Night Owl Tenant Ad Responses

[Stephen E.]

Am I alone in viewing late night tenant responses to ads negatively? I just got an email from Padmapper time stamped 4.24 am. As is often the case with these things there has not been a response to my reply with details of the property and showing times, and the query itself was just the standard text generated when they click the button to contact the landlord. No investment of time required from the tenant.

My last exchange with a late night respondent was with a very aggressive tenant who kept writing between 1.00 - 3.00 am or so with emails over a number of days, all sent late at night. At first it was him and his friend who would be moving in together with a labrador. I advised that the condominium corporation had strict height and weight limits for dogs. OK he said immediately, he had found a home for the dog. My spidey senses smelled BS at this stage - very likely a plan to smuggle the dog in, which would mean the condo corp would take action against us as landlords, and we would in turn have to evict the tenant, a 3-4 month process during which we might get no rent and would have to pay lawyers some $1,000.  Then the tenant started sending abusive email, saying that the issue of the dog was "a ******** reason to refuse me this apartment." Then he disclosed that his security deposit was coming from disability, which means income cannot be garnished. We maintained a calm demeanor and eventually his late night emails ceased; he must have moved on to another property and another landlord.

But the point remains, and it is an observation made over an extended period: most of the queries that come from very late night tenant sessions on the internet lead nowhere and are often strange. I can see shift workers might have to write late at night, but this seems to be a small fraction of the late night emailers we seem to receive. I still respond to them but if they do eventually make it to a showing I am careful with screening.