The Norwegian Investor - Its not Paranoia of the threat is real!

It’s been almost two months since I last wrote a post here and boy has it been a busy period. To give a very brief summary. My suspicion about my tenant being a low quallity tenant has turned out to be true. He caused some grief, but in the end it looks like it will all be fine. Managed to get him to leave on acceptable terms, and I feel like i dodged another bullet. Ok... so on with the rapport!

My tenant got the keys on August 3. this summer. During the viewing of the property he told me countless times how important it was for him to move in as soon as possible. Fine by me, I thought, and decided to give him a chance. I didnt do a credit check on him as he came clear upfront about his financial state being poor. He had a powerful story and I totally fell for it. A mistake i will not repeat. He has a daughter that lives in the area from a previous marriage and he wanted to be closer to her. A feeling I can very much relate to as I have been far away from my family for quite some time myself. But now I have learned not to be a "nice" and naive guy any more. Renting out properties should be strictly business, if you want smooth sailing and less grief.

Anyways, after giving him the keys it took him 16 days to move in any stuff, which i thought was odd considering what he had told me at the viewing. He did several other odd things as well, but to keep this post somewhat short, I won’t go into detail.

I forgot to say that my tenant, a 45 year old man... had his mother pay his first months rent and the deposit... It made me so uncomfortable when he brought her to the bank to sign for him, and I felt so bad for him and his son. But this was none of my business. I didn’t comment on it.

As the 1. of september was approaching fast, I was curious to see what would happen with the rent as it would be the first month he was supposed to pay himself. And on the last day of August, just before midnight I get a text message where he asks if he can pay rent a bit later. And it was at this moment I knew the type of person I was dealing with. Its not paranoia if the threat is real!

Naturaly I declined his request and he told me that he would find a way to take care of it. A few moments later he text me again telling me that he has taken care of it and that the full ammount of 10.000kr (just over 1000 USD) would be transfered as per contract. Great I thought and went to bed. The next day I had to work late, and looked at my bankaccount late in the eveing. Only 8.000 had been transfered, and I was pissed off that he didnt report this to me himself. I called him up and demanded an explanation. What I got was a barrage of excuses. I think he had like ten of them... My favorite was his excuse about not being able to log into his online bank account to transfer the remaining 2000 after being logged in to transfer the 8000 first.... That is just so stupid I cannot believe a grown man said that in seriousness.

I got him to pay the last 2000 the day after by telling him his contract would be terminated immediately if he messes around like this in the future. I could tell from his voice that he was ashamed of himself and rightfully so. During the same phonecall he reveiled that there was a sewage smell in the house and he claimed I had tricked him to take over a flat with sewage issues.

What nonsense! But that’s another matter I will discuss in another post.

So after he paid his remaining 2000 i decided to not contact him for a while, while i started to take care of the building issue. I was doing this as an experiment to see if he would pay the next month’s rent without any more issues. I was expecting problems of course, but was not expecting what would come next!

Two days before next month’s rent is due, I get a letter in my mailbox. Its from my favorite source of entertainment, my ever surprising tenant. This time it’s a formal letter where he writes "Terminating with immediate effect", and he writes about one full page of lies and nonsense about how there is a health risk in the building, that he won’t be paying rent for October and that he demands his full deposit back.

He also quotes the house renting law in Norway §2-12 which say that the tenant can cancel the contract if the unit is in such a bad state it is a health risk.

When I see people quoting laws, I’m smart enough to call my lawyer immediately. She told me that this guy is possibly the biggest idiot she has heard of. She goes on to say:

"What an idiot... §2-12 is referring to §2-10 which say that the landlord must be given reasonable time to solve the issue. And as you can document all the inspectors you have had to deal with the issues, you are definitely in the clear. "

I told her that I want this asshole out now, and she said that I should offer to reduce the rent by 10% until the smell issue is fixed.

"Offering to reduce the rent, while there is an issue will make you look good if this case goes to court. 10% is a low reduction though and will likely prompt him to quit the rent himself. It’s best not to kick him out during this dispute. Let him be the one to choose if he stay for 9000kr per month or if he wants to terminate. If he is in financial distress he will likely terminate anyways."

I did what my lawyer told me to do. I wrote a response-letter with a total of 16 pages. I gave him all the evidence that was pointing in my favor should this go to court. He would have zero chance. I told him that I was prepared to reduce the rent to 9.000kr, and that he could move out in three months if he wanted to. I also told him that his rent was due on the first as usual, and that if he didn’t pay on time, a standard response on how to handle late or missing payment will be started.

The day after I sent the letter I got my response. He offered a compromise, that he would pay for October, and move out on the 3rd of October, thus giving me my rent, the ability to find a new tenant in a month, and being rid of my problem without having to go to court. The negative for me is that I stood to lose 20.000kr in case I don’t get a new tenant in. But the risk of having to go through a costly eviction made it an easy choice. I could perhaps have made a counter offer of him paying a month and a half of rent, but I wanted him out immediately so much more. I accepted the deal.

So he moved out and I am now searching for my next tenant. I am happy to report that I am currently receiving interest in the apartment, and it looks like I won’t have any vacancy after all.