Can I not pay rent and get away with it?

By Tenant

Have you ever been tempted not to pay rent? I mean, it takes quite a chunk off your monthly salary – money that you could have spent on something else. However tempting it may be, you know it’s not right, all the time. Even if all hell has broken loose with your landlord, you just can NOT pay rent. Otherwise, you could get evicted and having a sheriff come to force you to move is something that would ultimately affect your credit score. And you know what happens when you’re credit score gets affected…you just basically get wiped off the social world of easy access to loans and rental properties.


So, what are the common reasons why you may not want to pay the rent?

1. Landlord does not fix a problem with the rental unit.

If the landlord continually ignores your requests for repairs, that could be a strong factor for you to withhold your rent money. I think what you are trying to do is to force your landlord to do the repair and then you’ll pay him the rent. Sometimes, landlords need to have their eyes opened to the reality that they need to act their part and fix rental concerns that are within their scope of responsibility.

When you’re doing this, I just have a couple of tips for you: show proof that you have the money. A bank statement could be something that will suffice as proof. You also have to make it clear to your landlord that you are withholding the rent for them to fix the problem on the rental.

2. When you had to pay for maintenance (i.e., there are bedbugs and you paid for the treatment, you did your own repairs, etc).

Even if your lease agreement does not say anything about bedbugs, your state tenant’s laws should pretty much guide you on the matter. If you decide to do the maintenance yourself, you need to give your landlord a copy of the receipts. You cannot just withhold the rent money because you want to get back what you spent. It doesn’t work like that.

I learned that there must first be an agreement between you and your landlord when it comes to the cost of maintenance and bedbug treatment. If you’re landlord will say you’ll split the bills, then you’ll split the bills. If the landlord will say it’s your responsibility because that’s on the lease agreement you signed, then it’s your responsibility and you cannot withhold the rent money.

Just a reminder, your rent is your responsibility as a tenant and by no means should you try to get away from that. The consequences are just too huge to even consider. While there may be landlords that seem to only want the money and not help you out, withholding rent is not the best solution to getting them to act – a formal complaint will.

A formal complaint is like a notice for eviction, only that it comes from you, the tenant. I found out that landlords are more likely to spring to action when they had to sign documents detailing your complaint and the resolution that you want done.

Again, withholding your rent money will only get you into trouble. Find other ways to reach out to your landlord and force them to do something. Here’s the link to RPA’s complaint center to help you out: http://www.rentalprotectionagency.com/complaint_center.php

Edited on: Tuesday, February 5th, 2013 7:17 pm

15 Responses to “Can I not pay rent and get away with it?”

My response: (We welcome stories, examples, explanations, answers and a touch of your personality)
 

Anonymous

February 5th, 2013 7:40 pm

As a landlord, I try very hard to work with tenants. I know that tough times happen and that they could miss rent. However, I make it sure that they understand that there are late fees involved and I want them to promise on a date that they can pay. If they don’t pay on their promised day, I start the eviction process by serving them with 3-day notices. I don’t want the rent to pile up and the tenant to be behind by 2 months because I know that would be difficult to catch up. I try to reasonable but hey, I have mortgage bills to pay and I also need the money for my family.


Anonymous

February 6th, 2013 6:00 am

I think it’s understandable to be a bit behind on late especially if times are really tough. What is more important is that you continue to communicate with your landlord. Try to pay on your promised date and if paying the rent once every month is becoming too difficult for you, then perhaps you could begin a new agreement with your landlord for you to just pay weekly. I’m sure that if you just explain your situation well to your landlord, he or she would understand.


Anonymous

February 6th, 2013 4:20 pm

This article is quite insulting. Tenants have rights too and I think it is our right to withhold rent money if we are unsatisfied with the way our landlord works then we should not pay him rent. That ought to force him to better his services and actually become a better tenant.


Anonymous

February 7th, 2013 2:40 am

I used to live in this apartment where you get to have all sorts of problems. There isn’t enough heating, the bathroom keeps getting flooded and the worst thing is that there are bedbugs! I’ve already informed the landlord, maybe numerous times already, but they just keep giving me the “I’ll take care of it” attitude and then nothing actually gets taken cared of. So what I did is I did the repairs myself and then paid for the bedbug treatment. I then sent them copies of the receipts and told them that I’ll take everything from my rent. Well, guess what, they got angry because they had their own preferred treatment company and they’d rather do the repairs themselves. I waited three months for them to act and now that I acted in their behalf, they get crazy and tell me they won’t refund me or even allow me to take the costs off my rent. Is that even fair? So I’ve had enough. I want my money back but since they are too difficult to deal with, I let RPA handle it. I filed a complaint, yeah, paid the $35 filing fee plus some extras since I requested for it to be rushed, then waited for the landlord to come knocking on my door. Serves them right for not being nice landlords!


Anonymous

February 7th, 2013 1:00 pm

I would never even try to think about not paying rent. I know that my landlord could evict me for it, whatever my reason is. I have this friend in CA who got evicted from here apartment and in just a couple of weeks after, the eviction showed up in her credit report. Now since almost all apartment owners run credit checks prior to accepting a tenant, my friend had a really hard time finding a new place. She eventually found an apartment but it was really expensive to get in because she had to prove that she had the money to pay for it, this time. So the lesson of the story is that you should never even try to not pay your rent. The landlord will eventually win.


Anonymous

February 8th, 2013 2:00 am

It just sounds so unfair that a renter could just say “sorry, we had a bad month. We’ll pay the rent later.” What can the landlord do? If he doesn’t collect rent, where will he get the money to pay for the utilities, mortgage and still have enough for his family? And when he goes to court, he initially has to shell out some money to spend for the lawyer and the expenses. Although he will be reimbursed, how could he feel confident knowing that you don’t have the money to pay the rent so you won’t surely have the money to pay for the court costs too. :( I feel bad for all good landlords now.


Anonymous

February 8th, 2013 12:20 pm

We had a renter for 8 years and just recently, he got laid off. He was a good payer, always paying on time and quiet as a mouse. So when he lost his job, he told us that he’s going to pay the rent weekly until he finds another job. Now, 2 months have gone by and he still doesn’t have a job. He’s already a couple of weeks behind on payment. But the nice thing about him is that he always communicates with us so we let him stay. Just this morning, he told us that he has finally found a job and that he could now catch up on his payments. Boy, that was such a relief! So you see, as long as you keep all lines of communication open, your landlord should understnad and become more reasonable to work with.


Anonymous

February 8th, 2013 10:40 pm

I think there’s a common misconception here that landlords are very rich and that they’re just bathing in money. Well, the fact is, most of them are not. They could be like you who had to earn in order to pay off all the bills. So if they’re providing you the roof to protect you from the weather, then you should also give them the rent due them. Has it ever occured to you that the reason they are persistent when it comes to the collection of rent is because it is their right to be paid. Yes, you have tenant rights. But they have rights as landlords too.


Anonymous

February 9th, 2013 9:00 am

I think we’re entitled to not pay the rent if we lost our jobs too. How can we pay when we don?t have jobs to begin with?


Anonymous

February 9th, 2013 7:20 pm

Landlords also play a part when it comes to tenants missing out on their payments. There are landlords who are just too lenient that they no longer promote self-sufficiency. They create tenants who think that it’s okay not to pay rent this month and just make up some lame excuses because the landlord will understand, for sure. Well guess what, for being too lenient you are hurting yourself and your business. You have to put in some force. You need to let your tenant know that you are serious about collecting the rent.


Anonymous

February 10th, 2013 5:40 am

This is why it is very important to run background checks on all tenant applicants. You want to protect your business by makig sure that you are renting to only the best tenants.


Anonymous

February 10th, 2013 4:00 pm

I do not understand the mentality of people who think they are entitled to not pay rent if they lost their jobs. Don?t they know that not paying rent will only do more damage to their credit score? And when it’s the credit score that’s affected, you probably have an idea on how difficult it will be to get back and re-establish it. So yeah, you lost your job…would it make you feel better to sleep on the streets,then? Pay up!


Anonymous

February 11th, 2013 2:20 am

I am a landlord. I don?t run charity, I’m running a business. Like you, I have bills to pay so I would really appreciate it if you would pay rent on time.


Anonymous

February 11th, 2013 12:40 pm

Good landlords deserve the best from tenants. Bad landlords, on the other hand, they bring out the worst in tenants. Lol.


Anonymous

February 11th, 2013 11:00 pm

Well, if you haven’t been listening to our requests for better living conditions, then we should also be deaf to your demands for rent. Serves you right for being the worst landlord in history!


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