QUESTION: We are just curious what are the best excuses that you have received from your Tenants concerning not being able to stay?We have a policy of ‘No Pay, No Stay’.When the Eviction Date rolls around and we have not received rent, the Eviction process begins and continues until we ‘see and feel the money’.Even though we have a policy of ‘No Pay, No Stay’ our Tenants like to give us lots of excuses.My Husband and I were talking about how 3 different Tenants (1 in one MHP and 2 in another MHP) came up with the same excuse:’ I left my Rent Money (1 was Lot Rental & 2 were MH Rentals) on my Kitchen Table and someone came into my house and stole my money.'First of all who leaves $500 on their Kitchen Table.I understand that the Mobile Home Park world ‘reality’ is different from my ‘reality’ in some respects.However, if I had $500 cash I would hide it somewhere besides plain sight on the Kitchen Table.What are your thoughts?
One we have heard a few times: “The money was in our bank account and a company took it out without authorization.”
John, thanks for your comments.We have a Tenant who tells us to ‘cash his check immediately’ so that there are not any issues with him being overdrawn.Hmmm…How about the Tenant keeping enough money in the Bank to cover ALL the checks that he writes. What a concept :-).
We have one tenant that is NSF 8-10 times per year for the past 7 years. Every time it happens he has a different lame excuse, which in itself is incredible, but he always pays with cash, sometimes even before the bank notifies me of his NSF, and he includes the $20 late fee. Since I do not have any bank fees associated with his NSFs it is a $20 bonus for us most months. He is otherwise a excellent tenant so I let it ride.His excuses run the gauntlet from unexpected bills, bank errors, to hacked bank account, you name it and he has used it. I suspect either he or his wife have a gambling problem so I just ignore his excuses.
My good friend has two masters degree and a couple hundred thousand dollar house with an unactivated alarm system. She recently lost $2000-3000 over the last couple months leaving it sitting out in $500-700 chunks in plain sight. Yeah, more than once. Turned out it was the sometimes dog sitter… but that is my dear, airheaded friend. We like to say it takes a village to raise her. I have no super winners yet, but some: - Bills automatically came out of account unexpectedly (Really, first of the month is still surprising you?) - I thought my husband/wife paid that, I totally sent him/her over with cash to pay that. (Not awkward for me, at all.) - We applied for a community program and we totally will have everything we owe you in X days (I feel like these people should be on the grant writing team for the non-profit I’m involved with since they seem to be masters at getting free $.) I can’t remember the exact conversation, but I was getting after one tenant via text and I had to save the text:“OK does this mean I have to have the rent money because I still don’t have it?” Ya think?
- "I paid, I paid! I got the money out of the bank on the 1st of the month. I’ve paid you! I left the money order on the dash of my grandmother’s car, and she’s driven to Texas for two weeks, … but I paid!"2. “Your manager sees clearly that someone broke into your rent box and ripped-open the envelope I put my money order in and stole my money for you.” (Of course, our heavy-gage steel rent box and the heavy-duty padlock showed no sign of tampering, and all the other envelopes in there with money orders in them were ‘left alone.’ The tenant had obviously ripped-open their own envelope and put it in our rent box without a check in it to begin with.)3. “Oh, gas prices are so high. I just can’t come up with the money this month.” (From a tenant who worked close-by and gas could not have cost them that much.)Enforce NPNS. Charge the highest late fee your state allows. Make tenants respect you and their obligation to pay rent on time. Good luck.-jl-
The funniest excuse I have had was from a tenant the very first month I owned our park. The previous owner had told me she was a criminal dead beat so I was not surprised. After having her dodge me for a week I served her with an eviction notice. She approached me the next day furious that I would dare to try and evict her. She was cursing and swearing at me at the top of her lungs in the middle of the park.Before I could say anything she said “the rules for landlords states that when a new landlord takes over they must introduce themselves to every tenant and if they do not the tenant does not have to pay their rent”. When she stopped to breath I said “Hi, let me introduce myself, I am your next previous landlord, did you bring my rent money”. She paid that day and continued to be a royal pain for about three years until I finally evicted her.
Greg, Lori & Jefferson, thank you for your comments!I love them!
Here’s one I got once, “My Sugar Daddy just left me.” I told her to find another one in a hurry and even gave her a few names - she wasn’t bad looking.
I kid you not, I have an elderly lady with her 2 doggies and she told me;I had to spend the money on my dog at the vet because she got raped and was suffering from Trauma