Malicious Compliance·
THE RAW RENTAL TRUTH
A determined tenant doubles as the informant during showings, exposing pests, rules, and safety blind spots, challenging a landlord to fix the unit or drop the rent.
Stay quiet, or keep warning renters?
Be one of the first to vote.
The landlord wanted the apartment sold fast. The tenant wanted the truth told faster.
With three months left on the lease, the poster had barely started packing when the vacate notice set off a rapid-fire round of showings. Some came with less than 24 hours' warning. A realtor would arrive, open the door, and start guiding prospective renters through the place, only to hit questions they couldn't fully answer.
So the poster did.
When people asked about bugs, the poster pointed to the spray they had to keep using. When they asked about the unit being a basement apartment, the poster said it plainly. They also explained that pest control was only offered once per lease; after that, the landlord reportedly said it was the tenant's expense.
The information didn't stop there. The poster says they also volunteered details the realtor left hanging, including the lack of recycling pickup, the noise from the elevator machine room, and the side entrance light that shines straight into the apartment at night.
They even had lines ready for some of the questions. On recycling, the poster said, "I have a recycling can, but the landlord does not have recycling pickup," a fact that apparently landed right in the middle of the showing. On the elevator noise, they warned, "just be aware, this apartment is right next to the machine room for the elevator. It's not constant noise, but if you are sitting in the living room, you'll know when someone uses the elevator," The light by the side entrance got its own warning too: "there's a light above the side entrance door that needs to be kept on at night for safety reasons, and that light comes straight through the door window and into the apartment. If you have guests sleepover, you might want to look into a curtain."
After the apartment failed to lease on the first day of showings, the landlord reached out with a complaint. The poster says the landlord asked them to stop commenting during tours, writing: "please keep commentary to yourself if possible. The longer we are not able to lease the apartment, the longer we have to keep showing your apartment to your inconvenience."
The poster didn't back down. If the apartment couldn't be rented while the issues were being disclosed, they argued, then the landlord should either fix the problems or lower the price.
"Free market," the poster wrote.