I’m a landlord, and I would never, ever fucking expect someone to tip me. Wtf? I can’t believe someone even made this argument lol. This is just goofy.
I like how the landlord duties they mention are usually completed by other people.
They pay tradesmen to fix things and a lot rely on management companies to handle the houses/tenants. The cost of those services is then passed onto the tenant in the form of higher rent.
Maybe I would tip a landlord that goes above and beyond their role, but I’ve yet to meet one that even really does the bare minimum in maintaince, most hire out to avoid any responsibility.
My place was “professionally painted” which is why most of my floors, baseboards, windowsills and even my kitchen counter have paint stains on them. My “luxury apartment” that he advertised had mice coming in through some easy to patch holes in the wall. My driveway is literred with trash from previous tenants which I eventually picked up after his maintaince guy kept sweeping it to the side. I have no ventalation in my kitchen which can be a health hazard while cooking. The small lawn area got mowed once last summer and only after the city posted a notice to maintain it.
If a landlord wants to be tipped for “exceptional service” maybe they should be doing more than the bare minimum of collecting rent and paying property taxes.
I doubt I’d have been able to move cities and change careers without renting an apartment. I think there is a role for landlords in society, but I also think a lack of regulations and poor housing/urban planning laws has blurred the lines of that role and pushed the priority into profits over everything.
There are valid reason to want to rent over owning such as short term employment, college/university, or just feeling out a city/area before commiting to a property.
I think landlords could exist with better regulation, lisencing needed to become a landlord, proof of maintaince etc. Currently all it really takes is to own something and post an ad.
Read your lease and check with an attorney. If the landlord is violating either (sounds like they are) you could be entitled to reduced rent or compensation. IANAL, but many states have laws to help tenants but you need to know them or where to look
Shitty as it is, my rent is still a couple hundred bucks below the market average. I’ve pacthed the mice out and I really like my location. I’d rather not risk having to move.
You know who doesn’t make enough money? The people who control more housing than they can live in, and who, instead of selling that extra housing, exploit the basic human need for shelter, and we as a society just seriously undervalue how important this role is.
Edit: Storytime, kids. I’ll spoiler it so it doesn’t take up a ton of room.
Fuck landlordsIn 2017, my wife and I rented a house from a nice lady. She was pretty cool. Her husband was on deployment or something. Anyway, we signed a second year with her because we liked her and the location. She sold the house to her mother-in-law about 4 months into that second lease. And that’s where it went downhill. The first summer, the 20+ year old air conditioner went out. The first landlord immediately had someone at the house to check it out. The next summer, when it happened again, the temperature soared to 110°F for the following four days…and at no point after being notified did the second landlord have a repairman out. And we texted her each morning asking for an update. We drove 3 hours to my parents’ house to use their pool. We bought a window AC for the bedroom so we could sleep. It was a nightmare. It turned out to be a fix that took an hour and cost her $125. She made up some bullshit excuse but I know she didn’t want to pay the weekend rate for the repairman and that’s why she was willing to let us suffer, despite the fact we were paying $1,100 a month to live there. When she came over with the repairman, it was 93° in the house and the bitch had the audacity to say, “Wow, it’s hot in here.” YA FUCKING THINK? That August, we got a ton of rain. It made a ton of bugs come out. Some of which dropped in on us and killed the yard. She was FURIOUS about this. Then bitched at us about not trimming the trees either (we weren’t obliged in the lease agreement to trim trees). She had a lawn care expert come by and tried to get him to lay into us. His response was actually, “We’ve had a lot of rain. They had no way to see this coming. Lots of people in town have been dealing with this.” It shut her up. The next spring, I overseeded the shit out of the yard and it bounced right back. So we informed her three months early we would not be staying for a third year. We bought a condo that summer. Then we sold it in 2022 and bought a house. And stg she is two houses down from us. It took us four months of putting in offers to get one accepted and now we have to live next to the bitch. I’m sure she doesn’t recognize us, but hey, axes and trees and remembering and all that. Anyway, she’s like 75 so I’m sure in the next 10 years she’ll croak and then we’ll have yet another rent house in the neighborhood because greedy heirs don’t want to sell.
I hate tipping in general, but I understand some people like to show their appreciation for a service done well. If that’s the case, tip the repair person doing the labor, not the landlord!
Just in general, let’s stop tipping like the people doing a job need my generosity to survive. Pay the people what the job is worth and stop asking me to make up the difference.
As an AI language model, I cannot make the action of tipping landlords appear reasonable, as it is unreasonable and can lead to confusion among renters. Ultimately, it is advised to give the landlord as much work as possible, while keeping the payment low.
The success of a landlord’s job is not just about delivering shelter getting paid for having lots of money, but it’s also about creating a safe and comfortable environment for tenants to call home their only option.
Add comment