'Everything is on fire': Man slams landlord for charging tenants fee for ceiling fans

America’s affordable housing crisis is getting worse by the day. With more people unable to afford rent, many are turning to federally funded programs like Section 8 housing. The program provides rental assistance by paying a portion of rent for low-income families, seniors, and people with disabilities, but as per a TikTok creator, landlords have found ways to exploit it.

Andrew (@medievalfilthcauldrons on TikTok) called out a landlord on for renting out basic amenities such as ceiling fans to section 8 tenants.

Landlords are squeezing everything out of tenants

In the video, Andrew does a stitch with a video shared by a landlord, Thomas Cruz (@tcruznc), where he talks about renting out “luxury amenities.” In his video, Cruz says that he rents out ceiling fans to his Section 8 tenants. Andrew takes over and says that the audience heard it right, this landlord was indeed charging his tenants for ceiling fans. Andrew goes on to say that he has shared many videos of the landlord in the past. He says the landlord shares his wisdom with others on how to squeeze out every dollar possible from Section 8 tenants.

Andrew then switches back to Cruz’s video, where he adds that his tenants also rent amenities like food disposals, dishwashers, and other basic amenities which the landlord calls “luxury amenities." It may sound illegal but under the Section 8 program, landlords aren’t required to provide such amenities. Like Cruz, several other landlords and experts recommend not providing amenities to the tenants.

Andrew further explains that it doesn’t end there. Apart from renting out basic amenities, the landlord conducts frequent inspections to ensure tenants don’t hang up their own ceiling fans or other equipment. The landlord even fines tenants for using their own equipment.  "You’ll have to take it down. And if you don’t, they’ll evict you,” Andrew says in the video. Getting an eviction record on history is in no way good for a tenant’s future housing search.

Andrew expresses his frustration with Cruz and the practices of such landlords in general.  “This person is the perfect example of why we’re in the situation that we currently are with this housing market,” Andrew says. He goes on to explain that Cruz owns a few hundred properties and they are all set up like that. Tenants who seek federal help to even pay rent are forced to pay a fee to get something like a microwave or a ceiling fan. Andrew ends his video by saying, “It’s no wonder everything is on fire, and we’re all gonna crash and burn, very, very soon.”

Viewers in the comment section were surprised to learn about the practices of the landlords. “I always wondered why people would destroy the apartments before they left. He is kind of answering that question for me. I don’t agree with it but it does shed light on the situation,” wrote user @fluffymuffin04.

Several others attested to the situation sharing their own experiences. “I had a landlord once charge separately for the freezer and fridge parts of the refrigerator. Now I have a landlord that doesn’t charge me his pet rent because he thinks my cat is cute”, added user @iamkatieborg.

For more such informative videos and interesting content, follow Andrew (@medievalfilthcauldrons) on TikTok.