Tristan is the Executive Vice President and shareholder with the law firm of Petrie+Pettit and focuses his practice in the area of landlord-tenant law representing landlords and property management companies throughout Wisconsin.
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WHY ARE THE "BAD LANDLORDS" THE ONLY ONES WE EVER HEAR ABOUT?
Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in Tenant Damage, Collections / Comments
I was catching up on some long overdue blog reading this weekend and I came across a great blog post that I thought was very timely. I asked the author is I could re-post his thoughts and he agreed. The author of the post is Bill Gray who runs Rent Recovery Service, a company that assists landlords with collecting past due rent and damage charges from ex-tenants. I was fortunate enough to have met Bill this past September at the AASEW's Annual Landlord Tradeshow when Bill was gracious enough to fly to Milwaukee from Florida in order to present a seminar on collection issues to the attendees. Anyone that has met Bill knows that aside from being extremely knowledgable in the area of collections, he is also a great guy. If you are trying to collect past due rent and damage charges from an ex-tenant you should definitely give Bill a call at 212-561-5492 or email him at bill@rentrecoveryservice.com.
With the city of Milwaukee attempting to pass a version of "landlord licensing," with state politicians trying to short-circuit a landlord's ability to properly screen tenants, and with what I find to be a very prevalent negative attitude toward landlords in general - I thought Bill's post was timely.
Posted by Bill Gray on August 10, 2009
I recently read the following article by credit and collections expert and author, Michelle Dunn. Michelle is correct in her assertion that business owners are typically made out to be the bad guy. The same is true for landlords. When was the last time you heard about a landlord who lowered the rent for a good tenant who had hit bad times? Or the landlord who made sure a tenant, who is a single mother, had Christmas gifts for her children? You don’t hear these stories. The image of the evil “slumlord” is much more appealing to the media.
Are all landlords good? No they are not, just as a percentage of tenants are not good tenants. Go to YouTube and search for words such as “tenant, trashed, destroyed, damaged“, etc. and see the horrors some landlords face when a bad tenant destroys their rental unit. As you view these videos, imagine if you had invested thousands of dollars into a rental unit, and this was the result. Make sure you are not eating your dinner when you view these videos.
The 80 – 20 rule is most likely appropriate here. 80% of landlords and tenants are probably responsible people who try hard to do the right thing. Do the math. Assuming that most landlords own or manage many more than one rental unit, how many more “bad” tenants are there, than “bad” landlords. But again, we seldom hear about the bad tenants.
Landlords provide a valuable product and service. They usually borrow money to make an investment, then rent the apartment or home to someone they hope will care for their investment. People love to beat up on landlords. Think for a minute if landlords threw in the towel and got out of the business all together? Where would everyone live?
Here is Michelle’s blog post I referred to:
Why is the business Owner that got Stiffed the “Bad Guy”?
You hear it all the time, bill collectors are harassing customers that don’t pay.
You see it all the time, websites and news programs that help people use the law to “sneak out” of paying a bill they legitimately owe.
What does this say about small and large businesses everywhere?
That they are the bad guy if they try to collect the money that is owed to them for services rendered or products shipped?
Why are they the bad guy?
Isn’t the “bad guy” the guy who is trying to get out of paying?
Michelle Dunn
www.credit-and-collections.com/blog/
Email me your questions concerning tenant debt. I will try to help you.
Bill Gray
