Landlord Calls Out Deadbeat Tenants With Spray Paint
Here’s a nice cheery story that could not possibly happen in the Real Bay Area (RBA).
Fed up landlord spray paints "deadbeat tenants" on home
By Tom Roussey
Posted: Aug 04, 2010 7:50 PM PDT
Updated: Aug 05, 2010 7:57 AM PDTCHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) – A landlord who says she’s fed up with some tenants who refuse to pay their rent decided to take matters into her own hands with spray paint.
Landlord Vanessa McCants spray painted the words "deadbeat tenants" on a house she owns in the Reedy Creek subdivision of Northeast Charlotte.
McCants says the tenants have not paid the $1300 a month rent since June 1st, and have now missed two payments.
McCants says the home is being foreclosed on and will be auctioned off next week.
This is the sort of story that demands a visual. Fortunately for you, both parties are stupid enough to do so, just so they could be on television. Be sure to catch when the landlord calls her tenants “ghetto people” at around 1:23.
So, the tenants don’t want to pay rent because the landlord is about to get foreclosed on. The landlord says it’s still her house so they must pay the rent, or as she put it, “The bank don’t have it yet.” The auction should have just happened this week. McCants believes the tenants stopped paying the rent, figuring eviction proceedings would take longer than the foreclosure process.
The tenant, Shanae Jackson, admitted withholding the rent, since she said she couldn’t afford to both pay rent and pay for a move. She said her security deposit should cover the rent, but McCants said the deposit was to cover damage. Jackson called the police about the garage tagging, but was told it is not a crime for a landlord to spray paint her own property. Whew! And you thought the only benefit to homeownership was the joy of watering your own lawn!
Of course, landlords not paying their mortgages while collecting tenant rent is a problem that never happens in the RBA, just in the East Bay. In the RBA, if a tenant stopped paying rent, the landlord would simply refinance another property to cover the cashflow disruption. Besides, the tenant is probably putting the rent money into their Web 3.0 startup… in the very garage the landlord isn’t spray painting.
August 14th, 2010 at 9:48 am
madhaus- As you could probably guess, I generally agree with the entire post, but I do want to consider:
1. What if some RBA tenant doesn’t pay the rent? Let’s get this out of the way–That tenant is only a transient guest of the RBA.
2. Next, and this is almost as important, does rent really matter in the RBA? Cash flow is not the important part of RBA ownership–it’s all about the housing price appreciation. A transient guest who doesn’t pay the rent only takes the icing off the cake for a short period of time. We all know the cake will be fully restored soon enough.
3. Outside of the RBA, this tenant should have suggested that she didn’t want to pay the wrong owner. I’ve read the other story: The tenant pays the rent to the landlord when the “landlord” is no longer the owner, and thus as former owner is really the former landlord. In one case, before some legal changes have been happening as of late, the tenant lost deposit, a couple months rent (the lender suggested in court that he should be paid as the rightful owner, and the fact that the tenant paid the former owner does not eliminate the responsibility to the rightful owner).
4. And finally, as previously discussed foreclosure can not happen in the RBA, for various reasons, including the fact that RBA property values are always significantly higher than the amount owed.
August 15th, 2010 at 1:22 am
Good News! Billions earmarked for transportation projects in the Bay Area. In addition, another $10 billion in innovation fund has been created by the law to test and promote healthcare technologies. The forecast says that Bay Area is going to be raining money soon.
August 15th, 2010 at 10:16 am
Real Estater- With all those billions earmarked, you’d better buy those two rental properties, or you’ll be priced out forever.