The Fergie Basics

Fergie was my second bad tenant. The first only lasted two months and I don't remember her being annoying. Even as green as Marty and I were, neither of us expected our first tenant to last. Fortunately, she didn't.

Fergie, however, was a trip. As it was inconceivable to me how someone could put school supplies over a place for their children, I just did not get her. Now of course, I understand better. What she was really saying was she put all her other bills and expenses--including pencils--in front of her ability to pay rent. Essentially, there was a lot of month left over after her pay check.

I am glad Fergie was an Arizona tenant, because I think I would have gone over the emotional edge if this were my first true experience with a bad tenant and I was remote. Bad tenants eat up more of my emotional energy. They require more handholding. More prodding. More phone calls. Essentially, bad tenants really suck. But because Fergie was local, it was easier to get in touch with her. The times I showed up on her doorstep were a shock. It isn't as easy to waltz over to Mr. Richard's house from here and bang on his door.

I learned a lot from Fergie. I learned never to allow a tenant access to my bank account. For example, because Fergie lived about 30 miles away, I thought it would be easier if Fergie could directly deposit her rent money into my bank account once a month than me wait for her to mail the check. We banked at the same place, how much of a pain could this be? Fergie, who understood the system better than I, realized if she put in a portion of her rent payment into my bank account, that was the same as me accepting a partial rent payment.

A quick word to the wise: according to Legal Eagle and the Arizona Landlord Tenant Act, if a landlord deposits a partial payment from a tenant, it is the landlord agreeing to a reduced rent. Essentially, all bets are off. The tenant gets to stay another month.

So, if Fergie was short, she would put in half the rent money into my bank account and then call me at some obscure hour when she knew she would get my voice mail to tell me the rest was coming in two weeks. If it didn't come, there wasn't much I could do about it. In truth, it always came. Fortunately, Fergie was good about that. But, her methods had me over a barrel. Obviously in hind-sight I should have closed the account and stopped this.

I also learned a lot about tenant law. At one point, Fergie left me a voice mail (at the aforementioned obscure hour), telling me she was giving me 30 days notice she was leaving. She informed me she was expecting her deposits back.

After frantically looking up landlord-tenant law, I was able to explain to Fergie that she was in a lease. Therefore, she was obligated to fulfill the terms of the lease and would owe me the rent money if she moved out. She also would not get her deposits back if she broke the lease. Fergie called back at a reasonable hour and threatened to sue me if I didn't let her out of her lease. Of course her lawsuit had no grounds.

Let's have a moment down memory lane, shall we? Awe... Fergie was my first tenant who threatened to sue me. In case it matters, Ms. Betty, upset about her rent check not being cashed as soon as she would like, is the latest person to threaten to sue me. At any rate, I learned a valuable lesson about crazy deadbeat tenants. They threaten to sue. A lot. However, crazy tenants are generally in the wrong and have no money. Fergie was the only tenant I ever took this seriously from. And then only for about an hour.

I learned sometimes it is better just to let go. I eventually did let Fergie out of her lease. I had had enough. The games were getting old. And, I knew the house was worth a lot more than I paid for it. I wanted to sell.

Fergie ended up moving down the street. The landlord called to check out Fergie. I breathed a sigh of releif when the only thing the guy asked was did she leave the house clean. Yes! Yes she did. Three weeks later the new landlord called back to ask if Fergie was a flake. Yes. Yes she is. I remember him saying, "I guess I should have asked that before." Yes! Yes he should have.