WHILE ALSO raising the rent as often as they can!
ugh, this. I move frequently and buy every time. once, I had trouble selling my house so rented it out for a year. I lost money (the mortgage was more than I could ask for rent because of the way the market was), they trashed the place, they never let their dog outside for some reason, so the entire carpet had to be replaced, and my property manager tried to talk me into letting them out of two months of rent because "they're struggling". I will never be a "landlord" again, it's too stressful. I think you have to be a sociopath to be a landlord and make money. and then I buy this house that was used as a rental for a few years and then abandoned for a few more and while it was a good investment, my god. everything in it had to be replaced, including the plumbing.
I'm a realtor and this is facts
And then you have NIMBYs complaining about having rentals in their neighborhood, claiming renters don't care about anything and don't keep up the property, as though it's the tenant's job to do that.
@@Midhiel NIMBYs are the fucking worst. It's so selfish to not want people to be able to move in and have housing in your neighborhood. PEOPLE NEED A PLACE TO LIVE! YOU have a place to live, why can't other people!? Where are people supposed to live if everyone complains about new housing? It makes no damn sense!
It makes me seethe to have the conversation about making cities have more multi-unit housing without addressing how cheaply and shittily they are constructed. I'm so down for rowhouses and duplexes and condos and whatever. But I'm tired of living like a mouse because my neighbors can hear EVERYTHING. I'm tired of having to battle my neighbor's speakers so I can properly watch a TV show while they listen to music. I'm tired of accidentally kicking the coffee table and not getting to yell my lungs out from the pain because I don't want my neighbors to send around cops or whatever the fuck. I just want to be a HUMAN FOR CRYING OUT LOUD.
True! More housing is great but terribly constructed places are not
Not to mention most of them have NO AIR FLOW so you can't even get a good cross breeze and naturally ventilate your dwelling, you HAVE TO turn on some piece of tech to get any circulation or just sit in stagnant air. Which doesn't help the mold situation either 🥴 IT'S ALL BROKEN
@@hhjhj393 not to mention all the people buying up property just to turn into air bnbs and other people buying houses to rent out to 4 or 5 people at 14-1500/mo. Absolute insanity how much tourism has taken from the locals
Honestly, you pay rent too so go for it.
In our last place I could hear my neighbor crying in her bedroom at night and I just feel like I, a stranger, shouldn't know that. I wonder how walls that don't block sound would handle a fire. We lived in a row home before that where we couldn't hear anything from the neighbors. So, I know it's possible to soundproof.
I love how existing in a place is an existential nightmare. Not even having a well lived life or anything, just literally not being homeless Very fun. I totally DON'T want to eat a landlord with BBQ sauce.
Hey, eating your landlord is weird. Composting them on the other hand....
I’m seriously considering living in a van or tiny home. Idk how I would save up for it because I live paycheck to paycheck, but a guy can dream
I am SO THANKFUL for my landlord. When I moved in 2019 she reduced the rent to $450 from $500, let me split my deposit in 2 payments, her and her husband are very time efficient when I have an issue, they agreed to never raise my rent. Here I am two and a half years later still paying $450 a month.
450? Where do you live? God, I wish!
God, you are so lucky, I hope you have continued good fortune with your housing!
Holy shit, that literally sounds unreal. I pay $750 a month to rent out an extremely tiny bedroom with no closet. And that’s for JUST the bedroom. I live in a house with 8 other renters. Gotta love California 🙃
@@tianna1116 I probably should have added that in my post. Oops. I live in WV which is why it is so cheap but I am 45 minutes from Pittsburgh, PA.
Damn I’m in IOWA of all places and my STUDIO is almost $1k
both deposit and pet rent made me very surprised when I moved to the US, none of those are a thing in Sweden.
They’ll milk us for all we’re worth! Love u Angie
Pet rent isn't a thing in France, very surprised to learn about this!
I mean, but Sweden is a country that has its shit together so..... Lol (i hate it here [America])
For me it makes no sense and I live in the United States. Not all states do that, or maybe not all cities do that. My friend that lives in Boston told me it’s ilegal there to charge for pets.
Wow how does it Work without deposits? From a landlord's Perspective in Germany it's super hard to get your ex-renters to pay for damages.
Black mold can be a SERIOUS problem. A friend of mine lived in a building (5 or 6 floors, several flats per floor) where everyone kept complaining about mold; when he got building inspectors in they ended up closing the building and having it torn down
I hate black mold. I remember when I was living in an older apartment there were black mold and it made my lungs feel itchy and I coughed a lot. I remember staying in school longer on purpose or staying outside as long as possible because it felt great breathing fresh air and not black mold air. Thankfully it's been years and I'm in a new rent apartment with my family after college and working, trying to save up as much as possible. Things are much better now but growing up I went through so many awful rent apartments with my family.
Did your friend get a relocation fee?
@@winning3329 sorry, this was years ago, I can't remember
I love how apartments can just say they're "luxury" apartments too and have no standard for what luxury is. My old apartment looked like my grandma's house and also pets were not allowed in the apartment yet when we moved in there was a layer of pet hair on all the carpets. It was also considered a "luxury" apartment when really it was just a regular run-down apartment.
I was hoping you’d also mention the insanity that is “application and brokers fees”. The fact that you are expected to pay a few hundred dollars to apply and the equivalent of 1 month of rent to someone for just showing you an apartment is rage inducing.
Oh boy you should check out renting in Japan. They have a thing called 'key money' and it is literally money you give to your landlord just for them allowing you to rent. It's not a deposit, you are literally just giving the money away.
@@erynflynn8467 and they see hikikomori's as crazy. if i had to spend time with a landlord and pretend that i was his friend? no thank you officer. spend time with someone who will just take advantage of me, or will in general just do the bare minimum? obviously the hikikomori's over do it, but fuck, just take a look at what actually drove them there. they didn't just crawl under the bed because they like dust bunnies and want to study them for forty years. maybe there's a rational explanation that ties into their emotional response, not that the emotional response isn't valid on it's own. they look around, they observe, they think, they understand their past, they consider their options, they've also probably seriously tried and failed, and understand that further attempts will just lead to more humiliation and exploitation. sure, maybe they can take up hiking, maybe they can eat healthy and learn a new language. but at a certain point, you recognize that that if the game is rigged, what incentive is there to play it? we already know the outcome before we even play. hell even china's youth is getting on the action with "bai lan". this is the calm before the storm.
Gotta say as someone in their early 20s who not only knows nothing about the rental process but avoids confrontation as much as possible, the fact it's so common for tenants to get exploited makes me scared to even think about renting a place.
If you’re living with your parents, try to save as much money as you can. And if you live in a state with co-operative apartments, try to buy one. The process is hell, but genuinely worth it. I’m paying maintenance + mortgage at $1400, though I did have to put 50k down. This actually wasn’t a requirement, but thankfully I had it and wanted to pay less monthly (also had to get my debt to income ratio down). Before someone says something I make 53k a year so it’s not like I’m rich. But by the time I moved out, I had lived with my parents for 5 years after college. Not ideal, but it seems you’re in a similar situation.
@@alb0zfinest congrats on saving! I've never heard of co-op apartments. I will look that up. Thanks
i don’t live in the us but i sometimes go and look at the rentals in different countries. coincidentally, i was looking at rentals in nyc and nj today. i saw something i’ve never seen before and it was actually a requirement option for pets on the website, there was a “declawing” requirement available. i’ve never been so horrified in my whole life while looking at rentals before.
A lot of places in the US declawing is illegal because it’s literally mutilation to cats.
Wth
That's pretty ridiculous when you can just ask someone to pay a pet deposit. I understand pet deposits because animals cause damage and infestations. I moved into a property once full of fleas and the carpets were full of cat piss. I'm not a pet owner myself so I wouldn't have to deal with this otherwise. It wasn't a nice experience. I had to call pest control to spray for fleas. The smell never fully came out of the carpets.
@@00ooooo216 the smell never came out of the carpets bc it had probably soaked through the to the subfloor. It either needs to be sealed or ripped out. That ammonia smell is awful.
That’s terrifying
Renting is even more hell if you're disabled. Trying to interact with a landlord when you have a service animal (and are supposed to be exempt from pet rent) or need to hang supportive devices like handrails which require drilling into the wall feels like standing on the edge of the eviction cliff. My landlord literally sent a physical letter to my boyfriends doctor cussing her out for the letter they provided explaining the necessity of his service animal. I've just given up on getting our deposit back which is ridiculous seeing as when we moved in there were dead cockroaches on the counter and sink showing they didn't clean at all. Not to mention I don't know how to handle the next place wanting to contact her for a recommendation 🙃.
Yeah, I just try to deal with living in an unsafe apartment, because while my government will pay for the things to be installed (will even pay for entire renos if you own the house), there's no way landlords would ever give permission. But even worse, I have literally been unable to leave my apartment for over a month because the elevator is broken, and I'm a wheelchair user. When I told my property manager, she said that they'd let me break my lease and move out without them fighting it, but 1. It costs thousands of dollars to move house, especially if you're disabled, so I can't move until I have the money together (end of year at earliest, start of next year preferably) and 2. how am I supposed to move out if I physically can't leave the apartment? Giving me permission to break my lease doesn't magically fix the elevator!
@@katherinemorelle7115 That is so ridiculous especially since God forbid there is a fire how are u supposed to get out.
@@brimarie4196 well, I’m supposed to be parked in the “fire safe” stairwell where I wait until the firies come carry me out. Though now that stairwell is the only way up and down the building, the doors are being left slightly propped open, so it’s not so fire safe any more. So I’m just hoping there’s no fires until after I leave. Also, I’m almost certain the body corporate is bribing the company that comes to tick them off as meeting fire regulations. My apartment door doesn’t have a proper seal on it, and it opens the wrong way to be a fire door, and yet they still manage to pass the inspections somehow. Isn’t capitalism great? Sigh.
In that case, I'm sure a lawyer would happily take an ADA violation case, because they'll get part of the settlement, so won't mind not being paid up front.
@@katherinemorelle7115 That's an ADA violation, something the city, housing authority, and the press would love to know about.
The part about painting over everything got me. My fiance and I rented in Toronto for under 2 years, and at one apartment we rented for less than a year, we faced a pretty big mold problem. I was cleaning our kitchen and was like hmm..it's weird that there's just this random mirror above the kitchen sink. Why don't I move that and put something else there while we're here? I moved it, realized there was another mirror duck taped to the WALL behind it, and that behind that duck taped mirror I moved (because I was too curious for my own good tbh), there was a SHITTTTT ton of mold. I told our landlord about it and he said to PAINT OVER IT. AHHHHHH
This scares me so much lolz. Where I live the window is shut from all the paint they have layered over the years, this is for the screen, so the glas window outside cannot be reached. Not only that but it has a lot of gaps, to the point the cool air cannot stay in the rooms and my apartment never gets cold enough for me to enjoy it (I live in Texas). I brought it up to maintenance and his solution was to staple plas which would then cover the beautiful frames of the antique windows, really? I mean, I moved here because it’s a historical building, I understand it’s over 100 years old but thats their excuse for not wanting to do anything. I told him I didn’t want that and told him “well, you can always get a paint stripper to loosen up the edges to open the window, seal it from the inside, and then lock the window permanently again but I’m assuming that makes too much sense.” He said “yeah, no, we can’t do that because the building is 100 years old” so I replied “that’s not gonna damage or hurt the integrity or structure of the building, you do realize that, right?” I grew up with a carpenter, I know it won’t damage it, so at this point what I fear is that indeed it was moldy and their solution was to paint over it, it’s the logical explanation.
I also find it mind boggling that you need to start searching for apartments about a month before moving or else it’s too early???!! Like how can I find AND commit to a place in that short amount of time, pay app and security deposit fees while still paying rent at my old place!
It's insane especially when you live in an urban environment where the housing market moves quickly
Exactly! It's why I hate moving so much. I resigned my lease for the next year, but when I finally move in 2023, I'll be preparing by saving up months in advance before my actual move out date. Moving & security deposits are so expensive.
@@jillianmorrison1959 Yes!!! I live in a major city, it’s such quick turnaround
When I was trying to find a place to live for uni I was told by everyone not to leave it to the last minute and choose a place early but every place I got in contact with was only interested in me moving in asap so they didn’t have to have an empty place for one month :|
@@ceeciecee9563 exactlyyy! how is this possible!!
Just did a big move and this video is just way too relevant to me my goodness 😅 we had to put in 3 maintenance requests in the first 3 days of moving in
I had just watched your video this morning and then watched this tonight! :Oooo seriously
Your video is what made me add that clip about other paint colors!! Lmao 💛 but yes it’s so frustrating! I hope all your maintenance issues are finished for now
sameeee i just moved to a new state across the country and this is so friggin relatable
Renting is so demoralizing, I've also had to come to terms with the fact that I'll probably never own a home.
I think very few people realize what a contributing factor renting is to the nihilistic thinking the current generations have about the future.
Join the military…. VA loans are 🔥
@@JF-gy7tt this may be a “viable” solution but why should one have to potentially risk their life or kill someone just to own a home, it seems equally nihilistic.
@@JF-gy7tt please say /j
This a is a realization I'm having too, along with possibly never having a child because the cost of living is enough on my own. 😵💫
I've never had a good landlord. One illegally evicted me, another refused to fix our door that wouldn't close because the knob was broken. I fixed it myself after a man was literally MURDERED on the sidewalk in front of our wide open door. In so many countries, renting is the norm, rather than homeownership. To try and do the same in Canada & the US is capitalist nightmare fuel, but also, you can't afford a home, so you're just stuck!
My mom's rent went up 30%, in Glendale, Arizona.. she's now paying twice as much as our mortgage because we were lucky enough to buy in 2011.. we need to change zoning laws in order to build more multifamily units and we need to prevent price gouging, but this won't happen because law makers get paid off by these damn investment firms...
And we need to vote!
@@hhjhj393 Those homeless issues are less a matter of housing and more a matter of mental illness and addiction.
@@hhjhj393 watch vox video on hong kong, there's plenty of land they could build more housing in Hong Kong but the government instead of taking taxes from corporations or citizens makes its money off land sales. They auction the land to developers at the highest bid and therefore the developers hike up the price because they paid so much to get the property. For example one tiny piece of land sold for 2.2 billion, the most expensive piece of land ever sold.
More importantly: Run roughshod over the NIMBYs who are keeping multifamily and missing middle developments out.
I have to admit I laughed so hard when you said “first of all why tf would I leave this place in better condition” it’s so sad because that’s recommended/expected though. This is one of those “wait this isn’t actually funny” moments. It’s funny because it’s ludicrous.
You want a nightmare story? I gotchu. So the apartment I lived in a few years ago, one of the units caught fire- still under mysterious circumstances, no one was informed what caused the fire. The apartment stayed empty for about 3 months after that, as a mater of fact- that unit was deemed "CONDEMNED" with a bright orange, neon sticker on the door. Now, during this time, they left the door unlocked- morbid curiosity, tenants opened the door to see the damage themselves. Obviously, charred fire damage all over the apartment, ash and soot still covering the floors and walls, peeled, patchy, melted lament flooring. One day, they take the sticker off the door and start doing some renovations. My old unit was at the top of the stairs, so I watched them bring paint and drywall up stairs and to the unit.... but I never saw them bring anything down or throw things over the edge of the walkway into trailers bellow. (RED FLAG) So another month goes by after these "renovations", and someone moved in. I greeted them- super sweet people, helped them bring some boxes into their new place and... Oh. My. God. My horror confirmed, maintenance did not do anything to actually repair the unit. ~They put new drywall over the already damaged drywall (evidenced by the lack of metal edge of the ancient, wall mounted radiators that line the lower portions of our walls. ~They put new flooring over the old floor (there are soft spots you feel walking over them). ~The water damage to the ceiling? Painted over. You could still see dried water droplets on the ceiling. ~The cabinets? Painted over. You could see the fire damaged, chipped paint beneath it. ~The doors? Painted over. Scraping away some of the paint revealed dusty blackness. Gee Wiz, wonder what that's from. ~My favorite find? I helped unpack some items in the bathroom, noticed their sink had some extra knobs on it and wondered if it was just decoration or functional? Already painted over sink cabinet. I opened the drawer with success and... A DRAWER FULL OF SOOT. AN UNTOUCHED SHELL OF WHAT HAPPENED MONTHS PRIOR. AND EVEN MORE WAS REVEALED WHEN THEY GOT SITUATED AFTER ALL OF THAT. But they were also struggling, and couldn't break the lease according to the office (X, Y, Z reasons, any excuse the office kept giving them). THEN. 3 MONTHS AFTER THAT. The tenant gets a notice on their door. A NOTICE OF INSPECTION. TURNS OUT. THE UNIT WAS NEVER REINSPECTED IN THE FIRST PLACE *BEFORE* OCCUPENCY *BEFORE* RENOVATIONS. THE JUST RENOVATED AND LEASED IT OUT ANYWAY AND GHOSTED THE INSPECTOR. And with that Hail Mary, the tenant was able to break their lease without the leasing company trying to pull further shady actions. I don't know what happened to them after they moved, but to this day I wish them the best. I'm so glad we were able to leave that place behind.
jesus fucking christ... without the prior explanation, peeling back fresh paint and discovering the remains of charred furniture everywhere is like something out of a fucking horror movie.
And I doubt they got any rent back despite living in a knowingly condemned place :(
An old landlord of ours said about me, I quote, ‘can we adopt you?’ we were ideal tenants and they told us as much. Come our move out, they tried to keep £300 from our security deposit for dust on door frames (the inspection was a full week after our professional clean, and the house was on a main road) and carpet cleaning. They were telling me personally how good a tenant I was all throughout our tenancy, then in the dispute said ‘we don’t want the tenant harassing the cleaning company’ because we asked for the company‘s number so we could verify their claim was genuine. We fought them tooth and nail because we were well versed in tenancy rights as we were part of our uni’s student renters rights group, and managed to get £100 of that £300 back so they only got to keep £200 and had to pay money out of their pockets. Don’t butter me up for a year and then try to steal our fucking money lol EDIT: also had another landlady treat mould in our room with bleach and she spilled bleach on my clothes!! She was honest about it and gave me money to buy a new dress, but not before blaming ME for it by saying ‘it wouldn’t have happened if you had ventilated the room to prevent mould in the first place’ when our windows were open literally every day. TENANCY UNIONS IN THE UK, Acorn (the Union) have multiple offices across the UK, there’s the London Renters Union and your local Citizens Advice Bureau can help you out too! UK university students, reach out to RENT STRIKE (rentstrikenow on Twitter)
I rent in New Zealand and up until two or three years ago, landlords didn't have to legally provide you with a way to heat your home. As long as there was an outlet for you to plug in your own heater, they were meeting the requirements. Our labour party passed new rules on heating, insulation, ventilation and glazing so now every home I've rented has a heater. You can bet that landlords STILL complain about "how expensive it is to run a rental now that they're been forced to make all these modifications." First of all, if you own a newer home, most landlords only needed to install a heat pump. But, if you own an old home its likely you had decades to upgrade your rental and chose not to. Honestly, the number of mouldy, damp homes with single glazing in our country is shocking. We have a temperate climate in a lot of places (like no negative degree days or snow for months) but my friends from the UK/Canada are always shocked at how much colder our homes are here and how sick they get over winter. I'm betting if we have a change of government the conservative party will try to roll back the Healthy Homes laws.
I rented for 7 years here in NZ and the amount of cold, damp, mouldy apartments we lived in was horrible. When my son was a baby we spent a ton of money keeping a heater on in his room for his sleeps while in our room we froze. I'm so glad they made rules around having to have warm homes. I hope the housing warrant of fitnesses come out next.
What also sucks is how whenever I was looking for a place to rent, all middle-aged-and-older people I spoke to about how frustrating it was had a billion ideas and suggestions for how I should find an apartment and it was so condescending, plus most of what they said was irrelevant to searching for an apartment in the 2020s 🙄
“Just make sure you start looking 4 months in advance! 😀”
In the last place we lived, we had to (unfortunately) leave it in less than pristine condition, but not so much that we would lose the whole deposit. We called over and over again about the deposit to see what was going on, either with no response or something like, “the property manager will call you back.” Anyway, we looked up the laws (in Florida) for security deposits and found that if they don’t respond in a certain timeframe, they are required to return the whole deposit, regardless of condition. So, we got a free consult from a lawyer, they wrote us a letter to the management company, asking for more than the deposit + lawyer’s fees. That must’ve scared them because we got a check pretty quickly after that.
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When I moved out of uni and looked for an apt in the city, I was so surprised that looking out 4 months in advance was “too early”. Like Im literally trying to plan where I will EXIST for a year, and apparantly finding an apt just 1 mo out is ideal? And then you have to get your money ready and plan with movers ugh its a nightmare for chronic planners like me
Same thing here in my state in the U.S. people scrambling like 3 weeks before moving day. I don’t get it, but apartments push the 1 month thing here too.
1 month out is ridiculous, we experienced this with our last move. We were moving an hour away and trying to cram and scramble for showings a mere 4 weeks before you move is nightmarish.
I think my recent fave landlord story was a friend whose rental had a yard where she had done some landscaping (a few flowers and such). We live in CA aka perma drought and her landlord didn't come inspect the apartment for a month after she moved out in the heat of Summer. So, surprise surprise, the plants were dying. She tried to withhold a $5000 deposit to cover the cost of new plants. Fortunately my friend has the resources to hire an attorney to write a demand letter and the whole deposit was returned.
I haven’t even watched the video yet but I NEED to acknowledge the fact that pet owners are discriminated against. My fiancée and I can’t find a place to live because we have a cat (spayed, indoor only, and she is lovely). Two working and responsible adults can’t live somewhere because of a PET. Also, it took me 6 months longer to leave my previous relationship which was abusive because I couldn’t find a place that would accept me and my cat. Why is the world like this.
That’s awful. I may lose my current house in a year or so and I’m SO worried because we have 2 cats and a dog. “Pet rent” here is like $200+ extra per month IF the landlord even allows pets but most don’t allow large dogs and we have a large dog.
@@sedona3player pet rent is so gross! I can *almost* justify a $200 pet deposit which could theoretically get back (but we all know the reality of deposits) but a monthly pet rent is not needed
Wow every time I think that living in Central Europe sucks I watch one of your rants about the capitalist hellhole that is the US and I feel like 5% better. How is it legal to prey on people's most basic needs like having a place to live... unbelievable.
We're having issues with housing scarcity, zoning laws, and investment firms like BlackRock raising rents or buying properties and just sitting on them, leaving them vacant and contributing to the housing problems.
i cannot believe that I, as someone who lives in a rented apartment in eastern europe, have better renting conditions than the fucking United States.
yes, we don't have it nearly as bad, but lets not act like the housing market here is without issues
True . Living in Germany. Finding a apartment isn’t easy but there are a lot of laws landlords need to follow. Of course not everything is awesome but at least I know that if I call my landlady things will get fixed soon
@@user-es7ui5mc1m absolutely it is a total nightmmare here too especially because rent prices increase without any limits while wages can't seem to even follow inflation but compared to the conditions in the US it's almost bearable...
My personal renter’s story: after waiting on 6-9 month waiting lists (no apartments available at all) and being essentially homeless and moving 4 times last year, I had to tour the only apt I could find in a commutable distance from my work and sign a lease/pay deposit same day. The application process took over a week, I had just gotten an inflation & promotion raise at work to be given to me the next year (2022). This FINALLY pushed me over the 3x the rent requirement (I have never made 3x the rent to live anywhere in my 10 years of renting) but I had to give the apt all the “proof” on all my raises, all my banking totals to prove that even if I didn’t get that raise, that I had a couple tens of thousands in the bank to cover my lease… it’s infuriating… Edit: adding on the condition of my new apartment. Filth doesn’t describe it, I have no heat, and a flying termite/roach infestation. It’s hard to tell whether I have it or they’re getting in through the 7-10 separate holes that were never filled in from other apartments/outside. This is what renting in the US is like….
That is too fucking much jesus christ!!!!!
Good god. That’s so awful. I’m so sorry
@@meghansullivan6812 I’m still alive so I’m okay. Still doesn’t make it okay thooo. Appreciate it. 💗
@@karenmacdonald6190 for sureeeee! The cost of a renter. Thanks for caring. 💗
@@xPeckhamm oof cheers well im glad you can focus on the good
missed opportunity to call this venting about renting
TRUEEE
Tenant: leaves dust on the ceiling fan Landlord: that’ll be $700
The apartment complex we left was owned by Greystar. When lease was up we made sure the next place we went to wasn't. Living here a year now, guess who just bought out the apartment complex? !@%$#@ here we go again.
Ugh the struggle!! there’s basically no way to avoid a terrible owner because they’re constantly buying out new places, so frustrating!
My landlord gave 48hrs notice for a mandatory maintenance inspection at the peak of Omicron when me and my partner had COVID, charged $125 to have maintenance install MY air conditioner in my window, charge for pets, sent around an accidental mass eviction/move out email ALSO during a peak covid wave, threatens residents with eviction for having their dachshund walk on the edge of a neighbor's lawn, drives by at least weekly to look at the exterior of our rowhouses and send mass emails complaining about toys and shit outside of people's places, and they just sent out a mass email telling us how we can and can't use our own air conditioners and that they may come around and make us turn them off if necessary this summer so... I genuinely hope my landlord's house burns down.
JESUS that’s awful. I’m so sorry to hear he’s such an asshole like that.
I’d have done it myself, what are they charging $125 for? To plug it in? Your talking about a window AC unit I’m assuming
@@Kthb80 obviously. But it's in the lease that any installations like that had to be done by maintenance and cost $125.
I dont understand. Why do they give 2 shits how you use your air conditioner? Are they paying the electric bill? Or is the wiring so bad that multiple AC units cant be run together? Im so confused.
@@easilystartled2203 you said it was your air conditioner, I took that as in it belongs to you, like you bought it, that’s why I couldn’t understand paying anyone to plug it in for you. Sounds like it’s the apartment building’s AC unit, that they want to make sure is plugged in correctly?
I've been waiting for this one. It is such feudalist nightmare that we live in a society with landlords allowed to charge literally whatever they want for a place to live. i am 21 and living in a disgusting, bug and mold filled apartment with my father and i am trying so so hard not to give up completely on living but it just doesnt feel worth it. im nowhere near being able to ne happy. 💔
kzhead.info/sun/f6lwdLeNpnl5dK8/bejne.html Finally it's here
Hey, idk if you'll see this but try to keep your head up. I'm turning 25 soon and I moved out around your age. the key is roommates. try to make friends with people your age if possible and see if they'd be willing to room. or, there are websites online that operate like forums for people to find each other. Meet in public to see their vibe and if all is well, start looking at apartments. It's unfair that were all expected to do this but imo it's the best/only way. I believe in you!!!
As a person living in a not-great situation myself, and feeling strapped for options, I understand. My words may not feel like much, but I do pray that you keep finding reasons, no matter how small, to find value in life. You are loved and appreciated here. God bless you and I pray that your situation somehow changes for the better. 🙏🏾
I'm a landlord and get the frustration, I don't make any profit from my rental. with interest rates at the mo my mortgage is barely paid, plus tax, cost of repairs etc I'm making a loss. Not all of us are psychos, just trying to make ends meet. The housing market screws all of us to different levels, the only ones doing well are those with generational property
@@tomatofeind2019 if you don't make a profit, why not sell it? you'll get an insane amount of money from it
One of my favorite stories from living in student housing for a few years was the complex “gifting” us a choice of color for the dining area wall for renewing for another year and then charging each of us $50 when we moved out to paint over that same small wall 🥴
UR KIDDING WTF
what 😭😭
In no world does it take $50 from multiple people to paint ONE wall, and I guarantee they already had the white paint landlords love to coat everything in on hand
My aunt's rent for her apartment used to be around $830 now it's gone up to 1,600. It's criminal. She's lived in that place not even 10 years.
Maybe property taxes when very up so maybe not just the land lord fault
@@entretenimiento3347 Homeowners insurance goes up as well. Renters don't seem to understand the actual costs of owning property and the associated costs.
thank you for this!!! i currently live in "cooperative afforable student housing," which apparently means i get to live in a 100-year-old house that hasn't been updated since the 70s, has zero insulation, mold, leaks/floods every time it rains, and so so much more. but hey, at least it's (slightly) cheaper than all the high rises that engulf our house and blast flood lights into our windows at night from their pristine balconies. i always wonder how people can see and experience these things daily and NOT become radicalized.
Ur last part is sooo true. Intense normalization and apathy / ignorance is my guess but LORD
@@meghansullivan6812 THIS. Its just like all the dystopian novels and movies -- they figure if they can beat the lowerclasses down enough, they'll just take it. Worse comes to worse, they turn us against each other so we're too busy bickering to do anything about the entities that make things horrible.
That last part… I’ve been wondering that a lot. Do people just not care?
@@lilacsunset3848 probably because some people just feel like a luxury apartment isn't owed to them
My last apartment was not that bad, but after moving out, they never sent the security deposit back. When my roommate reached out, they just ghosted them. Never returned calls or emails, and no one was there when she stopped by office. She's currently suing them.
It's so wild to me that in the us you often can't paint or change your apartment if you're renting it. I live in Germany and I could (almost) do anything I want in my apartment, I've painted it like four times in the 3 years I lived here, I could ask my housing association to change my kitchen flooring for free, I can decorate my balcony however I want. I don't even have to ask to keep a pet here, only if it was a big dog or an exotic animal. The only thing I have to do when I move out is paint everything back to white (or pay a small fee to the housing association for them to do it) and the only way I wouldn't get part of my deposit back is if I'd put a hole through a wall or something like that, lol
It's a sad, depressing state. Yes. :/
it depends on the landlord but yeah. mine just said we should ask before painting. i definitely got pretty lucky having a chill landlord for my first time renting. i'm still too nervous to do just about anything though lol
Your comment about charging more for pets made me think of a book I read last year called "Evicted", by the sociologist Matthew Desmond (highly recommend). He talks about how women with children couldn't find any places to live because landlords didn't want children living in their units. Women wrote letters to their elected officials until it was added to the Fair Housing Act in 1988 that families with children couldn't be discriminated against anymore. Getting back to pets - my theory is that since they legally can't charge more for children, they charge for pets instead. 🙃 Thanks for another great video! I will always love ranting about renting. ☺️
I currently live at a beautiful and reasonably priced apartment in downtown Vancouver. A true rare find. My landlady has an alcohol problem and is not available over the phone. My fridge broke down and she wouldn’t answer her email for a week. I called her and she was severely intoxicated. I said that the part of the fridge plus labor would be a couple hundred dollars and she yelled at me that she’s going to sell her apartment because it only brings trouble. I ended up sending an appliance guy and paying for it myself. I live with fear that anything else will break down.
Sounds awful! I'm in Victoria and landlords are similarly horrible 😭 even though the RTB exists, I feel like renters in actuality have like no enforceable rights
I'm so sorry that this happened to you! Sincerely, someone who lives 45 mins away from Vancouver because I'm absolutely terrified of the rental market there and things like this happening (even though its not that much better where I am in the valley haha)
get yourself a mini fridge and plug it in instead of the broken fridge. When you leave you take your mini fridge with you. That is what I would do if I had this kind of landlord.
I live in a city with some of the strongest tenant protection laws in the world and I have still resigned to the fact that I will always have to sue my landlords in small claims court upon move out. The majority of landlords would rather withhold security deposits and risk the slim chance their tenants have the time to try to recoup them. To make things worse, even when courts rule in a tenants favor, the landlord still faces zero repercussions for what is essentially stealing. Yes, landlords are compelled to return the tenants security deposit, but they are not subject to any fines, impacts to their credit scores...nothing deters them from doing the same thing to their next tennant. I can't think of any other industry where a judge would find a business owner guilty of knowingly withholding $2,000 from their client and say "whoopsies! give the money you stole back plz!"
The point about never decorating in rentals, because of the fear to "damage" something is so true! I just bought my first house and can't wait to put wallpaper on and art and decorate my place so that it inspires me. I actually moved out of my crappy berlin apartment because rent was getting higher and higher and I also had mice, which the landlord gave a fuck about. Now I live in a small house in the South of Italy and am so much happier.
The fear of being priced out of your home every year is so true. Literally waiting to hear what they plan on increasing the rent by so i can plan on moving if need be D':
It's terrifying that this video pops up on my feed literally seconds after searching for a place to rent.
Speaking of human rights. (same thing brought me here)
Oooh girl you chose a GREAT time to talk abt this ish because young ppl like us are HEATED!!!
I live in Canada and I have been noticing how AirBnB and other short term rental websites have been ruining rental markets. Landlords buy up properties just to put them on these websites so there are ton of short term holiday rentals, but it's impossible in some places to find a normal long term rental. I wonder if this is happening in other places too.
Yes happening in northwest USA too
Try Palm Springs, Ca. We have 2500 AirBnB’s. Investors have been buying up houses that many in the past had been long term rentals. If you can find a rental, rents have quadrupled what they were before the vacation rental mania. City makes money on vacation rentals so they don’t care.
A friend is doing this with his property, however, I feel like I’m certain buildings this might work better. His building lenders itself more for this than a regular apartment and I’ve looked for airbnbs in the area and I think this is the only place that does this. I’m not saying it’s the most ethical thing to do but some places just function more for short term rather than long term.
AirBnB should be better regulated, especially when there's is a vacancy of 3% or less.
I'm from the other side of the world (Tunisia) and it's happening here too. There's also many landlords who only rent for foreigners and refuse locals and those who only rent for students. And very serious issue here is that it's nearly impossible for single women to rent alone.
OMG i laughed so much when you said "pets cannot work. they don't know we live in a capitalist society" 🤣🤣🤣
Tip: you cannot be charged any pet fees or pet rent if your animal has a letter of emotional support from your doctor. This should be free to get. You can also bring your ESA to housing not open to pets.
kzhead.info/sun/f6lwdLeNpnl5dK8/bejne.html Finally it's here
You can charge fees but can't deny a ESA. At least in my area, been in the housing industry for 10 years.
@@sexyinnc in my area it’s not legal to charge fees for ESAs. I’ve had my ESA for almost 7 years. Edit: just looked it up, it’s federally illegal under the fair housing act to charge assistance or service animal fees. So whatever is happening in your area is probably shady.
unfortunately, I was still forced to pay $500 even though I had proof of ESA because the landlord said their complex was pet friendly. I am happy to have moved from there now.
ESA… so you mean you just like and are attached your pet..not the same thing, at all. a service animal and assistance animal would be for someone with seizures or blindness, who can be in danger without them. I think landlords should be able to charge for ESA.
Fun part about command strips is they mix really really well with Landlords who do not wash walls before painting… leaves a nice bubble and tear in the paint for you when it inevitably falls under more than appropriate weight for the hook.
Cities do not hold landlords accountable for crimes against tenants. Why? Landlords pay property taxes and that money is all cities care about. Cities want the poor and the renters to be eliminated by any means necessary. Why? The landlord can raise rents and the city can increase property taxes. There is no justice for the poor.
When i was in college I moved into my first off campus apt with two roomates. I went home for vaca a few weeks before we were meant to move out. I came back and my roomates not only had already moved out, but they left EVERY SINGLE ROOM FULL OF SHIT for me to clean, besides THEIR bedrooms. Everything in the bathroom, kitchen cabinets, etc. I had 2 days to clean a TWO STORY , 3 bedroom huge apt by myself. My mom literally drove 3 hours across the state to come help me because I was in tears, the shitty landlord who was HIGHLY QUESTIONABLE told me i HAD to have everything out and cleaned or I was getting nothing and he was calling the cops. He also called his bitch gf to harass me and tell me they were suing me, made me sign some paper, cops were called. For $400. I was like 20 years old, this was the first time EVER i had lived in an apt that was a non campus living type situation. He told me it was my fault that other tenants didn't move in bc he did several showings while we were STILL LIVING IN THE APT, and he never told us, and my bedroom was "so messy the people didn't want to live there, so therefore he was suing me". I am literally traumatized over this event and it was 15 years ago.
I have had such rare landlords. One was a shared house. He gave me my full deposit back when I told him the organizing I did in the kitchen when I moved in. He was SO nice. Bare minimum but still. My new landlord is a huge company and they are impeccable and treat me so respectfully/quick responders/ reasonable move in/move out expectation. 5 days of overlap to move to a bigger unit in their complex. It’s awesome. I know it’s rare
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thank you so much for making this Tiffany. I actually lived in an apartment complex that was acquired by Jared Kuschner while I was living there. I straight up had a recurring peeping Tom looking into my bedroom window late at night or early in the AM, made a police report about it, told management months before I finally broke my lease, and still had to pay an upwards of $5K to break the lease and pay for all the "damages" (i.e., menial things like dust on the trim). it's extortion and it's beyond unforgivable
I think landlords have to honestly be held accountable for not maintaining the bare minimum safety for their tenants. I also had a similar experience, my neighbor was harassing and threatening me all the time, my landlord did nothing about it and when I decided to break the lease, he told me he’d withhold my security deposit even if I hired my own professional cleaners cause the apartment had to be cleaned to “their standards”. Its all such a bunch of bs. I only got out of all the lease fees cause I had filed a TRO against my neighbor so my landlord didn’t want to be taken to court for charging me to move away. But its absolutely shitty that if you don’t have the time and resources for police and suits you deserve to be treated like shit for wanting a relatively safe living environment smh.
@@user-ju2ut2dj1l I'm glad you were able to resolve it by filing the TRO, unfortunately since I wasn't sure who exactly the peeping Tom was I wasn't able to file anything against a specific person. I agree wholeheartedly with what you say about how the tenants safety SHOULD be a priority and it just is not
I've spent my life with crappy landlords/low income housing and then my Mom met one woman who rented to us and she helped us apply to get a house from Habitat (is this woman an angel? yes. hahhaa). We've been living here now for 12 years officially and my mom makes sure to allow people to live here in the additional rooms for low rent and she treats them so well. I just moved in here before the pandemic and can't believe how my stress levels have reduced being somewhere like this. I'm so glad my Mom has turned a situation that was so crappy for us into something where she can help others and I can tell how happy our roommates are/I am so proud. Our one roommate is paying $1000 less a month in rent and I can tell how much of a difference it's making in her life. We've stayed in close contact with Habitat and remind them of the good they're doing/we continue to work with them. This video really hit me in the feels.
A few years ago, I ran out of electricity on the card over Christmas while the other 2 tenants were on holidays, so I was home alone and of course the landlords were nowhere to be found, so I had to get a hotel for 4 nights until they finally came back with the card and took care of it. The landlord told me it was not his problem that I went to a hotel, so he wouldn't be refunding me at all lol
I am not minimising this at all but I don't understand how it works. Is the electric card something that the tenant holds and tops up at the post office or is this a different thing? Why does the landlord get to hold it?
@@natashadavies9569 Idk if it's a thing in other countries, but in the UK in some places you get a card like a credit card basically that you top up and then insert into a machine and get electricity like that. A lot of shitty landlords do keep a hold of the card itself so they can control the amount of money put into it because they're controlling assholes lol. Basically the card doesn't need to always be in the machine, only after you top up or if the electricity goes down. We couldn't even use the oven more than once every 2 or so weeks because the landlord said it was too wasteful and if we did, we would have to top up ourselves (which involved going to his office, getting the card, topping it up, putting it in the machine and home and then returning it at his office)
That's barbaric. Paying by energy meter card is already more expensive as I understand it, and it can certainly lead to not having any power if it runs down but I cannot see why the landlord would ever need to have access to the card. That's a massive dick move, so long as the the rent is being paid it shouldn't matter to them however much power you're using because that's paid separately. Just wow.
@@beasttitanofficial3768 I have so many questions. Why does it matter to the landlord how much electricity you use, if you're paying for it? Don't they have anything else to do? (I don't expect an actual answer, so much as I have to ask).
@@AppalachianAllegory in London and surrounding areas, there's many many many slumlords like this. Especially around major airports bc so many airport and airline staff need housing and most of us don't make that much money and are living by ourselves without a spouse or family in the area, so these people buy up a lot of cheap properties, turn every room in the house into a bedroom and rent it out to airport staff for a lot more than it's worth. And we can't escape it because these people really do have a monopoly in properties in those areas.
watching this knowing my landlady sent a letter that arrived yesterday raising my rent by 100 a month while also having 'unsafe' external doors that they are aware need replacing
Omg this just happened to me too, our door doesn’t even have cctv camera anymore
From the ages 4 to 10, my family rented. Our landlord gave us a discounted deal for a really nice house, althout it had quite a few problems. I remember growing up thinking he was so nice for fixing things in our house. Now that I look back I realize that a large portion of the things fixed shouldn't have been problems in the first place. I'm still thankful he gave my parents a very large discount, they were paying easily half of what would normally be charged. It's just interesting how growing up can change your view on things that have become normalized in our lives.
Was left without access to a toilet for 5 days... so that was fun! When I spoke to the plumber he told me he had been visiting the same property for years, through many different tennants, and informing the owners they needed to do one bigger job to fix the issue and the owners continually refused and asked only for the quick fix which would leave the issue popping back up every 6 months or so. Lucky for me the 2nd time it happened (that time I only went 2 days without a toilet!) they actually went ahead and did the proper fix. I rent privately from a family I know personally now! So much better!!!!
I had a neighbor tell me she was hospitalized within a week or so of moving into her apt because of mold in the AC unit, and it still took them a while to actually fix it.
Living in our apartment is like a neverending game of whack-a-mole. Every time you whack a problem (faulty appliances, faulty water heaters, faulty piping, moldy walls, etc.) another one pops up. Our maintenance guys are incredibly hard-working, but they can only do so much when there's only 2 of them. There used to be a whole crew. The landlord raised the rent to 2300 buckaroos too. The kicker is that everywhere else in our area is 2500 or above.
I live in NS Canada, specifically in Halifax and last year we had a HUGE housing crisis. Worst I've seen with my own eyes. Rent is still way too high even for people with roommates, and homeless people (who weren't bothering anybody and camped in the same spot for years) were being told to leave their areas/tents by police. If they didn't, they were fined an absurd amount of money. How on earth can they pay that off if they can't even afford to rent a room??? Makes NO sense. Many people were protesting bc police were knocking down tents and sheds with stuff and people still inside. The protesting was all over social media and very peaceful. (Besides one homeless couple who was literally having s*x on the courthouse steps. I cannot make this up. The video went viral.) But still, the cops showed up with crowbars and pepper spray. Spraying and gasing people just standing holding signs. All of this was caught on video. Still doesn't make sense to me how they fined all those homeless people. AND instead of using the money (from our extremely high rent now) to do something useful like making more homeless shelters or... literally anything else they were using it to put spikes under bridges and large arm rests on benches so nobody could sleep on/under them. That's what our money was going towards apparently.
Uhg it's terrible! When Covid hit there was an explosion of tents popping up under overpasses and stuff in my city. They allowed it for like a year, then kicked the homeless out and put up fences cause... I guess they thought it made the city look bad? Now the homeless have taken over many of the city's parks. What an improvement! FFS just let them stay under the overpass!
I've grown up here and can't even live in the spaces i used to live in growing up - and I know damn well the apartment's conditions have not improved since. I have sooo much to say but I don't want to open those can of worms in a comments section before work. It's so depressing watching the place you grew up in push you out, as well as others who once called the city (and province) home.
There's a new trend in Spain where listings only show the rental rate but then you'll find a higher bottom line because they expect tenants to pay property taxes, community fees, home insurance and rent default insurance on top.
9:50 I mean I get that you work from home, so staying home all day waiting for them is not as much of an inconvenience(no offence intended, I work from home as well lol), but imagine if you had to take multiple days off of work, because you had to wait for them.. and they didn't come. You're there, with multiple days of PTO used for nothing. Sounds like a nightmare to me.
Yes absolutely! People barely have time to go to doctor’s appointments, let alone wait around for work that doesn’t get done
Or you don't have PTO at all and simply don't get paid those days too (thinking retail)
Imagine actually owning your home and having to wait for vendors to show up who never show up. It's annoying to everyone.
@@mommom3172 Did you even read what I and Kayla wrote? It's not about being annoying, it's landlords not respecting the time of their tenants is actually fucking harmful.
@@cat86581 I have been stood up on numerous occasions by trade people when things have needed repair. It's just as harmful when something breaks at my house and my family has to be inconvenienced.
The American housing market it terrifying 😳 im not saying in the UK its perfect FAR FROM IT...but at least we have a long list of protections and regulations in place, its more difficult to regulate unregistered 'slumlords' here who target ppl without documents or are trying to stay under the radar. My heart breaks for anyone struggling with providing a safe, clean and reasonably priced placed to live with their family...keep up the amazing job lovely. Your videos are always amazing 🤗
i know right! i think renting pretty much anywhere is quite shit but as a european it really shocks me what landlords in the us get away with. 🤯
Australia is on the US end of the scale, it seems. Though in some ways it's worse, because I see all these Americans personalising their rentals and I'm like??? We have to ask in writing to hang a single picture, and most real estates prohibit the 3M hooks due to the possibility of them stripping off paint. Also, rents in my suburb have increased by $100-$150 per week in the last year. Per week! Also, I've been literally stuck in my apartment for over a month because the lift in my building is broken. I'm a wheelchair user. When I told my property manager, she said that they'd let me break my lease and move out without them fighting it, but 1. It costs thousands of dollars to move house, especially if you're disabled, so I can't move until I have the money together (end of year at earliest, start of next year preferably) and 2. how am I supposed to move out if I physically can't leave the apartment? Giving me permission to break my lease doesn't magically fix the elevator!
@@katherinemorelle7115 I replied to another comment of your before seeing this one not knowing you were in Australia. Doesn't Australia have a version of the Americans with Disabilities Act? If so, your landlord is probably obligated to fix it ASAP.
Agreedp
Some friends moved into a place where the oven, dishwasher and other things were broken. It took them forever to get the LL to fix them, and some repairs weren't even completed when they moved out. Bc their heating died during winter they had to call real estate every day to try to get it fixed, and nothing happened then. They had to go to a governmental tenancy agency to get the LL to even look at it, and because they went through the agency all of their future rental applications were flagged, even though they didn't do anything wrong. I'm so tired of LL's scalping housing and then being slum lords.
i’m living for tiffany just roasting any and all landlords mentioned
Dm for more information and passive income..📩
One of my biggest scary moments, was my first apartment living alone. I was early 20's and heard bagging in my kitchen. I worked as a manager, my hours were sometimes untill 3 or 4 am. So I slept strange hours, anyway I got up to check it out ( thank God it was winter, I was in flannel jammies). And there's this old guy, looks homeless laying ony kitchen floor. I froze. No words I was frozen, I couldn't escape because he was in from door on a 3rd floor. He was matience. I had no idea he was coming or why. I wish I would have done something. Or even knew that this wasn't okay. It still bugs me many years later.
Lmao they also in again without notice to caulk the Windows, I had Christmas lights up. The caulked right over them. I got a more stories, some are way worse. And it was a nice apartment. Unless you lived there.
Something similar happened to me in my 20s, I was living alone for the first time in an apartment, I fell asleep on the couch watching TV at night, I woke up around midnight, when I opened my eyes there was a homeless looking man sitting at my desk just staring at me while I slept! My stupid dog didn’t even wake up when he came in, I sat up and said loudly “you need to leave, you are not supposed to be here!” He slowly got up and walked out grabbing a handful of change off the counter on his way out the door. It was pouring rain that night, I guess he was just trying to get out of the rain. Still he could’ve easily raped or killed me. I still think about this a lot, it happened in 2005. I never called the police or anything, I just went back to sleep. This was in Aurora, a suburb of Denver, not a great area.
I never understood why a landlord won't fix a problem. I lived in this place that had a rat problem and we were calling the landlord for months complaining about it. He didn't live in the area and he decided to visit one day after we had a hurricane. He told us that there's a rat problem because of that. How could the rats predict a hurricane months before it comes?
Omgggg, Tiffany, I admire your capability of staying calm and not yelling and cursing out the world, because that’s exactly what I want to do now. I can’t imagine staying calm about this topic
Great video, thank you Tiffany. That Bronx fire reminds me of the Grenfell Tower fire that happened here in the UK a few years back. Sadly it seems that some of the same flammable cladding responsible is still in use. Money money money. No care for human well being or straight up life, whether a single landlord or a company .
I just watched a youtube video about that!! Absolutely horrifying! The people who owned that place are Monsters. It also made me decide I don't want to live anywhere high enough that I can't jump out a window if need be. Luckily where I live, anything more than two stories is rare...
The tile is our apartment is installed on uneven flooring, so my 6’10” 260lb husband has to make sure he walks on two tiles at a time to distribute his weight evenly, because tiles break if he doesn’t. Also, the carpeting has tack strips at the edge of the tiling in the bathrooms and kitchen. We have to be careful not to step on it or the the tacks strips will cut your feet. We have mentioned these issues several times but will the landlord fix it? No.
That’s wild! You’d think secure floor that you can actually comfortably walk on would be the bare minimum. I’m sorry you are going through this!
Was this in Boston? Bc it sounds like my place in Boston. We also had mice, our packages were always getting stolen from the mailroom, communal washer/dryer but people in the building would steal your clothes. I ended up choosing to live in my car for the last stretch of college, and frankly, it was a step up for the apts I could afford
tysm for this super important video essay! when I moved to where I currently live, I thought i'd hit the jackpot ... it's a one of a kind, privately owned apartment set over a store right on a main street...so cute! as a single mom, I was so lucky to be able to get around a lot of the requirements a complex would have (like having to make 3x my rent). all was well for about two years. then, my landlord started showing his true self, and it's awful. i feel imprisoned, often unsafe. without saying too much, he's just said A LOT of strange things, comments on stuff he definitely should not -- I've had to call him out on his behavior before, pointing out that if I lived with, or was a man myself, we both know he would not treat me the way he does now. i don't have the money to move. i can barely get by right now, let alone save up to move. but trust me, I am trying my hardest to save and get away from this man. long story short: renting IS hard.
Agh I’m so sorry. Even worse to have someone who controls your living space taking advantage or making you feel unsafe
Aaaagghh that sounds so horrific im sorry dude i hope you can get out of that situation soon and away from that creep!! :(
I hope that some of the links in Tiffany’s description box apply to where you live! In my state we have a free legal help for renters organization and I’ve only heard great things about them.
I’m living in an apartment in a new city and haven’t really had a problem since I moved in 4 months ago. Come to find out through word of mouth that the property management company sues as many people as they can upon move out, saying that they owe money for damages that weren’t covered from the damage deposit (even though there aren’t any actual damages). Now I’m terrified to move out.
Take lots of pictures and a video when you move out, that way you have evidence of move out conditions. Do not miss a single nook or cranny. It also helps if you took pictures/video of the conditions of the apartment upon move in.
@@Pre-Nup thanks, I’ll do that!
At the last house we rented, we needed an extra day to turn in our inspection sheet. They made out they were doing us a huge favour by accepting it. And yep, when we left they brought it up and argued on everything. They actually took us to the tribunal and the "judge" immediately ruled in our favour, but it was SO stressful to prepare for.
As someone apartment hunting after living in the same place for 4 years this is all SO accurate!! "Post"-covid prices have shot up so much which just makes the rest of these issues even more frustrating. It's so stressful and infuriating. All your landlord sass is totally valid, they can go eff off and get real jobs
Please make more content attacking our parasitic landlord class. Genuinely cannot get enough of this.
People should start attacking them directly (in real life)
This is so true. After my landlord increased our rent by $500 we decided to look for a new place. But things have been going so fast it’s been impossible to see an apartment before 10 people have already applied. Apparently some people have been putting in offers to pay MORE than the posted rent!! Like wtf. Then there’s all the pets fees, non refundable move in fees, etc. It’s been a nightmare
I live in the UK and a lot of this still resonates, I've gotten really lucky this year and found a reasonably priced place where the landlord lets us decorate however we want (paint, home improvements if we desire and want to do them ourselves, wallpaper etc) and she's very good at getting things fixed if we ask. She always wants her tenants to stay as long as possible longterm so I think she's invested in keeping them happy. Unfortunately this is the first time I've been in this situation, plenty of horror stories with black mould and infestations in previous places, ridiculous rent etc. My partner recently mentioned someone from his workplace was bragging about not accepting people of colour or immigrants for his places. Renting is such a hellscape, if you're going to profit off of providing someone a place to live do not be a dickhead about it.
Great video as always!! This reminds me of how airbnbs charge for a cleaning fee, and sometimes the price will be ridiculous!!!
Ooof yes I’ve stayed in some truly atrocious airbnbs over the years and literally couldn’t sleep there
Wtf!!! Like it’s not up the renter to maintain the place between stays, that’s literally the only thing the owner needs to do ??!!😭😡
I am listening from Europe and I am getting more and more convinced that the US is a third world country masquerading as first world country. I am a renter as I study abroad and never had problems like that, recently my washing machine broke, I messaged a landlord and within a week there was a new washing machine at my place. Also, rented out my space for 6 months because I was going for a university exchange and when I came back my bed had some stains on the mattress, same thing messaged landlord 2 days later got a brand new mattress and he lowered my rent for that month cause I had the inconvenience to sleep on the couch for 3 nights.
literally just left washington dc to move back home after living there for 5 months - the cost of housing is insane (1200 being the AVERAGE for a bedroom in a house with an average of 2-3 other people) and even trying to FIND a room is literally like an actual job search. the amount of times i'd have to go and meet the people living there to see if i 'vibed' with the roommates took up so much time, and half the time people just ghost you as a way of letting you know they chose someone else. with gas prices and inflation also being astronomically high idk how anyone who isn't single and making less than 100k a year even manages to scrape by, because i couldn't even do it as a single 27 year old.
Maybe live somewhere that isn't a shithole. Plenty of places where rent is cheap. But those places aren't major metropolitan cities so of course you won't lol.
I’m a single 29 year old who lives in Northern VA and works in DC. My rent is just over 1400 (for an old, bug-infested, tiny studio) which is almost 3/4 of my income! I would get a place with roommates, but I have an anxious dog who doesn’t do well around new people. I’m screwed until I can find a better paying job somehow, without a college degree. If I didn’t have my dog, I’d be living in my car right now
This makes me soooo angry. My landlord bought this house sight unseen from halfway across the country. She's never been here(TO THE STATE, not just the house). She doesn't understand our weather isn't the same as her PeRfEcT southern cali weather. I owned a house for over a decade before I moved 1hr north, so I'm not being picky, I'm trying to keep her "investment" from being reclaimed by the earth! But she never wants to fix anything and I'm afraid she's going to raise my rent because the house needed a new roof and rear door threshold and water heater over the course of 5 years.
If she does that, I pretty sure it's super illegal.
imagine owning rental homes in states you've never been to, then whining when your out of state tenant has a problem... some landlords are absolutely wild
I was shocked hearing about your conditions. I live in Israel and here rent is expensive but at least no one can charge you a pet fee or take your deposit for minor issues
So check it - this is a commercial kitchen space me and my friend rented for a bakery biz last year. We were in there for a couple months when suddenly rats! We told the landlord and they said they would do something. A few days pass and nothing. Then they said “can’t you just store all your stuff in the walk in fridge?” 😐 She wanted us to put an entire bakery into a walk-in and then unpack/repack it everyday. Try to picture that 😂 We had put our own security cam in and bought bins to put ALLLL of our stuff into plastic while she figured it out. Spent hundreds. And of course we couldn’t bake or sell any the whole this was going on. So lost lots of money! Then after a couple weeks of demanding, she finally had an exterminator come in. And then nothing got better. WTF? It turns out she didn’t actually want to hire them. She said “You have no idea how much they wanted to charge.” So she had them leave and put about a hundred traps everywhere. Meanwhile the rat chewed through the plastic bins. So we packed up our stuff, and began moving out after a couple weeks of this. And she came to us and said we have to still pay our rent since we are leaving mid lease. She threatened us! She rented us an unusable space and still demanded our rent when we had to leave to find a new kitchen. We lost thousands in a months time because of this. And she still wanted rent 😂 Ridiculous!
How did that end tho? Did you have to pay her?
My brother and I live together on disability benefits. The housing registry's wait list is like 6 years long, and our current landlord could choose to sell at any time. We can't even get to the viewing stage of a new rental before someone else snaps it up instead. We're always teetering on the brink of homelessness.
My parents bought their home...or had it handed to them rather...and they picked our bedroom colors. I understand doing that for small children but we were teens and they repainted and just didn't ask us what we thought. They said it was their house, not ours. lol, So I guess in a way they just gave me an understanding that I won't really ever have my own home.
My last apartment was fantastic. It was a very small complex. I had the manager as a neighbor, and she was on top of things. I got my entire deposit back even though things needed to be cleaned some because they were redoing the apartments (wood floors to replace tile and carpet, repainting green cabinets to white, new countertops). They were like “oh we are going to give ya back all your money cause there is no point to charge you cleaning fees when we are about to make a huge mess to redo the place” they were just… nice. And all my neighbors were nice too.
the new thing I've noticed with security deposits is they'll keep them and then jack up cleaning fees to charge more on top of the deposit.
Dm for more information and passive income.✅