Landlord Nighmares, One of Many

Laura was talking with son Johnny about some of the family rentals and experiences when Johnny said,"That's a good story." This got Laura thinking, maybe some of these stories should be shared, it might educate, entertain and enlighten other landlords, potential landlords or any person that may wonder what it's like to be a landlord. This first story was about a person on the coast of Oregon who our company rented to. This person had two children and a wife, later the number of residents grew without the permission of the landlord. Since the Oregon coast is a very depressed area, our company decided to "work with" the deposit, meaning, allow the tenant time to come up with the deposit after they moved in. Once the tenant was allowed to move, they were instructed to have the utilities changed into their name, which the company found out they never did.

After 5 months of free living

Including no rent payments

No attempt to come up with the deposit

The company had to begin the eviction process. The tenants promptly went to a legal aid attorney and told some story the legal aid attorney believed. Soon, letters from the attorney began arriving at the property management address explaining that this tenant needed time to find a new resident and before long, the management company was forced to allow the tenants to have an additional month free, plus pay all the utilities. Now, in a recession people do have struggles, not just tenant, but landlords. Some how, the legal system in this case only recognized the struggles of the tenant and not the landlord. In the last month of the tenants residency, they decided to sabotage the rental, destroying property, stripping the wire from the house,hauling in junk and breaking auto glass all over the yard. Many big black sacks of garbage filled the house, most of them being opened and scattered on the floors. One of the many unsanitary conditions will be described; over 20 soda bottles of human urine was found in one of the bedroom closets. Human beings can become very vindictive and destructive when they want to. The wiring in the house had been tampered with, so when a worker plugged in a light to work, there was a dangerous explosion. The whole house had to be rewired. Let me remind you that this is a family that the property management company had shown mercy to, great patience and yet was rewarded with $1,000's in repairs and dump fees. Lessons learned? Start naming them.

I'll name one, BEWARE OF PROFESSIONAL BAD RENTERS!