One of my clients, Jeff Preston, emailed a summary of the top 10 reasons why his tenants paid their rent late in 2009. They’re pretty funny. Here they are:
#10. “My work cut my hours”
#9. “May pay week is off this month”
#8. “I’ve been really sick this past week”
#7. “The bank mailed the check to the wrong address”
#6. “My daughter got married and I had to pay for the wedding”
#5. “My brother passed away”
#4. “My car was stolen”
#3. “My nephew was shot in the head and we had to pull the plug on him this past weekend”
#2. “Someone hit me across both knees with a baseball bat at work and I’ve been in the hospital”
#1. “I fell over a wheelchair at work and hit my head. I was in a coma the last few days.”
I absolutely love #2! I have wonder where the tenant works?
Do you have any funny reasons to add to the list? If so, add them in the comments section!
One of my tenants in the past couldn’t pay the rent because he only drove a motorcycle and he had to buy a fairing (the plastic shield that protects the face of the rider on some big motorcycles) because he was tired of getting bugs in his teeth.
Same tennant has hit me with all this crap in the last 3 months, they have not paid a penny rent since they moved in…!
1. My wife has lost a child and has been in hospital ” when she was never pregnant” This really was a horrific lie!
2. Bank sent the money to the wrong account
3. Someone has stolen all the money from my bank account via fraud
4. My dad was giving me the money but he has had a blood clot
5. My little sister stole all my money
6. The bank has messed up (again) more than 5 times.
7. I paid my old landlord your three months rent by mistake, I was still carying his bank details in my wallet, Whoops..
8. He finished work at 4.00 and arrived at my house at 4.09 telling me me had been to the bank and came up with a very tall and long tale about how they made a mistake and they will fix it out, my hse is 15 minutes drive from the bank.
All these stories from the same idiot, people will say anything and use the most horrific excuses to make you feel sorry for them.
To all you people complaining that we should feel sorry for tennants in hardship, tell me that after you have listened to their crap and LIES whilst paying the mortgages on the house they are living in and paying for legal costs to throw the scum bags out.
Most you guys complaining just dont get it, they are almost all lying! you start out giving people the benifit of the doubt but they will take you for everything they can because the laws here let them do so.
I will add both my tennants are working and have decent paying jobs, drive a really nice convertable car, neigbours tell me they are always bringing bags home from expensive shops. they just dont want to a their rent..
Court in a few weeks
, big foot in the ass to kick them out and I get my property back.
Sooo, if we call the bank up and tell them we can not pay our mortgage on time because our tenants lives were messed up last month and they have not paid thier rent to me on time, the bank will say, “Ok, we will work with you because of thier misfortune”?? Not on your life!! Going through 2 foreclosures last years because of horrible tenants, I know first hand, you don’t get paid and you WILL find out whom the real owner of your rental house truly is…the BANK! As an adult your number one prioties are food and shelter! NOT Christmas presents (you can not afford anyway because you didn’t preplan and save all year like you should have) and not any other excuse you can think of either. Pay your rent or get out.
Signed…Bitter Ex-Landlord
I rent and I have a small rental. I have been late (one week at the most) 3 times in 10 years..during this time I had pneumonia 4 times. I have 3 small children whom get sick regularly, my husband was sick with cancer for 18 months and then passed away, my mother-in-law passed, my father passed, work was slow at times, payroll checks have been late at least once a year, we celebrate Christmas and birthdays, my vehicle sometimes needed 600 to 2000 repair… wow only late 3 times in 10 years (each time when was because i wasn’t expecting my payroll check to be late)
Yet I have renters that are late every month and every month have a “new story”. I think they need to get a life and grow up and learn to be responsible for themselves and stop taking advantage of other people.
I agree that some of the above items are funny in the list, but some are truly sad and should not be joked about.
These are all classic, to bad this seems to be happening more often these days! Nowadays its “I lost my job” instead of “I bought a new x-box so can it wait 2 weeks?”
The ONLY excuse we will accept is “I died last night”. We have heard many of these excuses. TheYes, tenants who do not pay are stealing, just the same as not paying utilities is stealing from the gas and electric. One I enjoyed was “my money is just not where I need it to be”. I’m still pondering that one.
I had one tenant were her mom died 4 times in 2.5 years. I know it hurts to lose a parent but to lose one 4 time sucks bigtime