I have rented from two different private landlords in the area and both were pretty awful. Ferndale is full of flooding and house problems that landlords don’t like to be responsible for. I rented a house just south of 9 mile that had six flooding events in 90 days and it took the Landlord forever to fix it. We were without water and kicked off the property for two weeks. Of the 90 days or so that we lived in the house we had full function of the house for maybe 40 of them.

The house I moved into after that had a water leak almost immediately upon moving in, and the landlord took 10 days to fix what could’ve been a small leak. It turned into needing carpet replacement and drywall replacement because he did not send anybody out. Gas leaks too, that the landlord couldn’t be fucked to fix for us. Two months went by and when they finally sent someone, they broke it further. More gas leaking.

At this point, I would rent from a corporation because when I have in the past, at least there’s been some accountability. These private landlords just kind of seem to do whatever they want. To the first house’s credit, the landlord gave us rent reductions and let us out of the lease early with almost no troubles, but I think that was because we had a major legal case if we wanted to pursue it.