[quote=JBurkett19]Sounds like many of your concerns are a bit paranoid.

As far as watering the grass, wouldn’t you want to be in a place with green grass? Keep in mind that when a tenant enters a house with green grass and leaves with brown or no grass, that costs the property owner time and money. Most importantly time. Besides, the water portion of the bill is not the expensive part. The sewer and other charges make up at least 80- 90% percent of the bill.

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This is not hypothetical. At a previous SFR, someone from the city water survey program came out and confirmed that the yard was being over-watered by a factor of 2-3 given the plant types, soil condition, climate zone, etc. The landlord ignored this information and insisted on the over-watering schedule. The yard was at greater risk of damage from over-watering than of drying out and dying from under-watering by a fair margin.

You should note that both water and sewer rates have a proportional component to metered water usage (for sewer, this is up to the first 20 HCF/mo in SD). Also, both the base rate and the per usage rates for water and sewer are quite comparable. Your claim does not seem accurate.

[quote=JBurkett19]
As far as a landlord passing by for visits, or entering without notice- I wouldn’t worry too much about that. Believe that the landlord doesn’t want to go to the house for nothing more than collecting rent. They don’t want to hear from tenants at all, unless there’s a problem.
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Again, not hypothetical, and your claim has no supporting evidence. While as a landlord I would not visit the property unannounced and in violation of tenant’s rights, it does not mean other landlords will behave the same (even if it is the expected rational behavior).

And, despite the fact that it is a violation of tenant’s rights, it is in practice very difficult to assert one’s rights as a tenant (without considerable hassle and possible legal action). Just like one may have the right-of-way at an intersection, that offers little protection if another car takes that right-of-way illegitimately. A collision would still be dangerous and severely inconvenient even to the party that had the legal right-of-way.

I think the fundamental question remains unanswered: How does one determine a good landlord from a bad/crazy one before renting the property?