Telltale Signs You’re Dealing with a Difficult Landlord

Table of Contents

1. They Actively Try to Conceal a Property’s Flaws
2. They Want You to Sign an Incomplete Lease
3. They’re Unresponsive to Maintenance Requests
4. They Have Overwhelmingly Negative Feedback
5. Avoid Unnecessary Stress

Dealing with a Difficult Landlord can be challenging. As most longtime renters can tell you, landlords are a mixed bag. While some are perfectly reasonable and accommodating to the needs of their tenants, others simply regard renters as expendable cash machines.

Needless to say, it’s in your best interest to avoid the latter at all costs. Fortunately, difficult landlords are fairly easy to identify – provided, of course, you know what signs to look for. So, before entering into a rental agreement with a new landlord, keep an eye out for the following character traits.

They Actively Try to Conceal a Property’s Flaws

While it may be every landlord’s prerogative to find tenants for their respective properties, doing so should never entail deception. Unfortunately, a fair number of landlords have zero qualms about concealing problems with properties – especially if doing so stands to benefit them financially.

So, when doing a walkthrough of a prospective rental home, make a point of bringing any problems you come across to the landlord’s attention. Should the landlord insist that the problems you put forth don’t exist or attempt to minimize them, take this as a red flag? If this person were serious about ensuring the comfort of their tenants, they would have fixed any outstanding problems in advance of showing the property.

You should also be extremely wary of landlords who are hesitant to allow walkthroughs or formal property inspections. After all, if there are no issues with a property, they should have no problem allowing it to be thoroughly examined before being rented out. By the same token, it’s never a good idea to sign a lease for a property you haven’t personally looked over.

Even if you’re relocating from a faraway locale and can’t easily visit a prospective rental home, you should insist on a thorough virtual tour and request that trusted friends or family members in the area look at the property on your behalf. Lone Star Staters looking for houses for rent in Dallas should commit to inspecting any property they’re interested in leasing.

They Want You to Sign an Incomplete Lease

No landlord who expects you to sign an incomplete lease should be trusted. Large portions of the lease being left blank suggests that they intend to add terms that are unfavorable to you after you’ve signed.

So, no matter what kind of excuse the landlord has to offer, abstain from signing any incomplete lease. Even if the property owner seems perfectly trustworthy, this isn’t the type of thing a landlord who values their tenants would expect someone to do.

They’re Unresponsive to Maintenance Requests

As the property owner, it is the landlord’s job to make your residence as livable as possible and attend to a wide variety of maintenance tasks. Unfortunately, a lot of landlords aren’t crazy about tackling repairs and renovations and will go out of their way to avoid having to do so.

If you have a maintenance request that involves a fair amount of money or manpower, some landlords will begin to ignore communications from you entirely.

If you’re dealing with a landlord who refuses to treat maintenance as a priority, you should know that you have options. For example, suppose an unaddressed maintenance issue has compromised the livability of the residence. In that case, you may want to consider speaking with a lawyer, withholding rent until the issue is remedied, and/or alerting relevant health organizations.

They Have Overwhelmingly Negative Feedback

Before entering into a rental agreement with a landlord, you should seek out feedback from other tenants online. While one or two bad reviews in a sea of favorable ones shouldn’t really be cause for alarm, you should think twice about renting from anyone for whom tenant feedback is overwhelmingly negative – regardless of how well they present themselves in person or over the phone.

As is the case with most people in life, some landlords are liable to prove extremely accommodating, while others will cause you no end of frustration.

Unfortunately, many renters don’t realize they’re stuck with a difficult landlord until long after they commit to a lease. Therefore, you must learn to recognize the telltale signs of a difficult landlord before starting any paperwork.

Avoid Unnecessary Stress

You want to make your home a place of sanctuary so dealing with a negative landlord can cause a lot of problems with that. If you notice these warning signs right away, the house or apartment may not be as perfect as it seems.

Dealing with a difficult landlord can cause unwanted stress even if the house seems perfect. Constant stress from a rude or overbearing landlord will ultimately make the home not worth it.

A landlord would be responsive and attentive but not always check in on you. There should be rules around when the landlord can stop by and they shouldn’t have access to your home with entry at any time. If there aren’t boundaries, they could stop by at all hours of the day. Which is something I am sure that you don’t want to happen.

They could also be the opposite type of landlord that doesn’t ever answer your calls or emails and leaves you with broken appliances. When it is the middle of the summer and the A/C goes out, you want to make sure you have an attentive landlord to help fix things that go wrong.

In most states, it’s unlawful to leave essential items, such as a heater, broken. Most require you to house tenants elsewhere if the heater or water goes out.

To ensure a stress-free home, consider these warnings and advice. Choosing a landlord should be as thoughtful a process as choosing a dwelling.

Thank you for reading!