Pigs in Space 18: Death Is Not An Excuse For Not Paying Your Rent

The fish rots from the head down.

There is a lot of collateral damage when you force society into a posture of unlimited selfishness as conservatives have done for the past 30 or so years. Add that to a posture of worship when it comes to $$$ and you've got the makings of a Molochian culture in which there is no room for humanity when teh bucks are at stake.

We've been looking at the top of the totem pole because that's where it comes from, but if you doubt this abominable doctrine has oozed its way down the ladder, you'd better have a look at this: a landlord is dunning the mother of a murdered teacher because he died before his lease was up.

No, this isn't an Onion story. I wish. (Via Norwegianity)

When she opened the letter from her dead son’s former landlord this week, Danelle Eckert thought there had to be some mistake.

The letter, addressed to Eckert and to the estate of her son, Colin Byars, was demanding March and April rent, late fees and an “early termination fee” because he had left his apartment before the end of his lease. Byars, a 24-year-old teacher, was killed Feb. 21 when he was punched in the head on a Kenosha street.

“I thought they must not understand that Colin was killed. But no, they understood completely,” Eckert said.

She said the apartment’s property manager told her that they knew Byars had been killed. But the woman told Eckert the management company had been advised by their legal representative that they should go after the rent and fees.

Every time I think I've plumbed the depths of what the conservatives have done to us - what we've let them do to us - I discover that there's one more layer of shit we've penetrated than I thought.

Comments

[lahru]

I'd tell them that he will pay. The next time they meet up. Assuming they both end up in the same heavenly place.

[Grace Nearing]

Who knows what's in the fine print, and that's why I always read it. One of the 8 or 9 reasons listed for the immediate cancellation of my car lease was "death." Fine by me.

With long experience as both a landlord and a tenant, I have to say that I've never heard of charging a dead or incapacitated tenant's family for early termination of a lease. If the family was timely in moving out the person's possessions and the apartment was in good shape, you'd express your condolences and refund the security the deposit.

I hope the family finds a good tenant advocacy group and gets some solid advice.