What Makes A Good or Bad Landlord? Reddit Weighs In

With the current rental crisis gripping Australia, many folks are out there paying more for less and fighting to keep rental increases to a reasonable level. The relationship between tenant and landlord can be a tenuous one, but the community on Reddit has been debating what makes a good landlord and what definitely makes a bad one.

Let’s unpack what they’re saying, and for any landlords out there, do take note.

What makes a good landlord, according to Reddit

This debate begins on a thread in r/tenants which asks community members to share what they think makes a good landlord (or property manager) or a bad one.

Let’s start with some of the green flags:

• u/plsmakeit shared they think a good landlord is someone who is “available, rational and attentive when conflicts arise. Nothing is worse than having issues with appliances, neighbours, etc, just to be met with nothing from a landlord/management company.”
• Another user (who has since deleted their account) said, “A good landlord sees their tenants as equals. A good landlord is responsive, communicative, and knows that maintenance and crisis control are part of their job. A good landlord is someone you don’t hear from unless absolutely necessary, like preventative maintenance or in response to a maintenance request from tenant.”
• u/cman2222222 said, “A good landlord is one you never have to see or interact with or ask anything from.”
• u/dglrg2013 said they had experience with both types of landlords but said a good one is “someone that is attentive, but also understand that wear and tear happens, if something breaks they make the necessary arrangements to get the item fixed without causing considerable burden on the tenant beyond just the fact they need to be available for the repair to take place within reason and does not attempt to lay blame on others or have the tenant go beyond the obligation of being a rent paying tenant.”

What makes a bad landlord, according to Reddit

While there are plenty of good landlords, there’s always the flip side of the coin to consider. Here are some horror stories from the tenants on Reddit:

• One user shared, “A bad landlord is either only in it for the business side of things and lacks empathy and compassion because of it, or is in over their head because they overestimated their ability to maintain and repair their property.”
• u/dglgr2013 said: “A bad landlord I have learned is someone that is not attentive to their property, lives too far away, not attentive to the laws, when something breaks down the inclination is to blame the tenant without having any facts, never knows anyone that can repair an issue and pushes onto the tenant the obligation of finding someone, and never has the money to cover a crucial repair pushing the repair on the tenant to discount from the rent, but still expecting some amount of rent to come back”
• u/truthseekr pointed out a number of things that make a bad landlord inculding: “Doesn’t keep up with regular maintenance; Looks for ways to extract more money than rent being paid. Regular rackets include high cleaning fee charges, extra for gardening, and manipulating utility bills; Treats property owners as customers and tenants as liabilities. This includes doing things to restrict their freedoms and being overly watchful (like hiring a PI for your tenants). In some really bad cases, they’ll harass tenants.”
• Another user shared a specific horror story, saying a bad landlord is “someone who says they’re just gonna paint over the mould in the bedroom, after the tenant is stating the mould/ mould issues as reason for moving.

While there are many divided opinions over what a landlord should be, the consensus seems to be that the best type is the invisible kind (who won’t cause problems when maintenance requests arise), while the worst create unnecessary stress in their tenants’ lives.

If you have any opinions on landlords and their habits, feel free to drop them in the comments.

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