7 Types Of Landlords You Encounter When You Live Off Campus

By Alexandra Brown on September 5, 2014

This article is brought to you by CORT, a subsidiary of Berkshire-Hathaway and the world’s largest furniture rental and relocation services company. To learn more about how we can help college students like you, click here.

Image via http://www.cnpower.com

You really don’t fully appreciate something you have until it’s gone.

Living in the dorms on a college campus really aids in making your first year in college all the more manageable: meals are provided, the entire year is paid for and a sense of community is immediately established.

While dorm living was essential to the classic college experience and made it all the more enjoyable, there comes a time, usually occurring from sophomore year onward, when the stresses of apartment living become relevant and unavoidable, at least for a great deal of college students.

Not only do rent checks, roommate drama and grocery shopping need to be taken into account, but also arguably the worst of the hassles: dealing with a landlord. If you haven’t yet had the great opportunity of experiencing a landlord, here is a list of seven personalities you can expect to come across.

1. The landlord who always tries to flirt with you, and is frankly really bad at it.

You’ve just moved in, and it’s the first week of classes. You’re having trouble with the washer and dryer in the building, which is a significant problem considering clean clothes are essential to everyday life. So, naturally, you address your landlord about the issue.

When you tell them neither machine will turn on, they provide the helpful response, “I’m not sure what’s wrong with the machines, but you’re sure turning me on,” followed by an awkward silence between the two of you.

I’m sorry … what? Is that supposed to help? Also, that wasn’t even impressive. Was that a joke? Or serious …

You soon realize this will be a common and inconvenient occurrence whenever you need genuine help with an apartment matter. Better plan accordingly.

2. The landlord with no common courtesy or knowledge of social boundaries.

Set aside everything you think you understand about what to do and what not to do in any social setting.

There exists a landlord who will receive your voice mail about a broken ice machine in your refrigerator, let himself in to your apartment, and poke his head into your bathroom when you’re taking a shower, to let you know it’ll be fixed in no time.

How is that even legal? Was there no other manner in which you could think of to break this news to me? Despite what you may be thinking, yes, this happened.

3. The landlord who, for whatever reason, thinks you’re really close friends.

It begins to become quite the hassle when you actually have a problem with your apartment that needs immediate attention, like the water stopped working, but in addition, you have to dread the possibility of being invited to your landlord’s niece’s high school graduation.

When you’ve never met their niece, and have only ever been in contact with them three times, this invitation seems pretty peculiar. Do I have to deal with this every time I need something fixed, you ask yourself? Yes, yes you will.

4. The extremely rude landlord.

Oh, you thought calling up your landlord to inquire about your broken mailbox lock was acceptable, and something that ought to be dealt with right away? Think again!

Oh, they responded with “what can I say, it’s an old building, use duct tape, how is this my problem?” Yeah, soon you’ll learn how to pick your battles.

5. The uncommonly kind landlord that never actually follows through.

What’s almost as bad as any of the incompetent landlord personalities listed above is one that is actually very nice and personable, but never actually follows through with their word.

When you first met, they asked you about your major, how you like the building, and your plans after college. But because you’re blinded by their niceness, you almost feel bad about being frustrated with them for not fixing your ceiling fan for 2 weeks, such that you’ve somehow concluded that the whole thing is actually your fault.

Wait, what?

6. The worst landlord ever.

The worst landlord ever is one that encompasses all of the negative characteristics shared by the landlords above. He or she doesn’t complete essential tasks in a timely fashion, believes you to be much closer to them than you actually are, is borderline socially inappropriate, and is flat out rude for no reason.

Getting a landlord like this would pretty much be the worst luck ever.

7. The best landlord ever.

The best landlord ever, in turn, is one that encompasses none of the above-mentioned, dreaded characteristics!

They are punctual, polite and aware of social etiquette, and are actually successful in doing their job, which above all else, is to maintain basic habitability requirements. You rarely have to ask them twice for anything, and they treat you with respect.

The down side is, of course, that this person does not exist.

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