Choose Your Roommates Wisely

This blog post is inspired by Judge Judy

I’m stuck on the couch with a raging case of strep throat and have actually taken a sick day of which I almost never take.  I don’t like being down and out like this, especially with no voice, but it has given me a lot of time to think.  In all of this mindless thinking, I find myself watching crap on tv like Judge Judy.  And of course, the episode is on a Landlord/Tenant wrongful eviction!  Right up my alley.

This Judge Judy train wreck is the typical “I paid rent and the Landlord never fixed anything!” situation.  So the Tenant moves out without notice, but it comes down to the rent was never actually paid by the Tenant.  So the Landlord is suing for the rent.  Then the Tenant drops the bomb that I have heard so many times before.  “My roommate was supposed to pay it”.  Surprise, surprise, the worthless roommate never came through.

Judge Judy then says one of my favorite lines ever (one that we use often in my line of work)…choose your roommates wisely.

The spring is the time when renting property usually picks up for us.  We rent to a lot of college students who are consistently renting bigger properties with a few other roommates at one time.  Probably 85% of the time during the lease term, one of the Tenants will bail out, not pay their portion of the rent or cause some sort of damage to the home.  Our property management company look at the lease and the rent payments as a whole.  Therefore if one Tenant does not pay, then all Tenants are liable and all will get evicted if not paid.  So many times, the “good” Tenants are shocked by this and shocked that their roommate would be so irresponsible.

I ramble on about all of this as just a warning to all parties getting involved in signing an agreement with someone else.  Choose your roommates wisely.  They may be fun to party with, but is that really what you want when it’s time to be serious?  Just consider it.

I’ve got to go, the next case up is one where one girl threw another girl into the pool while she was talking on her iPhone.  Now she is suing the girl who pushed her in for a new iPhone.  Cat fights…ohhh! This one is bound to be good!

Tagged as: Dizmang Properties, for rent, judge judy, leases, property management, renting property, roommates, tenant