I can not wait until our renter neighbors next door end up getting kicked out. Note that I didn’t say move out … I’m sure they will have to be kicked out given the stories and history of them we’ve heard from some friends that used to live in the same apartment buildings that they did.
They are just plain scuzzy people. The kind of people that you take one look at and get a bad feeling about.
Now usually I give people the benefit of the doubt even if I have a bad feeling about them when I first meet them. usually my instincts are right – but I still like to give people a chance. Not in this case though … Chris and I just got a bad feeling about them from the start and then we started hearing from our friends that the guy had just gotten out of jail and that he and his wife are hooked on drugs and get this – that the guy actually robbed both his sister and his parents recently!
Chris just came back from the corner store and guess who was there just before him … our scuzzy renter neighbors – the guy, his wife and their teenage daughter. It looks like they pulled a scam while they were there too.
They apparently bought a long distance calling card. The store owner gave it to the teenaged girl and the girl proceeded to walk around the store – I guess while one of her parents were paying for the card. A few minutes later the girls said the card wasn’t in the envelope. So the store owner ended up having to give them another long distance calling card.
I suppose it’s possible that the card wasn’t in the package, but knowing these people’s history it’s more likely that they pulled a scam by distracting the store owner while the girl took the calling card out of the package and then said it was empty.
I only wish that the people that own the home had looked into these people better before renting to them. We apparently have no home owner rental laws here in Ontario where the home owner is supposed to do a criminal background check etc on prospective renters – kind of like a pre-employment screening that some companies do.
Why? Well, if they don’t and it turns out that the renters are doing something illegal in the home like making drugs etc then the home owner will be liable for their renters activities and any damages that the police do when they bust the renters … ie if the renters set up a drug lab in the house and the police bust in and break doors etc or tear up walls the homeowner has to pay for all the repairs because they didn’t do a background check on their renter. I guess if they did do one and the renter didn’t have a criminal history but then did something illegal then the story would be a little different for the home owner.
I don’t know exactly how it all works, but it’s clear that the home owners in this case didn’t check up on anything that the renters next door told them. I mean, not even calling their employers. The guy had told them that he worked for the Toronto Transit commission and that his wife was a social worker … but we hear from our friends that the guy got fired from the TTC a year or so ago and then spent close to a year in jail and that the woman hasn’t worked for a few years.
Arg … I can’t wait for these people to leave. I’m sure it will start with them not paying their bills or their rent and then the home owners will have to kick them out. It can’t happen soon enough for me!
In the mean time we’re keeping all our doors locked and someone is always home. Hey, if the guy would rob his own sister and parents homes then it wouldn’t be a big leap for him to rob his next door neighbors – would it?