My Deadbeat Tenant Insisted on Eviction

Wall Street Journal ^ | January 20, 2022 | Bert Stratton

I went to my first eviction hearing in two years last week. I hadn’t evicted anybody, or lost any rents, during Covid. The neighborhood social-services agency had given out rent vouchers to six delinquent tenants of mine.

The tenant in apartment 403—a one-bedroom—was an exception. I had told him about the free rent money at the agency, but he never moved on it. His living room consisted of a sleeping bag, dozens of cigarette butts and a bong. Every Monday I knocked on his door to see if he was still there. He owed three months’ rent. On his application he had written “house painter.” But he was always home.

When my leasing agent rented to him seven months ago, the painter had been accompanied by his mother—always a good sign. He was 27. In hindsight we should have had mom cosign . . .

I sat on a bench outside the hearing room, wondering if the defendant would show. Several days earlier I’d told him: “You might want to move out ahead of time to avoid a public record, to avoid an eviction.” He texted me back: “You’re going to have to go through the eviction process while I work things out.”

I was paying for his heat, cooking gas, water and roof. That was annoying. I like to pick my charities, and he wasn’t one of them. I called his mother. Her name was on the application. She said, “I thought you were going to tell me my son is dead.” I knew what she was talking about . . .