Landlord Insists Tenant Shower at Odd Intervals To ‘Catch Hot Water'

JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor

Jun 4, 2026 8:30 AM EDT

If you have to "catch" the hot water, something is deeply wrong.

There is nothing more frustrating than turning on your water to shower, only to realize that the hot water is never coming. Your soul is immediately crushed. That's what happened to the tenant in this story shared on the r/renters subreddit. You wonder if it's just taking a while to heat up, but in your heart, you know the truth. The hot water is not coming. You know something is wrong. You're standing there, ready to wash away all the grime of the day, wondering what you can do. It's a terrible thing. And when you don't own the home (as many of us don't), then you have very little control over what gets fixed in your house and when. You rely on a landlord to take care of those things, and they're often pretty bad at their jobs. They have you cornered. They know you need a place to live, so they try to get away with as much as they can. They make you put up with stuff you would never put up with if it were anyone else. What do you mean, I have to shower at specific times? As far as I know, I'm not in jail. I'm in an apartment that I pay way too much for, and you should probably figure out what is going on with the hot water. It's really not that much to ask.

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Landlord told me I need to shower at odd times to "catch hot water."

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The person in this story found themselves in a difficult situation, where it seemed like their landlord was asking them to do something impossible. You want to be able to take a hot shower whenever you're home. That's part of the promise of renting an apartment. If they aren't providing that for you, then there is not a lot of ground they have to stand on. But that's what was happening here. The tenant was left wondering what they could do about it. Keep reading to see what happened and decide what you think.
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