Why I Would Never Be A Landlord

First off I have no idea who this guy is, the tenant involved or where this apartment is located in Allentown. However it does bring back some rather bad memories from years ago when I was employed by a large firm that owned 5 apartment complexes in the Lehigh Valley. I also think this kind of typifies some of the problems landlords face in Allentown.

In the mainstream we've mostly heard from only one side of the argument about the so-called 'slumlords' in Allentown. The point of me posting this is to present the other side of the story from a landlord's perspective. I have no opinion regarding either of the parties guilt or innocence.

I came across some guy who posted almost two dozen videos to YouTube a few days ago after having some sort of dispute. Here's one of them.



Apparently there was some sort of rally that took place in Allentown against slumlords...


Under the video above it says.... "The Tenant's Association of Allentown (who, by the way is a name that I own and THEY are using the name illegally) making their complaints. The truth here is the ones who are the "leaders" have been evicted and in one case in JAIIL!! Those who live in glass houses should be hurling rocks!! In the meanwhile I HAVE HAD ENOUGH!! I am advocating an organization of landlords who have been "beaten" out of rent, left destroyed houses all the while taking a city inspected and approved property and destroying it. This costs money on top of being beaten out of rent due and owing!!

Whoever this guy is, here is his channel on YouTube

Keep in mind there are two sides to very story.

I also posted this because of bad experiences my brother had owning a rental property in Allentown. This pretty much is the way it happened to him. He received zoning fines for violations he wasn't even aware of that were incurred before he owned the property. Had unpaid rents and damage to his new appliances (including a small kitchen fire). Dog urine and feces stains on his newly installed hallway and stair carpeting He incurred legal fees for the months of legal wrangling it took to evict the bad apples. There also were extra tenants that weren't on the lease living there.

Please remember I have no skin in the game from either side of what was seen here. Nor do I know any of these people. Nor do I intend to judge any of them. I'm presenting this here as something I came across and felt it would be of interest to my readers. I will not entertain comments regarding either the tenants or the landlord. There's no way I intend for this blog to get in the middle of this!

This was posted by me strictly for informational purposes only. If someone feels compelled to verbalize on this matter I highly recommend using the links above to speak to the first party players in all of this.


~ Update ~
This whole thing brings to mind a whole bunch of memories I've had.
A fellow I worked with bought a 3 unit near 13th & Turner years back. When he bought it his tenants were all seniors. They were quiet and paid on time. Because he kept their rents down they even helped paint and with repairs. Unbeknownst to him the previous owner who sold it to him found out all of his tenants were on the waiting list for senior high rise apartments. Within three years all of them were gone. This is pretty much has been the trend over the years here in Allentown..

Unable to attract the kind of tenants he would have preferred, this is what happened. One left the hose running in the backyard for three weeks. In another instance one of the tenants never reported her leaky toilet. He never found out about either of these for almost 3 months (till the next bill cycle). These added up to one hellva' water bill. Another moved in an additional family of four with them who were not on the lease. All three units eventually ended up under HUD with all the legal protections and building requirements right along with them. The many repairs caused by tenant damages, upgrades to conform to HUD building conformity regulations and resultant fines eventually cost him twice as much as he ever made from his investment. He sold it at a $20,000 loss after just four years.

I mentioned earlier that I worked for a company that had five complexes. These totaled up to about 500 units. While the large majority of our tenants were good renters there were more then a few dozen who made it a bad experience for me. It became an annual ritual to repair the smashed toilets at the pools and unplug the mud and stones from the skimmers. One time they even put about 100 lbs of stones down the 4" pipe for our pool pump back wash system. As if this weren't pain enough, throughout the swimming season there were the swimmers who would smash the locks on the gates after the pools were closed. Twice I was physically attacked trying to clear pool areas out of after hour swimmers in an effort to prevent us from assuming any kind of liability if someone were to get hurt or drown. On one occasion vandals yanked out 5 shrubs from around one of the pools. They then smashed glass bottles and threw all of these in the pool. The drain at the deep end of the pool sucked some of this debris into the underground piping 13 feet below. We had to empty this huge pool of it's water before we could even begin to make repairs. We called the police so many times that they wouldn't respond anymore justly pointing out this was our private property and not city owned public land.

Then there were the times we go to inspect an apartment after the tenants moved out. Since we allowed pets, it must have been a dozen times I entered to inspect an apartment and had fleas crawling up my pants. Daily I would police the grounds picking up dozens and dozens of piles of dog crap. Tenants even had the nerve to report us to city inspectors. Yeah like it was management who spread dog paddies all over the place just so their kids would come home covered in dog shit!

Another who skipped out leaving a turkey in the refrigerator. Then had the electric turned off weeks before I knew they blew town. The stench of rotting maggot infested meat almost gagged me the minute I walked in the door. In another instance we tore up the carpet, ripped out the floorboards down to the joists and still couldn't remove the overpowering smell of multiple cats urinating on them even after four months of trying to air this unit out.

Kids found out they could back up the sewers going out of the 8 unit apartment buildings by putting sticks down the outside cleanouts. This became almost a routine every 5 or 6 weeks. Others would empty the fire extinguishers in the hall almost as fast as I could have them refilled. Then had the nerve to call the fire department to report us!

Someone rubbed dog feces and punched a hole in one of the hallway walls. They did this just for spite because we just had them freshly repainted and re-carpeted all 5 buildings. They even reopened the hole by pulling out the freshly spackled repair I did and ground it into the new carpet about 6 more times before they finally tired of it.

And of course there's the never ending complaints to management. Things like storage bins being broken into (which few bothered to empty when they left or stored flammables in them when they were told not to). Hell someone even used one for a cage with 6 pigeons in it. There were complaints about a basement washer everyone shared because someone crapped in it. And of course the usual number of complaints that someone's wash was stolen or thrown on the floor went they went down to pick it up.

Others questioned why someone else got a new carpet and they didn't. Some complaining about stopped up toilets that they themselves did regularly while others never had a problem. Neighbors endlessly complaining about other neighbors. One even sued us after one of their kids crawled up and hung on the overloaded kitchen cabinets causing them to come crashing down. Another tenant complained the teenagers were having a party above her while their parents were out of town. She went outside on her patio to complain to them when two of them decided to pee on her through the decking above.

Some other annoyances. Stealing light bulbs from the halls for their apartment was common. Skipping out owing rent and leaving the broken crap they didn't want to take with them (sometimes I wouldn't find out about this for weeks). Waking me up at all hours of the night several times a month after they locked themselves out. A few tenants would repeatedly slam their sliding glass doors shut till the vacuum seals would break causing them to cloud up no matter how many times I warned them. Some would break the mailbox locks off when they lost their key, then call me to replace the locks. Two even did this to their door locks after coming home drunk.

One guy burned down his kitchen after leaving his deep fryer running to warm up while he ran to the store. The fire fighters having to put out the fire left us with a huge amount of water damage to the unit below. We lost three months rent plus repairs on both units. Oh wait it gets better. We moved him to another unit and four months later he did it AGAIN!

Another guy had a 50 gallon aquarium break where he kept his piranha fish. This too caused quite a bit of damage to the ceiling and furnishings (including the TV) to the people below.

Another family went on vacation and left their alarm clock on. After three days of driving the people crazy on the side of them they called me. It turned out the locks were changed and they dead bolted the door so I couldn't get in to shut it off. Thank God there was no real emergency. I had to haul out the extension ladder and break the window on the second floor so I could crawl in. Course that meant I had the additional task of repairing it afterwards. All this makes me begin to wonder why this stuff seems to happen more then not on the second floor units?

Then we had the rumor floating around that I raped a Jamaican woman in the pool house. What really happened was after dark at around 10:00 pm I got a call on the company phone in my apartment from a relative of hers who couldn't get a hold of her for a medical emergency because her phone was disconnected. I walked clear across to the opposite side of the complex (which is a long way). Rather then waste time I took her to the pool house close by so she could use that phone to call back as soon as possible. When she got the news she was tremendously upset and vocal as I walked her back to her apartment. While nobody ever asked me directly about the incident, I was told there was talk. Indeed some people acted differently towards me. Some would no longer allow themselves to be alone in an apartment with me when they called for repairs.

We got our clocks cleaned in court by a blind guy with a gun. He would stand in the hall threatening the people living in the three other units that had to use the common hallway. They got fed up and we left them out of their lease or found other units for them. We then tried to evict him. BIG MISTAKE! We lost. He stayed for another 10 months before he left on his own accord. That was 10 months we received no rent from the other 3 units we feared to rent to other families. BTW his apartment was a mess to clean up.

I have a couple of dozen other stories but this has become way too long already. Suffice to say I'm well acquainted with both sides of this issue regarding landlords and tenants. It's all fine and dandy to go after landlords, but sometimes they need help from the city too. While there is public and legal support favoring tenants rights, when it comes to landlords rights it nearly always involves an expensive attorney with little public or court sympathy going towards them.

Indeed, in some cases, neither are entirely innocent, but no one should assume Allentown's rental housing problems are all because of the people who own them. We have some poor tenants who are wonderful renters. Just because they are poor doesn't make them fair game to unscrupulous landlords. Neither should unscrupulous tenants be allowed to take unfair advantage to the owners of them. Lest not in haste condemn either group, but rather take each case separately. Treat either side fairly when they deserve it.