Fast forwarding to today from our previous post that left off at the time of payment of our last summers purchase.
Recap
As of today, it has been almost 10 months after we won the auction. I’d like to tell you what has transpired. If you followed along at the end of last year you know we had made payment on October and were waiting for to receive the keys. In that time we had organized ourselves with the previous owner who had expressed an interest to stay in the property and rent it from us. For us it was ideal, being able to begin to recuperate some of our investment so quickly while not having to put a lot in to remodel.
We decided to give him till the end of the year and begin rent contacts starting January 2018. From what we understood, he was fine with it and would potentially pay an entire years worth of rent upfront.
The Wait
Well January became February and we finally got in touch with the potential tenant. Since he frequently traveled to his home country for business, there were weeks in which he wouldn’t respond by telephone. We planned to meet. I assumed that I would be receiving at least some kind of deposit if not also rent for January and February.
As our meeting commenced he asked me when we would start the intended plan. I told him that it had begun and If he couldn’t pay an entire year as discussed previously, perhaps at least six months so that I wouldn’t have to chase him down every month.
He said he did not have the money and would need time to get it organized. Determined not to leave empty handed,I proposed he give me at least this months and that he could collect the other five months over the next few weeks.
He expressed that he could not since he brought no cash. I insisted that I follow him to the ATM where he could make a withdrawal and he declined yet again. Finally, I decided if not money at least a copy of the keys off the house…. Nothing…
Determination
You have to understand over the previous month I had already begun to have my doubts about him. And if it wasn’t obvious then, it was like ‘getting struck by a semi truck’ obvious now! Not only was it apparent he was not trustworthy, he admitted that he hadn’t been living in the house for months. He was merely using the garage as a storage facility for his business.
Understand that my wife and I try to be kind hearted in all things. Perhaps to the point where many people take advantage of that kindness. This was one of the reasons we were happy that the he had wanted to stay in his home. To us it felt like a kindness. We were requesting a fraction of the typical rent price. We even discounted it when he expressed that it would be too much for him to pay living there alone. Well, even for us; enough is enough. My threshold for kindness had been surpassed, now it was time to consider ourselves.
After leaving I spoke with my wife who was adamant that we needed to keep him, but who hadn’t experienced what I had just been through. In truth she wasn’t wrong, it would have been ideal, but in Italy it is important to find renters that are sure to pay due to laws regarding removal of tenants as well as taxation.
‘I am sorry, but he’s out,’ I told her. ‘I don’t trust him.’
Pros and Cons
During this period I had been hesitating to contact the custodian to declare that the tenant would be staying. If I had done so, that would mean the court would finish their processes and we would lose the ability to remove him as a tenant without exorbitant costs. Here, tenant removal is quite a bit more difficult that in the US. I suppose you could consider my hesitation a ‘win!’ The downside is that, months later and to this day, we are still waiting for the court to decide to do something about the property and use a court order to demand he turn over the property.
As big of a headache it will be to remodel the house and find a new renter, I’m glad we dodged that bullet before we set a contract bonding us together for the long term.
Now it’s a race to see if we get the keys of the auction we bought in June before or after those we bought just some months ago.
