What would you do?

[Kate Stallmann]

Question for all you landlords, some I'm not one yet, but hoping to be someday.

I work with a kid who just rented a house for $1000/month. He's a decent salesman, but not great at managing his money. He makes about 42K/year.

His new landlord let him move in (with the fiance and baby) and had him pay 1st with splitting the deposit over the next few weeks.

The road to his new place is terrible, we live in NH and they don't plow the snow right away. He's missed work 2 days already this month.

He now needs snow tires so he can get back and fork to work, but that means he can't pay the deposit when he was supposed to.

Obviously he made a mistake by not having any emergency money, and I believe the landlord was desperate to get the place rented this time of year and made a mistake by not getting the deposit before they moved in.

I told him to go to the landlord and explain his situation. I'd love any thoughts, feedback or advice. I'm here to learn!

[Jerry W.]

As a landlord I can absolutely tell you that coming to me before the rent payment is late is much better than me chasing you down and saying where is my money. The best thing is to pay, the next best is to be honest up front. All of that being said buy him some Dave Ramsey books. He is headed for a crash if he does not get his finances under control. The stress about money has caused many nice folks to get bitter or depressed and caused many breakups of families.