When I started reading the article, I thought the whole point was gonna be that the author doesn't take care of the apartment.

The recurring leak might not be the author's fault, but the mold in the bathroom and roaches in the kitchen definitely are. Is this a case of a total lack of self-reflection? Or a post to scare people away from becoming landlords?

Sounds like it takes her about 2 years to trash any apartment she moves into.

My wife or I clean all bathrooms with strong cleaner, every week. I suppose, the author did not. And it isn't landlord's job to clean rooms.

The roaches too if they are in your kitchen call a exterminator. Don't leave food out at night, clean all crumbs.

If you don't take care of those things even in a a new building they will appear on their own after 2 years.

It should be mentioned that this was a rental out in rural nowhere, so no dramatic price hikes. The house was also paid off years before it became a rental.

Our family did janitorial services, which usually came to fixing some smaller things once or twice a year. Nothing extreme.

For us, it was smooth sailing. I really think the key was rent stability.

From previous personal experience as a renter in a high cost of living area, though, it seemed like landlords were extremely focused on raising rent. If they felt that they couldn't raise rent enough (where I live there are regulations), they'd try every trick in the book to cancel your tenancy contract/agreement, because then they could set a new rent for the next one.

Some such units were more or less revolving doors with new tenants every 1-2-3 years.

Only as a student did I see slummy apartments rented out by actual slumlords. Those were professional landlords that owned tens to hundreds of rentals, aimed at students, and seemed to follow a strict maximize rent/minimize upkeep philosophy.

And a plus is that when it breaks down the only fumes it gives off is pure oxygen, unlike other cleaners like bleach. It did such a good job that I use peroxide as a general purpose cleaner now.

I will add one note that you should rinse your hands regularly if cleaning with peroxide. Just a few days ago I had a leaky spray nozzle, and the peroxide was on my finger long enough that it was able to soak in. It turned my skin chalk-white and caused an uncomfortable bubbling sensation inside my skin. I had no idea it was even a reaction that could happen. It only lasted for a few hours, but it's not something I would want to happen again.

Yeah, it sucks that I had to replace my furnace months after buying my home, but I got to pick the replacement. Yes, I chose to replace single-pane glass windows from the early 1900s in my home with newer double-pane and pay for it. But it was my choice and totally under my control to make the house the way I wanted it.

Commence flames about how not everyone can afford to do this, but my point is that SFH living can be superior since it's all in your control.

Seeing mold in joints is not unusual depending on the conditions, but it's also easily fixable.

For cockroaches either there is none in your area, either get one in a year "by mistake", but if it's a recurring events the problem is likely food or garbage that sits longer than it should.

I have lived in many apartments that were decades old and well taken care of. None of the problems mentioned in the blog occurred. I don't see how even an slight exaggeration of this theory could remotely be true. Although I am sure specific cases can be found where it is true, but not universally.

By the default nature of the bathroom being a humid environment (relative to the rest of any house), my wife and I squeegee our shower after each use, and attack the tile weekly in order to keep it free of mildew.

It’s easier for both the current tenants and landlords to defer maintenance by respectively, moving to a new building that matches your expectations and renting your unit to someone whose expectations matches the current state of the unit.

Both approaches don’t require addressing the previous maintenance “debt”. That’s why it feels like it’s all downhill after the first 2 years — either inside your unit, or in the building’s common spaces, or both.

The thing is when you move into a place, the apartment has gone through thorough maintenance and cleaning, and of-course you don't pick the apartment with the obvious water stains and mold, or the sketchy neighbors and rundown hallway. But as the time passes, fixtures fail, damage accumulates neighbors rotate.

You apartment is the best when you move in because it's made to look its best and you pick the best looking one.

When you own a place you can do the extensive maintenance yourself.

I paid rent for most of my life, and suffered the leaks and the mold and broken heat pipes and once a collapsed ceiling. I've lived in at least 15 apartments in my life. Now that I own a house, I can confidently say that paying rent was by far the easier way of obtaining shelter.

I didn't really have a clue until I bought a 100 year old house that not a day would go by for 7 years without needing to fix something, or delay fixing something, or juggling numerous somethings that could implode my savings account unless I strategically patched and staggered them. There are elements out there. The first year in my home, a windstorm ripped half the siding off the front of the house and brought a tree down on the powerline. I had thought I could delay getting a new roof for a few years, but after two years another storm tore a hole in it and the price had nearly doubled. There was the year of ants... ants everywhere, hordes of them, unstoppable. Then the furnace caught fire after a minor repair. The chimney was on the verge of collapse. The sewer line was clogged and leaking. An infestation of an invasive form of earthworm killed the tree in front, and the city fined me for taking it down. In 2020, the street turned into a giant homeless encampment with people having rock fights and shooting bottle rockets over my roof. One month I suddenly got a $2000 water bill. Three days ago the fridge started leaking. Two days ago, the handle broke off the toilet while I was flushing it. I fixed em both.

When I look at what most people in the world do with most of their lives, it's this: Cook food, make shelter, and sleep. One way or another you're paying for it.

Frankly, I wouldn't want to ride the elevator with the author either.

This is common building maintenance. What does it have to do with whether the author has just moved in or approaching the 2-year mark?

In my mind I'm thinking about gyms,now they will look shiny and new for a few years and then just get rundown, even though they pulled in regular recurring payments from members.

I do end up changing apartments after the two year lease period because I get bored of the area or the landlord raises the rent.

Except for the leak all of these issues are mainly caused by the tenant. Mold growing in the bathroom is because they're not airing it properly and don't clean it. Roaches and other insect infestations mostly appear because of mishandled food waste and not cleaning the kitchen and floor sufficiently.

"Why are roaches in your kitchen?"... "Because the landlord didnt bring the trash out"

Things did start going downhill when it went from being owned by a local, private family business to a publicly traded American corporation, but I don't blame that on time. And my apartment _itself_ was fine, it was the common areas that were degrading.

When you are looking for a new apartment you are always trying to find the best place that fits your budget, so you will always find it near the peak of the cycle and see it going downhill in front of your eyes.

Just a theory.

The vent stops working in the bathroom, as the author states? Get maintenance to fix it ASAP.

Roaches in the kitchen? Exterminator.

Leak in the living room? Maintenance. More than once? Get a lawyer ready.

The first few months, you're so impressed how smart everyone is, how competent, what a great organisation it is. By 18 months in, you've decided everyone is an idiot, the organisation is utterly hopeless, and at 2 years you quit.

Never experienced anything like this with apartments though - lived in my last one for 9 years and loved it.

Perhaps there is something in my nature that gets complacent after a couple of years and looks to make a change. It seems like that's what the author was trying to grasp towards.

I expect this tendency might go away as I get older, have a family, etc.

Also wonder if some people just have a higher level of agency to communicate with landlord to ensure improvements happen

1. Like everything, apts degrade over time, maintenance usually happens in spikes, so the state of the place goes down until someone pays for the new paint job

2. It depends on the market, in highly attractive places, owners don't care about keeping tenants, so they'll let the place fall apart, until they can't get anyone anymore. Then they'll put in the price to put the place back in order and start again.

Add to that the cheap build quality of these new condo high-rises and you have the 2-year building.

I split a two bedroom two bath place with a friend, and we moved in.

The place was made of tissuepaper. The brand new carpet was threadbare within 6 or 8 months. The walls were insanely thin (I still feel bad for traumatic breakup my neighbor apparently suffered, but it was rough to be woken up by sobs for weeks on end).

I moved out when the lease was up and rented a house again. And then, a shockingly low number of years later, the whole building was razed. I'd be surprised if it was more than 6 or 7 years old.

The complex is still there, but they build a high-rise on that part of the property.

It was the NEWEST building I'd ever lived in, and it ended up also being the very first building I lived in to be demolished. My ex-roomie and I are still pals, and when still laugh about how insanely shabby that place was.

All of this is a long way of saying: Yeah, I get it.

It is sometimes possible to learn about these problems by carefully reviewing reviews and remarks from current and past tenants.

I don't know how entire generations have managed to get to adulthood and through some aspects of life without learning basic life skills, but an apartment is not the same thing as a long-stay hotel. There's no maid service, your mommy is not there to make you chicken nuggets and clean up after you. You need to take care of your own shit, and I mean that both figuratively and literally. Clean up after yourself, manage moisture, take care not to damage things (in general, but especially where you live), and if you do damage something you should fix/repair it yourself as immediately as possible. Don't fuck a place up and then leave it for someone else to resolve, and definitely don't fuck it up and then act like its someone else's responsibility.

Unfortunately, because this seems to be a growing problem of complete lack of care, accountability, and basic life skills in society, you are more likely to also be negatively impacted by others. The reason the gym equipment eventually breaks is because nobody takes any care in using it or misuses it, and you end up in a tragedy of the commons situation. Even if you do everything right, you will eventually be negatively impacted by those who go through life fucking things up and blaming everyone else. It's one of the reasons why it's awesome to own your own home, everything is your problem, but you also have complete control over your own living environment.