Landlord suddenly criticizes renter's 'messy' home 10 years after they moved in — all because he forgot to evict them on time
One fine day, the landlord suddenly started picking out 'messes.' Terrace had too many leaves, the couch was too close to the wall, and more
“It’ll be a cold day in hell when I start watching out for the interests of my landlord.” In what reads like the opening of an Orwellian novel, this is a thought Reddit user u/Sowizo shared in an April 7 post, seemingly exasperated at their buck-passing landlord. The tenant had been living in the apartment for over 10 years and hadn’t had any severe altercations with the landlord before. But the other day, an instance left them jostling in a dissonance and rethinking what they thought about the landlord. “Landlord is mad at me because I didn't remind him to kick me out,” they wrote in the title of the post.
Everything was as good as it had always been. The tenant believed that the landlord was content, and until they found an affordable alternative with modern facilities, they would continue to stay in the apartment. Drama flared up when the landlord’s lawyers reminded them that the rental lease had expired. In such an event, the lease was supposed to be extended automatically, but in their case, the lawyers disclosed that he actually wanted him gone. He went ahead and renewed it anyway.
A few weeks later, the landlord marched into their house unannounced, and a one-sided, discrepant interaction started, with him deflecting responsibility onto the tenant. Beginning with a rant about some EU law that’s distressing poor landlords like him, the landlord proceeded to poke and prod tiny, random things in the house that he believed were not up to the mark.
Terrace had too many leaves. The couch was placed too close to the wall, and suddenly, the walls couldn’t breathe because of it. It seemed, to the tenant, that the fault-finder wasn’t going to stop. So they gently interrupted and told them it wasn’t a good time because their lunch was getting cold. The property owner then went to throw some questions at them, emphasizing how badly they wanted to throw them out of the apartment, so they could renovate the space to open a café.
In the end, the landlord shifted all the blame to their shoulders for not reminding them about the lease expiry. “He admitted he didn't know whether the contract says I have to do that (it doesn't), but apparently, he very much felt like I should be obligated to,” the tenant described.
While there is no fixed rule that says that it is the landlord’s responsibility to remind the tenant of the lease expiry, in most cases, they are the ones who carry out the task. According to US Legal Forms, it all depends on a concept called “effluxion of time.” Once the specified time period is over, the lease terminates without requiring any further action from either party. After the termination of the lease, the tenant must automatically vacate the house. In other cases, tenants do not clear the rented property until they receive a formal notice. But in this particular case, the Reddit user was encumbered by a precarious stress that they were not responsible for.
Many readers supported their argument, asserting that it’s the landlord’s responsibility, but others shared a different perspective. For instance, u/Conceptualization1 elucidated that it’s sometimes the tenant’s responsibility to remind the landlord and keep the property reasonably clean. By sweeping or brooming the floors, for example. However, still, they suggested that as a boarder, they should review the lease agreement carefully and not take up more responsibilities than required. Meanwhile, the tenant rounded off their thoughts on the whole episode in one sentence: “Houses should be owned by those who live in them.”
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