Spiders, sewage and a flurry of fees - the other side of renting a house from Wall Street

[Auggie]

EYEBROW: Invitation Homes, the largest landlord of single-family houses in the U.S., boasts of providing a uniquely “worry free” experience. Tenants don't always agree, and critics of big money's push into the business say complaints about skimpy upkeep and excessive fees show the company puts investors first.

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ESPARTO, California – The rental home seemed so beautiful when McKayla Ferreira first laid eyes on it. The roof had three gables, fruit trees grew in the backyard, and the front porch gleamed with a fresh coat of paint.

Then Ferreira moved in.

First, she noticed water leaking through the bathroom and kitchen ceilings. Then she found a furry black mold spreading across the walls and raw sewage sluicing through the crawl space. Worst, to her, were the black widow spiders swarming her kitchen cupboards and linen closets. “Those spiders were so big you could hear them,” Ferreira said. “They sounded like fingernails scraping a table.”

Ferreira called her landlord, Invitation Homes Inc, a creation of private equity giant Blackstone Group LP. The spiders were a “housekeeping issue,” the company representative told her, and she should “clean the place up.” Invitation Homes wasn’t enthusiastic about fixing the leaks, either. Two months passed before it sent someone to cut through the ceiling and fix the pipes, Ferreira said. Then the company took seven more months to patch it all up.

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-housing-invitation/

Spread it far and wide -- stay away from these cockroaches.

[maddiemom]

1. Totally agree that this is a horror story...

but "black widow" spiders? Aren't they very small?

[Lochloosa]

2. Common in Florida. And yes, they are small.

The body length (excluding legs) of the mature female is 8–13 mm (0.31–0.51 in), 3–6 mm (0.12–0.24 in) for males.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latrodectus_mactans

[Silver Gaia]

3. No, they can be quite large, especially here in California.

I've seen plenty of them out in the yard, but NEVER in the house. They don't really like being indoors, which makes me wonder what kind of spiders these were if they were in closets and cupboards. Regardless of what kind they were, it's not a housekeeping problem. It's a maintenance problem because: how are they getting in? Are cracks caulked and do doors and windows have weatherstripping? Do windows have screens? Lots of issues there, regardless of what kind of spiders.

[csziggy]

4. If you look at the article both spiders pictured are black widows

Black widow spiders can be up to 1.5 inches long, legs included.

Adults: The female Southern black widow, as described by Mote and Gray (1935), is a shiny black spider with a distinctive red hourglass on the abdomen. The Southern black widow has a complete hourglass, while the Western species’ hourglass can vary from two connected triangles to separated triangles to a minimum of barely visible red blotches. The Northern widow typically has the hourglass on their abdomen but some individuals lack it completely (Kaston 1954). Females are typically 3.75 to 5 cm long including the leg span, while their bodies are 1.25 cm long. Male Southern black widows are smaller, typically with a 0.6 cm long body (Mote and Gray 1935). Male Southern black widows lack the characteristic hourglass of the female, but may have red spotting on the top or underside of the abdominal segment.
http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/urban/spiders/black_widow_spider.htm