"What are you willing to do for us? We're just not feelin the love."

December 8, 2012 6:11 PM

I thought if I kept quiet, you might forget about this months rent payment."

With 9 long pages of posts dating back to 2001, the Tenant's Excuse of the Day is enough to scare anyone out of becoming a landlord.

Some gems:

"Don't have rent because the police took it during the drug raid."

"Juuuust because you are aaaaasking for it .....AGAAAAIN- doesn't mean I'm gonna have it OK!?"

"I ordered new checks last Friday and they haven’t arrived yet. I know you might not think that is funny, but really, the checks are in the mail!"

"I mailed my rent. I remember! It was 650.00 cash ALL in 20.00's. 32 of them! I even made my own envelope!"

posted by kensch (8 comments total)

Is this really Metafilter?
posted by Johannes Silentio at 6:16 PM on December 8, 2012 [4 favorites]

Wow, this is... kinda dark.
posted by johnnybeggs at 6:20 PM on December 8, 2012

I don't think the excuses of poor people to those who exercise land-owning power over them are very funny. It's poor bashing at its worst.

Not that you can expect much more from the cynically named "Landlord Protection Agency."
posted by Catchfire at 6:21 PM on December 8, 2012 [2 favorites]

Sounds to me like assholes and idiots are evenly distributed on both teams.
posted by scratch at 6:22 PM on December 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

I actually think this is kind of amusing. Landlords, as it turns out, are people too, most of the time. They got bills to pay just like everybody else, and they can only do that if their tenants pay the rent.

Contrary to popular belief, most landlords aren't rich. The term "land poor" applies to them fairly accurately, especially for the smaller, family businesses.

Then again, this is basically what happens when you try to make a living getting money out of poor people. It sucks, pretty much all around.
posted by valkyryn at 6:25 PM on December 8, 2012 [2 favorites]

That's the sort of "both sides do it" bullshit that empowers assholes like the OP, scratch. Then again, if this is what passes for acceptable at Mefi.com (TM), then I'd like to recuse myself from ever having contributed to this place. A decade of free commentary notwithstanding.

This is disgusting.
posted by Johannes Silentio at 6:26 PM on December 8, 2012

Some of the owner men were kind because they hated what they had to do, and some of them were angry because they hated to be cruel, and some of them were cold because they had long ago found that one could not be an owner unless one were cold. And all of them were caught in something larger than themselves. Some of them hated the mathematics that drove them, and some were afraid, and some worshiped the mathematics because it provided a refuge from thought and from feeling.

posted by infinitewindow at 6:27 PM on December 8, 2012 [2 favorites]

"Because of a problem with my family, we won't have rent paid until next Wednesday. I promise you we aren't trying to make a habit of this. Thanks."

That's . . . I can't sneer at this. I would hate to deal with anyone who could.

The landlord has a right to the performance of the contract, but not to the moral high ground.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:30 PM on December 8, 2012 [1 favorite]