Why I Didn't Pay the Rent

You think you’ve heard them all…but you haven’t. 

The excuses tenants use for not paying the rent are limited only by their levels of creativity.

I still think the best one I’ve heard was related by a property manager in Geelong who told that the tenant hadn’t paid because she didn’t have any shoes!  Apparently, she had a bit of pokies habit and as they were renting in an outer suburban area without made roads and footpaths, the husband decided to pack up all her shoes in his car when he headed off to work each day.

Then there’s the successive deaths.  I had one tenant whose grandmother had died three times and each time she had to go to Queensland for the funeral(s).

And there’s the young child who has been trained to say, “Mummy is in hospital” each time anyone rings up to query why the rent hasn’t been paid.

Pets are always a good one to evoke sympathy, particularly dead ones.

“The cheque is in the mail,” really makes you query the ability of Australia Post to deliver mail either that, or our postie has a service area Australia wide.

I’d love to hear from others who have ‘unusual’ reasons for rent not being paid and I’ll publish the best.

Post Written by Tony Warren