Skip to content
General Landlording & Rental Properties

User Stats

768
Posts
278
Votes
Shane H.
Pro Member
  • Investor
  • Wichita, KS
278
Votes |
768
Posts

Publicly SHAMING an evicted former Tenant? Do it or not?

Shane H.
Pro Member
  • Investor
  • Wichita, KS
Posted Jul 21 2018, 10:17

I've been a landlord since 2006.  Up until now I've never had to evict a tenant.  I've had people owe me what I would consider decent sums of money however always treated those tenants with respect from our first interaction to the last and I've always been paid back even when I didn't expect to.

My cherry was finally popped and I had a tenant I was forced to evict.  I'm not sure why - but he chose to appear in court to fight the eviction - the attorney assured me he has nothing to stand on and the "trial" is set for this coming Monday - curious as to whether or not he shows up.

That being said I'm from the midwest and most people in KS and in general in states touching us operate different than other places - we can still at times do business on a handshake and a man/woman's word.  I've lived on the East cost and had culture shock when I moved there a few years ago as it is completely different there.  Anyways when we started to have issues with  him I gave him multiple, multiple opportunities to work this out like gentlemen between us.  

The man is a pathological liar as well as his dirtbag family.  He's a Captain in the military and in his 40's and has been using the military card to get people to kiss his butt and I'm assuming getting away with scamming people like me.  Well he didnt expect me to take a stand and fight against his bullying so after he tried to stiff me for another months rent so eviction court we went.  We have control of the house back as I had reports from the neighbors he moved out and he also text messaged me he left as well as was shutting off the utilities - so per the attorney that was justifiable enough to change the locks.

So - some of the damage I was aware of due to a couple inspections on the house - last time I was in it was April - 

This house was immaculate from top to bottom and I'd finished it in high end finishes as this was the house my wife/I lived in and as I continued my RE career in Wichita I wanted it to be a show piece to other folks I'd do business with I knew what I was doing.  We didnt even finish the remodeling until after we moved and purchased our business out of town.  So everything in the house was new from windows, to curtains, curtain rods, appliances (a couple we never used) granite countertops, custom kitchen cabinets (beech wood - very hard wood)  fancy backsplash, doors, HIGH END custom trim, flooring the 33 cubic yards of concrete for patio/driveway etc.  

In 6 months they broke 3 light fixtures - I had reports their kids were spraying a garden hose from the outside of the house into the kitchen, broke a large kitchen cabinet door, broke several plastic pieces of a new higher end Fridge, fist sized hole in the wall, carpet stains and the entire house may need another repaint, damaged woodwork, scratched kitchen cabinets, stole the curtain rods, curtains my wife spent a lot of time picking out stolen, destroyed the back yard - let the weeds grow several feet tall in the flower beds etc.  

So given my track record of vetting tenants I'd been good - this guy is a pathological liar and a sociopath so he was able to pull one over on me - glad he's out.

That being said I'm debating pulling photos from their FB pages and coupling them with photos of how he left the house, and putting FB posts in several local landlord forums, social shaming forums, and then paying $100 to advertise their misdeeds on FB, post the post on his military command's FB page, email it to their media relations etc - my whole reasoning is obviously I'm angry I was lied to, and to me the biggest deal of all is trust was broken which where I live is a HUGE deal and by the time this is done he's going to owe around $3-5k which to me is not an insignificant amount of money and I know with his Captains salary and BAH he can more than afford to pay me back.   

Part of me thinks I'm wanting to do this due to being betrayed but the other part of me is that he has a bullying mentality (he's a very large built imposing military man) and I dont think anyone has ever stood up to him and it's time to take a stand.  The second motivation for doing this is to motivate him to speak to me and work out a payment plan so as I remove the posts. 

Please give opinions to the ramifications of doing this and if it's a bad idea - due to our US societies love affair with the military I'm afraid this can backfire on me - if he wasn't in the military I wouldn't have second thoughts.  (No offense to the military folks on here - my dad was in for 17 years and many other family members have served - however the current military folks are far different from the old school ones and feel it's everyones right to kiss their butt and they can get away with anything - dont get me wrong there's a lot of good ones and they outnumber the bad by far - but we cant dispute today's generation is far different than many years ago)

Loading replies...