A rental should be more than just a roof over our heads. It should be clean, reasonably equipped, and furnished with pieces that are intact and comfortable to use.This house was not that. The furniture was worn and dirty enough that we did not want to sit on it without a blanket. Closets, the garage, the pantry, and the cabinets were filled with the owners’ leftover belongings and debris. One of the kitchen cabinet doors was missing, and the fronts of few drawers were falling off. The carpet was unraveling in places and a rug on the stairs was covering damage to the wood surface. The outdoor grill was dirty. The track of the sliding glass door to the backyard was packed with filth. One pan still had solidified grease in it. The bottom of the pool was scattered with hundreds of dead worms. The towels were ratty.The garage was especially cluttered: an old box spring, broken chairs, a wadded-up pool cover, and three dog crates. It looked as if the owners had downsized and left most of their things behind, doing only the bare minimum to put the house on the rental market.We weren’t asking for the moon - we just expected a clean, usable home. This experience has greatly shaken our confidence in renting another property in the future.