Complaint Review: Theodore And Denise Thompson

These scumbags lived in the apartment building we purchased in 1999. We are regular folks, not some welthy professional landlords - we just thought if we bought a place with rental units we would have help paying the mortgage; it really seemed to be the only option at the time.

These two never paid their rent in full or on time. After a few months my husband and myself started getting fed up as neither of these scumbags worked while they are healthy and in their mid 20's. My husband even offered Ted Thompson a job with his company and paid him/gave credit to do work around the property - tree trimming and the like - stuff we could have and would have done without.

One day a fuse in their boiler broke and they seized the opportunity to bring a lawsuit against us. They got a Legal-Aid lawyer who claimed that we intentionally shut off their heat. Also, they claimed that their apartment was uninhabitable - supposedly there was a hole in their kitchen that they could fall through, the refrigerator didn't work, etc. None of this was ever mentioned to us. When we got the court papers we called the town health inspector to come and look at the apartment. Her report stated that the apartment was perfectly fine.

Nevertheless, since they had brought the lawsuit they were entitled to stay whether they paid their rent or not. On our first trip to court they were ordered to pay rent to the court until the matter was resolved. Naturally, the Thompsons didn't pay the court but they still were allowed to remain until the sheriff was good & ready to escort them off the property.

When they finally were kicked out it was one of the happiest days of my life! It was a full year after we had moved in. In an entire year these scumbags paid only $200 in rent.

We lost many months' worth of rent, we lost the opportunity to rent out that apartment, and we had to get a lawyer who we now owe $1600. We eventually were given a default judgement of the back rent, but there is no way for us to collect the money - we have to hunt them down and handle it ourselves. But I have no idea how to do that or where these people have gone. I have heard they have done this and similar things many other times.

Now we are always exceedingly careful when choosing new tenants.

Amy
Wallingford, Vermont
U.S.A.