Telling Landlords about Maintenance issues without being ANNOYING

[Lillian Lugo]

Hey Landlords, I’m a renter. I just moved into an apartment this week and on the 1st day I noticed a couple things, leaking shower and no closet doors. I reached out and I received quick responses and had the maintenance come out the next day. The day after I noticed more issues that I didn’t see before. My upstairs bathroom sink is leaking, fridge is leaking a puddle from the front, and kitchen sink is leaking so much that it needs a bowl under it. Also two of the burners on the stove aren’t working. I know it’s a LOT to complain about and besides all that, I LOVE the apartment lol. I just don’t want my landlord to hit me with the “you can leave if you don’t like it” and then have them not renew my lease after it’s up. How can I approach them about all this without being annoying????

[Lynnette E.]

Go through your apartment completely and make a note of EVERYTHING that needs to be fixed and give him one list of everything.

As a landlord what I hate is when a tenant gives me one thing and when I get someone to fix it, then he gives me another thing, and when I fix that then one more.  It costs me more to have a plumber come out 3 times to fix 3 different things than to have him come out once and fix everything at once, and it talks less of my time too,

Also, for things that were not there when you looked at the apartment, it is not reasonable for you to ask for those things later.  Example:   I had a tenant rent a house where one of the bathrooms had a clawfoot tub.  They wanted to change that out to a shower.  The bedroom had a light fixture they did not like and they wanted to change that to a fan.

Landlords do want to know about leaks and get them fixed, and as soon as possible before they ruin a cabinet or flooring or cause mold to grow.  So do call him and let him know, but give him a list of everything.