Spray painting your own property still not a crime!

[Covar]

Fed up landlord spray paints "deadbeat tenants" on home

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - A landlord who says she's fed up with some tenants who refuse to pay their rent decided to take matters into her own hands with spray paint.

Landlord Vanessa McCants spray painted the words "deadbeat tenants" on a house she owns in the Reedy Creek subdivision of Northeast Charlotte.

McCants says the tenants have not paid the $1300 a month rent since June 1st, and have now missed two payments.

McCants says the home is being foreclosed on and will be auctioned off next week.

She believes the tenants figured out she wouldn't be able to legally evict them before she lost ownership of the home, so they stopped paying. She says the eviction process can take several months.

"Why do you think you have the right to stay in someone's home without paying them rent?" McCants told WBTV. "Just because this house is under foreclosure -- that's neither here nor there -- you still have to pay me."

Tenant Shanae Jackson admits she's not paying the rent, but says McCants isn't telling the whole story.

She says she's been trying to move because the home is being foreclosed on, and she says she can't afford both the rent and moving expenses at the same time. Jackson feels the security deposit she gave when she moved in should cover the rent.

But McCants says that security deposit is for damage to the property -- not to cover unpaid rent.

Jackson also accuses McCants of cutting the wires to the air conditioning, which she denies.

McCants said she decided to vandalize her own home after trying to get inside to retrieve things she owns, and being told by police she can't right now.

She believes the law gives a lot of protection to tenants, but not enough to homeowners.

McCants spray painted the garage with "deadbeat tenants" and Jackson's name on the garage Wednesday night. Soon after, Jackson painted over the words.

Jackson called police, who said McCants won't be charged because spray painting your own property is not a crime.

Complete win on the landlords part.

 

[phil]

I wonder why the eviction process takes so long. When I was dog sitting for a week and my apartment found out, they said they'd evict me on that Friday if he wasn't gone by then. I wonder if that was a bluff. It's probably a state by state thing.

 

[sixpackshaker]

Tenants have the right to miss a few payments before getting evicted. The amount will have to be payed. This is to keep people that are suddenly jobless from being even more suddenly homeless.

This is a total loss for the Homeowner. She'll not get the rent and she loses the house.

 

[fade]

I will never understand why people get so mad at deadbeat renters, but defend mortgage walkaways (remember that fiasco of a thread I started, thinking everyone would naturally agree that walking away is tantamount to theft). It not just here, I've had this same discussion elsewhere.

 

[sixpackshaker]

Then again, it seems that people should be mad at the "land lord." Because she was taking the Rent and not paying the Mortgage. So the renter finds out that she is going to be homeless in a few months, and decides to quit paying. Hoping that she could save enough money for a security deposit and first month's rent.

 

[strawman]

Unfortunately this is not uncommon here in Michigan for the last few years. I've heard several accounts with the main thread being people who are renting getting eviction notices on their front door from some bank indicating that the property is in foreclosure and they have some short period of time to vacate the premises, with absolutely no warning from the person they originally rented it from. Once the foreclosure process starts, they are usually advised to stop paying rent since the ownership of the home is legally in doubt.

Everyone's situation is different in many ways, though, and no matter what the process is just bad all around. I don't know that there's an easy way to assign blame properly in such cases, certainly not when so little information is known.

-Adam