No joke. I was nearly expelled a couple times for standing and being ready to defend myself against bullies. At school: Vice Principal - You were ready and willing to fight! Me - I was ready, but not willing. I didn't WANT to fight. But I'll defend myself if I have to. VP - There's no difference. You intended to fight. You're suspended. ..... At home: My combat veteran father - (unironically/sincerely/proudly) Good job. No daughter of mine will let some bullies walk all over her. Let's go for ice cream.
@@MissCandyTattoo That's the funny thing - I don't know about s.h., but me standing up and ready to brawl was enough of a deterrent (most bullies are cowards, deep down). I got suspended for nothing.
@@RedT...TheOriginal.NotANumber My thoughts are that the school district, principal and vice-principal could be charged with being accessories after the fact and/or aiding and abetting an assault on a minor. Punishing the victim for defending themselves against assault is, in my not so humble opinion, pretty much the same thing as committing the assault yourself.
Scummy landlord in the first story should be charged with forgery or 'uttering false documents'. He needs a nice criminal conviction and public shaming for this. There would be no jail but his reputation would be ruined.
Shoud be, I think you mean would be charged. OP should have reported the guy to police and had them investigate EVERY single resident. Also, the LL wasnt the only one involved, the workers in that office knew what was going on.
So our landlord told us it was our responsibility to fix minor issues and his to fix major problems. So how did I get him to fix major issues? By waiting for minor issues to become major ones.
Not only would you not even need a lawyer, but any lawyer you did hire, the legal fees would end up being covered by the landlord after they lost the case so hard there's a chance there wouldn't even be room for an appeal. That said, a good lawyer wouldn't be able to *WIN* the case, but could potentially *DRAG IT OUT* to an unreasonable degree, making it hard on the other party. The landlord is making a passive income off their properties as long as the case remains unresolved, the tenant is likely to be having to miss work to attend hearings and things, making it hard for them to sustain a case that's being dragged out. It sucks but the legal system isn't actually as fair as it likes to try and present itself as being.
I'm dealing with an entitled, crazy Karen landlord right now-actually a former landlord. I moved into a cozy two-bedroom, two-bath cottage. Initially, I was told that the place had an electric water heater but a gas heater for regular heat. I decided I would rather not deal with the gas - and I discussed this with the landlord. I should have saved the email because all I could find later was her warning me about water pipes bursting. I was always careful to make sure that didn't happen. Four months later, I had no hot water - and was screamed at by the landlord for not having the gas turned on. Also, she says we never discussed anything. Her next battle was over my cats. I have a senior cat (who didn't always make it to the litter box). I always cleaned up her messes when I got home from work. I had a plastic heavy-duty mat covering the area to protect the floor. World War III started because my cat poops. Then the dishwasher broke down. It took them two weeks to replace the dishwasher. Then, despite the fact that I cleaned up the litter box before I left for work - there was a mess - and the LL said they were not renewing my lease. I wrapped my head around the fact that I was going to have to move again. Also, just to rub salt in my wounds, they were going to inspect the place once a week for a month and then every other week until I left. I got a nanny cam and heard what she said on one of these inspections. I was done. My anxiety was shot. I found a new place close to work with two months free rent. This included a pool, workout room, balcony (on the good side, where I can see the fireworks on 7/4 and from our local baseball stadium), and an elevator. I moved and decided to wait her out to avoid the drama - and just pay until the end of my lease (end of June). It's peaceful for three weeks - then she texts me (another inspection). I informed her that I had relocated but would continue to pay rent and utilities until the end of my lease. Inspection turns into a showing, then two weeks of arguing over a smell that only she can smell (no one else - including the professional cleaner could smell anything), crescendoing into her telling me that she isn't crazy and she wasn't good to show the place. Ironically she brought the owner over - and he couldn’t smell it either. Anyway, I have one more month to go. She is allegedly showing the place on the 5/13th. I'm not holding my breath. My friends are taking bets on whether she will blame me for the wind blowing. The cats and I are a lot happier.
Break lease story: The devil's in the details. OP had a legally binding contract that read $1.50. The landlord can argue all day in court that it was a typo, but that's his fault. Trailer repairs story: I would have demanded that they at least return to me the solar light I PAID FOR! Painting apartments story: Trying to cover over BLACK paint and not have it bleed thru is the next best thing to impossible, even with primer coats. Bare backyard story: Definitely NTA! After all, nothing done was permanent and the landlord certainly didn't offer to BUY any of what OP did from him at a fair price. He just thought he could profit from it. But nothing says that he can't restore it out of his own pocket.
The only landlord I ever had was glad for me to do minor repairs. He would deduct anything I spent from my rent. It saved him the cost of hiring someone.
Actually, it's better to take photos of the unsigned document as well to show any who may need it was was presented to you. That said, I do not believe this story. Why would he leave the office to 'wait' downstairs. A lease generally has a limit to when it can be broken, and that is how this sounded. It could be an open term lease, but that would require clauses to say such, as well as resigning every month. Lastly, where would they fit this random clause for a 90 day notice. LEGAL documents have to be as clear as possible so unless there was, for some reasons... Tons of space like this, how would they expect to get away with this without covering a signature.
Painting story: Nothing like being so greedy that you want to throw out all of your tenants JUST because you want to renovate, up the value, and then re-rent, and your method was fabricating evidence that supposedly would get people evicted. Honestly, I don't even know how the landlord thought it would work
Land developers are doing that now. Kick out the current tenants. Rent at higher prices if anyone is willing to pay. If no tenants paying, they'll just deduct the loss from their tax. So it's a win-win for them.
21:30 - OP and her kids go for neon on black background, the maintenance man did enough rainbows to make a Care Bear homesick, while a couple did their own attempts to make their apartment look like Jackson Pollock's handiwork on a huge scale!!! Still cracks me up about the butt print. 🤭😆🤣😹😸😺😄😂
I kept thinking if there was a neighbor's cat that wandered into the yard as they took pictures, it doesn't mean the place comes with the neighbor's cat. The container garden belonged to the tenant. So did the portable greenhouse and shed.
Exactly, she had every right to take it all. If she couldn't be bothered moving it she could have offered to leave it all for a price but if she wanted it all for the next place she had every right to do that too. Really it's up to her, it's literally her property.
I had a lot of landlords before I bought my first house. The last were a couple named Lou and Helen, and they were great. When I retiled and repaired the fireplace on my suite they admired the work, and when I enclosed the back porch for a sun room they said thank you. Thirteen years I lived in that house and they seldom raised the rent beyond reasonable sums for increased taxes. When I became a landlord myself I tried to be that kind of person. When I hear the stories about bad landlords I always think about Lou and Helen, who treated me well and never took advantage. Immigrants who worked like the blazes to make it, too. Just great people.
Dude, story 1.... That is illegal. You can't just go changing contracts like that. Land lord's company committed a crime. That could get them in big soup. OP should have reported it because how many other people got screwed over by that.
Last story - Not the A-hole ! My garden had 4 bushes and ground Ivy in it when I first moved in 12 years ago. One of those bushes got damaged and got blown away in high winds about 8 years ago, one bush ‘grew up’ and became a tree, one had to be moved (into a pot) so I could put an Arbor in and the last is still growing where it has always been, along with some of the Ivy. I’ve also added a lot more pots of plants, bushes, climbers, fruit vines etc as well as planting another bush - a Buddleia. My Arbor has Honeysuckle, Clematis and Jasmine growing around it. If I was to move, I would take all of the plants that were not rooted to the ground with me. I wouldn’t really want to leave my Arbor behind but as it’s not one that is just spiked in the earth but has a base which lies underneath the flagged pathway, then I would have to ! My landlord (Social Housing) states that the property has to be returned to the state it was in when I moved in - this can’t be done in full because I had a wet-room fitted by Social Services in 2015 - I didn’t pay for it myself and it means that my unit is fully equipped for another disabled person. But as I’m not intending to move again then, I won’t have the hassle of dealing with all this after my passing which won’t be for another 25 years or so yet - I hope !
Story 3: Well, tenants wouldn't have to make their own repairs if the landlord wasn't so damn lazy. Being a landlord doesn't mean free money, you still gotta fix your property.
Well story 3 was not a landlord, she was a property manager for a company. OP should have gone above her head and reported the issues to the company and had them deal with it.
We had a landlord that wouldn’t fix the dry rot in the bathroom. So anytime he was showing the place to a new renter we would start making complaints right in front of the landlord and where the renter was in earshot. Plus we would say we don’t appreciate being ignored. Eventually the wall got fixed after a month of no one showing up to see the property. Plus a few years ago on Facebook my roommates and I were on a group on Facebook that would warn renters to avoid places due to Slumlords.
Last story: I agree, NTA. OP had every right to take her temporary structures with her. They were made to break down for ease of moving them. And as long as none of the plants were planted directly in the ground, it was her right to take them or not as she saw fit. I've known more than one person who has done this. Their landlords weren't exactly happy either, but not one of the landlords asked their tenant if the plants were going or staying. They assumed that, like here, they'd benefit from the tenants' expenditure of time, money and hard work.
My landlord sent a dude to do some work on our toilet. It needed a lot of work, but the dude barely snaked it then lied and said we caused the issues when nothing came out with his snake. She sent an actual plumber, and they said the blockage was due to buildup from years of it not being maintained by the previous landlord and it was all sludge.
You bought your own stuff with your own money and built a wonderful backyard. The landlord saw money in their eyes over your new improvements. Then lie about you stealing their things, some nerve of them. And to the coworkers you are taking the landlords side and if they spent time at your former place in the garden and still think that they are going to spend more time at the garden in your new place, tell them to pound sand and hang out with the landlords they think you're taking advantage of
Last story: Plants are expensive, and I can only imagine what the built structures cost. If you arranged everything to be portable, then yeah, take everything with you. I wouldn't leave a few thousand dollars worth of my blood, sweat, and tears behind if I'm not getting compensation for it.
The whole story is very suspicious, and in particular because it supposedly happened in an EU country. Courts over there are less fixated on "the letter of the law" and more oriented toward "what's fair and reasonable" when it comes to civil cases (as opposed to criminal cases). It's very unlikely that a civil court would have allowed the tenants to get away with effectively ruining the apartments on move-out, although by the same token, the court would have come down even more harshly on the landlord for the intentional attempted deception regarding the planned eviction and the obviously false evidence he presented to the court. So no, I don't think the story is entirely true. At the very least, it's been somewhat embellished.
Hey Fluff, I wanted to talk about the Apartment that I currently live in; I've been a resident for 11 years now. The Apartment complex is a large park; 75 units. The complex was originally built as Senior Housing. Think of a one-bedroom apartment with a living room, nice bedroom, Dining Room, Nice Bathroom with a tub/shower surround and a one butt kitchen. I state that it possesses a one butt kitchen; meaning that there isn't enough counter space to store any other appliance other than a crockpot. Thankfully, the utilities are somewhat included with the rent. The utilities that are included with the rent are Gas and Garbage Service; Water and Electric are billed to us quarterly. Another thing about our apartment complex is that all or almost all of the tenants have some sort of PTSD issues; most are formerly military service personnel. Me, I was diagnosed as suffering with PTSD from the death of my mother. The reason why I think my apartment complex should be discussed in this episode is because we have manicured gardens surrounding the property, but the gardens also are surrounded by greenery that is an invasive plant in my State. The plant is Icicle Plant; it was initially planted in the 1970's as a way to fight erosion. Today, we want the Icicle Plant destroyed, but our Management Company refuses to remove the offending plants. Another reason why I love my Apartment Complex is that the complex is governed by Section 8. Meaning that our rent is subsidized by the Federal Government. My rent is only $263 per month; utilities average to around $56 per month. Eventually, I might leave to purchase my first house, but for the time being, this is my own slice of heaven!
Why would you want to leave a nice place, albeit small, for a larger place, with more responsibility (maintaining, cutting grass, normal upkeep, etc)???? I would love to have a place like yours.
@@DecrepitBiden Maybe because my late mother wanted me to actually own my own house, so that "IF' I were to ever relapse with Schizophrenia, I would have the equity to spend on my possible treatment. Also, owning my own home would provide me a way of helping my cousin who has been struggling with homelessness since the death of her mother!
Fun fact Most Chain Home Improvement stores have an "Oops paint" or bad paint mix option. Either because the wrong paint type, for example indoor paint was mixed but the costumers ordered outdoor paint, or something like the paint can being too damaged to be put into the paint Shaker. The paint will be really marked down. Oops paint would had been a great way to go.
My parents are landlords and they are fantastic. They pay for all of the repairs, all of the yard management, the utilities, everything. It isn't that hard to do a good job because I see my parents do it all the time. Even in the oldest house they have, we renovated it and made it look so nice. I can never understand why people are lazy about repairs when all they need to do is make phone calls. 🤦♀️
The story about the garden reminds me of another story where the op had bought a a washer/dryer set due to how dirty they are when coming back from work. The landlord tried to charge the op for "stealing" the washer/dryer set. Even sent the police to "recover his stolen property". Op had proof of having purchased the machines.
Story 3 : Actually you can legally make repairs and and cut the repair cost from the rent money if you have proof that you asked for repairs Thanks law by mike (btw in my country these kind of rules aren't discussed but still)
Story 2 - Landlords can be "selectively stupid" when it comes to what benefits them vs the law. I lived in a state where you can break any contract with X days as long as you are paid to current for property and services rendered...can't break a contract to buy a car and keep said car. It's got to be even. We put in an interest for a property they wouldn't let us see without a signed lease. So we did, knowing this law, and the apartment wasn't livable in my opinion. We did the platitudes and got the hell out of there. I called them and sent a written cancellation in the time due. No service or good was exchanged...just the contract. They called us and threatened to sue us for the total value of the lease using some pretty aggressive language. I pointed to the law, gave them bill/section number, and told them I know the law of the state we live in...if they want to continue the next contact must be in writing and I will involved the state AG as per the FDCA (fair debt collection act). They tried to start a fight again on a call so I said I was was recording, this was in violation of our last contact, and again what the law was and how this is legal. I got a massive "F-YOU" and the hung up. Never heard from them since. They went bankrupt and a few people were jailed because they would act in flagrant disregard to tenet law in multiple states. I hope the bosses went to jail and not the call center peeps...but if call center peeps know what's going on and still do it...I hope they got jailed too.
It's cute and all that OP didn't have to pay or go to court, but the landlord committed an actual crime and faced absolutely no consequences for it, not to mention he's 100% gonna do this to the next tenant that moves in.
yep the law here in NY states that only what is 'in the ground' becomes the landlords, he was trying to steal, plain and simple. it is yours just like your furniture is and he has no right to either.
I love this post. We had similar in a house we rented for over 2 years, while looking to buy. We received notice the landlord would be breaking our lease so he could move his preacher in (which would save us from 2 month's additional rent as we'd found a new home). My wife was a cleaning dervish and brought in her family to help. We kept the house tidy but it'd never been so clean. Then the landlord wanted to keep our deposit. Grout around the tub not fixed, water damage to wall. (We'd sent letters earlier requesting it be fixed.) Cement on the kitchen floor, left there from his fireplace repair crew after we moved out, another repair request he'd ignored. Stained carpet. (My coworker had lived in the house with friends 2 years before we rented and his buddy parked his leaky motor cycle in the living room.) He was POed when I presented proof but we got out deposit back. Plus he paid me for the metal shed I'd put in the back yard, something I didn't really need at the new place.
The last landlord I had before moving into a place that I own was an absolute sweetheart, but the one before that was an absolute menace. I wasn't completely aware of my rights as a tenant back then, and he abused that fact maliciously. He'd come into my place without giving notice while I was out at work and then leave nasty notes about a few dishes in the sink, or clothes on the floor in my bedroom, or anything else he found unacceptable. He threatened to evict me on every single one of those little notes. The city sent him a warning about weeds in the alley behind the place and he told me it was my problem to fix. When I was trying to deal with the mess, I found a wasp nest and got stung about a dozen times before I escaped back into the house. I called and told him that either he deals with the wasps, or the weeds aren't getting dealt with either and he can eat the fine from the city. He tried to evict me, but without actual grounds, I got out scot free.
Basically if the place is uninhabitable you have some pretty powerful ammunition for the courts. Yes, black mold qualifies if it hasn't been properly cleaned up. Some states require regular inspections in order for the property to rentable. OP could make that landlord's future income take a serious hit.
If there's black mould, the place is all but condemned as that species of fungus will embed its mycelia in the gyprock/drywall and framing to the point of needing demolition.
OP was nicer than I'd have been... I wouldn't have threatened to run up the Utilities Bill, I'd just call a Lawyer to Sue Scumlord in Court as well as Report them to the Landlord Tenant Tribunal...
We had a landlord decide to sell and included our above ground swimming pool and fencing plus gardens and pot plants all of which were ours that the landlord had given permission for, they went to the extent of having flyers printed and newspaper ads including our 'sparkling pool' We got home from a holiday and 12 hour drive to have a real estate agent bashing on the door the moment we went to sleep demanding to inspect and take photos inside, we refused and made them wait till we moved out to have people through which they left muddy footprints on carpet cleaned professionally the night before. They tried to make us pay for another cleaning but we had receipts and they knew they screwed up not making people remove shows before entering. Sux to try to screw over tenants and not communicate plans to sell.
It's always good to just take a picture of the contract with your phone just to make sure that he doesn't pull this crap. Especially after they can't make a copy of it, they can always go next door to a residential house or to the nearest Staples and have them do it so there's no waiting.
Everyone needs to know their rights as tenants. I will say the biggest reason a lot of people don't get their security deposits back in my area is that they don't give a forwarding address. Always give a forwarding address. Always know your rights, always read your lease. There are a lot of really bad landlords out there who will take advantage of you, don't let them
Story 1, sorry for everyone who's never dealt with this before, but seriously. Every point OP has an excuse for not caring until it comes back to make them care. Yeah crap landlord, welcome to landlords, but still excuses why they had to go through all this because they didn't want to put in the effort to just read how landlord screwed them over from the start. OP is in the right, but did suffer their own lazy consequences
As a recovering landlord myself (family raised me into it, I didn't remain long)- All of this is normal types of behavior, if not in form. The abuse, manipulation, laziness, entitlement and cruelty is the norm. Every landlord is like this. And if you think yours isn't - you're wrong and haven't had something go wrong enough for them to start trying their games on you. Behind your back they ARE mocking you, judging you, planning to manipulate you, and likely calling you slurs. It's the type of person that being a landlord requires.
My wife and I have had 3 shitty landlords. And one was my bio-father! The first was the apartment we moved into after our wedding. This scumbag came into our home while we were gone and took a dump and didn’t flush, then he came in while I was asleep after a 3rd shift, no 24 hr notice like the lease said…and when I called him out on it he said it was his property and he didn’t have to do anything I said…it ended with his broken jaw and handcuffs for him. Second was my wife’s former boss, the toilet broke and flooded our apartment and the one below us then said it was our kids who flooded the bathroom. She had her own handyman tell us this lie too. Even though HE FIXED THE TOILET! Last was my so called bio-father. He sexually assaulted my wife (POS!!)! The only reason he is still breathing is my wife didn’t want me to go to prison. But if o EVER see him again he won’t survive e encounter.
No. My wife and I were in an apartment and the lease expired. We went month to month waiting for a new lease. Finally we found a house and moved. On the last day I walked in and turned over the keys. Now suddenly they wanted to negotiate a new lease. I just walked out and never looked back.
Most landlords will include the utilities because they're worried that somebody's going to try and skip out during the night during the coldest night of the year and will have it down to like 65° when it's minus 20° which will always freeze pipes. As on top of the fact that people are constantly having to go back and forth to changing the name under the utilities which makes a lot of confusion and pisses off the utility companies as well because they don't get paid.
I once had a landlord that verbally claimed "I own the building I'll do what I want when I want...", i had to inform Tennants, in 49 of 50 states all landlords must give tenants 24 hours notice of any maintenance/ inspections, which bring me to point 2, landlords don't give a flying rats a$$ as long as your checks cash
Story 2: As someone who proofreads professionally for court documents, a single typo can screw up everything. Always double check your work or someone will use it to maliciously comply. XD
Landlords, school officials, and employers these days seem to have no conscience when it comes to putting one over their tenants, teachers, parents, employees, etc. You have to present the facts and threaten to escalate into legal action if you want justice.
We had a landlord try to sue us for 6k for unspecified damages SIX MONTHS after we moved. Long story short, he dropped the case. Total slumlord. We later found out he makes up reasons to sue every single other person I know who rented from him. He’s got a monopoly on the entire county and more and is a slum lord so most ppl don’t have the means to fight him back in court. We had tons of proof of his negligence and lies, lucky for us.
There's always the call the city/ home inspector to submit a report of an unlivable dwelling so that they can take care of that ASAP. I had to go to court one time because my dad's tenants which were renting this house said that there was no water and the place was horrible. Which in reality there was only three pictures that they took of the worst things they saw and there was water because I had to clean the place and with the water that's why I was in court because I was a cleaner for my dad. It was like stuff underneath or in between the refrigerator that was really bad and which nobody ever cleans that no one ever thinks about They were trying to get out of their lease They realized that they screwed up taking my dad's property when they could have gotten another place so they were trying to weasel their way out in some stupid little way but My dad won the case on that. The house was in great condition considering most places are like 50 years old and more.
This is why I have a policy, never rent from OR TO without a property management company, it's always much worse when it's personal instead of just business lol.
In the first story allow the LL to withhold the deposit and after the time frame for which he’s supposed to return it sue for treble damages as your right to.
Story 6 - if landlord wants higher valuation they can get a garden put in. If they put in sweat equity the cost will just be material and it can significantly boost the house value.
Last story - NTA. If OP had had kids instead, and had turned the backyard into a child’s dream play area - slide, swings, trampoline, etc - the landlords wouldn’t even dream of trying to complain she took the stuff she bought and assembled with her no matter how nice it looked or how much it boosted the property value. Like someone said in the video, they were looking for someone who would do free home improvements and got peeved when she dared take the stuff she paid for and worked on with her.
Last story: The tenant was free to take her garden with her as long as she had no appurtenances. That is to say: no amenities attached to the house itself or foundationed into the property. For instance: I was not allowed to take my heavy duty can smasher beaches it was bolted into a 6" x 6" support beam in the basement or my professional grade vise because it was bolted to a work bench that was bolted to the wall of the house in the garage in the lower level of the house.
Story 3: the person who got fired was a superintendent, not a landlord. Landlords can't get fired, they own the property. The landlord probably saw the massive water bill, took a look around, and fired the $sluggishsuper.
If that first claim had gone to court, there is *zero* chance of the landlord winning that case. It would be an easy win for the tenant with all court costs repaid by the landlord after he lost the case, no question. If you have a good lawyer, going that route would be the sensible answer, but it does require having access to a good lawyer. Without that, there's a strong risk of a landlord turning the battle into a drawn out mess that takes too long to get anywhere, all the while they're able to continue doing the same things (or even to behave better) with otehr tenants, making a passive income that covers all their costs as long as they need to keep the case from ending before you're effectively forced to give up because their tenant likely doesn't have a good passive income they can work from.
As far as the last story goes…in real estate, certain parts of a property are considered “fixtures” and are required to remain with the property. This does not include furniture, but does include things like ceiling fans and sheds. Given that this situation considers a renters property as potentially a fixture, not the owners, I can see there being some confusion as to what is considered part of the real estate and what isn’t.
Story 1: OP could have taken the fraudulent documents down to the District Attorney's office to have them press fraud charges...depending on the rent amount it could be a felony. Story 6: OP is NTA. When anyone moves from a rental property they take their own belongings with them...and OP did exactly that...nothing more or less...just their own things.
Landlord: I know it’s winter, but the heating bill is still extraordinarily high. When may I come over and and discuss this. Tenant: Any time! My door is always open!
Final story: tenant definitely not the AH. You bring stuff to a rented accommodation, you can take it away again. A landlord that I'd rented from many years ago tried to take my deposit because a large beautiful tree fern, that I'd planted in the front yard, left with me when I vacated. The landlord lost that fight.
Going to court with a landlord IS scary..especially if you can't afford a lawyer, as it is civil court and not required to give you one. But if you are correct, it is worth going, for all the pain in the butt it truly is.
Even better when painting house interior black, make sure to tape off all doors sidings and windows to show that there was no intent to damage, it was just repainting...
Story 1's end comments: You've never taken legal action against anybody, have you? 😓 OP did the exact right thing by handling it outside of the legal system. Unless he was able to find a lawyer who would take the case on a contingency, OP likely wouldn't have been able to afford it because legal action is EXPENSIVE and DRAWN OUT. Especially when the other side is underhanded and dishonest. More often than not, it's just not worth it. It could have taken more than a year for that dispute to resolve, and the costs would have just kept piling up in that time. Likely to more than the disputed 3 months of rent. No, OP handled it perfectly.
On the third story, it's probably worth pointing out that you can't "fire" a "landlord" and that person was probably a property manager. This is common with rental homes, a lot of landlords hire someone (often someone underqualified) to look after a property (or sometimes multiple) instead of having to deal with it for themselves. If you're in a situation like that and you need to speak to someone about that person's conduct, the actual owner is legally required to be reachable in most places. Also, the "you're not allowed to do your own repairs" thing is illegal in most civilised countries, and the reverse is actually enforcible in a lot of places. You do repairs, you provide receipts for them, and you pay that much less rent (or skip as many payments as is justified to cover the cost). If the landlord/property manager wants to dispute the cost, they have to show that the work was unnecessary, caused by misconduct by the tenant(s), or that the price they paid was unreasonable (and in the latter case, they still have to allow for a reasonable repair price to be taken out of the tenant's rent).
story 2: he was hoping op would fix it themselves so landlord could charge them for both damaging and fixing it. story 4: you could get sued for fixing it, but not for leaving it broken for so long.
In my jurisdiction "uttering a forged document" is a go-direct-to-prison criminal offence. Not a fine, not an administrative action, but time in the clink with a permanent criminal record for the landlord and any underlings who aided and abetted. After getting out of the 2 extra months, OP should have twisted the proverbial knife by going to the police.
5:26 sounds like Faulty Linoleum. A professional contractor would be successful in discrediting this landlord, for the fault that he's causing the residence of this building
Paint story: in Germany, there is a specific law that states that tenants are not allowed to paint their walls and ceilings in any colour that makes it difficult for the landlord to rent or sell the place after the tenants move out and that the place needs to be empty, clean and the walls painted in a light colour by the time of ending the lease, whether it is ended by one party or the other.
