They didn't pay rent, then stole the fridge. Landlords deal with pandemic squatters

[Dial H For Hero]

https://www.npr.org/2021/10/22/1046154251/they-refused-to-pay-rent-and-stole-the-fridge-landlords-deal-with-pandemic-squat

Just before the pandemic, Nitin Bajaj and his wife Nimisha Lotia rented an apartment they own in Los Angeles to two young women.

"They were really nice to talk to," Lotia says.

But as soon as the pandemic hit, the new renters, both in their late 20s, stopped paying the rent. Lotia says the young women sent them an email saying that COVID-19 had created a financial hardship and that the city had just imposed an eviction ban — so the renters couldn't be evicted.

"No further explanation," she says. "No calls or nothing, just an email, and I think a snapshot of what the city rule was."

(Excerpt)

[dsc]

1. If the facts here are as stated

the renters should be in jail. and the landlady made whole.

[Hortensis]

2. There's a lot of this where crooks can use laws to protect renters

to obtain "free" lodgings, but no doubt it increases in times of economic problems. I ran into it as an appraiser in SoCal, talking with owners who'd been victimized for months and often years by predatory "renters."

During the severe economic downturn and collapse of real estate prices in California after the end of the Cold War, abuse and exploitation of property owners (renters and banks) was epidemic.

As a humanity-loving liberal, I would never have believed how widespread it was if I hadn't seen it for myself, again and again and again. Almost all the homes foreclosed because their owners stopped paying their mortgage were vandalized, often severely -- by them. A new industry of cleaning abandoned goods out of foreclosed homes, cleaning up the poop, painting, repairing -- typically including things like rewiring, replumbing, replacing broken windows, ruined floors, ruined cabinetry, missing fixtures, etc, etc, developed. I seldom saw it personally because a new subspeciality of appraisers for these many thousands of properties also developed to deal with them.

Btw, foreclosed owners tended to fall in two groups, those who bought over their means and found themselves unable to weather even a small downturn and those who could but were unwilling to accept even temporary paper equity numbers below their loan amounts and dishonorably defaulted on their contracts. I still want to believe propensity to this kind of vicious and dishonorable behavior was well above average in those groups and that most people would never behave that way. We know most who rent are not the criminals who move in to steal.

[shrike3]

4. Yes, but many landlords run into that kind of tenant eventually.

I knew one landlord who was thrilled that a lawyer and his wife were moving into one of his properties. Educated, professional people. They didn't get along too well. And they also tended to damage things when they fought. Not a good experience.

[Hortensis]

6. Umhm. A number of times as an appraiser attorney-owners threatened

me with legal action because they didn't like the value I assessed their property at. I was independent in that era and didn't have a big institution's legal department behind me. And then there are the attorneys who refused to pay for services rendered by a company I managed. I seriously would not want to risk renting to an attorney I didn't know well. Won't say never, but!

The criminals I'm talking about, though, move in not intending pay rent after the first time, knowing the laws that protect them and that it'll take months at least to get them out. Not ust bad tenants, hostile occupiers. It's been a while. I imagine the growth of internet resources has at least made it harder for them to find victims.

[shrike3]

14. People have this notion that college educated means classy.

He found out the hard way this isn't always the case.

[Hortensis]

15. If I ever had that notion... Those who defaulted on their mortgages

specifically to dump their equity losses on the banks (who could have refused and sued but didn't because the problem was so widespread -- and because the abandoned properties had to be maintained or fall apart) were usually affluent. It's not like they needed to sell and couldn't, it was all finding a dishonest way of getting out of having to wait a few years for equity gains to start accruing again. Bet most are affluent tRump voters now, proud of more ill-gotten gains than just those. Seriously.

[shrike3]

18. You're probably right.

[Demovictory9]

11. friends rented house to well paid engineer. He immediately ceased paying rent

first month, he said that he'd made repairs on the house, that negated the rent and it went from there. friends had needed the money and were hurt by the lack of rent.

some people are just grifters.

[Elessar Zappa]

5. I've had worse luck with landlords than tenants.

I’ve been both and scummy slumlords are a dime a dozen. I only had a few bad tenants.

[shrike3]

3. My dad was a landlord.

At the end, he was renting out bare shells. People had to bring their own appliances. Fridges and stoves had been stolen too many times. One beaut of a tenant even stole heating oil from the boiler.

Having been a tenant, I can see both sides.

[LakeArenal]

7. I have been a landlord. Tenants are the same people you meet in real life.

Mostly good, some impeccable, some dirty sons of bitches.

People used to think l exaggerated the tales of the shit holes.

But I didn’t. Pictures don’t lie but the smell is hard to convey.

[cbabe]

8. My worst tenants were wealthy young top level college grads. They punched

holes in concrete blocks playing Klingon wars.

Currently have landlord who collects rent with no repairs. Paying for heat and a roof in super tight market.

Philosophical thoughts in owner/capitalist culture…

[Hortensis]

16. Just imagine how much less slimey slimey people would be

and what better care everyone would take of property if it belonged to everyone collectively and we could all count on the government to keep our assigned residences spiffy and nice.

More philosophical thoughts in owner/capitalist culture and alternatives...

[marie999]

9. Since the federal government put landlords in this position, it should pay the landlords.

[Archae]

10. I came home from work, a number of years back...

And my pot-smoking roommate and his girlfriend had left.

And they stole the stove and fridge, and this was a second-story apartment!
(No elevator)

In the nearly 30 years I've lived in my current apartment, I've had several landlords, only one sticks out as bad, since he was just lazy.
Went through two winters, the landlord wouldn't snowplow the driveway unless all four of us would complain.

And the snowplow operator must have been the cheapest he could find, he'd leave a coat of ice on the driveway.

Getting repairs unless emergencies, would take weeks.

[SWBTATTReg]

12. Maybe one day, the rental market will collapse, with so many 'bad apple' tenants out there.

Either that, that there would be a tracking kind of service that landlords can use, to check prospective tenants.

Good grief, I never want to rent anything to anybody...you are better off not renting, to protect the property long term from serious damage.

[Hortensis]

17. With corporations buying up rentals, raising rents and putting

professional management companies in charge, I suspect the "bad apples" are more likely to be squeezed out or into some kind of compliance. They'll still find victims among little old ladies needing tenants for extra bedrooms or illegal rental units, like fixed up sheds, garages, so on.

[SYFROYH]

13. After the housing bubble popped in 2008, I had to rent out my condo.

I was very upside down in my loan. I rented it to cover my mortgage and HOA fee.

If I lost rent for more than 2 months, I would have had to stop paying the bank.

I would have been foreclosed upon and crushed financially.

I think there are a lot of small-time landlords in that situation.