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>Time and energy are not free and I have better things to do with my time than try to claw back what I'm owed from a scummy landlord in small claims court or si

>Time and energy are not free and I have better things to do with my time than try to claw back what I'm owed from a scummy landlord in small claims court or similar I think you missed what I said. No courts are involved- if your rent is $2000, and the handyman was $1000, you send the landlord $1000 for the month along with the handyman's invoice. What are they going to do about it?

joshstrange 5y ago
> What are they going to do about it? File eviction papers? Refuse to renew your lease? (though I understand this would probably not be an issue in this situation since you wouldn't want to renew) Ignore all future maintenance requests? Stop upholding other parts of the contracts? Try and tank your credit? The list goes on... I used to think like you appear to on this issue, but it's a different story when you are actually in the thick of it. Just like how people say "well that's against labor laws" or "your employer can't do that legally", it doesn't really matter for the person who needs that job to survive, they can only find a new job or put up with it, they don't have the money/time/energy to fight it. It's very similar to dealing with a bad landlord. I don't care about being right, I just want to be happy. Renting leads to unhappiness for me, it doesn't make how right I am, I still have to deal with the landlord's BS. At the end of the day "legality" is cold comfort if you have a toxic landlord.
- hash872 5y ago
  Other than not renewing your lease, they literally can't do any of those things. (Your credit? You have to be a certified financial institution to be able to report things to your credit report. Fun fact, small claims court judgements are no longer reported on your credit anymore either). In a blue state if a landlord tried to take you to housing court for paying for a repair they refused to fix (obviously you have email documentation that you asked several times first), they would probably walk out of court paying a large fine. There's a whole parallel (landlord-hostile) housing court system. I think what you're missing is rather than taking anyone to court yourself, you control the cash flow (when & how much of a check you write every month), and they're the ones who have to do anything about it if they disagree. That's different from a labor dispute where you're the one getting an attorney, filing a lawsuit, etc. The broader point is that blue states are very pro-tenant, so you're starting off with an incredible advantage
  - joshstrange 5y ago
    I 100% understand how I might be in the right and win anything brought against me. What I'm trying to say is I don't want to deal with that headache or become an expert on how this works in order to win. Also, like I said before, I live in a red state and while I don't know exactly what rights a renter has, I don't want to know. I shouldn't have to become informed on this stuff when I'm doing everything right. Also just because something isn't legal, doesn't mean a landlord won't do it. I don't want to eventually win, I want to never deal with it in the first place.
throwmamatrain 5y ago
Good landlord, you're fine. Bad landlord, they say you over inflated it, and are now behind on rent. This gives them the opening to evict, or you have to take to small claims, or your local tenant's rights group. Not fun.
- hash872 5y ago
  Going to court over this in California, New York or Massachusetts: You: Here are 3 emails I sent documenting the problem and asking for it to be fixed, here's a 4th email stating I would be hiring the handyman myself if it wasn't fixed, here's the 5th email with the invoice Landlord: (who cares. Also they don't have an attorney because the cost of an attorney in court exceeds the repair by a huge margin) Magistrate (in the 15-20 minutes you get in small claims or housing court): Landlord, you are fined $5000 for not fixing the issue fast enough. Next fine is $10k if you don't shape up. Dismissed
  - runako 5y ago
    That's great for the 20% of Americans that live in those states. In many of the other states, you're evicted and looking to find another rental that will take you even though you were just evicted for not paying rent.

joshstrange 5y ago

> What are they going to do about it? File eviction papers? Refuse to renew your lease? (though I understand this would probably not be an issue in this situation since you wouldn't want to renew) Ignore all future maintenance requests? Stop upholding other parts of the contracts? Try and tank your credit? The list goes on... I used to think like you appear to on this issue, but it's a different story when you are actually in the thick of it. Just like how people say "well that's against labor laws" or "your employer can't do that legally", it doesn't really matter for the person who needs that job to survive, they can only find a new job or put up with it, they don't have the money/time/energy to fight it. It's very similar to dealing with a bad landlord. I don't care about being right, I just want to be happy. Renting leads to unhappiness for me, it doesn't make how right I am, I still have to deal with the landlord's BS. At the end of the day "legality" is cold comfort if you have a toxic landlord.

hash872 5y ago
Other than not renewing your lease, they literally can't do any of those things. (Your credit? You have to be a certified financial institution to be able to report things to your credit report. Fun fact, small claims court judgements are no longer reported on your credit anymore either). In a blue state if a landlord tried to take you to housing court for paying for a repair they refused to fix (obviously you have email documentation that you asked several times first), they would probably walk out of court paying a large fine. There's a whole parallel (landlord-hostile) housing court system. I think what you're missing is rather than taking anyone to court yourself, you control the cash flow (when & how much of a check you write every month), and they're the ones who have to do anything about it if they disagree. That's different from a labor dispute where you're the one getting an attorney, filing a lawsuit, etc. The broader point is that blue states are very pro-tenant, so you're starting off with an incredible advantage
- joshstrange 5y ago
  I 100% understand how I might be in the right and win anything brought against me. What I'm trying to say is I don't want to deal with that headache or become an expert on how this works in order to win. Also, like I said before, I live in a red state and while I don't know exactly what rights a renter has, I don't want to know. I shouldn't have to become informed on this stuff when I'm doing everything right. Also just because something isn't legal, doesn't mean a landlord won't do it. I don't want to eventually win, I want to never deal with it in the first place.

throwmamatrain 5y ago

Good landlord, you're fine. Bad landlord, they say you over inflated it, and are now behind on rent. This gives them the opening to evict, or you have to take to small claims, or your local tenant's rights group. Not fun.

hash872 5y ago
Going to court over this in California, New York or Massachusetts: You: Here are 3 emails I sent documenting the problem and asking for it to be fixed, here's a 4th email stating I would be hiring the handyman myself if it wasn't fixed, here's the 5th email with the invoice Landlord: (who cares. Also they don't have an attorney because the cost of an attorney in court exceeds the repair by a huge margin) Magistrate (in the 15-20 minutes you get in small claims or housing court): Landlord, you are fined $5000 for not fixing the issue fast enough. Next fine is $10k if you don't shape up. Dismissed
- runako 5y ago
  That's great for the 20% of Americans that live in those states. In many of the other states, you're evicted and looking to find another rental that will take you even though you were just evicted for not paying rent.