‘It’s incredibly expensive to be poor’: Man exposes heartless landlord who charges subscription fees for fans, microwaves, and dishwashers

The biggest reason superhero movies aren’t all the rage they used to be? Because people have, in many cruel ways, discovered that in real life, the monsters are humans. They don’t have the ability to turn back time or shoot lasers from their eyes, and why would they need to, when they have the supremely inhuman ability to manipulate, dominate, and bring someone to the brink of desperation for their benefit?

And if there was ever doubt about who fits this description best, @medievalfilthcauldrons has re-confirmed in his TikTok video that the honor belongs to evil landlords heartlessly doing their best to squeeze every dime they can from their tenants, knowing that they are in a position of power. The landlord the TikToker bashes in his video proudly boasts how everything from ceiling fans, dishwashers, microwaves, to even garbage disposals are “luxury items” in his dictionary, and something for which he charges his Section 8 tenants separately.

So, these basic amenities that he provides with an additional charge can’t be bypassed. For example, if you are a tenant of this man, and try to install one of your own ceiling fans after hearing that he will charge you extra for it, one of the regular inspections he carries out may reveal your attempt to avoid paying the unjustified subscription charges, will be noticed and penalized, and may even result in your immediate eviction.

Wow, right? Selfishness and manipulation no longer feel the need to hide, as the landlord exposed in the video brazenly flaunts more of such revelations on his TikTok handle, boasting how he got rich off Section 8, as he owns hundreds of such properties that follow this practice. This entitled man has absolutely no qualms about mooching off of people who need Section 8 housing assistance — low-income families, the disabled, and the elderly.

Yep, one of the many in the comments who found this exploitation relatable summed it up the best — “It’s incredibly expensive to be poor.”

Evidently, this is a plague many have experienced and continue to face, as one shared how they attained justice when they faced something similar years ago, and had their “landlords banned for life from HUD in 2002 after they charged me for “appliances” monthly. If I remember correctly it was around $160. Rules are strictly enforced for this.”

As far as common knowledge of federal housing assistance goes, what this landlord is doing does sound incredibly illegal. And yet, he has been doing it for years, and doesn’t shy away from boldly flaunting how he bought himself a massive bungalow, a yacht, and two Rolls-Royces by unethically forcing his Section 8 tenants to give him more money. 

So, how has he managed to bypass the law for so long? Many in the comments demanded him being reported to the HUD immediately, and while some are certain this is a “direct violation” and is “actually very illegal to do IN EVERY STATE,” the majority are sure that it is a fraud only in a few states. It is very much possible that he found a loophole — possibly the fact that the appliances he mentions are not deemed a necessity — as evidenced by many of his fellow landlords’ indignant responses in the comments — he “charge rent for appliances, its unsavory as hell but legal depending on the state.”

Another rather heartbreaking possibility was outlined by a comment, explaining that even though his practices are most probably illegal, “he gets away with it bc he is exploiting section 8 tenants. They don’t report bc it’s SO HARD to find section 8 housing and they’re scared they’ll lose their home if the building gets sold to someone else.”

In one of his videos, @tcruznc, the landlord in question, actually defends his ways, stressing that he has seen many tenants with BMWs parked out front and how they deliberately don’t have bank accounts to avoid taxes as well as to get the government housing vouchers. It could be true, but does that give him the right to torture every Section 8 tenant, to make money off of the heartbreaking reality where nearly 327,000 people in the United States were homeless from 2018-2022?

HUD reports that almost 653,100 people in the U.S. experienced homelessness on a single night in 2023. This is 12% higher than what 2022 saw. Unscrupulous landlords are abusing the section of society that needs helping hands to survive, greedy individuals looking for ways to dominate the defenseless and weak, and proving that laws exist for them to exploit, rather than protecting the rights of the poor to find the stable ground they desperately need.