Real Estate Community Forum

I currently live in an apartment where the landlord does not maintain the property. The gutters are full with leaves, the grass hasn't been cut, and a half dead tree is sitting in the back yard. I don't understand why someone would neglect their property? It makes no sense to me. I pay my rent and my landlord makes good money where he works, so why doesn't he keep the property up? If I had property, I would be there cleaning up the place, especially after the winter. Bushes need to be trimmed, grass need to be cut, and the trim on the house needs painting. In my opinion, he's just ruining the value of his property by neglecting it, so why do it?

Where I live, there are several houses in the inner city that are totally run down. These houses are duplexes, so there are usually two are three families living in them and the owner/landlord of these homes live in the suburbs in a nice well kept house. I think one of the reasons why landlords don't keep up the property is because the property value in the inner city is very low. So their reasoning is, why fix up property, put in new window, front door, etc if the property value wont go up substantially? They'll be wasting their time and money. Instead they just do the minimum amount of work to the house and collect money from their tenant. It sounds terrible, but its happening all over.

You should also remember that some landlord's don't even live in the same state that they own property so they are not there to see the maintentance that needs to be done. Other's are slum lords who just collect the rent and do nothing to their property. It's really a depressing thing to see, especially when the property used to be very nice and well kept. The irony is many landlords should use the money that they get for renting out the apartment to home repairs and updates. If they concentrated on this, they might be able to charge more for rent and even get better tenants who care for the property and will keep it clean and inviting.

I feel that landlords who neglect their peoperty should not own the home. Where I live, I have noticed there are several older homes that have been neglected and no one wants to purchase a home in that area. Just the appearance of a neglected home signals crime, unsafe environment, and causes other homes in the area to depreciate, so why do it? Take responsibility as a home owner and keep up your property. Don't let an investment go to waste!

Many here need to realize that some landlords don't necessarily mean to neglect their property. Some might be going through an economic hardship such as a divorce, death in the family, or they might be ill themselves.

In addition, some people are just too old to be spending money to fix up their place. Maybe when they were younger, they enjoyed fixing up the house and doing things themselves. Now that they are older, they don't have the energy or the stability to get up on a latter to paint the siding or install a new door. Rather than admitting that they can't physically do it any more, they decide to leave it alone. For some it's a matter of pride and ego. For that reason, property gets neglected.