24th March 2010

Whining, Whingeing, Pissing and Moaning

posted in Care and Feeding of Tenants |

So the couple who signed the lease on my newest vacancy seemed pretty nice…. at first. Now I think they’re in the running for the #1 position on my Most Annoying Whiners list.

I have to admit that the old tenant who had to move out in the middle of the lease, left the place in very good condition. Everything was cleaned, mopped and touched-up nicely.

I guess I should have seen it coming when the new tenants, through their agent, started asking if I would include things like lawn care and garbage collection in the rent. You can guess that my answer, across the board, was a big fat “NO.”

Anyway, they performed their move-in/move-out inspection before signing the lease and everything was acceptable at the time. The following Saturday (in the morning, no less) I received a phone call from the wife of the tenant to tell me that she was scared out of her wits when a cockroach “jumped out at her” while she was cleaning inside a closet.

Now, I’m not suggesting that tenants should live in squalor, although some seem to like it, but this lady proceeded to put on her best “upset customer” voice and whined that they would have to call in a pest control company. Well, per the lease, tenants ARE responsible for pest control, so I told her to knock herself out but in more diplomatic terms, of course. Not to mention that, in Florida, we have bugs. Welcome to the tropics, Dear. Oh, you say you’ve lived here for 10 years? Well then, Duh!

At this point, I can only assume that these are the kind of people who will go into a restaurant, eat the entire meal and then complain bitterly that their food was no good and they won’t be back. All in an effort to garner a free meal from the management.

What a nice way to go through life and I might mention, what a most efficient way to get on my I Will Ignore You In The Future list.

There are currently 7 responses to “Whining, Whingeing, Pissing and Moaning”

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  1. 1 On March 24th, 2010, snoe said:

    Sounds too familiar. I always have to have the ‘Welcome to Florida, have you met our bugs” conversation with tenants that move from out of state. They all act as though this is the rain forest and they’ve never before encountered an insect. But to have lived here for 10 years? C’mon. This is in no way new to them.

    I must be pretty unlucky as I’ve yet to have a tenant that ISN’T like this. From the lawn care to the pest control to wanting us to take responsibility for a supposed leak – which we later determined to be from them inventing new ways to bathe their grandchild.

  2. 2 On March 24th, 2010, Clifford said:

    I had a similar experience with some tenants. They paid their rent every single month but complained about every single thing. At the end of their lease, no convincing was necessary for them to leave.

    I think having a tenant can be akin to the phrase “Best friends don’t make best roommates.” Financially a tenant might be alright but you do have to get along with your tenants. Calling because the sun shines too long or that it takes too long for hot water to reach the shower can be annoying.

  3. 3 On March 25th, 2010, How To Deal With Whining Tenants | Real Estate Investing News Watch Blog Aggregator said:

    [...] a big challenge that every landlord needs to overcome if he wants to stay longer in this business. Click Here or click the image to read the rest of this [...]

  4. 4 On March 25th, 2010, nina said:

    the cockroach “jumped out at her”….did you ask her if it was wearing a hat and cane? if so that’s the one you planted there specifically to scare the sh*t out of her!! GEEZ…!

  5. 5 On March 26th, 2010, David said:

    This post really sounds familiar to me. I’m sure every landlord at some point comes across tenants very similar to the ones you wrote about.

  6. 6 On April 6th, 2010, Kim said:

    This is funny….After cleaning and bombing my single family home, also in Florida, I scheduling a showing. Just as the potential tenants pulled up in the drive a giant roach was discovered in the hallway. That sucker musta been 6 inches long LMFAO! (not really, but he was huge, we obviously bombed him out of a great hiding spot). The place was empty so there was nothing to pick his still wiggling body up with. It was only us two women there at the time…yeah…we grabbed that beast by his squirmy legs and tossed his butt into the toilet just as they were rounding the corning into tha hallway. HA! (and its a really nice house…)

  7. 7 On May 13th, 2010, Megan said:

    I had this one lady who moved out a week after beginning her lease because the place was “uninhabitabl”e…it was actually a pretty nice apartment until she scrubbed so hard she ruined the shower surround and scrubbed the paint of the trim…can you say OCD? I said good riddens, kept her security, and rented to a nice couple who stayed for 3 years.

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