Wow, what an interesting couple of days I’ve had. Would you like to hear some of it?
It all started early Monday afternoon when I went to drop off a receipt to one of my shared accommodation tenants. Just to catch you up, I rent out shared accommodation properties to working men in Calgary. Fairly simple accommodations, four or five rooms in a house, each with their own lock, fully furnished including linens, cookware etc. Color TV’s with full cable in each room. Perfect for someone between places, just arriving in Calgary for work, or someone who doesn’t have a large amount of cash saved up for a security deposit and rent.
We have simple rules for the places, originally they were everyone had to have a job, there was no smoking in the properties, no drinking, no drugs and no overnight visitors. With the drinking, we don’t mind if the guys have a couple beer, but our goal was to clamp down on the places being party houses which typically happens with these types of properties. Also by having jobs, that meant no one is hanging around the house all day.
Well over the last 9 months with the slowdown, we have relaxed even more and have taken in people on social assistance, people in need of a hand up and some guys just down on their luck. On one hand, it was meant to help us out by filling up some of our vacancies, a means to stem cash flowing out when it should be coming in. On the other hand, it was also a method to help people and organizations needing help.
So, back to Monday, I arrive at the property, head on in and find two non-working tenants sitting there drinking and smoking with a third female I don’t know. Ashtray’s are out, everyone seems to be having fun, at least until I show up. I literally blew up, if you would have seen me you would have turned around and walked away, I was livid. I explained my position, what they could do with their cigarettes, ashtrays and booze and stormed out to my next appointment.
When I arrived back at the office I filled out the evictions for both tenants and then rushed back to sign in two other fellows into two other places and took a few minutes to drop off both evictions. The party was well broken up by now and just the one fellow remained who was quite shocked that I was giving him an eviction. We had a very short conversation and I left.
I had already given the one fellow a second chance and since I don’t play baseball I don’t use a three strike rule, I will give someone the opportunity to correct their behaviour once, then it’s over. So fellow one was done, fellow two who I had the short conversation with, had been a pretty good tenant up until that point. I was not in the mood to talk to either of them again that day, but by 7:00, the “model tenant” had called and left two messages. I had already discussed with Karen I would give him his second chance if he followed the rules over the next week.
So I returned his call, spent ten minutes listening to him whine about how unfair it was (this is the part I don’t understand, it’s fair for these jerks to smoke in my property stink the place up, cause me to pay for new carpets that are burnt, replace burnt sheets, repaint rooms at my time and expense, but it’s not fair for me to kick them out) and finally told him to shut up and listen as I was giving him one more chance. It took a moment for him to understand, and it finally registered as he became very thankful. When I finally got off the phone, I was worn down and put the phone down for the night to charge.
This morning, I grab my phone to check email and found the fellow had called twice more last night. So after the kids off to school I called to find out what was up, hoping for more apologies, recognition of what he had done being wrong, that type of call. Instead, he was telling me I shouldn’t kick out the other guy, and I should let his stay as well. I spent several minutes on the phone explaining the other guy was done, had his chance and was not staying.
It’s when he told me I should be a human being and to help this other guy out that the conversation rapidly fell apart. I have gone above and beyond what almost any other landlord would do to help people out. I looked back and of the last seven people I helped through these agencies, I have had one person who I have not had any issues with and he is currently there. The people I have helped have included six people who I have evicted, have created five different police incidents, two complaints by neighbours, several thousand dollars worth of lost rent, damage to property, a stolen car, homemade knives and weapons, complete disrespect of my properties and me and this meathead is telling me to be a human being. I told him the other guy was going, I wasn’t changing my mind the conversation was over and I was hanging up, which I did.
About an hour later, I get a call with the same prefix as the area this fellow was in, so I ignored it and let it go to voice mail. I fully expected it was him calling back to plead yet again. Two minutes later my wife Karen calls me to tell me the neighbour just called and the police have surrounded the area, have assault rifles out in the back alley and no one on the block is allowed to leave their home. I immediately grab my stuff and start heading out when the police call me.
I had to run back in check my files and provided names and info on the tenants that are there and when I tell them I am heading over, they warn me to stay two or three blocks away. Since I cannot do anything there, I realize I might as well get back to my desk and wait to hear from the police. Over the next couple of hours, I end up talking to the constable twice more and dispatch once more and finally find out that they have everything under control.
The end result is the individual who I had planned on letting stay called the distress center and told them he
was going to commit suicide. Potentially because I wasn’t going to let his “buddy” stay. It also turns out this guy had previous issues with the police, so they sent everyone available, including the police tactical. We talked to the neighbour later in the day and she informed us there were at least 30 police there, what a great way to make an impression on the neighbourhood. The individual was taken to the hospital by the police and was being held to sober up and to assess his mental state by various doctors.
This was a huge call for attention for this guy, a huge waste of everyone’s emotions and a big wake up call for me. I’m tired of helping. That’s it. My problem tenants are all the ones I am trying to help, yet they are dragging me down. I’m angry, I’m depressed and I feel beat down because I cannot help people who obviously don’t want help. Or at least don’t want help if they have to work at it.
The worst part is I am lumping in many good people who are really down on their luck and having to shut my door to all of them. What is wrong with people? Why don’t more of them take responsibility for their lives, for their actions and for how they represent themselves? Is it just that easy to let society take responsibility for them, to make everyone help them out as part of social rightfulness? Or is it just easier for them not to care, to coast through life and take what they need as they need it?
Could my constant exposure to this negative life be tearing at my values? Have I managed to become so callous as to build what could only be called disgust, or a disappointment on the soft side, for people not carrying their weight and abusing the system? Specifically my system lately?
I ended up meeting with the bailiff today and we posted the notice, changed the locks and then away we went, patiently awaiting SWAT boy to show up at the property so I could then bring the police in and charge him with trespassing. After such a lengthy eviction and between the drinking, the smoking, the fighting and of course SWAT, I felt he would freak out just a smidgen upon finding he was legally locked out of his former abode.
