Seriously, He Thought I Manufactured This?!

If you just joined this saga, then allow me to give you a quick overview of Mrs. 508. Mrs. 508 was a tenant of mine who has an overly optimistic view of life. In addition to that, she seems to feel there isn't much that is her fault. The bad stuff around her happens because of circumstance, not choices.

When the 508s left, they trashed the house. And the insurance adjuster was none too happy to pay out the claim. In fact, they were so unhappy they went after Mrs. 508 for the damages.

Wednesday, I got a call from an adjuster who inherited the loss mitigation portion of this claim and he wanted to chat. You see, Mrs. 508 told him she wasn't living there when all these issues happened, and the damage was done after she moved out, and I knew about the damage and "agreed" to forgive her and (my favorite) it wasn't her fault. What I found incredulous was the adjuster was siding with her!

"Why?" I asked. "Why do you believe her? Do you really think I would make it up or that I would have the presense of mind to fly out there, trash my home, fly back to Arizona and then call in a claim?" Yes. Yes he did.

After the adjuster and I went through this a few times, with me explaining, if Mrs. 508 really wasn't living there, there was no sublease assignment, so she was still on the hook. I would never "agree" to forgive the damage. Despite his assessment, I really wasn't stupid. And I have an eye witness who took the keys from her on June 20 when the place was deemed a disaster--the same day the police were called.

None of this impressed Mr. Adjuster. What did impress him was when I played back the voice mail Mrs. 508 left me on June 22, admitting to the damages, offering me a few dollars. That got his attention.

After I played him the message he said with a different tone in his voice, "Um... Would you mind saving that voice mail a bit longer? I will get back with you." Oh, I think that would be a good idea.