Can I not pay rent and get away with it?

As a landlord, I try very hard to work with tenants. I know that tough times happen and that they could miss rent. However, I make it sure that they understand that there are late fees involved and I want them to promise on a date that they can pay. If they don’t pay on their promised day, I start the eviction process by serving them with 3-day notices. I don’t want the rent to pile up and the tenant to be behind by 2 months because I know that would be difficult to catch up. I try to reasonable but hey, I have mortgage bills to pay and I also need the money for my family.

I think it’s understandable to be a bit behind on late especially if times are really tough. What is more important is that you continue to communicate with your landlord. Try to pay on your promised date and if paying the rent once every month is becoming too difficult for you, then perhaps you could begin a new agreement with your landlord for you to just pay weekly. I’m sure that if you just explain your situation well to your landlord, he or she would understand.

This article is quite insulting. Tenants have rights too and I think it is our right to withhold rent money if we are unsatisfied with the way our landlord works then we should not pay him rent. That ought to force him to better his services and actually become a better tenant.

I used to live in this apartment where you get to have all sorts of problems. There isn’t enough heating, the bathroom keeps getting flooded and the worst thing is that there are bedbugs! I’ve already informed the landlord, maybe numerous times already, but they just keep giving me the “I’ll take care of it” attitude and then nothing actually gets taken cared of. So what I did is I did the repairs myself and then paid for the bedbug treatment. I then sent them copies of the receipts and told them that I’ll take everything from my rent. Well, guess what, they got angry because they had their own preferred treatment company and they’d rather do the repairs themselves. I waited three months for them to act and now that I acted in their behalf, they get crazy and tell me they won’t refund me or even allow me to take the costs off my rent. Is that even fair? So I’ve had enough. I want my money back but since they are too difficult to deal with, I let RPA handle it. I filed a complaint, yeah, paid the $35 filing fee plus some extras since I requested for it to be rushed, then waited for the landlord to come knocking on my door. Serves them right for not being nice landlords!

I would never even try to think about not paying rent. I know that my landlord could evict me for it, whatever my reason is. I have this friend in CA who got evicted from here apartment and in just a couple of weeks after, the eviction showed up in her credit report. Now since almost all apartment owners run credit checks prior to accepting a tenant, my friend had a really hard time finding a new place. She eventually found an apartment but it was really expensive to get in because she had to prove that she had the money to pay for it, this time. So the lesson of the story is that you should never even try to not pay your rent. The landlord will eventually win.

It just sounds so unfair that a renter could just say “sorry, we had a bad month. We’ll pay the rent later.” What can the landlord do? If he doesn’t collect rent, where will he get the money to pay for the utilities, mortgage and still have enough for his family? And when he goes to court, he initially has to shell out some money to spend for the lawyer and the expenses. Although he will be reimbursed, how could he feel confident knowing that you don’t have the money to pay the rent so you won’t surely have the money to pay for the court costs too. I feel bad for all good landlords now.

We had a renter for 8 years and just recently, he got laid off. He was a good payer, always paying on time and quiet as a mouse. So when he lost his job, he told us that he’s going to pay the rent weekly until he finds another job. Now, 2 months have gone by and he still doesn’t have a job. He’s already a couple of weeks behind on payment. But the nice thing about him is that he always communicates with us so we let him stay. Just this morning, he told us that he has finally found a job and that he could now catch up on his payments. Boy, that was such a relief! So you see, as long as you keep all lines of communication open, your landlord should understnad and become more reasonable to work with.

I think there’s a common misconception here that landlords are very rich and that they’re just bathing in money. Well, the fact is, most of them are not. They could be like you who had to earn in order to pay off all the bills. So if they’re providing you the roof to protect you from the weather, then you should also give them the rent due them. Has it ever occured to you that the reason they are persistent when it comes to the collection of rent is because it is their right to be paid. Yes, you have tenant rights. But they have rights as landlords too.

I think we’re entitled to not pay the rent if we lost our jobs too. How can we pay when we don?t have jobs to begin with?

Landlords also play a part when it comes to tenants missing out on their payments. There are landlords who are just too lenient that they no longer promote self-sufficiency. They create tenants who think that it’s okay not to pay rent this month and just make up some lame excuses because the landlord will understand, for sure. Well guess what, for being too lenient you are hurting yourself and your business. You have to put in some force. You need to let your tenant know that you are serious about collecting the rent.

This is why it is very important to run background checks on all tenant applicants. You want to protect your business by makig sure that you are renting to only the best tenants.

I do not understand the mentality of people who think they are entitled to not pay rent if they lost their jobs. Don?t they know that not paying rent will only do more damage to their credit score? And when it’s the credit score that’s affected, you probably have an idea on how difficult it will be to get back and re-establish it. So yeah, you lost your job…would it make you feel better to sleep on the streets,then? Pay up!

I am a landlord. I don?t run charity, I’m running a business. Like you, I have bills to pay so I would really appreciate it if you would pay rent on time.

Good landlords deserve the best from tenants. Bad landlords, on the other hand, they bring out the worst in tenants. Lol.

Well, if you haven’t been listening to our requests for better living conditions, then we should also be deaf to your demands for rent. Serves you right for being the worst landlord in history!