Seven Deadly Scams

Tenant Tricks

By Andrew Hull, Attorney at Law

As most of us know, it is a very, very small percentage of tenants who make life both miserable and interesting for us.  I keep telling myself the only reason I continue to specialize in property management law is that I hear something new every day.  Nothing is every black and white or, if it is, there is always a "new twist" given by a creative mind.  With this in mind, I wanted to pass on some of the more unique defenses tenants have come up with in court to defend their cases.  Believe it or not, these have all happened to me!

1.   "The old switch-er-roo of apartment numbers."  You evict a tenant from apartment number one.  The tenant then finds a vacant unit (say unit No. 2) and switches the numbers so that when the constable comes out to evict him, he finds the apartment vacant.

2.   "My case is canceled."  The tenant calls the court the day of his eviction and tells the clerk he or she is the attorney's secretary and to cancel their case.  The attorney appears in court and is told by the clerk, "Your office called and canceled case so and so,"  The attorney then dismisses the case only to find out his office never called in the first place.

3.   "The fake money order."  The tenant buys money orders and writes the apartment name on them, photocopies them and then cashes them in where they originally were purchased.  The tenant then shows the judge copies of the money orders to prove they paid their rent.

4.   "The altered rent receipt."  The tenant takes their rent receipt that shows they paid $200 and changes it to $588.

5.   "What notice?"  The tenant says, "I was never served a 3-Day Notice."  This is most often used when they see no manager in court and it's their word against the attorney.

6.   "They don't ever do repairs."  The tenant says they refused to pay rent because the landlord won't make repairs to their apartment.  If pressed as to where their rent money is, the tenant usually had other "unexpected" expenses come up that they had to use their rent on.

7.   "Ripley's believe it or not" or "I know who shot J.F.K."  This actually happened.  When the judge inquired as to whether the tenant owed October, November and December rent, the reply was "I don't know, I went on a trip in October and left the rent money with my husband."  "Where is your husband." asked the judge.  "He's dead."  "What happened?"  "He was washing the dishes and the back door fell off the hinges and cut his legs off at the knees."  "Are you saying he died from the landlord's failure to make repairs?"  "Oh, no, he died from a drug overdose, but before he died he told me he paid the rent."