Being a tenant comes with a lot of restrictions and responsibilities – all of these are necessary to protect the landlord and the property that he is renting out to you. A landlord does a lot of renovation and maintenance on their property to make sure that their tenants are satisfied enough to see it as a place they can call home for a couple of years.

Source: The Primary Market

But not all tenants have the decency to put into consideration all the hard work their landlords have placed into their homes. This landlord found himself in a bit of mess with his tenants and eventually got his cold revenge.

Meet Thomas

Thomas Ravaux is a landlord from France who planned to make a steady income by renting out his properties. Renting out, as we all know, brings a steady amount of money monthly and that is a very sustainable source of income even when the economy is in a bad place.

Source: The Primary Market

Thomas had spent some time renovating an apartment so he could rent it out. He took care of everything from the plumbing to the paint on the walls. He even had the hardwood floors of the house rebuffed. He wanted the apartment to stand out as one that would make a good home for anyone who needed it.

Hands-on landlord

As a landlord, Thomas was very hands-on. He paid a lot of attention to details. He often compared his place to other apartments in the market. He spent quite some time doing the renovations and setting up his apartment before putting it out on the market.

Source: The Primary Market

While most landlords would not care about renovations, Thomas was different. He made sure his tenants would feel at home and he hoped that his tenants would cherish his property enough to take good care of it.

Not a first-timer

Thomas has been a landlord for a considerable amount of years. Before this particular apartment, he has bought, renovated, and rented out other apartments as well. You can say he knows his thing when it comes to renting out.

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All of his tenants in the past had been very good and decent people who kept his apartments in good condition. So, when he met the new tenants for this apartment he had been working hard on, he had no idea that they would be the tenants from hell.

Getting his tenants

Thomas eventually rented out his home to a young couple who had three children. They looked like a decent family who would be able to enjoy the place. They also looked like they were nice enough to take good care of his apartment.

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The protocol for renting out a place was very simple. All he had to do was make the tenants sign a contract and they can move in immediately. Back then, he could not see any red flags. The couple was nice and easy to talk to and their kids seem to be well-mannered.

Patient enough

Everything had been going smoothly until it was time for the first rent to be paid. Thomas checked his bank account a couple of times that week and found that no money came in from his tenants. Thomas decided to let it go and thought that maybe the family just forgot about the rental.

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However, weeks turned into months and there was no rent to be seen. Thomas started to get worried. When four months had passed, he decided to give the bank a call to confirm that no payments had been made from the tenants.

Trying to make contact

Thomas was starting to feel mad. How could anyone forget to pay their rent? He decided to give the apartment a call. No one was picking up. Thomas dialed the number a few times but the tenants seem to be off the radar.

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Thomas tried all that he can to communicate with the family. None of his letters, calls, and messages were returned. Fourteen months had passed when he decided to visit the apartment himself.

Visiting the apartment

While most landlords would start evicting tenants after just a few months of not paying the rent, Thomas had been very patient and waited for more than a year before a personal confrontation. Maybe he was too patient and kind for his good?

Source: The Primary Market

Any tenant would be lucky to have someone as patient as Thomas for a landlord. It seemed like 14 months was the limit to Thomas’s patience. He decided to drive to the apartment to confront the tenants and evict them if they refused to cooperate with him.

A note on the door

When the landlord walked up to the door of the apartment, he noticed a small handwritten note on the door. The note said, “Ring this doorbell”. Thomas was confused. Why wouldn’t they hear the knocks on the door? It was not a huge place.

Source: The Primary Market

Thomas started looking for the doorbell and what he found instead shocked him. The doorbell had been pulled off from its socket. It looked like someone tried to wire it or tamper with it. What’s going on?

Tenants in trouble

The state of the tampered doorbell bothered Thomas. What if someone tried to break into the apartment? What if all this time, his tenants had been in trouble? Should he call the police before trying to enter the apartment?

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But Thomas’s curiosity got the best of him and he decided to press the doorbell. A disturbing and loud sound was produced. If anyone was in there, there is no way it could be ignored. But still, nobody came to the door.

Entering the apartment

No one seemed to answer his knocks on the door or the disturbingly loud doorbell. Thomas concluded that nobody was home. So, he decided to use his spare key to get inside the apartment. The moment the door opened, he immediately knew that something was wrong.

Source: The Primary Market

At this point, Thomas was expecting that his tenants had already run out on him and that he will be stepping in on an empty apartment. He definitely was not expecting this. What he saw caused him to freeze by the door in shock.

Dumpster living

The apartment was a mess. It looked like a dumpster with trash overflowing out of every corner and room. The horrible smell was overwhelming. Thomas could not believe his eyes. As he reluctantly explored the house to see the extent of his damage, he noticed that the tenants had a dog. There was a leash and feces on the ground.

Source: The Primary Market

How could a family with three young kids live this way? Isn’t it illegal for someone to raise children in an environment that was as unhealthy and filthy as this one? Thomas could not imagine the decent family that he first met months before would be living like savages.

The rancid smell

Thomas started to head to the kitchen where he knew the horrible stench was coming from. He was already filled with dread anticipating the mess. Takeout containers and cardboard boxes were everywhere.

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There were dirty dishes and rotting food in the sink. Thomas dared to open the fridge and see more rotten food and molds in it. He could not believe that his tenants would leave the place like this.

Property damage

As if the trash all over the place was not enough, Thomas found bigger damage. The furniture he had provided for the apartment were destroyed and broken. Even the walls were not spared. There were holes in the drywall.

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Thomas took a while to recover after realizing how much damage this family had done to the apartment. In addition to that, they had been living there rent-free since day one. He was a landlord that was not paid and left with a trashed apartment.

No time for regrets

The sight of what had happened to the apartment Thomas had renovated himself was heartbreaking. However, he decided not to let his sadness and disappointment get to him. He decided to teach these tenants a lesson.

Source: The Primary Market

Thomas used his anger and frustration to come up with a plan to teach his tenants a lesson. All disappointment and regrets had to be put aside for now. He needed to execute the perfect revenge.

A reasonable revenge

Of course, Thomas was a reasonable man. He had to make sure that whatever plan he would execute, he would have the law by his side. The first thing he did was to take a lot of pictures for proof. Then, he sent those pictures to a lawyer and discussed what could be done about the situation.

Source: The Primary Market

Thomas also asked some people to come over to the apartment and check it out so that they can be called in as witnesses. He needed to have a lot of proof and witnesses to back him up in case the tenants decide to turn the tables around.

Getting intel

Thomas decided to approach the neighbors to gather intel. He asked the neighbors if they noticed when the tenants moved out. According to the neighbors, no one has been in and out of the apartment for weeks. But they could not give an exact date on when the family abandoned it.

Source: The Primary Market

Thomas felt angry that the tenants had abandoned the apartment this way after paying no rent for more than a year. He could not believe that his kindness and patience were met with betrayal.

The viral post

Thomas could not believe the state of the apartment that he had spent so much time renovating on. He could not help but take pictures of the trashed apartment and post them on Facebook. For any landlord who had placed so much time and effort on their property, this was a nightmare.

Source: The Primary Market

His post went viral in a few days. Everyone was shocked to see the before and after photos and could not believe that a family could live that way. What the tenants did to Ravaux was inhumane.

No negotiations

Thomas knew that this situation meant no space for negotiations. A family that can live this way and avoids paying rent for a year will not be a family that can be negotiated with. With the state they left the apartment in, it seemed like the couple had no shred of basic human decency left in them.

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No matter what their motivations or reasons were for abandoning the apartment this way, Thomas knew that this was not a matter to settle in court. Thomas knew that the only way he can get some form of justice is to give them a taste of their own medicine.

Cleaning up

Thomas knew that he had to clean up the apartment himself and get the trash out. What happened in the apartment was too much for him to do so he enlisted the help of a cleaning service.

Source: The Primary Market

But he did not ask them to throw the trash out just yet. He just wanted everything out of the apartment and to have the apartment cleaned. He had plans for all the things and garbage the tenants had left behind.

Where did the trash go?

You must be wondering what Thomas did with all that trash the family left behind. It turned out, he set them aside to be a part of his plans for revenge. There was no way he was going to deal with the trashed apartment all by himself.

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Thomas hired a truck to keep all the garbage and other stuff the tenants left behind. When his apartment was finally cleared and cleaned, the landlord could not wait to work on his revenge.

Tracking down the tenants

Thomas spent some time trying to track down the tenants. He had to find out where they were so that he can do his revenge. Soon enough, he found out that the family moved in a place not so far from the apartment and he was able to get an address.

Source: The Primary Market

Thomas drove to the location and had the garbage truck he rented behind him. He planned to make a surprise visit, where his ex-tenants will not be able to see him coming. Thomas had a surprise delivery for them.

An unexpected delivery

When they reached the new address of the tenants, Thomas started filming as the truck backed up in front of the driveway. People who were around started to stop and see what was about to happen.

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People watched in shock as the truck backed up and deposited all its contents right by the front door. All this time, Thomas was unable to hold back his smile and happiness as he continued to film the commotion.

Sweet revenge

For Thomas, he believed that the only revenge he could give is to do to the couple what they had done to him. The couple trashed his apartment, and he was going to deliver back that trash to them.

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Seeing all the trash deposited right in front of their doorstep made Thomas feel like he finally got his justice. Thomas uploaded the video on YouTube and it immediately turned to another viral post.

Mixed reactions

A lot of people had seen the YouTube video and most of them were impressed by Thomas’ elaborate plan. Most of them supported his payback actions and some landlords wished they were able to do the same to the bad tenants they have had.

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But of course, some commenters pointed out that it was not the best idea. All Thomas did was trash someone else’s property and it was the new landlord who had to deal with everything and not the family.

Thinking ahead

Thomas was a smart man. He made sure he thought ahead. Before the plan took place, he did confirm the legality of his actions so that he will not be in trouble with the law. The new tenants are accountable for it instead of the new landlord.

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Thomas explained that the pictures he had posted of the trashed apartment do not even fully capture the extent of the damages done to it. Everything needed serious repairs from the walls to the floor. The entire place had to be thoroughly disinfected.

No fear

Thomas also went as far as talking to the authorities beforehand before laying out his plan. When it came to legal issues, the landlord had no fear because the law was by his side. For those wondering, Thomas was told later on that the couple was forced to deal with the mess themselves. Mission accomplished!

Source: The Primary Market

Thomas believed that the revenge he made was justified. It had to be brutal because of the lack of respect, the rent that was never paid, plus the damages that had to be repaired. He had to spend a small fortune to clean and fix the apartment.

An inspiration to all landlords

The unique way that Thomas taught his tenants from hell a lesson was indeed a story that stood out and went viral. A lot of landlords from all over the world applauded his moves and related his struggles. Thomas was lucky in a way that the family moved out of their own accord because in America, getting rid of tenants is not that easy.

Source: The Primary Market

Landlords started sharing their own horror stories about tenants they have had and they were inspired by Thomas to take action. Now that the apartment is cleared and clean, we hope Thomas will be able to rent it out to a more decent tenant and that he would not wait for about a year before he starts asking for rent this time.