Landlord called fire marshal to force tenant to replace dysfunctional fire alarm — and it backfired gloriously
The former tenant revealed that the landlords often pushed habits that were considered illegal.
Landlords come in all shades, but most of them will make sure you never spend a single day in peace. Tenants across the globe have interesting to horrific stories to share about their landlords, but only some of them pay the price for their arrogance. But what would you do if your landlord came up with a new law that doesn't apply to them? Scary much? Well, this Redditor's landlord's arrogance got them tripped over when their tenants' fire alarms stopped working. On the popular subreddit named r/MaliciousCompliance, Reddit user u/vikingzx shared a funny story on September 12, recounting their experience with their former landlords who were, needless to say, awful.
The Reddit user who resided with their roommate in a basement shared that when their old landlords decided to sell their property to their neighbours living upstairs, they did not anticipate that all hell was about to break loose. The user revealed that the landlords often pushed habits that were otherwise considered illegal. From establishing 'their right' to enter the tenants' apartment without their permission to simply taking them as a source of income (by continuously increasing rent without adding amenities), the landlords were a pain to deal with. The user wrote, "Their first contract, for example, said among other things that they had the right to enter the apartment at any time they wanted and could go through our stuff if they wished because we were 'living on their property."
Recalling the instance that humbled the landlords, the user wrote, "One day, our lone fire alarm stopped working. As dutiful tenants, we reached out and said 'Hey, the fire alarm stopped working.' Their response was a predictable sort of 'So what?' 'We need to have a working fire alarm,' we replied. 'And it's the landlord's duty to provide working fire alarms.' 'No, it's not. You want one, you get it.' To which the landlords responded, 'The law says otherwise.'"
As the landlords grew annoyed at their tenant correcting them, they shot back with a response saying, "Oh, it does, does it? Well, we'll just see what the FIRE MARSHAL has to say about THAT!" The tenants who assumed that the landlords were being sarcastic did not expect that they were being serious. The next morning, to their surprise, the landlords kept knocking at the door frantically with a bag of brand new fire alarms for each room with two spares. Pleading to the Reddit user and his roommate, the landlords asked them to let them in without their 24-hour notice, calling it an 'emergency'. The landlords then quickly installed the fire alarms and apologised to them profusely, saying, "If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask!"
While the redditor and his roommate are still clueless about what exactly the fire marshal told them, the sudden change in their attitude proved the tenants' points right, while the landlords learned their lesson the hard way through the malicious compliance. This incident has been echoed in a report authored by Mandu Sen, Program Manager of the Regional Plan Association, New York, in October 2018, which outlined that poor maintenance of houses by landlords can not only lead to high costs for tenants, but also for landlords. Landlords with violations face legal penalties, property deterioration, and may even find themselves unable to rent out units. As mentioned by the Reddit user, many landlords fail to fix damages, which can lead to regulatory consequences for them.
Soon after the thread received traction, Reddit users flooded the comments bashing the landlords while asking the redditor for not being petty back. u/AlaskanDruid wrote, "I’d have insisted on the 24-hour notice before the LL could enter, and called the Fire Marshal."
u/Apprehensive-Till861 praised the Fire Marshal for instilling 'fear' in a hilarious comment that read, "Fire Marshal put the fear of god into them. Then he introduced them to fear of something even powerful: The Fire Marshal."
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