I will tell you a story. My dad, when I was a kid, owned about 4 small frame houses which he rented out. Nothing extravagant, but nice, safe neighborhoods. My dad was so nice he hated to ask for the rent when people were late on payment. Many times after 10 days or so he went to the house to try to collect the rent only to find that the people had gone, the place was trashed, windows often knocked out and all sorts of problems. He got out of the buisness when he went over to one of the rent houses and the people who had rented had long gone. There was human excrement in 3 or 4 corners of rooms. They had urinated anywhere in the house the urge struck them. (The plumbing worked fine.) We shoveled the turds out, and wiped the crap up as best we could, and them went inside on the linoleum floor with a garden hose and after pouring lysol over the surface washed it out like you would a dirty garage floor. The carpeting, we ripped up had to have replaced. Several windows were knocked out and a door had a hole big enough to put your head thru. Somehow, this was not what being a landlord was all about in his mind. He sold all four houses at a very reasonable price and stuck the money in Humble Oil and Refinery (EXXON). Seems these renters spoken of in this article have become more sofisticated at gaming the system. I believe if most people do not own property, they will not respect anyones private property.
In Massachusetts, we would have called those people good tenants.
After all, they left, no matter how much damage they did, and they didn't kill anyone in your family.
Oh my! Your poor father. He sounds like such a nice person and completely undeserving of such treatment.
You have, unfortunately, made me wonder if the carpet in my place was soaked from doggie urine or if it was from the tenants themselves. I pulled that carpet out all by myself, too. Yikes. Thanks for putting that thought in my head.
(I'm just teasing you--whatever it was it's over and done with.)
I still feel bad for lying to the new landlord about my tenants from hell, but it was a property management company and hopefully they got them out quickly once they figured out how awful they were. Truly, I was at my wit's end.
"stuck the money in Humble Oil and Refinery (EXXON)"
Then he did okay, very okay, didn't he? Sheesh, he's probably a millionnaire by now.
It must have been a message from God.
Your Dad was much to nice a guy to be a landlord. I had a friend (very Christian man) who rented to two Lesbians. He called me one day and ask if I could help him fix the plumbing in the rental and I agreed. We walked into the house and I was literally floored by the odor. These perverts had been living with several cat and dogs that they had allowed to crap anywhere they wanted to even on their bed. The toilet had been stopped up with something and they just kept on crapping on top of it until they moved out to the back yard to do their business. There were sex toys and lewd pictures everywhere. I told him the the toilet was a total loss and to just replace it. He ended up tearing out the carpeting and scrubbing the floors with lysol. He sold the house shortly after that. Nasty, nasty people.