Real Life Stories of Landlord vs. Tenant Woes
Over at Building an Empire, Trisha a full time investor and Realtor shares her woes as a landlord. You can read from her posts the sweet and sour details of being a landlord. On her recent articles, she particularly discussed about a tenant that doesn’t ran out of complaints. This tenant happens to pay the lowest rent and is always delayed in payment. For a change, she was actually happy for that tenant not to pay her rent, so she can legally evict her before she loses the better tenants in the building.
At LandlordShmandlord, he discussed his mistake in not screening tenants. As you read his articles;which are his real life experiences, you will discover that it was a costly mistake in his time and finances not to do a background check of the tenants.. He actually had to go through an eviction suit just to get rid of the tenants.
Some tenants would not only take advantage of their landlords but they will find loop holes in the contract in order to legally stay and put the landlord at their mercy. I remember when I was practicing as a Realtor, some landlords would not accept lawyers as tenants because of these "contract loop hole issues".
Meanwhile, my grandmother’s case was one of the worst landlord vs. tenant injustices I’ve personally witnessed. This happened in Manila, Philippines. My grandmother had an apartment complex, with 5 units. When my grandfather died, she decided to just give that particular estate to two of her children; my aunt and uncle. The lot will be subdivided into two for them to build their houses. The tenants will need to vacate the premises.
During the eviction time, one of the tenants declined to vacate the premises due to his low rent. My dad helped my grandmother file a law suit to evict that tenant. The tenant counter filed for a severe hardship clause,that they ended up staying in my grandmother’s apartment for 1 year without paying rent. My grandmother had to accept the deal just to evict that tenant. All those years that the tenant was renting from my grandparents, he enjoyed low rent. Instead of being grateful for the opportunity that was given to him, he had to take advantage till the end of his tenancy. But, the biggest injustice is… that tenant is not really in severe hardship. He could send his two children to a private school and he is even operating a small business!
Being nice to your tenants and giving them privileges are not a guarantee that they will do the same to you. It is a bonus service that could attract good tenants to stay longer but are also a magnet for bad tenants to take advantage. Thus, it doesn’t matter if you are only a small investor or big investor, or if you are handling only 1 tenant or numerous tenants… in the end; screening of tenants, doing everything in accordance with the law, getting a fair rental rate for you apartment and having a good contract in place is best done before you actually rent the property. Missing these small details at the onset of your rental term can be a very costly experience in time, money and effort.
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