[joenot443]

> the one group of people I have absolutely no sympathy for are landlords

Going through life categorizing people into buckets and then proudly proclaiming you have zero sympathy for ANYONE in that bucket isn't a mature or healthy way to view the world. It seems like you have some really intense bones to pick (your reptile story) and are extending that anecdotal experience onto a group of tens of millions, a mental leap which is usually frowned upon in circles like this. Just my thoughts.

[P5fRxh5kUvp2th]

Hey man, I get it. I'm a worse, less moral, human being than you are. It's just my lot in life, and as such, I deserve to be judged for it.

But I must ask, could you judge in silence? I suspect I'm not the only one who finds the noise distracting.

[kodah]

> But I must ask, could you judge in silence?

No free human will ever do this.

Landlords can be a mixed bag, tenants can be too. My mother's had a tenant nearly totally destroy one of her homes by bringing in five juvenile pitbulls when there was supposed to be one. She then refused to leave the property and didn't notify my mother when the aerobic septic system wasn't working because that'd require my mother to go in the bathroom where a 3x3 hole was made in the floor.

On the other hand, as a renter I've been subjected to some arcane laws. I was threatened with having to pay the remainder of the rent on a contract when I bought a house. I've had them nickel and dime me for average wear and tear. I had one that liked to stop by nearly monthly.

This tells me a few things, some probably based on my own biases:

- The laws that maximize one person's rights can cut into another person's. Sharing property complicates this further.

- Poor folks (who my mom rents to) do make poor decisions, but a lot of it is experiencing the cycle of being poor or trying to cope with it. That doesn't give them a right to destroy other people's stuff, but it tells me that we should be focusing on the poor cycle as a class issue.

[P5fRxh5kUvp2th]

The issue is that I'm a great tenant and still have to deal with the crap. I've been renting for well over 20 years at this point and I've never been late, not even once.

That crappy tenants exist is not an excuse for so much consistency in how badly landlords treat their tenants.

The single property manager that treated me well? I stayed in that house for 6 years. Do you know why I moved? The landlord switched property managers. Literally month X everything was fine, month X + 1 I was fighting with them. And what about? They wanted to charge me a processing fee for my rent and wouldn't accept a check. They were based out of state, didn't have a local office, didn't accept check, and were pushing the processing fees onto their tenants. yeah, fuck that.

And what I said above about never being late? Not totally true. That property manager had the same bank I did so I would transfer money directly to her account, send her an email and she would respond with a confirmation that she saw it. At some point she switched banks. I waited until the last day to pick up a cashiers check to run by her office, only, unbeknownst to me, my bank had shortened their hours due to covid so I couldn't. When I realized this I called her, explained the situation, told her I'd be at her office first thing monday morning (it was a friday) and nothing was ever said about a late fee.

landlords tend to be assholes for no good reason and they generally get away with it because of the power differential that exists (or is perceived to exist) between them and their tenants. There are many more laws on the books protecting tenants than landlords and the reason for that is BECAUSE they tend to be assholes. There are laws on the books stating landlords are not allowed to let themselves into others homes whenever they want because if that law didn't exist many of them would.

[kodah]

Sure, just saying I've seen both ends of this. It seems to me the problem is the framework that's at work. It incentivizes landlords and tenants to think of the situation extractively rather than as a member of the social fabric.

[P5fRxh5kUvp2th]

I blame the landlords.

For example, they bitch about how hard it is to get tenants out of the house due to existing laws.

That's absolutely true, but what do they think the laws were put into place for? On the whole, they cannot be trusted to be fair. They did it to themselves.

[milkytron]

I think it's good to be called out for this to allow for introspection and also it helps the community here realize that vast generalizations may not always be accurate.

[P5fRxh5kUvp2th]

Here, let me quote myself

> I'm sure there are landlords that act in good faith as decent human beings, but it seems as if there's something unique about landlords that makes it difficult. In all the time I've been renting I've met a single decent property manager, and no decent land lords.

In reality it's just a random jackass on the internet that wanted to preen in front of others.

Introspection ... lmao. "I should figure out why I keep having to pull out my lawyer to keep landlords from abusing me".

In reality, it's because I rent cheap and they're used to having a power differential that doesn't exist with me.

[joenot443]

If you were talking about a group I have no relation to, I'd get it. But I'm a landlord; two of my best friends and I are living in a home I purchased last year. Things are great. I didn't mean for my comment to be distracting noise, just an honest observation about how you're coming across.

[P5fRxh5kUvp2th]

You're technically a landlord, yes, but there's an ocean of difference between living with your two best buds who pay you rent and renting an entire house to a complete stranger.