Dealing With the Irrational Mind

Dealing with the irrational mind is a fundamental requirement of property management, unfortunately. We're all irrational at times, so this isn't something unique to tenants, but you'll find that generally emotions overrule logic in the mind of a tenant more often than in other circumstances. Perhaps this is because since housing is such an important decision it becomes more emotional (the bigger the decision, the more likely we are to make it emotionally rather than logically has been my observation), or perhaps there are other things in play, such as a cultural expectation we've created today for others to take care of all our problems or at least be blamed for them. We want to think of ourselves as creatures of intellect and logic, but the truth is that most of the time we make decisions and interpretations based on emotions, and then attempt to justify them afterwards with logic. So strong is this need for self-justification, that people can often remember things incorrectly. To be less, polite, they make stuff up. This is why a tenant who gets taken to court invariably is convinced that the landlord "wouldn't fix anything" as justification for their non-payment, even though the tenant has no proof of what they say, or that they've given no notice to the landlord, etc. We'll illustrate with a story where we'll call our tenant Gary.

Gary was a fairly typical tenant, hard-working family man. Sometimes a bit too much of a family man from our standpoint, as he would move his kids and their families in with them periodically as they hit some financial rough patch or another (overloading our unit's capacity, and not putting them on the lease, getting approvals, etc.). One day we got a strange maintenance request call from him where he said the refrigerator was keeping things "too cold". We advised him to try turning it down and to call us back if that didn't work. We never got another call. He did, though, skip out the next month owing rent (and leaving the unit in a rather undesirable condition). The first thing I did on entering was to check the refrigerator, and found it still set on the maximum cold setting.

It was fairly easy to track him down and get him served with a claim for damages. His response was very emotional, railing against the perceived evils of our doing, and instead of seeking some sort of settlement or payment plan he hired an attorney. The attorney filed a fiery answer using the claims of us not fixing anything (using the proper legal terminologies). Eventually the attorney withdrew (I'm sure because he got stiffed by Gary as well), and we got to our day in court. There Gary threw a fit about how he had a right to break the lease because we wouldn't fix anything; he got so emotional the judge had to lecture him and the bailiff came and stood next to him. Gary had rationalized things to the point that he truly believed he had been done a great evil and was reacting accordingly. Of course, emotions don't win court cases, proof does, and we were the ones with proofs. Upon losing the judgment, Gary threw another tantrum, and even after he left the courtroom was loudly uttering threats so all could hear. He also swore we'd never get a dime.

The too cold refrigerator thing was obviously his way of justifying what he was about to do; when he called us, he'd already decided to move and his mind worked out a plan to provide a rationalization, no matter how flimsy. He internalized the falsehood to where he believed it passionately. Facts didn't matter to him at that point, but they did matter in court.

A few months later I saw him in court again; he and his family were being evicted, and they made all the same arguments in court - landlord wouldn't fix anything etc. He glared at me as if he had seen Satan incarnate, even though I was there on another tenant issue. In talking to that property manager, I heard a familiar story of rationalization and emotion; the difference was that after Gary was put out of that unit, the manager found it infested with bedbugs!

True to his word, Gary has not paid anything on his judgment yet - he's quit working, doesn't even own a car, and is just living off his wife's disability check. He has chosen to deliberately live in poverty, all to back up a rationalization, a justification, that is absurd. This demonstrates just how powerful these rationalizations on the parts of tenants can become. Your weapon against this is verification - take pictures of everything, get everything in writing, keep maintenance record notes, etc. Then, don't try to meet emotion with emotion. Arguing back and forth with an irrational mind is playing on their playing field. Take the argument to court or similar arbitration, where logic and facts win over emotions. While dealing with court issues can be somewhat intimidating, as a landlord they are inevitable, and you are better off learning the ropes and doing it when needed, rather than hoping you don't have to. Not all tenants get as emotional in court as Gary; many, in fact, begin to see the illogic of what they are saying only when they are forced to present it to a judge. Too many landlords are hesitant about having a judge decide issues between them and their tenants, as if going to court were a bad thing. While it shouldn't be the first resort in attempting to work with tenants, it should happen as soon as it becomes obvious the tenant isn't working with you or only wants to live in emotions on the issue. Some tenants will learn from the experience and become better tenants. You will become better and more effective at managing your properties. Landlords down the road will have the benefit of seeing that you had to take this tenant to court (it's public information if they'll just look it up as part of the approval process), which is very valuable information for them.

Will we ever collect from Gary? Hard to say - if he's that determined to stay off the radar that he's willing to live below the poverty line he may just succeed at cutting off his nose to spite his face. However, we do end up collecting from many of the ones like Gary. Eventually they need to get a job, or want to buy a house, etc. and we'll be there to garnish or place a lien. In my state judgments are good for 15 years and they collect 12 percent interest. Not a bad investment even if we only collect half of them!