The winter landlord blues

[Rich Schroeder]

here's a story and maybe someone can learn from this...

I have a family who rents one of my houses. It's a large 5 bedroom house, and there are 6 people in the family. Two of the kids have autism, one of the kids is sevely disabled due to this. On the 4th of the month I had not received rent payment, which is unusual for them. So I called as a courtesy to remind them that the late fees would start kicking in on the 5th. This was about 7:00pm. The wife told me that the rent was ready, but I was suspicious because of the tone of her voice. I told her that I would pick up the rent on the 5th at 5:30pm since I didn't feel like driving out to the property that day. I went over at that time on the 5th, and sure enough the wife wasn't home. My instinct was right...she had left a check for partial rent. I told one of the adult kids that I coulnd't take partial rent and I promptly wrote a 5 day notice to pay or quit.

I received a call that night from the husband. He went on about how he had just had a heart attack and bypass surgery, and that now his wife was in the hospital due to all the pressure I was putting on them to pay the rent. He went on to accuse me of being cold-hearted, and states that this was my fault that they didn't have the rent. I calmly explained that the rules are rules, and they had until the 12th to come up with the rent and that I must treat everyone the same to avoid discrimination claims. I also gave him a couple of phone numbers for organizations that help with emergency rent.

I've learned that my instinct is pretty good. I knew she was originally lying. I learned that the landlording techniques I learned on this board make these kind of situations easier to handle (no gray areas). I also learned that the way I am running my business is the correct way, even though I'm made out to be the bad guy.

Not sure if this one will go into eviction or not. I'm guessing yes. But I'm ready for it and again I won't be unprepared.

Oh, the winter blues!
-Rich