Billings - Rental Culture (apartment complexes, rentals, eviction)

[Explorer17]

I have looked into renting in Billings several times before, and each time I am always amazed at just how many bad reviews the majority of the Property Management companies there are.


There aren't a lot of actual apartment complexes there, and a lot of rentals are through these companies. I've called a few, and while not horrible service, I never really felt like they really wanted my business either. And I have never seen so many negative reviews about one city's PM options. The overwhelming theme of the reviews seems to be greed. Things like lying just to collect an application fee, not cleaning/fixing/replacing things, requiring extra large deposits, and then keep entire deposits while charging even more for ridiculous things. I know there are bad tenants who destroy places they rent, but when the complaints about companies start to exceed 50-100 bad reviews, there has got to be more to it. Even a lot of owners complain about the way these companies ha dled there properties.



Is there a culture of money-hungryness there? Are there a lot of selfish, unethical people in this area? Do Montana's landlord-tenant laws somehow enable this behavior?



One other thing I found odd. I've rented in a lot of states, but one thing I see a lot on Montana rental applications is a place where they ask for actual credit card/bank account numbers and their addresses. I am used to having a credit check done, but my Social Security number is typically enough to access that. In today's day and age, I don't see why those numbers are necessary or even safe to give out.

[NDak15]

Originally Posted by Explorer17

I have looked into renting in Billings several times before, and each time I am always amazed at just how many bad reviews the majority of the Property Management companies there are.


There aren't a lot of actual apartment complexes there, and a lot of rentals are through these companies. I've called a few, and while not horrible service, I never really felt like they really wanted my business either. And I have never seen so many negative reviews about one city's PM options. The overwhelming theme of the reviews seems to be greed. Things like lying just to collect an application fee, not cleaning/fixing/replacing things, requiring extra large deposits, and then keep entire deposits while charging even more for ridiculous things. I know there are bad tenants who destroy places they rent, but when the complaints about companies start to exceed 50-100 bad reviews, there has got to be more to it. Even a lot of owners complain about the way these companies ha dled there properties.



Is there a culture of money-hungryness there? Are there a lot of selfish, unethical people in this area? Do Montana's landlord-tenant laws somehow enable this behavior?



One other thing I found odd. I've rented in a lot of states, but one thing I see a lot on Montana rental applications is a place where they ask for actual credit card/bank account numbers and their addresses. I am used to having a credit check done, but my Social Security number is typically enough to access that. In today's day and age, I don't see why those numbers are necessary or even safe to give out.

I've only rented three places from three landlords in two different cities in Montana. Two of those three were slumlords. So were the landlords I had when I lived in Wyoming and my current ones in North Dakota. I think maybe landlords are *******s most places.

[Kerguelen]

You guys' description of Montana sounds a lot like what we deal with here. Even the credit card number thing, I believe I had to do that on one application.
So it may just be a widespread thing with renting, in general.

[Reziac]

Speaking as an occasional landlord... deadbeat tenants have driven the decent landlords to use rental agencies if only to not get stuck with eviction costs when things go south. (We may go that route next time, having had a sour experience with the last tenant, who ducked out owing about 4 grand in rent and another 6 grand in penalties, but blood and turnips.) And while slum properties and multi-family units may be profitable, nice single-family units generally are not -- at best you hope to break even until the property appreciates enough to be worth selling.

Montana's landlord-tenant laws are about as fair as they come, and which way you think they're slanted probably depends which side of the fence you're on. If anything I'd say they slightly favor tenants, especially with regard to abandoned property (convoluted and expensive if you're the landlord).

[Explorer17]

Originally Posted by Kerguelen

You guys' description of Montana sounds a lot like what we deal with here. Even the credit card number thing, I believe I had to do that on one application.
So it may just be a widespread thing with renting, in general.

I have rented over 20 apartments in 15 states, and I personally have not encountered applications asking for credit account numbers like they do so often in Montana. The one or two places that had a space for it on the application told me to just ignore it.

[Explorer17]

Originally Posted by NDak15

I've only rented three places from three landlords in two different cities in Montana. Two of those three were slumlords. So were the landlords I had when I lived in Wyoming and my current ones in North Dakota. I think maybe landlords are *******s most places.

I've rented all over the country. I will say that, overall, the apartment/management companies in the high plains/upper Rockies region have a higher than average rate of bad reviews. In the Midwest and South, I just don't see the same frequent complaints of keeping deposits or not repairing things.
'

[NDak15]

Originally Posted by Reziac

Montana's landlord-tenant laws are about as fair as they come, and which way you think they're slanted probably depends which side of the fence you're on. If anything I'd say they slightly favor tenants, especially with regard to abandoned property (convoluted and expensive if you're the landlord).

If those are as fair as they come I'd hate to see ones that weren't. Most other people I know have gotten screwed with no lube by their landlords. They had very few rights. My experiences were not unique.

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by NDak15

If those are as fair as they come I'd hate to see ones that weren't. Most other people I know have gotten screwed with no lube by their landlords. They had very few rights. My experiences were not unique.

Been on both sides. Had cause to research both sides, too. Main pro-landlord side of MT law is that there are more ways to fasttrack the end a bad tenancy. But if the tenant is paid up, the landlord has almost no recourse.

[Hal Roach]

Anywhere there is a meth problem, expect landlords to play hardball, as most of the nice guys sold out, and don't want to deal with it. Why does every tenant have a car that leaks fluid, feels they are entitled to run the AC on 72, refuse to change the 88 cent filter (even when given a stack), trashes the stove, breaks the ice-maker, won't change a bulb, hoardes items of no value, and insists on putting fifty nail holes in perfect walls to display their inbred relatives? Pay the piper, or own....

[Electrician4you]

Originally Posted by NDak15

If those are as fair as they come I'd hate to see ones that weren't. Most other people I know have gotten screwed with no lube by their landlords. They had very few rights. My experiences were not unique.

And plenty of LLs got screwed with no lube by their tenants. What’s your point? There are bad people on both sides of the fence. I can tell you that at one time my leases were a page long and I had no background check procedure. Now my leases run 9 pages long and everyone gets a background check. Why do you think that is? Is it because I want to create all this additional work and process or because Ive been screwed in the past and I’m unwilling to let it happen again.