A user on TikTok is calling out their landlord after alleging that the landlord falsely claimed to have not received their rent check.
In a video with over 600,000 views, TikTok user James Dapper (@jamesdapper) begins to recount the whole experience.
“My landlord tried to accuse me of not paying rent for the second time,” Dapper starts in his video.
Over the course of the video, Dapper says he attempted to deliver the check to his landlord in person, even taking time off of work to be able to meet his landlord during the hours he said he would be available.
However, when Dapper tried to meet his landlord at the agreed-upon time, he was nowhere to be found. Instead, he told Dapper to simply place the check in his mailbox—an idea for which Dapper had some uncertainty.
Due to this trepidation, Dapper recorded the entire process of himself placing his check in the landlord’s mailbox. This appears to have been the correct move, as the landlord would later accuse Dapper of not paying rent.
“I still have not received your check,” the landlord wrote in a text on Aug. 4. Dapper has a video showing that he placed the check in the landlord’s mailbox on July 31.
@jamesdapper August 1st, 2023 was the 2nd time my landlord acted like he didnt get the rent
♬ Jazz Bossa Nova – TOKYO Lonesome Blue
From here, Dapper decided to call the landlord. While the landlord claimed that he had not had a problem with losing anybody’s check, Dapper countered that he not only had a receipt for the check, but a video showing that he did, in fact, place the check in the landlord’s mailbox. Dapper then reiterated that issues like these are why he prefers to pay the rent in person.
Upon hearing that Dapper had a video showing he had attempted to pay rent, and after Dapper said he would cancel the check he already wrote, the landlord quickly changed his story. He then said that he had actually received the check and had simply “misplaced” it.
“Yeah, of course you did,” Dapper states in the video.
From there, the landlord accused Dapper of having a cat and not paying the requisite pet fee. Dapper does not have a cat as his roommate is “deathly allergic to cats.” Upon challenging the landlord on this point, the landlord backed down again, and Dapper was not made to pay the pet fee.
Disdain for landlords appears to be on the rise. There are a variety of reasons why this may be the case; for example, renters have reported massive rent increases with no change in rental conditions. In some cases, landlords have even ignored issues with the building, and if municipalities implement measures to try to combat rental increases, some have found ways to circumvent those regulations.
In the comments section of Dapper’s video, users were alarmed at the landlord’s brazenness.
“He really thought you would pay him double rent?? lol like has this worked for him before??” questioned a user.
“That landlord is playing entirely too much,” stated a second.
Other commenters shared their own advice for those in similar situations.
“Working in banking for 6 years. you can go to the bank where it was drawn off of and have them pull the check copy to see who cashed it,” wrote a user.
“Make sure when you move out.. record everything before leaving on how you kept the apartment,” added another. “He’s gonna try something.”
Thankfully, Dapper says he’s moving out of the apartment soon—and plans to record everything about the apartment before he does.
The Daily Dot reached out to Dapper via email.
