15 Moments That Teach Us Renting Is a Game of Pure Luck

Renting a place often turns into a quest with an unexpected finale. Sometimes, a strict-looking landlord turns out to be the kindest person in the world, willing to reduce the rent for a candy that he ate, while the strange nighttime noises from a locked room are just the funny antics of a lost robot vacuum cleaner. Sometimes even a rental agreement can become the start of a warm relationship and a reason for genuine laughter.

• We rented an apartment. The landlord forbade us from opening the bottom drawer of the cupboard, saying, “It’s personal.” For a year, we were burning with curiosity, but we held back. Just before moving out, we couldn’t resist and took a peek.
  The drawer was empty, except for a note, saying, “Congratulations! You have just passed the honesty test. If you’re reading this, it means you opened it after all. But if you’ve lived here for a year and didn’t open it earlier — you are great people.”
• We rented a 2-bedroom. The landlord asked for just one thing. “Open the curtains in the living room for 10 minutes at 9 p.m. every day. It’s important, don’t ask why.”
  We did what he asked for a month. Then I couldn’t stand it any longer and asked the landlord directly.
  He blushed and confessed, “You see, my mom lives across the street. If the curtains are open — it means I’m doing well, healthy and alive. If not, she runs over in 5 minutes. I just didn’t tell her I rented out the apartment, didn’t want to worry her.”

• I rented an apartment. The landlady lived on the same floor, almost next door. Once a week, she would come to read the meters and instruct me not to use the lights unnecessarily. Then she started coming every evening, offering me to buy her clothes.
  I’d come home from work and tiptoe to the door, quietly opening it, but it seemed like she watched through the peephole and would head straight over to me. Eventually, I got tired of it and moved out. © i_rinaastro / Threads
• I rented a 1-bedroom apartment. When I was moving out, the landlady refused to return the deposit, claiming there was dirt. I asked, “Where did you see it?” It turned out to be behind the couch and in the toilet, on the little shelf where the plastic seat attaches. © Nadezhda Kosa / Dzen
• I’m renting a studio apartment. Every year, the rent increases by 3,000 (it was 29,000 the first year, then 32,000, and now it’s 35,000). Plus, there’s a maintenance fee of 3,000.
  My landlord (I call him “uncle”) raised the rent to 35,000, and the maintenance to 4,000. I calculated that both the rent increase and these dubious maintenance charges were over the top, so I decided to stand my ground and move to another place.
  Last Sunday, he stopped by for a chat, and before I could even bring up the increase, he stopped me. With a broad smile, he handed me some candies and literally fed me one, telling me he had just closed a huge deal at work (he’s the managing director of one of the country’s largest banks). I congratulated him, and then he handed me another candy.
  I told him I liked the apartment, but the cost increase was unjustified. He lowered the rent to 33,000 (instead of 35,000) and kept the maintenance at 3,000. It was nice to have an open conversation instead of just silently swallowing the price hike. The landlord also asked about my studies and career, gave advice on what I should focus on in the coming years, and shared his experience. © Financial-Bus-5660 / Reddit

• Once my sister and I were renting an apartment from an old lady. Turns out she would come in while we were at work. One day, she saw our office white shirts hanging out to dry and was extremely surprised, as they’re usually worn to work by men. Of course, we moved out. © tanatlas_ / Threads
• The landlady banned pets, but we secretly took in an orange kitten. Before she came over, we’d hide the kitten in a closet, and the litter box was on the balcony.
  One day, she popped in unexpectedly. We were frantically trying to clean up, when she went to the kitchen, sniffed around, squinted cleverly, and pulled a bag of premium cat food and a toy mouse from her bag. We were stunned.
  But she smiled and said, “Well, let your poor thing out already. I noticed the fur on the couch last time but kept quiet. I just wanted to make sure you trained him well and that he wasn’t scratching up the flooring. And take the food, my Bob loves the same kind.”

• My landlord in New York owned an entire 4-story walkup on the Upper East Side. Always was hanging around on-site and frequently confused me with someone who was always late with their rent, but continued to confront me (as a young girl in my twenties) despite the fact that I paid my rent.
  When I was moving out and we had a walk through of my tiny apartment, he was confused by the placement of my bedroom closet. He kept saying, “I didn’t think this closet was here” over and over. As if I flawlessly covered up a former closet and constructed my own into the wall. It was odd all around... © TwirlieWhirlie / Reddit
• The landlord locked one room in the 3-bedroom. “Don’t set foot there!” But at night, humming and banging started coming from behind that door. We were going to move out in a panic, when suddenly the landlord showed up.
  He opened that very door, and a robot vacuum rolled out toward us. It turned out the man simply forgot to turn off the cleaning schedule, and the poor robot would wake up at 3 a.m. and bump into the locked door.
• Once, my husband and children went on vacation. Upon returning, our laundry was ironed. I couldn’t remember when I had managed to iron it. It turned out the apartment owner had come by and proudly informed me that she ironed all my clothes.
  And one day she told my husband that while he was at work, a man came to see me. It was my brother who came to wish me a happy birthday.
  Later we found out that the owner herself lived in the house across the street and would watch through binoculars when I took down the laundry and watered the flowers. © _dearstacy / Threads

• I rented an apartment with a friend and a cat. Before the landlady’s visit, I’d leave with the cat.
  One day she called, saying she’d come over. My friend wasn’t home, and there was nowhere to hide the cat. I left him in the bedroom; he dozed off.
  The landlady arrived and noticed the cat. I tensed up, but she exclaimed, “What a handsome fellow!” You should have seen my face! That’s how my cat introduced himself. © saniyabek82 / Threads
• I rented an apartment. The landlord lived in another city. He forbade moving the furniture.
  There was an old rolling cabinet with a TV by the window in the living room, and I moved it slightly to the side so it wouldn’t block the radiator in winter. I placed a clothes drying rack there. Then I suddenly ended up in the hospital.
  I returned and found my drying rack with my clothes standing in the hallway by the entrance, the cabinet was back by the radiator. In the bathroom, there was some rusty iron cabinet hanging. My new frying pan had some kind of residue on the sides. The towel, which had been clean on the drying rack, was now inexplicably dirty.
  It turned out the landlord had come to town and lived in the apartment for 3 days! Without saying a word, without asking where I was. To say I was shocked is an understatement. © Vasilisa Pupkina / Dzen
• I moved into a lovely apartment with one other lad already living in it. The landlady came around for a chat just to meet me. Made sure I had her number and explained that she only rents out apartments she and her husband would live in. Periodically, at the end of leases, they would actually move to a different one and rent out their old one.
  Anyway, while I lived there, my housemate and I wanted to hang some guitars on the wall, so we texted her to ask (obviously including that we would fill the holes and paint the room when we moved out). She called over to talk it through. We assumed at that point she would say no, but her only concern was whether the sun coming through the window would damage the guitars!
  Even after I moved out, I had the place professionally cleaned. She rang me and asked me to call in to show me some stuff. There were a few points that she said needed a bit more cleaning.
  I apologised, but she immediately stopped me and said she was only telling me so I could point it out to the cleaner and maybe get some of my money back — she wasn’t asking me to actually do anything more! The good ones are out there for sure, even if they can be a little harder to find! © AndrewOBW / Reddit

• I rented a room from a woman about 60 years old. She fancied my blouse and asked, “Sell it to me!” but I said it was a gift from my boyfriend. A couple of days later, I see her in my blouse, but it was faded.
  I was about to cause a scene, but she smiles and says, “Do you like it? I sewed it myself!” I didn’t think much of it, but when I decided to move out, she suddenly blurted, “I know why you’re leaving. You’re jealous. I also noticed how Alex (my boyfriend) started glancing at me.”
• We rented an apartment from an elderly man. Every couple of weeks, he’d leave potatoes and pickles at our door. He never took money for it. We thought it was produce from his country house.
  We met his daughter and thanked her, and she laughed, “What country house? We sold it 5 years ago! Dad just believes that ’those freelancers’ are starving because they don’t have real jobs. He buys all this at the market just for you, so you ’poor things’ don’t starve!”

These stories confirm that coziness in a rented apartment is created not only by a fresh renovation and new furniture, but also by simple human interaction.

Surely, many of you remember something amusing about living in a rented apartment. Share your stories in the comments below.