Landlord Asks If He's A Jerk For Moving Into House After Tenants Refuse To Pay Rent

Look, I’m not saying landlords can’t be good people. Unfortunately, I have not met a nice one yet.

Maybe it’s me. I’ll be the first to admit I act a little entitled when interacting with a person who would take 300% of my monthly income if it were somehow legal.

Occasionally, however, I hear a story about a landlord who has terrible tenants. While I don’t care because landlords are the literal devil incarnate, I do sometimes see their argument and think “huh. Well.”

Recently, a landlord took to Reddit to ask if he was the “a**hole” in a situation involving his tenants who weren’t paying rent. The internet had a lot to say about the choice he made.

Let’s hear it from the horse’s mouth if you believe anything a landlord might say.

Here is the story of a landlord who “moved in” to his house after a tenant refused to pay rent:

“I am a 38-year-old landlord of a few single-family rentals. One of the rentals is an old, beaten-up trailer from 1955 that I rented to a single mom and her daughter (around 14 now) a couple of years ago. I purchased the property for the land and was upfront about my intentions with the trailer right from the beginning.

All right. Sounds OK so far…

I put the bare minimum of work into this trailer, but it is an affordable place to live for now. I charged her $600 a month and made sure she had working electric, water, hot water, heat, etc. The roof was old and leaking and I have tarred over some leaks the past couple of years a couple of times. I told her when it comes time for a major repair it would not be cost-effective to do it and I would be removing the trailer and placing a modular home there.

Fast forward to last month. She informed me that there was a roof leak and needed more tar. Upon inspection, it is no longer feasible to keep repairing and it would need an entirely new roof. Well, it’s not cost-effective to replace the new roof so I told her she would need to find other housing. She proceeding to play the “eviction ban” card and has refused to leave or pay (even the $600). I had my lawyer send her the “non-habitable” letter and tell her to leave by September 15th. She has not paid September rent and has not mowed the lawn since getting the letter or left.

Well, I also hate mowing the lawn so I get it.

So yesterday I went over there, walked in, and started “living”. She called the police on me, and when they came I showed them all the paperwork and told the officer, that she is right, I cannot legally evict her, but I am not evicting her. She is living for free and needs to pay for the EXCLUSIVE use of the house. If she does not pay for exclusivity then she is my vagrant roommate. The officer sided with me and told her there is nothing he can do to make either of us leave. It is a civil matter unless something physical or threats of violence occurs. She is absolutely pissed, says I’m a scumbag asshole. Even though I have given her the most affordable housing in the area for almost 3 years now.. a lot of rent in local mobile home parks is over $500 a month and you need to pay for the trailer and have neighbors. This is on its own acre plot.

I no doubt think I’m in the right here. Someone is living on my property and not paying anything, I have every right to use the said property.

Well, that’s one solution, I guess.

I’m curious as to what others think about this. I know many landlords who would change the locks while she isn’t home and risk the charge. I didn’t do it that way. I even told her if she kept paying $600 I would let her stay, but you are renting the land, not the house. I can’t keep losing money to fix something for someone else to live.” –u/otisthegreat69420