Cosmic Karma, or What’s Wrong With People?

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What a day, but to start this off I have to backtrack to a conversation I had with my book keeper last week about what goes around comes around. Pattie pointed out that both Karen and I are “good people”. I’m not sure if everyone would agree with that, but I’m sure 99.9% of people would agree we are good people not out to hurt, cheat or rip people off.

Her point at the time was that all the good things we have done for people since she has known us will eventually come back to us in good ways and in multiples. Now Karen has gone out of her way to help people on a pretty consistent basis and if there is an injured animal, well lookout. We have made many decisions over the years that may not have been the best decisions for us, but they were the right decisions. I’ve received my snow angel pin in the past and continue to help shovel not only in the neighbourhood I live in, but in neighbourhoods I own property in as well. People like and trust us for the things we do and we are proud of that. So hopefully some of this Cosmic Karma starts coming around soon, especially after today!

So on to today now. I have a tenant who has fallen behind, it seems to becoming more common every month now around Calgary as people are getting laid off and there is no more low hanging fruit everywhere. You have to decipher that metaphor on your own! This tenant has been with me for almost three years and they have had a few hiccups in the past, but always caught up.

This time just felt different. Things came up and he couldn’t meet with me to pay me as scheduled, then there were family illnesses, then vehicle problems, then new phone calls and days to meet rescheduled and missed phone calls. Anyway, I reached a point where the last day we were guaranteed to get together, which was Sunday, no call, no reply to my phone call, or my email, nothing.

I had reached the end of my rope, I needed to start the eviction process. I called and left them a message explaining my next steps Sunday night, by this time very frustrated. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, and I understand times are tough, but I still have to make my payments.

Monday was a write off as it was article writing day and the kids were home as part of Easter break so we took them to a movie in the afternoon. So Tuesday I started compiling all the information I needed to gather so I could go file for an eviction at the Residential Tenancy Dispute Resolution Services board downtown.

So after about two hours plus I had my approximately 50 pages of lease documents, emails, statements of evidence etc all compiled. This morning (Wednesday), I made my four copies and put them all together and headed down to file.  So after about 40 minutes, I had my hearing date set and now I just had to meet the tenants and serve them the papers.

I wasn’t even out of downtown and my phone rang, it was the tenant and he had been away for the Easter weekend and was on his way back to Calgary, but wouldn’t be home until the evening, best of all he had a portion of my rent for me. I didn’t cancel the hearing yet, I have until Monday to do that, and I won’t do that until I have cash in hand. I will update you!

So here I was feeling horrible I was having to evict what are normally a nice couple who are having a tough go right now. Hopefully they come through.  So what were they thinking? Any time any tenants have problems I tell them they have to communicate with me. If I know what is going on, I can work with them. If I get shut out, I get that uneasy feeling.

Unfortunately, my story doesn’t end there today. I have another tenant in one of my shared accommodation properties that has also seen some hard times. Another hard luck story, moved out here a few months ago, had a girlfriend who he had been living with and broke up with, had a great job that suddenly disappeared and he had nowhere to turn.  Here’s the background.

He had been with us for several weeks by then and had been great, nice younger guy trying to make it in the tough world. So I helped him out, pointed him to some of the groups that could help and away he went. I even told him I would carry him a bit if he worked extra hard to keep the sidewalks cleared of snow and the house clean. Now I know he was a worker as he was going to Diversified Staffing every single day to get work and the other tenants were vouching he went out every day and came back late every day. Plus he had all the time sheets from the jobs to show me, but he was only making $10 or $11 an hour and after taxes just kind of scraping by.

So I did give him an eviction notice in February, just to protect myself and to make sure he knew I was serious. So eventually, he started to get me some of the rent he owed me and I knew he was still barely surviving, so I grabbed some food off my own kitchen shelves and dropped it off to him. It wasn’t a lot, some KD and some Ichiban noodles, but enough to make sure he was getting something to eat. It was the right thing to do.

He started to be pretty consistent at paying every week, but I could never catch him at the house, he would just leave his rent in his room for Saturday collection. Sadly, he also started to leave his bedroom sliding window wide open as well and since he had taken to sleeping at his ex girlfriends on the weekends, he left it like this during a weekend snow storm and a rainstorm, which irritated me a tad.

Finally about two weeks ago, I showed up at the property and surprised him. At that point, he confessed that he was avoiding me because he wasn’t able to catch up. Being the good person I unfortunately (?) am, I told him as long as he keeps up the weekly rent, not to worry, things would turn for him. If however he couldn’t pay he had to go, I couldn’t afford to let him get any further in the hole.

Well Saturday roles around and surprise surprise, no rent money in the room. He did text message me though telling me he got back to the office to late Friday to get paid and I would have my money Monday. Monday roles around and I try to track him down, no sign of him, I stop by multiple times over the next several days, leave another note, nothing. Saturday comes by again, and there is a new note telling me he won’t get paid until Monday due to the long weekend.

So Monday, I show up at the house again, prepared to be disappointed, but ever hopeful! Alas though, more disappointment, no rent, no tenant and another wide open window which I shut. I left him a new note, written with a bit of frustration suggesting to him that if I didn’t have the money here Wednesday, he needed to pack up and disappear.

Now we are back to present time, so after my courthouse visit and my call from my tenant who may (or may not) have money for me Thursday I zipped over to this other property to check on my other buddy. Since it was late morning the house was empty, everyone had gone off to work, so I let myself into buddy’s room to see if he left me money and back to surprises, he had no money there, but he did have a note. This is where my head started to spin.

So just to recap, I helped this guy out, I pointed him to eviction services which he never followed up on, I gave him the eviction, but didn’t enforce it as I didn’t want to kick him out on the street, I gave the guy food out of my own home, I went above and beyond to help him out and his note read as follows.

I called landlord and tenant advisory board they said you have to give me another eviction notice because I have receipts for rent paid after the first eviction notice meaning you overlooked it and let me stay. As you can see I plan to leave by the weekend. Second thing is you can not walk in whenever you want you have to give 24 hours notice before entering and you can be charged. It is the law.

Wow, I went out of my way and now he was using Landlord and Tenant against me and threatening to charge me. I was disappointed, I was disillusioned with people and I was pissed off I had let this guy stay in my property. All I did was help him out along with numerous other people recently, so where is the Cosmic Karma that is supposed to be coming back to me?

It’s put a damper on my whole day, it’s affecting how I want to deal with people and it may cause me to be less of a helpful person to others. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it and wondering how much of a bite this will take out of my positive energy.

It all comes back to, what’s wrong with people? Don’t they understand the actions they take have repercussions on others? Why do people feel they deserve a free ride? What makes them deserve anything more than you do or I do. If you are reading this, you already understand it’s not a free ride out there; you get what you work for. If you are willing to put in the time and effort and you have done your homework to ensure you are heading down the right path, eventually you will see rewards.

The Real Estate business sucks right now if you take a short term look at it, today really sucks when it knocks me down a peg or two. Karen and I are in it for the long haul though and it has brought us rewards we would never have seen if we stayed in our 7:15 to 5:30 jobs. We will continue to work our goals and at this point I will continue to try and right my upset Karma and move forward.

My message today is you can only help people so much, they really have to want help to move to the next level. You can only do so much before you have to give up and move on. Don’t take this post as a negative message, or a warning to never help people out, just be cautious. As for me, I probably will still help people, although with more caveats along the line and less rope given out, at least for now.