Years ago as I rode the Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic I wore a t-shirt I’d had made with “The Northwest Landlord: The newsletter for landlords” printed front and back. A group of three or four young women came up behind me and one of them said something to the effect that I shouldn’t be proud to be a landlord, because, she implied, landlords are all slimy and crooks. You know how you usually can’t come up with the perfect comeback until hours later? This time the perfect comeback popped into my head.
“Oh,” I said, “You shouldn’t be proud of taking responsibility for your life and providing an essential service? You shouldn’t be proud to have made a good financial decision?” I’ve relished that comeback ever since. Not another word from that young woman.
Some people’s hate of landlords has come about because of either a bad experience or two with a landlord or because of a belief that people don’t have the right to own property they rent to others. We can’t do anything about either one. But we can do our best to run an ethical business.
The overwhelming majority of landlord run their businesses honorably and ethically. But a few landlords run businesses that give landlords a bad name, operating in a way not even approaching ethical. Those are the ones people remember. One such business has come to the attention of the Federal Trade Commission, which is in the process of ordering the company to refund $48 million to customers defrauded and otherwise cheated by the company, an agreement awaiting okay by a judge. The company’s name isn’t important because it engages in activities a few other rental owners are guilty of and serves as a lesson about unethical and illegal business practices.
That company, said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan, “preyed on tenants through a variety of unfair and deceptive tactics, from saddling people with hidden fees and unjustly withholding security deposits to misleading people about eviction policies during and pandemic and even pursuing eviction proceedings after people had moved out.”
Just the tip of the unethical practices iceberg, others involved junk and hidden fees that were only disclosed after the lease had been signed and tenants moved in. The full disaster became public with the 57-page lawsuit the FTC filed against the company.
When I see landlords doing things such as those, my blood boils. As rental owners, out ethical obligation is to treat our tenants with respect and fair dealing.
One ethical principle is Integrity. Investopedia offers that Integrity “Incorporates other principles—honesty, trustworthiness, and reliability. Someone with integrity consistently does the right thing and strives to hold themselves to a higher standard.”
That company’s 60-page-long lease agreement has buried in it sections with print much smaller than the rest, the “fine print of myth and legend,” and sections with a colored background with smaller print and a font color similar to the background, blending into the background color. And just in case the applicant actually reads all 60 pages of the lease agreement and refuses to sign, the company has already collected a non-refundable $500 Reservation Fee in addition to the non-refundable $55 Application Fee. Other times the tenant never learns about some of the fees until after the lease is signed and the tenant gets the first rent bill that included fees never disclosed before lease signing. So much for integrity.
Another ethical principle, Honesty, requires truth in all matters, thus “fostering an ethical climate. Partial truths, omissions, and under or overstating don’t help a business improve its performance,” says Investopedia.
The owner of the company in question made unethical behavior its policy when he encouraged the dishonest behavior by “calling on the senior vice president responsible for overseeing the company’s fee program to ‘juice this hog.’” So much for honesty.
Thinking of our tenants as customers who pay our mortgages, utilities, insurance, and maintenance, and make us a profit, changes the viewpoint about hog juicing and recognizes valued customers worthy of fair treatment.
Rental property ownership is a business. Would you do business with a company that concealed the prices and terms of its products? Probably not more than once. Consumer protection and the state Attorney General’s office would have something to say about those practices. Yet, some rental owners believe they can flimflam their tenants and think they are just “juicing the hog,” cheating profits off the back of their customers and ignoring ethical behavior.
Every transaction in the rental business to be ethical must be open and above board from the ads that get the phone to ring to the move out process that ensures security deposits are handled legally and ethically.
Success in our business isn’t just about making money. Pride and ethics in our business are every bit as important, and maybe more so. If you feel guilty about how you make your money, no rationalization with remarks such as “it’s just business” will allay the conscience of any honest business person.
Some people will always believe that owning rental property is something akin to Satanism. We can’t do anything about them. but we can deal openly and fairly with our employees, our contractors, and our tenants. If we do, the money will take care of itself, and we won’t have to rationalize unethical activities making remarks such as “it’s just business.”
The Landlord
Through hard work and persistence, the landlord provides housing for those who do not choose to own their own property.
The landlord epitomizes what has made this nation great: individual achievement. The landlord is the embodiment of the idea that each person has the ability to be successful if he or she is willing to do what is required for success.
Because of the landlord some forty percent of this nation’s people have a place to live.
Because of the landlord builders, remodelers, craftsmen, banks, mortgage bankers, insurance companies, utilities and many other businesses make a profit.
Because of the landlord local governments receive billions of dollars in property tax revenue to provide streets, roads and highways; to provide street lighting, bridges, police protection, fire protection, schools, colleges, parks, community centers, water, garbage service, senior services, and many more services which make our cities better places to live.
Because of the landlord’s diligence and hard work, the politicians and bureaucrats who would limit the rights of the landlord receive regular paychecks.
Be proud to be a landlord.
