Imagine having one of your tenants from hell remove the kitchen island and bring it outside by the pool area because they “needed an outdoor serving area.” Most landlords have seen their fair share of property nightmares, today we reminisce over some of our favorite stories.

Reddit has been enabling property managers and owners to spill the tea anonymously for years via their “Tenants from hell horror stories” page. Continue reading to hear about some of our favorite (or not so favorite) stories from over the years.
*Some stories have been edited to remove swearing*

“When I was a little kid, my parents bought a cheap house in a neighboring town and fixed it up to rent. Two young women moved in and were great. Just out of college, working entry-level and getting by, no trouble. They called at 6 pm on Christmas Eve because there was a spider. My dad called back when we got home from church service and asked what they wanted him to do. They said they wanted him to kill it. So he went out on Christmas Eve to kill their spider. They seemed to think this was normal, like about on par with what you’d expect your landlord to do if your water pipes burst on Christmas Eve – the least he could do given the situation.” – Ally-Saurus

“In 2007, an older couple decided to quit paying their rent, but they had pretty good excuses, so I didn’t evict them until after three months of not paying. Finally went down to the courthouse to file an unlawful detainer on them.
We finally had our day in court. The female who was usually dressed nicely, with fake nails and an expensive weave showed up looking homeless and the guy was using a walker (eye roll- this guy didn’t need one). They claimed I was a slum lord and never fixed anything, but I had receipts from every repair including a new AC unit. After I got the judgment against them, I tried to tarnish the man’s wages, was told he worked for Coca-Cola Co. Turns out they’d never heard of him, but after a little digging I found out they had both been arrested for selling coke. The officer showed me mugshots dating back to the early 80s! They also stole the refrigerator.” – MClovechild

“I had a tenant remove the kitchen island and bring it outside by the pool because they needed an outdoor serving area. Truly were was a tenants from hell.”-Sunshine Worker

“This happened to my friend’s rental. Guy gets evicted. Instead of trashing the place. This guy cut off chunks of drywall, put dead fish in the walls, and sealed it back up. The tenant was a carpenter.
The owners couldn’t figure out the smell for weeks. They repainted, got it professionally cleaned a few times, searched endlessly. Eventually, they figured something died in the walls, and started knocking holes in the wall. Turned out to be that tenant.” -CattleProd

“My tenant was renting out the apartment to someone else at twice the price. I found out six months later…” – Ligamentary.

“I was a property manager for low-income housing and senior living buildings for a year and a half. I once had a lady call up saying she had a spider trapped under a house fan in her bedroom and asked me to come to kill it. I told her I couldn’t come out and kill an insect in her apartment. (If I did it for one person but then didn’t for another I guess that opens the door for a discrimination lawsuit.) Anyway, she tells me her kitchen sink is also clogged. Well, that I agree to come up and fix. I finish up some paperwork and head over to her apartment. Her sink is draining slowly, but it’s a pretty quick fix, and she begs me to come to deal with the spider. I agree thinking it’s been an hour no way spiders still “trapped” under this fan. I WAS WRONG. This spider was the size of my hand. 4 years of Marine Corps infantry training and a small wad of paper towels was not enough to handle this monstrosity. Luckily I have two kids, and I knew if I didn’t survive it would be coming for them next. I managed to get it into the toilet and flush it. It’s the city’s problem now.” – Cpt_Tripps

“I Work for a property management company and work alongside a landlord almost all the time. This one guy painted the house red and yellow and installed a stripper pole in the middle of the living room. It was like if McDonald’s was an entertainment house.”-Germboy

“Buddy of mine owned a three-story house. Got a call from the 2nd-floor tenants that water was coming through his roof. He went to the 3rd floor, and when the tenants opened the door, he could see one of those blow-up swimming pools in the living room. Not the little ones mind you but one of the big 24 inch deep ones. As if this wasn’t shocking enough, the tenant had also removed all the kitchen cabinet doors and replaced them with chicken wire and had a dozen chickens living in them.” – Oldenoughtono

“My landlords told me that they used to allow tenants to paint the walls but no longer did. This restriction can all be blamed on one girl who decided she wanted to paint the entire room (walls and ceiling) in dark midnight blue and then, while the paint was still wet, throw handfuls of glitter in it. My landlady said it was the biggest pain in the neck to get rid of because if you tried to paint over, the glitter would still show through. They had to scrape every surface. Now the whole house is the plainest of plain taupes. My landlords told me that they used to allow tenants to paint the walls but no longer did. This restriction can all be blamed on one girl who decided she wanted to paint the entire room (walls and ceiling) in dark midnight blue and then, while the paint was still wet, throw handfuls of glitter in it. My landlady said it was the biggest pain in the neck to get rid of because if you tried to paint over, the glitter would still show through. They had to scrape every surface. Now the whole house is the plainest of plain taupes.” –BachRock

“I was trying to sell my first home after purchasing my second, but the market was/is crap, so I was renting it to a friend in the meantime. My friend is a contractor, mostly carpentry, and paint. He’s pretty handy in general, so I had him do some work around the house instead of part of the rent. He would also take care of the yard for an additional discount.
He lived there for seven months while I had the house on the market, and always kept the living space tidy, and the yard manicured. When I found a buyer, I gave him a few months notice that he’d have to leave, as someone wanted to buy the place. He started avoiding my calls, pretending not to be home when I’d stop by, and not responding to e-mails. One day, I’d had enough. The buyer wanted to do a final walk-through with his inspector before we started the (long, torturous) process of filling out the paperwork that weekend, and it was Tuesday. I showed up, used my spare key to enter through the garage, and found out why he’d been avoiding me. He’d been spending his free time (after working all day) framing interior walls and hanging sheetrock in my garage. He’d talked to the buyer (without my knowledge), and the guy loved the place but it didn’t have a finished garage, so my buddy told him he’d finish the garage before the buyer got the keys. It ended up being one of the selling points for the buyer. So my worst tenant helped me sell the house he was living in by finishing a garage for free. I’ve only ever had one tenant.” – DanielHerras

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