Former Landlords of the Greene’s
You call the Southeast Real Estate Management Company and they refuse to speak with you about the Greene’s. They acknowledge that they did rent to the Greene’s last year and that they had to be evicted due to not paying rent— both facts available on the civil records you now have.
Then you call Sharon Dickens, who had a rent problem with the Greene’s two years ago. She is more than willing to talk to you. She said she never had any trouble with renters before—that she’d been renting that old farmhouse for years, but “Roy and Judy, boy, they were something else!”
Ms. Dickens tells you they seemed nice, if a little odd, when she rented the place to them, but things went downhill quickly. She always watches the old place from the road because she passes it on her way to work.
“The Greene’s seemed like they didn’t live like the rest of us.”
The place started to look messy, with stuff in the yard. When she stopped by to pick up the rent, sometimes nobody answered even though the car was there. Other times, Roy opened the door, but he didn’t seem to want her in the house. And since they had the rent, cash in hand, she just picked it up and went on her way for the first three months or so. “Then the excuses started! Roy said he hadn’t been paid that week. He said they had to take Marky to the doctor—he’s a real nice kid, not like them. He said anything to explain why they didn’t have the money on time. Finally, I did get in the house and it was horrendous. I told them they had to clean it up, but quick.”
“Then, right after that, Roy called to say the water wasn’t working. My husband went over to check it out and he found the pump cover off the pump. The cover looked like it had been run over by a truck. The pump was just turned off—I guess that’s how Roy “fixed” it. The yard had tire tracks all over, like they’d been spinning wheelies for the fun of it. The grass was all dug up. My husband was furious. That’s when we filed on them.”
Ms. Dickens tells you she doesn’t know what to think about the Greene’s. She asks you what’s going on now. “Are they in trouble?”
- How do you answer her question?
- What have you learned from this interview and the civil records you retrieved?