The word "landlord" evokes a feeling of power, almost as if those who rule over the "land" (which nowadays refers mainly to pricy city apartments) should be entitled to rule over their tenants. That's morally wrong, yes, but also true—as proved by the wild and hilarious text messages we're about to dig into.
These tenants have received unbelievable text messages from their landlords and shared them all over the web. The following is a combination of the funniest, most unexpected, and most outrageous to have ever hit the Internet.
An Indecent Proposal
While the world is generally changing for the best, it's still harder for women to do many things in society, including renting an apartment. People expect to be harassed by their landlords in some way or another, but female renters are often really at risk of being harassed. Sometimes, in a very disgusting manner!
This landlord had the nerve of asking one of his female tenants to live for free with him in exchange for "something else." People like this should be reported as soon as possible.
This Happens More Often Than You Think
Sadly, there are several cases of male landlords harassing females who reside in their apartments. This one is even more serious than the latter, as it involves a young woman who is still not 18 years old yet. Can you imagine her mother and father's disgust upon reading these text messages?
Luckily, they reported the landlord to the police as soon as they realized they hadn't misunderstood the situation. We can only hope that this landlord will never hurt or harass women again.
Shocking Impropriety
Surely less creepy than some previous examples (but regrettable nonetheless), what about this lease termination followed by a marriage proposal? It goes to show that some people don't know the meaning of the word "boundaries."
In all fairness, though, we believe this tenant was just trying to make the most of his final opportunity to catch the eye of his soon-to-be ex-landlady. Since his lease was going down in one day, he probably felt like he had nothing to lose by declaring his true feelings.
Hoping for a Breakup
When we thought that declarations of love couldn't get any more explicit than "I want to be your husband," we stumbled upon this unbelievable text message. It's a clear case of a landlord not knowing his boundaries and asking one of his female tenants to text him when her boyfriend leaves her!
We don't know what's worse: this landlord's nerve or the fact that he's suggesting that the woman's boyfriend will surely be the one who leaves her one day.
A Tale of Three Inches
Being a parent is already hard enough, but it gets even more complicated when one's forced to live next to a neighbor who acts like a toddler. Making justice to his phone name, Dan has so much free time that he annoys his next-door neighbors over a toy that's three inches into his yard.
In the final text message, however, we find out why Dan is such a bummer: he is sad because his wife divorced him. Nonetheless, nobody deserves to get burned this badly!
Blown Out of Proportion
Blowup dolls are generally acquired by men and women who feel lonely and wish to find solace in a rubbery lover's company. There's nothing wrong with that. But from a landlord's point of view, it's not ideal to have a blowup doll staring at him all day from one of his tenant's apartment windows.
Tenants are entitled to their freedom, especially when it comes to love. But when a blowup doll is involved, it's always better to keep her in a safe, more secluded place.
Fishy After Midnight
Despicable landlords are far from being an endangered species, but it's not like bad tenants are hard to find. One of the downsides of living in a small apartment is that cooking smelly foods is not advised, especially if the smell happens to disturb other residents.
This poor landlord has had enough of his pescatarian tenant and is going online in search of answers. We can only hope that he lives in a warm place because keeping the doors open after midnight in a cold city sounds like a nightmare.
An Informed Tenant
For every ten horrible landlords out there, there's got to be at least one horrible tenant. The tenant behind these messages seems to be annoying, as he's not only calling his landlord by the pet name "Brucie Baby," but he's also sending him memes.
While that all seems inappropriate, the fact is that this tenant knows his stuff! He cited New York City's warranty of habitability law, which states that landlords are obligated to keep their properties "habitable" even if they must "make repairs."
Every Last Penny
It's funny: while landlords tend to "get distracted" whenever their tenants need help, they are super fastidious when it comes to the rent. As if charging $1.4K per month wasn't enough, this skinflint of a landlord is doing his best to avoid being "scammed" out of $0.46.
Naturally, this landlord is entitled to get paid whatever monthly sum was previously agreed upon. But is it so hard for him to give his tenant some slack? We're talking less than half-a-dollar here!
Irresistible Charm
Sure, landlords can be picky, annoying, unfair, and sometimes plain horrible. But they're human beings with emotions and empathy, just like the rest of us. Bruce's tenant knew about the "no pets allowed" rule but wanted to keep his cat. The solution? Using an adorable picture of his furry best friend to charm Bruce away!
The plan was a long shot, for sure, but it worked better than expected. Upon seeing the cat, Bruce decided that he was just too cute to be impolite.
Insecurity Deposits
This Twitter user investigated what landlords said to other landlords on Facebook and was shocked that most of them feel they're automatically entitled to keep their tenants' security deposits—even if they have to do their best to find something "broken" around the house.
Technically, security deposits are paid beforehand to prevent potential damage to the apartment and must be returned to the tenant if none occurs. Little did we know that some landlords would do everything possible to keep their deposits.
Your Problem, Not Mine
According to RentPrep, landlords are responsible for the pest control of their properties unless it's contractually stipulated otherwise. Some landlords, however, have a talent for ignoring their responsibilities (and their tenants' problems) in the most patronizing way.
While he surely understood one of his tenants was dealing with a rat infestation, this particular landlord decided to play it cool and act bossy—as some landlords tend to do. His Machiaevelic plan involves seeing the rats as "pets," so the tenant is forced to deal with them.
Getting Your Money's Worth
According to Haaretz, real estate law requires a two-thirds majority among building co-owners to install an elevator. And whenever one is, the tenants make the most of it. But what happens when greedy landlords decide residents aren't entitled to use the elevator in their building?
Believe it or not, this landlord created a sophisticated toll system so his tenants wouldn't use his precious elevator too many times. Well, we guess taking the stairs is much healthier anyway!
House-Party Paranoia
Nothing makes an uptight landlord tingle with fear more than the words "house party." Upon seeing too many vehicles parked in front of one of his properties, this particular landlord thought a house party was looming. His worst fear, however, turned out to be paranoia. Or was it?
In the end, Dylan showed his true colors by pointing out that he was planning to have a poker night. Poor Dennis thought he would be able to rest easy; not anymore!
Law & Order: Landlord Edition
There are two types of landlords: the ones who leave their tenants to be and those who don't. This is one of the latter, and he's undoubtedly being too particular about the cleanliness of an apartment. But using a blacklight (ultraviolet light) to look for stains in the carpet? That's intense!
As this landlord's tenant cleverly pointed out, the man was so possessive about his properties that he started acting like he was in an episode of "Law & Order." The security deposit will be put to good use, though!
Having His Cake and Eating It Too
Depending on the contract, landlords should take care of the homes and apartments they rent out to other people. Matt's landlord Alex, however, decided to do things the other way around: he not only asks his tenants for money but also asks them to perform property maintenance chores he should be taking care of.
Poor Matt was cool enough to oblige, but he wasn't too happy to find out his landlord, Alex, sent his cousin to spy on him. Not cool!
Have You Considered Getting a Job?
The pandemic put landlords on the spot. While many were forced to raise rent prices to keep things going, others decided to do it simply because of their greed. Renters were left with no other option but to oblige, and many were forced to return to their parent's homes or, even worse, end up on the streets.
Some tenants played back by asking their landlords to consider replacing their rental income by getting a job! Continuing to pay property-related fees for an empty unit is not ideal.
Eviction Epidemic
The New Yorker called it an "eviction epidemic." It started before the pandemic and continued up until now. Every year, millions of Americans are evicted from their own homes, and, as this text message shows, some are told to leave with less than one day's notice!
While there are undoubtedly many tenants who deserve to be kicked out, we assume that many are mere victims of greedy landlords. Some don't even care whether their tenants will end up homeless or not.
It's Tough Out Here For a Landlord
Empathy is defined as "the ability to understand and share the feelings of another." Empathic people understand other people's suffering even if they're in a radically different situation. On the other hand, the landlord responsible for this text message needs to raise his empathy levels as soon as possible.
Any statement containing the argument that property owners have it harder than people who do not own a home is not considering both sides of the story. If it's so hard being the landlord, why don't you switch places?
Bruce Landlord Has Had Enough
Remember Bruce Landlord? He was super cool about his tenant's cat, but he probably regretted being nice after receiving this message. In addition to being disrespectfully called "Brucie baby" by his seemingly crazy tenant, he wasn't happy to learn of an "illegal subletter" living inside his property.
What kind of person takes a wild animal home, puts a diaper on it, and then sends a photo to their landlord? We don't know, but we wish Bruce Landlord all the luck in the world.
Can You Prove It?
Landlords can be a skeptical species. The most demanding landlords will only ever pay for a thing if they're sure it needs fixing. This exchange of messages between Patrick and his wary landlord is but one hilarious example of that.
What is it that makes it hilarious? Well, probably the fact that it's impossible to prove to someone that the running water is cold by sending him photos. Patrick still obliged his landlord's ridiculous request, so we hope he got his water fixed.
Ignorance Persists
We're deep into the 21st century, but some things seem to never change. While being gay is, for the most part, well-accepted in today's Western world, gay people still have to deal with the occasional ignorant homophobe from time to time. This landlord had the nerve to accuse a gay couple of not being a "regular couple."
According to Reuters, close to 99% of the LGBTQIA+ students inquired in one of their surveys reported hearing "disparaging comments" about their romantic orientation.
Eviction Day? Choose Wisely
It's never a good day to kick someone out of one of their apartments. But April Fools? It can be tricky to make a tenant believe she is being evicted on a day on which lying is permitted and skepticism abounds (especially if every 'O' in her phone is replaced by a heart symbol).
Here's a tip for all present and future landlords: Christmas evictions are downright cruel, Halloween evictions can get you pranked, but April's Fools evictions are by far the worst!
The Kitchen That Won't Kitchen
When one rents an apartment with a kitchen, that's because one wants a kitchen. It makes sense, doesn't it? Strangely enough, though, this poor tenant was informed by his landlord that the kitchen in his apartment was for eating and warming food only.
Can't the landlord simply remove the steam alarm so the kitchen can be used for purposes other than eating and microwaving food? And why didn't he tell his tenant about the kitchen issues before he signed the lease?
Keeping the Tenants Busy
This exchange of messages reveals a strange logic. Tenants pay their landlords to reside in their property, meaning they're the landlord's clients in a way. But some landlords see things the other way around, almost as if their tenants have the moral duty of helping them with all house-related tasks.
This is an extreme example, as the landlord even has the nerve to mention his tenant's boyfriend and a few specific cleaning products. Please stop doing things for your landlord Jamie; that's HIS job!
Sleeping Under the Stairs
According to Steps to Justice, it is perfectly legal to invite someone to spend the night in one's house, even if one happens to live in a rental. Nonetheless, many tenants still feel like they need to ask their landlords for permission anytime they have guests. Even when all the space remaining is… Under the stairs.
We hope this person's great-great uncle's wife isn't too old, because she will need to have a strong back to endure sleeping under the stairs.
Thirsty Tenant
According to Urban Dictionary, the word "thirsty" refers to people who are "too eager to get something," especially if "something" happens to be a steamy night of romance. This tenant was surely thirsty, as he forgot to select the right contact before sending a very naughty message.
Keith's landlord, Mona couldn't believe it when she saw the message but realized immediately it was sent to her by mistake. As any "good" landlord, she made the most of the opportunity to remind Keith his rent was late!
It Was All Good, Until…
A female tenant living with other women started receiving text messages from her landlord. It all seemed normal, as the landlord was extremely helpful in getting them a new microwave. But then, out of nowhere, he decided it was okay to send them a very weird message.
How does one go from "microwave installation" to "I took a pic of u ladies?" We're not sure, but we would never trust a landlord who meddles in his tenant's life so creepily.
The Clueless Landlord
According to Citizen's Advice, landlords are generally responsible for paying for reparations around the house. Sadly, however, this is a responsibility that many landlords either avoid or forget about. This message exchange, for example, goes to show just how negligent some landlords are.
He's not only taking a long time to fix a few pressing issues (from replacing the stove to repairing a broken outlet), but he also has no idea that one of his properties has an outside porch!
Party Crasher?
Yes, we've mentioned that house parties are a landlord's worst nightmare. But not all landlords are the same. While some do whatever they can to prevent house parties from happening, others do everything they can to join the ones that do!
Perhaps out of loneliness, this particular landlord decided to join his tenants' party and had lots of fun. But was he invited? Or did he decide to show up just because he owns the place where the party was at?
Not So Masterful, After All
It's perfectly natural to take pride in one's education. Completing a college degree is tough and demands a great spirit of sacrifice. But nobody likes people who cannot stop bragging about their college education just because they want to exteriorize their "superiority." This landlord is the perfect example of a "college bragger."
For all his wiseness, though, he seems to have forgotten two very simple things: 1. How to fix a simple Wi-Fi problem, and 2. How to use correct punctuation in his text messages.
It's Not That Easy
Forget about annoying "college braggers:" some landlords are so obnoxious that they believe renters only rent because they deserve to do so, as they didn't put in the effort to complete a college degree and find a good job. But is a college degree enough to be a homeowner in the United States?
According to PR Newswire, the situation in the country is such that not even rent is affordable for young college graduates anymore, let alone buying a house.
Not My Responsibility!
Owning property is a double-edged sword. On one hand, there's the safety (and profitability) of having a home of your own; on the other hand, there's the added responsibility of taking care of such a home, even if it's being rented to other people.
Sadly, though, many property owners (especially landlords) think they can ask tenants for money without doing the bare minimum for them. Not only is this landlord unconcerned about his tenant's safety, but he's also not taking two minutes of his time to fix the issue.
Error 404: Compassion Missing
We're not entirely sure who's the landlord and who's the tenant in this exchange of messages, but we have no doubt there's no love between these two. When a person loses his brother, it's normal for other people to give him a break, even if they don't like such a person. Not this time around, though!
This one shows just how loveless, incompassionate, and hateful the relationship between a landlord and his tenants can be. Homeowners have a lot to be grateful for!
The Netflix Landlord
Netflix has produced its fair share of hit shows. The hilarious documentary series "Tiger King" is undoubtedly one of them, and it has introduced us to many real-life characters so entertaining they look fictional! Carole Baskin, the Big Cat Rescue owner, is one of them.
It's great to have a landlord who loves quality TV, but not so great when such a landlord asks for rent money by calling his tenant a "peasant." One would have to be in on the joke to get it.
The Accidental Flirter
Communicating via text, instant message, or chat has become so common that emojis have already become an essential part of our culture. Some, like the famous wink emoji, even have taken on their own meaning. Sadly, only some know what it truly means.
Dylan's landlord Dennis is getting a bit too comfy with his tenants, to the point of sending them a wink emoji. The only problem? He seems not to have realized that the wink emoji is generally used in flirtatious situations.
Part of the Package
This one sounds like a great deal: we buy a house and get one person for free! Jokes aside, this is the kind of text message nobody should get from their landlord. But while the text sounds horrible (the choice of words was very unfortunate), is it possible that this landlord is doing his tenant a favor?
We believe this landlord is saying that while he's planning on selling one of his properties, he's letting the tenant reside there until the deal's done.
When Your Tenant's a Party Girl
This exchange of messages between Audrey (the tenant) and Joan (the landlady) is nothing but polite, but it shows that tenants have to be patient with their landlords too. We can only imagine Audrey's surprise when she received a picture from Joan out of nowhere right before dinner time.
Joan was having drinks with the girls and probably got a little tipsy while having "a super time." We only find it disappointing that she didn't invite her tenant to join in on the action.
Not Even Stalin
It's not that strange to compare a landlord to a dictator. While there are many amazing landlords out there, the truth is that most are seen as controlling, insensitive, and callous (sometimes simply because of their job description). But how far can one evil landlord go?
One thing is to raise the rent; another is to "forget" about fixing a broken buzzer; but denying pizza to a fellow human being? That seems to be the tipping point for this desperate renter.
What a Moss!
Now based in Brooklyn, the American author Caroline Moss used Twitter to share the goodbye message she received from her landlord upon telling him she was leaving for Los Angeles. While he was nice enough to tell her to write "something watchable for TV," he's not exactly being a source of positivity.
Poor Moss was probably already feeling stressed about moving to a different city and surely didn't need to be told that her future home was in "the gates of hell." We guess "supportive" is too good a word.
Who Needs a Man?
We're way past the point unwed mothers were victims of prejudice. According to the United States Census Bureau, a whopping four out of 10 children were born to single mothers; the United States is also the country with the highest incidence of single-parent households, as per Parents-Together.org.
Despite all of this, some despicable landlords still have the nerve of denying America's brave single moms a place to live. Who needs a man when men can act so stupidly sometimes?
The Weird Mechanics of Rental Love
When one lives in a rental house, is it okay to invite the boyfriend to spend the night? According to Stack Exchange, it depends on the terms of one's lease. Every landlord has slightly different requirements for house guests, and some are specific.
This woman's landlord is okay with her having fun in bed with her boyfriend as long as he leaves the house before morning comes. It's more convenient for him to stay over, and convenience comes with a price.
Landlords Being Landlord
Remember when we said that the word "landlord" alone evokes a certain feeling of power? Well, it turns out it also tends to evoke feelings of disregard toward others. In trying to help his daughter and son-in-law, this Facebook landlord forgot that he had already rented his apartment to a single mom.
One would expect a father to relate to a single mom juggling parenting with work life, but sometimes it's like landlords don't have a sense of empathy. We couldn't agree more with the comment posted below.
Landlords in Times of Crisis
People show their true colors in times of crisis. In the early days of the pandemic, when many thought we were living through the apocalypse, this landlord proved not to care at all about his tenants by moving to the remote Dingle Peninsula in the Republic of Ireland and leaving everyone else to die.
Even though he was comfortably secured in one of the westernmost points in Europe, he surely continued to ask his scared, struggling tenants for rent money.
The Nice Guy
Text messages between landlords and tenants are sometimes friendly, as many landlords happen to be nice guys. This conversation is surely friendly, but the topic is what caught our eye: after all, they seem to be casually discussing how nice of a guy some murderer was while talking about fixing a door.
The true tragedy here is that we would like to know more! Who was this mysterious killer? How did he kill two people "very, very violently?" And did he used to live in the building?
Just A Constant Pain
According to a British survey shared by Property Reporter, 13% of renters in the United Kingdom said that renting led them to suffer from anxiety, and 10% said they were unhappy about their living situation. Reportedly, mental health issues caused by one's living situation are twice more common among renters than homeowners.
And as if that wasn't bad enough, renters still have to put up with their landlords, who love to send them cryptic text messages containing just the letter "N." Maybe it's short for "No?"
Always Meddling
One of the reasons why so many renters find their landlords annoying is that some landlords can be extremely meddling. Landlords are responsible for their property, so understandably, they like to keep things in check. But how much vigil is too much vigil?
When landlords start texting their tenants about upside-down pan pots in their balconies is when being vigilante turns into being creepy. We guess some landlords just have too much free time in hand and love spending their days splitting hairs.
An Exemplary Landlady
We're tired of hating bad landlords. What about the good ones? There's no such thing as a perfect landlord, but landlady Carmen seems to be as sweet as they come. She sent a lovely "Happy Easter" message to her tenants, even incentivizing them to do something new.
The perfect landlord is nice without being too nosy, supportive without asking too much of his/her tenants, and professional without being too stern. After seeing so many horrible landlord text messages, Carmen's is like a breath of fresh air!
The Problem With Expectations
According to Verywell Mind, unrealistic expectations can "often lead to feelings of discontentment and unhappiness." Long story short, we get depressed when things turn out worse than expected and happy when things turn out better than expected. When it comes to landlords and tenants, though, it's best not to expect.
United by a mutual friend, this landlord and tenant got their hopes high only to be disappointed. The landlord thought he was dealing with a clean tenant, while the tenant thought he would live in a Gucci house.
TMI Poster Child
The expression TMI (Too Much Information) is used when someone shares something extremely graphic or private with someone else without needing to do so. When someone says, "I just went to the bathroom and did a huge poo," that's TMI. And the same surely applies to when landlords share the content of their dreams with their tenants.
Waking up to a message from a near stranger with the words "I had a dream that you were a baby" would give us the creeps!
Incompetence Abounds
Landlords are often portrayed as scheming, opportunistic, and greedy. To be fair, many of them are! But some landlords don't seem to have a clue about how to do their job. Landlord Alex, for example, still needs to learn how to cash out a check at the bank.
That, of course, didn't prevent him from trying to scam one of his tenants into paying him a second security deposit. He "woodlike" to get a new security deposit every year but was promptly informed that's not how things work.
Late-night Vaccum Cleaning
Landlord-induced hell (as well as tenant-induced hell) is, sadly, very common. But what happens when the person making the life of a tenant miserable happens to be their neighbor? This message exchange between neighbors is as hilarious as frustrating.
This cleaning aficionado has got quite the nerve! He's not only bothering his neighbor with his vacuum cleaner but also making fun of them in the process. According to Luxury Property Care, landlords have the responsibility to intervene in disputes between neighbors.
Borderline Torture
Here's another example of just how obnoxious some people's next-door neighbors can be! This one is addicted to listening to the same song over and over, and it never occurred to him/her to use a simple set of headphones… Little does this person knows that he/she is essentially torturing the neighbors.
According to VOX, the CIA used music-related techniques (such as playing the same song over and over at a loud volume) to "break" detainees from Guantanamo Bay.
Some Final Food for Thought
What better way to say goodbye to horrible landlords and their weird tenants than by taking a look at one of the most mysterious text messages on the list? This one is hard to get, but it seems to imply that a poor tenant is about to share his rental home with more than 40 sheep.
That's got to be a typo, though, right? As far as we know, farm owners aren't big fans of renting their property, and big cities aren't the best place for sheep to live.