So this story happened to my wife and I about 10 years ago. We had been married for about 4 years at this point and decided to move from an apartment to a rental house. It wasn't fancy, post war era house on a quarter acre lot, but we really thought it had a lot of charm. It was a little more money than we had paid for the apartment but it was kind of a trial for being home owners. The lessons I learned then have really helped me now that we own our own house today.

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The house was managed by a property management firm that was just a few blocks down the road. When we first looked at it, the previous tenants were still there and were very nice. They were an older, artistic couple and they had made a few small changes to the house, like a small raised garden in the front yard. We told the landlord to just leave it and that we would love to use it. The back yard was a bit over grown but it felt like the secret garden. We thought we would just clean it up a bit but that it wouldn't be a big deal. There was a back building my wife wanted to use for an art studio and it needed some cleaning but it was big and even had a half bathroom in it. I did notice that the roof was also missing some singles. It was about 10 sq ft that was cut out, not damaged or blown away...cute with clean lines. I don't know why anyone would do this, but I asked the landlord, "so you're going to fix that before we move in right?" She said, "Oh, of course!". We decided to go ahead with the rental, signed the lease and set a date to move in.

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However when actually moved in, reality set it. We discovered that they removed the garden boxes and did a really bad job of replacing it with sod. It was lumpy with large spaces between each piece of sod. I asked them why they removed the boxes and they said that it was in their contract that the tenant return the house it's original condition. I was annoyed but ok. I ended up fixing the grass myself later.

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I also noticed the roof hadn't been fixed yet. I asked the landlord about it and she said she would look into it. Me being a trusting person, accepted this for now...bad move. It was summer time, so I knew it wasn't an emergency yet. I will get back to this point later.

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We started cleaning out the back yard and the studio building. We quickly discovered it wasn't just overgrowth, but a huge pile of garbage and debris that had ivy and black berry bushes growing all over it. We contacted the landlord and after applying some pressure, got them to clean it up. It was probably 1-2 literal tons of old wood, a keg, broken gardening supplies, etc that was just rotting back there. The landlord had it cleaned, but complained the entire time that it "didn't bother the previous tenants" and how much money it was costing. We finished cleaning out the studio and found literal boxes of dirt. The building ended up not having any windows that could open so I ended up adding an exhaust fan just for some air flow. It was pretty gross now that I think back on it. We found some rodent dropping in the attic and mentioned this to the landlord too, but they ignored me. When I pushed, they informed me that the back building wasn't technically part of the rental so they wouldn't be doing anything. This was BS since they included the half bath and the square footage in the advertisement. They also included photos of it too. I told them I would take care if it myself if they wouldn't. At this point, they surprised me. The landlord came over to the house and offered to let us out of the lease with no penalty. She said, "You obviously don't seem happy here, so maybe it would be best if you found another place to live". Obviously they were getting annoyed that we were costing them money for some pretty serious maintenance issues and they didn't want deal with them. This was them trying to get rid of us. Maybe in hind sight I should have taken the deal, but we had just moved, spent all this time and money fixing it up so we declined.

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I had cleaned up and rodent proofed the studio myself and the yard was all cleaned up. I even pressure washed the house and discovered an old walkway that had been overgrown with moss. We did some serious improvements to this place just by cleaning it.

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A couple of months later and we start getting into the fall. The roof was still not fixed and I started getting concerned about the weather. We get a lot of rain where I live and I knew it was a big deal with my experience in construction. I reached out again and they informed me that they would not be fixing it since a "roofer" they worked with said it didn't need to be fixed. I was shocked that anyone calling themselves a roofer would think 10 sq ft of missing shingle was ok. It did have felt paper down so a little rain wasn't a big deal, but going into the fall and winter would be a problem. I vented to my neighbor next door about how the landlord didn't want to fix it and he told me he had some extra singles in his garage. He gives some to me and I decide to fix it myself, because screw those guys. What happened next blew my mind.....

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A few weeks go by and I get a call from my land lord. She asked me if I fixed the roof because she drove by and saw it had been fixed. I told her I did and explained my reasoning and how I got the material. She didn't say much but said she was going to have her roofer inspect it. I told her go ahead thinking that she just wanted to make sure I did a good job. The roofer comes over a couple of days later, spends 15 minutes there then leaves. A week later, I get a letter in the mail with a BILL for $2000! They claimed that I "damaged" the roof and it would cost $2000 for the roofer to fix it! They also said the roofer had claimed the felt paper was adequate protection from the weather..... :O Are you f*cking kidding me?! I was enraged and I immediately drove to their office and demanded a meeting with my rep and the owner of the company. The rep wouldn't see me but the owner came out. She was a middle aged woman with some kind of disability (she had crutches). She informed me that they couldn't meet right then but that we could make an appointment and I could come back later. We made an appointment for 2 days from then and I prepared for war.

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First, I took photos, make printout of all our conversationalist and even a timeline for events. I knew this was about more than just the roof. It was retaliation for making them actually take care of their property. Next, I looked up the property management company and they roofing contractor. The contractor had poor reviews and a few violations with OSHA. The property management company had a good BBB rating (A ), which they were very proud of. But a lot of yelp and google reviews echoed similar stories that I was facing now. I immediately filed a complaint with the BBB and printed it out too. Next, I was able to look up the owner of the actual house. She was a doctor who lived in Ohio. I didn't contact her, but if things went south, I would reach out to her to let her know how her property is actually being "managed" by these bullies. Last, I read every work of my state and city Landlord Tenant Laws. In my area, it greatly favors the Tenant so I had that on my side. All of the issues they refused to deal with like the rodents and the roof were pretty clearly called out in the law. They absolutely were in the wrong and I had the law on my side.

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When we finally meet, it's just the owner, my rep and me. I inform them that I am recording the conversation (2 party consent in my state) after we introduce ourselves. I start by letting them talk. They tell me why they were penalizing me and they also mentioned that I "didn't seem happy" in the house and how they offered for me to leave before. I told them that moving wasn't an option for me and that we would be finishing out our lease and not renewing, they were just going to have to deal with me. I informed them that I had filed a complaint with the BBB, which seemed to really get their attention.

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Next, I laid out the entire timeline, promises made and all our communications over the last several months, including the original posting and lease for the house, which clearly show the studio as being part of the rental. We then talked about their "roofer". The roofer told them that I had severely damaged the roof of the house and a huge section would have to be replaced now. He said that the felt paper was already providing plenty of protection from the weather. I immediately called BS. I told them I had replaced several roofs and had worked in construction for nearly 10 years professionally. There was no way that the felt paper was adequate weather proofing or that I damaged the house. I told them to call any random roofer from the phone book right now and ask them if that was remotely true...they declined do make that call. The said, "well our roofer has over 25 years of experience". I responded, "I don't care how much experience he has, if he said I damaged the roof and a that it was already weatherproof, he's either an idiot or a crook". I then said that my Rep had been unprofessional this entire time, lied to me several times and was stupid to believe such an obvious lie from the roofer. They were stunned that I said this and I told them I wouldn't pay them one dime for this obvious scam. He apparently also claimed my rodent proofing damaged the Studio roof as well. It old them that when we leave, I can remove all the rodent proofing and restore it back to the way it was. They agreed to this but insisted on having it inspected after. I told them to go ahead but to use a different roofer.

Last, went through the Landlord Tenant Laws. They first tried to dismiss it as if they knew them better than me. However, I went to each section showing how they were REQUIRED to deal with rodent and making the building weather proof. Having established that the roofer had lied or was stupid, I told them that I technically could deduct my time and the cost of materials out of my rent if I was really trying to be petty. If they pursued any of this BS with me, I would do so and I would also sue them for harassment and violation on the law. When I was done, I decided to not waste anymore time with them. Without letting them come up with more BS, left all my paperwork with them (I had copies) and informed them that I would not be paying the fine and that I expected them to follow the law. I then stood up and left without another word. One week later, I got another letter in the mail saying that the "fine is waived" and that they would leave the roof "as-is". They did mention me removing the rodent proofing on the studio in the letter as well.

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Over the next several months, things were pretty quiet with them. Luckily not else major happened and we prepared to move out when our lease ended. I didn't want to give them my actual new address so I got PO Box just for them. A week after we moved out and turned in the keys, I got a letter from them. The letter simply stated that the studio passed inspection and it included a check for the FULL amount of our deposit. They obviously just wanted me gone. It's now been a long time and that experience taught me a lot about working within the law and working with difficult people. But what do you think? Was I the jerk?