Thats my opinion as a landlord myself.

And all you really have to do is paint over it with a sealant. Was he planning to rent the apartment without painting it?

That red carpet looks like it's from the 20s.

How long has it been empty? And how long did he have tenants living like that?

And how many tenants WERE evicted so the landlord could get the outlawed 20% vacancy bump?

Sorry. Not sorry.

Slum-something or other

I was the office manager at a contractor's office & he also owned over a dozen duplex units. He was such an excellent landlord, we had a long list of names of people to call when there was a vacancy, which wasn't often. All his units had a washer/dryer & he took care of maintenance & had a regular schedule for carpet cleaning & painting. His longest renter had been there 9 years & there were several over 5 years. One renter lived in 3 different units over the years. I worked for him for 3 years & he raised the rent $50 a month once. Having rented for 10 years myself, he was an exception, for sure!

What happens to that money?

the first and last month's rent, and covers any possible damages caused while you lived there.

They could get units up to code and work with the tenants and some kind of sweat equity where the tenant could paint, cleaning in exchange for a security deposit or work out an agreement where both have a stake to live there. Seems one sided to me with loopholes and just sitting empty is worse.

Landlords have been running this bullshit line forever.