Easy Way To Encourage Following The Rules

[Katie Trent]

I have a small apartment complex near a university, in other words, I basically run a dorm, lol. Some of my young guys have trouble following the rules. I have tried to talk to them, but they never seem to have the time :(

The university uses this thing called a "boot" that locks onto the wheel of a car and immobilizes it when someone reaches a certain number of tickets and hasn't dealt with them. I got the idea one day, why can't I do the same thing? So I checked out if it was legal, updated my lease and bought some boots. Now if someone hasn't been following the rules, I just try to talk to them, like always. But if they just can't find the time to talk to me, I put the boot on their car. I call them right away, so they aren't surprised when they come out and need to go somewhere. I just say, hey, I've been trying to talk with you for a while and you don't seem to want to talk to me. I just put a boot on your car, like you agreed I could in the lease. When you want the boot removed, just come come talk to me. All of a sudden, they have time to talk to me :) We can come to an understanding about what rules aren't being followed and how we can do better in the future. After that I release them.

It has worked wonderfully for me! The Rules are being followed much better and it seems to be received pretty well. I suspect that part of the reason it is received well is because I don't ask much to release their car. I know the university asks alot more to release a boot than I do. Also, i know from talking to them, that by the time I boot their car, they know they deserve it. It might also help that all of my guys are young (under 26) so they view me as an authority figure much more than most tenants would.

I don't know how well it would work for others, because some places have laws about booting. But it's working great here. What do you think? Do you like my idea?

[Lien Vuong]

Wow that’s really ingenious! I’m glad to see that your strategy is working. I see the issue is not necessary in legality but scaling and how time intensive this work is. The running around, booting cars, calling them, charging the fines, etc would prevent me from scaling into more units. 

Kudos to you for outside the box thinking!