I expect most people here keep up with their obligations. I pay my mortgage, my car payment, my utility bills, and my credit cards, and after that, my money is mine to enjoy. But if I chose to blow off my mortgage and have pizza delivered nightly, that would be a bad thing. Can you see the difference? I feel as of you’re being deliberately obtuse. If I’m misreading you here, I apologize.
If I had to eat nothing but ramen noodles and bread in order to pay my rent, yes I would. There have been times when I have gone hungry to pay my bills.
AFTER the bills are paid, what is left is “disposable income,” to be spent as you want.
If the alternative is breaking the terms of the loan agreement? Yes.
There’s nothing wrong with spending money and there’s nothing wrong with owing money. There is something wrong with living beyond your means.
There was a time in college when I couldn’t even afford the bread, if I wanted to keep my apartment.
I sure did lose weight, though. 
Trying to stay far away of the mental image of this couple and their sex toys…
Not a sex toy, but still a mental image - the first house my husband and I bought together was carpeted throughout in red, and in front of the fireplace was a dyed black sheepskin rug thing. It was actually 3 skins sewn together. The couple we bought from was elderly - Wally and Sylvia. One of us made a comment about Wally and Sylvia and the sheepskin rugs. Definitely not an image one wants to dwell upon… <shudder>
Thankfully of all the stuff the Easts left behind in this house, there wasn’t anything kinky. I couldn’t deal with that.
I hope they paid a hefty deposit and you’re charging as much as possible against that deposit.
When I was renting, it was 1-2 months rent up front. And rent was paid in advance.
If eating something else means I default on a loan? Hell yes.
Oh, the deposit is gone. Ivylad thinks they poured concrete down the bathtub drain…the plumber is there now…stay tuned…
Oh god, that’s really fucked up. Good luck.
So you’re going to ask for a bigger deposit from the next lot, right?
Gosh, that poor, innocent, hardworking family can’t be at fault… cough
I know someone who was evicted because she hadn’t paid rent for five months, and yet managed during that time to buy way more stuff than her ex-place could even hold (basement and garage were crammed full), didn’t have to buy a new computer for her kid because I gave her a perfectly good one of mine that was better and newer than the one being replaced, and brought a whole pile of presents to her family’s Christmas gathering, bigger than her better-off siblings did. It’s not that people who don’t pay rent don’t deserve anything at all, it’s that their priorities are way out of whack if they’re buying luxuries.
You got off lucky.
My grandma once had a tenant in one of her No-Pets-Allowed houses who got two big dogs. Fearing that the neighbors would report them if they saw the dogs (or dog poop) in the yard, they chose to use a room in the basement as their dogs’ bathroom. And didn’t clean it up. Unfortunately, grandma didn’t find out about this situation for a while.
After they were evicted, we had to use shovels to dig up the several-inches-deep layers of compacted shit. (I told grandma at the time that she should just burn the damn place down and get the insurance.)
Credit card companies and banks are in the business of loaning money, and they charge interest for the service. If you don’t hold up your end of a contract with them, you can get into trouble too.
Using the dooggie doo as fuel?
Ivylass – in your situation, it sounds like you did the right thing. Seems like there was some problems and you exercised your legal right to evict. I am glad it turned out well for you – it could have been a lot worse.
Now, what I am hearing in this thread, a lot, is that tenants sign a CONTRACT, and as such are under legal obligations to the landlord.
That is true.
But lets remember – THE LANDLORD SIGNS A CONTRACT TOO.
The “Lord” is “landlord” is not literal. Once a landlord signs that lease, the tenant has rights to pocess the property. The landlord is in many ways restricted in what they can and can not do on that property the tenant is in possession of. (This can of course be modifed in most instances in the contract)
Why would a landlord want to do this? Simple – FOR PROFIT.
Landlords rent property (in most cases, but not all) to make money. They do not do it out of the goodness of their hearts. It is to make a profit.
Nothing wrong with that.
However some, but not all, landlords believe that the tenants have no rights and that they are somehow superior to the tenant because they own the property.
Not true! Tenants have legal rights. Landlord signed a contract to give up enjoyment of the property in return for cash. Tenants have the right to unencumbered access to the property.
When a bad tenant breaks a provision of the contract, the only solution to the problem is what Ivylass did – which is to get an eviction. A landlord just can’t walk in a kick a tenant out.
This situation really sucks for Ivylass – and she came here to vent. Good for her.
But it was a bad business transaction. She could have made some money off her rental property, and in the future she might.
It is elitiest to judge people because they buy fritos and eat pizza. That is their business. If you rent to them, that is your choice. You rented to them in hopes of making a profit and no one forced you to sign the contract. If they burn you, you evict them. It is the cost of doing business.
No one is judging them for the Fritos and pizza. I’d bet most of the posters in this thread buy similar things all the time. The issue is when you buy those things, which are luxury items, when you owe somebody rent RIGHT NOW. Rent goes higher on the priority list than Fritos, so when they chose the Fritos over paying rent they decided eating those Fritos was more important than having a place to live.
I ate some Fritos just yesterday, but I also made damn sure I have enough money in the bank to pay the rent when it’s due tomorrow. If I didn’t, I’d be a deadbeat and I would expect people to judge me for that.
No concrete down the drain. It seems that in this older-built home, the slab is right under the pipes, as in it goes down 4 inches and makes a right angle. It’s just draining slow.
I’m sorry, Rysdad, I meant to ask you about this…why FIVE trips? How did that come about?
:eek: Unbelievable. That’s really messed up.
FWIW, ivylass, you did the right thing. I hope you have better luck with your next tenants!
Guess I should have previewed first. 
But that’s good news. Or one less worry, anyway.