Telltale Signs Youâre Dealing with a Difficult Landlord
By: John Garcia | Date Posted: June 2, 2022
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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, itâs in your best interest to avoid the latter at all costs. Fortunately, difficult landlords are fairly easy to identify â 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 Propertyâs Flaws
While it may be every landlordâs 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 â 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 landlordâs attention. Should the landlord insist that the problems you put forth donât 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, itâs never a good idea to sign a lease for a property you havenât personally looked over.
Even if youâre relocating from a faraway locale and canât easily get to a prospective rental home, you should insist on a thorough virtual tour and request that trusted friends or family members in the area be allowed to look at the property on your behalf. Lone Star Staters looking for houses for rent in Dallas should commit to inspecting any property theyâre 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 youâve signed.
So, no matter what kind of excuse the landlord has to offer, abstain from signing any lease thatâs incomplete. Even if the property owner seems perfectly trustworthy, this isnât the type of thing a landlord who values their tenants would expect someone to do.
Theyâre Unresponsive to Maintenance Requests
As the property owner, it is the landlordâs job to make your residence as livable as possible and attend to a wide variety of maintenance tasks. Unfortunately, a lot of landlords arenât crazy about tackling repairs and renovations and will go out of their way to avoid having to do so.
In fact, 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 youâre dealing with a landlord who refuses to treat maintenance as a priority, you should know that you have options. For example, if an unaddressed maintenance issue has compromised the livability of the residence, you may want to consider speaking with a lawyer, withholding rent until such time as 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 shouldnât really be cause for alarm, you should think twice about renting from anyone for whom tenant feedback is overwhelmingly negative â 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 donât realize that theyâre stuck with the latter until long after theyâve committed to a lease. That being the case, itâs important that you learn to recognize the telltale signs of a difficult landlord before getting started on 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 see these warning signs right off the bat, even if the house or apartment is a perfect fit, it may not turn out to be so perfect.
Dealing with a difficult landlord can cause unwanted stress even if the house is a perfect fit. If your home is tainted with constant stress from a rude or overbearing landlord, it wonât be worth it in the end.
A landlord would be responsive and attentive but not check in on you all the time. There should be rules around when the landlord can stop by and they shouldnât have access to your home with entry at any time. If there arenât boundaries then they could potentially stop by at all hours of the day. Which is something I am sure that you donât want to happen.
They could also be the opposite type of landlord that doesnât 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.
It is also unlawful in most states to leave things that are very important, such as a heater broken. Most states require you to house your tenants somewhere else if something like the heater or water goes out.
To ensure that you live in a tranquil home that is as stress-free as possible, make sure you take all of these warnings and advice into consideration. There should be as much thought going into whether the landlord will be a good landlord as if the dwelling will be a good space for you.
Thank you for reading!
