Tenant's bold move in the face of exploitative landlord garners praise on the internet

Landlords profit from providing people with a place to live, but some of them also end up exploiting tenants by imposing endless fees and charges. This happens more when a tenant decides to move out. One such story, shared by u/UnderwhelmingTwin on Reddit, offers gratification to those who have experienced the frustration of being deceived by a landlord. The author of the post, determined not to let his landlord who he called Jack escape the consequences of his actions, took matters into his own hands. The post begins by providing some context about the owner of the property the user and their partner were renting. They had stayed for roughly 10 years when their landlord passed away. The people who inherited the property wanted to sell, and the house was put up for sale soon after. 

The author goes on to explain how "Jack" acquired the property where they resided and promptly raised the rent to an exorbitant amount. According to the tenant, this was unfair because the property was quite small. They say, "Now ours was the top floor (that is, attic converted into a suite) of a house, less than 35sq meters (375sq feet). The bathroom was literally where the stairs up to the top floor used to be. The place was tiny." The rent increased to $795 from $485, which is quite a significant increase.

The author decided that it was not worth staying in, and decided to buy a house. "We give him all the required notice to move out. We move and clean the place up really well. Mind you, when my partner moved in it was not especially clean (and we happen to have the move-in inspection which mentions this)," writes the user. 

Jack then decided to swindle the couple for $80 out of their damage deposit for cleaning out the place. He did this without providing any of the necessary paperwork and outright saying that he was going to take away the $80 from what is a total deposit of $485. The author, determined not to back down, decided to act on the unfair practice by filing paperwork for the deposit money through the rentalsman, who sided with them. Unfortunately, Jack still did not pay and the rentalsman was unable to do anything due to lack of enforcement powers. The author took it a step further, saying, " So I have to go to the local sheriff's office. They can send a legal demand letter for the deposit + costs. But it will cost me $100-150 (I forget) upfront. Sure go ahead."

The tenant stated that while most people decide to quit at this point, they chose to pay the sheriff. The sheriff proceeded to send a more assertive letter, but Jack still refused to pay. The situation then escalated to the point where the authorities warned Jack of seizing his car, a "giant white SUV", and gave him an ultimatum to pay up for the judgments against him by the tenant within 30 days. Jack, evidently scared, finally decided to pay the author all the dues, which came out to a whopping $885. A fraud of $80 cost Jack over $6000, combining all the judgments against him by other people too.