Comments on: Landlords getting tough with families of suicides

By: Tony

Tony — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 02:42:06 +0000

I sympathize for the family, but agree the landlord should be able to recover some of the lost rent. If the rent is dropped by 1/3, say a 50,000 discount, then the landlord will lose 600,000 a year. Pretty significant for any small business person.

The bank analogy is not really accurate, as this is a monetary situation, and the deceased has an estate from which outstanding debts should be covered (true whenever some dies for any reason).

The real solution is that all landowners should be required have an insurance policy that covers this situation, and they can add it into the cost of the rent (wouldn’t be much).

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 05:08:28 +0000

Suicide is bad karma , this human form of life is a very rare and valuable gift because we have special intelligence which is for the purpose of self realization .

By: Barge

Barge — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 13:22:40 +0000

Yes Anthony; The owner should have some recourse… but unless he wants to chase the dead tenant through the nine hells the plaintiff has already gone. Families shouldn’t have to pay for the acts… however thoughtless… of the a relative. If your Dad robbed a bank and vanished overseas should the bank be able to throw you in jail instead?

By: Anthony

Anthony — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 08:34:16 +0000

James, I certainly agree with you on that. One would hope for a little tact on the part of the landlords. Andie and James, I believe your willingness to rent after a suicide, especially a recent one is the exception rather than the rule. A property almost certainly will lose value. The owner should have some recourse, IMO.

By: James

James — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 17:46:13 +0000

I understand where the landlords are coming from, however they need to understand that there is a time and a place to get a recoup of money. Not everything has to be addressed right away. The family has gone through the tragedy of losing someone close to them, the thing that would make them less sympathetic to the landlord’s plight is coming to the funeral demanding money.

By: Andie

Andie — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 13:07:46 +0000

Anthony, I would rent a place where a suicide happened. Murder, maybe not, because I might be concerned that the murderer might return (paranoid).. But, I am not superstitious, so I would not have a problem renting a place of a previous suicide. Most Japanese are superstitious about violent or `sad’ deaths, because they believe the spirit of the person remains. Since my belief is not a superstitious one, no problem.

By: Miko

Miko — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 12:36:03 +0000

Anthony, once I was given the chance to rent a place where an old man had died and his body had not been discovered for some time. Although I personally didn’t have any problem with doing so (the rent had been reduced by one-third, and the landlords were obviously desperate and willing to bargain it down even further), my Japanese family members were so vehemently against the idea that I gave up. There is a definite stigma against leasing properties where sad or violent deaths have occurred. I’ve even heard of a case where the tenants of one whole building moved out because of a murder that took place there, thereby placing the landlord in very dire financial straits.