Adventures in Land lording: When the Landlord becomes the renter

[Timothy Connolly]

Being a landlord and real estate investor has its challenges. If that were not the case then this forum and bigger pockets would not exist. We have all had our fair share of trouble tenants and sticky situations. It is part of the learning curve; And in the end its all worth being financially free. Until a recent change in circumstance forced my family to rent for a short time, it never occurred to me that us landlords can be just as troubled if not more so.  I got caught up with the fact that, "Im in the business, I know what Im doing mentality,". And here I am now, caught up with a predatory landlord that is suing me. His game, as i have come to find out, is to file a lawsuit for baseless claims(which costs very little to do) on unsuspecting tenants and get them to release their deposits to make it stop. The problem with lawsuits, even baseless ones, is you have to spend money on defending them. The unfortunate truth in the country is most in this country can not afford a $200 emergency let alone, spend more money on what the deposit was in the first place to get it back. Yes, I could release my $5600 deposit and $600 pet deposit and go along with my life but this really hits a nerve with me. Its guys like this that give landlords and real estate investors a bad name. I refuse to let him get away with it and have the means to fight, so fight back I will. 

With any real estate deal there are things to be learned from this. 

1) Do a background check on your land lord, or anyone you plan on getting into a business relationship with. Most civil court records around the country can be accessed online now. If I would have plugged his name into the search bar before we signed a lease I would have been able to see that he/or his company are currently in/or have been in active litigation with tenants in the past.(red flag id say) I could have avoided this entire situation in the first place. 

2) This probably goes without saying, but document everything and know your rights as a landlord or tenant. Luckily, I have the experience to know this and this will very much make the difference in this current situation I find myself in. 

3)Tenants are our customers, we own the land and the building, but believe me we are in the people business. We provide a service and you are going to have more success in this business if you treat people with respect. 

My final message is this. People like this are a cancer to our community. If you see predatory behavior, call it out. Lets police ourselves a bit. 

Have any of you gone back to being a renter and regretted the decision? What are your stories?