RUBs - This is a bullshit system to be added to your rent with. This is basically saying “on top of what you’re paying to use, you’re to pay what EVERYONE else in the building uses!” even if it’s divided up. I get fucked over every winter for example, because I use electric heaters in my apartment and nothing gas-related. I’m still smacked with $48 ~ $62 of usage, despite that. This raises my rent up and makes it variable.
No-Bite Management - Management who lets nearly everything go, despite them trying to sound strict. You may be in a bit of a rivalry with a neighbor who likes slamming things or having loud music, obviously breaking lease agreement, who makes you wonder why they’ve gotten away with it as long as they have. You record, you report but management does next to nothing. They tell you to your face that the only way they can move forward, is a police report. Now that kind of thing should be reserved for more escalated and involved cases, not something management could deal with when they were the ones who made up the terms of the lease agreement.
Pets - From experience, people are AWFUL with their pets. Mostly dogs, I’ve never seen anything go wrong with cats, unless the owners don’t care enough to let them run around until they’re kidnapped or ran over. But dogs, they just let them go and go with the barking. Not to mention the dog shit on the ground they refuse to pick up.
You may be in a bit of a rivalry with a neighbor who likes slamming things or having loud music, obviously breaking lease agreement, who makes you wonder why they’ve gotten away with it as long as they have. You record, you report but management does next to nothing. They tell you to your face that the only way they can move forward, is a police report.
This seems to be a common misperception. Results vary based on jurisdiction, but in most places Landlords CAN’T evict anyone for noise. Doesn’t matter what’s in the lease. Eviction is serious and devastating, and not something to be pursued over noise. Even with police complaints (they don’t care) they still can’t evict unless especially egregious.
Also, noise is a part of life. People have kids and they play. People watch movies on TV. People drop dishes and heavy doors without shocks slam and dogs bark. It’s part of life. Most appartment building aren’t built with sound management in mind making normal everyday sounds a nuisance. To live in an appartment is to have noise of a community. For every bad tennant making noise, there is one curmudgeon filing complaints at butterfly farts.
The solutions:
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Respectful discussion. Calmly let the person know what you are hearing and how it is impacting you and a polite suggestion of what can be done to mittigate this.
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Headphones, earplugs, white noise generators.
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Move to a more suitable place, such as a sound managed appartment or a detached home in the countryside.
I was told, to my face by management, that my peace was to be valued. Everyone’s peace was to be valued.
Maybe someone doesn’t want to wear their headsets all of the time in a place they pay a lot of money for. You’re making it sound like there is no control for anything and just let it be. But someone probably hasn’t told you that, if it can be helped, it should be helped.
Its like you didn’t read anything I said.
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Do you really want your landlord to play judge, jury and executioner?
That can easily backfire against you
I pay attention to the condition/cleanliness of the hallways and stairs in the building. If the owner can’t be bothered to maintain any of that then you already know the apartment itself is going to be a mess as soon as something goes wrong.
A bit harder to judge but if it looks like other tenants/random people make a habit of hanging out in the hallways/stairwells then that’s a massive red flag. One time I went to see an apartment and a guy inside the building on one of the stair landings was chilling out smoking a massive cigar next to the window… I knew right away that building is always going to have cigar smoke.
This one might sound silly but I have a habit of testing the water in the bathroom and kitchen. That tells me what the water pressure is like as well has how well the hot water is working.
Maybe a bit nit picky but I usually bring a tape measure and do some quick room measurements to figure out if furniture is going to fit & whatnot.
Oh and like the other comment said it definitely helps if you know what the area and the building surroundings are like at night.
Gonna have to disagree on your second point. Stairs landings etc. are public places and if you live there you have every right to hang out wherever you please so long as its not impeding foot traffic. The thought that people existing outside their homes and apartments being a red flag is ridiculous and encourages people not to know their neighbors and community.
I managed buildings. There is no scenario anywhere where anybody would be allowed to linger in a common area
As a renter you should never rent to drug addicts if you want your shit to not get stolen.
Pets - From experience, people are AWFUL with their pets. Mostly dogs, I’ve never seen anything go wrong with cats, unless the owners don’t care enough to let them run around until they’re kidnapped or ran over. But dogs, they just let them go and go with the barking. Not to mention the dog shit on the ground they refuse to pick up.
What a complicated way to say that you dislike dogs/pets.
Not OP.
I love dogs, but I hate most dog owners. Especially the ones irresponsible enough to have dogs in a city and to neglect raising them in a way that keeps them from being a nuisance. They fail to fulfill the most basic duties to the detriment of their neighbors.
That’s not hating dog owners but pet owners in general and especially just disliking irresponsible humans.
For example (IMO) having a cat only in the flat/house is not a good place as well. Dogs need movement, thus cats need as well.
And I don’t mean it in a “let the cat outside to wreck the bird population for today” kind of wayYes, I agree with all of that.
Any broken glass in parking areas, no age diversity, dirty smelly unlit damaged hallways at all, smell of smoking in the buildings at all, not up to fire code in any way, the free parking around the area is totally full at any time of day, decorations of decks or windows banned, they don’t start off with you previewing THE EXACT unit you’ll be renting, they ever walk you through what seems to be a preview unit.
Yup, this has been some of my experience.
People invite their freaking friends and family who hog up a lot of the parking spaces and forces actual paying tenants, like me, to park in areas I shouldn’t have to park in. We do have guest parking but it’s stupid small. Never got a walkthrough of the unit. I wasn’t allowed to enter my unit for 2 more days. Why? They said it “wasn’t ready” despite me having traveled 1,000+ miles from state to state to get to the apartment. I had to sleep in my cold vehicle those two nights.
And when it was finally available? The damn thing was emptied from the beginning! And all they did was just vacuum the carpets.
The only reason there’s a shortage of spaces in the first place is predatory design.
An apartment I used to live in was newly built, and each building had big gated underground parking, as well as a very few small outdoor parking lots. It was really clear that the underground parking was supposed to be tenant parking and the parking lots were for visitors. Yet, they were charging for the underground parking, and that outdoor parking lot was 100% full 99.99% of the time.
And now, apartment complexes are being built that don’t have that outdoor parking, and only have the underground parking, and the management wants to sell the underground parking as extra, rather than just letting people use the parking meant for them, and so all the street parking is taken up.
I had a friend in that more recent design, and it was in a residential neighborhood. So you have a bunch of apartment tenants parking all along the streets by a bunch of houses. It was awful… For everybody involved.
But the landlord has to make enough money to do fuckall and buy another yacht somehow.
DO NOT have pets in a rented home, do not decorate, do not buy expensive furniture and fixtures in a rented home. It’s a RENTED HOME!!!
People need to understand they must NOT become attached to their rented homes. Treat it as just a TEMPORARY roof over your head & live a frugal life. Remember: You cannot afford to live in that house in a way you can live in your own home.
