Being a landlord sounds simple—collect rent, handle repairs, and move on. In reality, the strangest things landlords see often show up during inspections and move-outs: illegal DIY renovations, surprise animals, hoarding, and “repairs” that create brand-new disasters.
Here are five of the strangest things that come up more often than you’d think.
1. Unauthorized Renovations That Defy Logic
You expect tenants might hang a few extra pictures or paint a room without permission. What you don’t expect is walking into a property and discovering they’ve knocked down walls, installed chandeliers where ceiling fans used to be, or converted a bedroom into what appears to be a home sauna.
The really strange part isn’t that tenants do these projects – it’s that they often seem genuinely confused about why you’re upset. They’ve “improved” your property in their minds, and they expect gratitude or at least understanding. When you explain that removing a load-bearing wall without professional structural support is dangerous and illegal, they look at you like you’re being unreasonable.
You’ll find bathrooms installed in closets with improper plumbing that’s already causing water damage to lower floors. You’ll see kitchens rewired by someone whose electrical knowledge clearly came from YouTube. You’ll discover elaborate built-in furniture that’s attached to walls in ways that guarantee extensive repair costs when it’s eventually removed. The creative ambition is almost admirable until you remember you’re the one paying to fix everything.
2. Animals You Didn’t Know Were Living There
Your lease clearly states no pets, or perhaps it allows one small dog. Then you conduct an inspection and discover you’re actually running an unauthorized zoo. Three cats, two dogs, a rabbit, a snake, and something in a cage you can’t identify are all living in a two-bedroom apartment where you specifically approved no animals at all.
But it gets stranger when you find evidence of animals that have clearly been there but are nowhere to be seen during your inspection. Empty aquarium equipment or fish tanks large enough to house sharks. Industrial-sized reptile heating lamps. Scratching posts for what must have been very large cats. Where did these animals go? Were they ever really there? You’ll never get a straight answer.
3. Hoarder Situations
You’ve seen clutter before, but hoarding takes it to another level entirely. When you can’t see the floor in any room, that’s when you know you’re dealing with something beyond normal messiness.
The strangest part about hoarding situations is often what people choose to keep. You expect old newspapers and magazines, maybe excessive amounts of clothing or knick-knacks. What you don’t expect is fifty identical blenders still in boxes, hundreds of phone cases for phones that haven’t been manufactured in a decade, or enough bottle caps to fill a kiddie pool.
As any property management company that’s had to fix a hoarding situation will tell you, the cleanup process for these properties can take weeks and cost thousands. It can be a royal mess to fix.
4. Creative Interpretations of “Repairs”
You expect tenants to call you when something breaks. What you don’t expect is their creative attempts to fix things themselves using materials and methods that would horrify any actual contractor. Duct tape becomes a universal solution for problems ranging from leaking pipes to broken windows.
Sometimes tenants create entirely new problems while attempting to address minor ones. That dripping faucet could have been fixed with a washer replacement. Instead, they’ve somehow damaged the entire fixture, cracked the sink, and caused water damage to the cabinet below. What would have been a fifteen-minute repair for you is now a complete bathroom renovation. When you ask why they didn’t just call you, they explain they “didn’t want to bother you” with something small – apparently not realizing their solution bothered you significantly more.
5. Activities You Really Didn’t Need to Know About
Sometimes during move-out inspections, you find evidence of activities that aren’t necessarily damaging to the property but are definitely information you didn’t need. Items forgotten in closets or drawers that suggest hobbies, interests, or lifestyle choices that are entirely the tenant’s business – except now you know about them because they left evidence behind.
Sometimes the strange things are more innocent but equally baffling. Why is there a full-size canoe in a third-floor apartment with no elevator? How did someone get a full-size pool table into a room where the doorframe is too narrow for it to fit back out?
Adding it All Up
Being a real estate investor and landlord can be lucrative under certain situations and circumstances. But then there’s the questionable side of things that most people don’t know exists. That’s why a lot of landlords choose to hire property managers as a way of insulating themselves against some of the strangeness of renting their property out to strangers.
