The times., 1899-09-17
TROUBLES OF LANDLORDS.
Rent-Dodging Not Confined to An.
Part of New York.
From the New York Tribune.)


I Anyone who is at all familiar with old
! time melodrama will recall the picture in
; the scene where the hard hearted landlord
demands his money threatening eviction
4 If it is not forthcoming. The poor tenant
was much-abused person in the eyes of
writer's who appealed to the galleries, and
! there is no doubt that he is still not with
! out some justification for sympathy. But
/ the landlords of the present time say that
they have troubles of their own.
This is an age of keen competition in
I business a fact which has given rise 10 an
entirely new phase of the renting subject.
/ According TO those who have property TO
rent they have their own grievances, and
/ II the sympathetic playwright will just
come down to the orchestra stalls he will
/ find an appreciative audience there made up
! of brokers, owners, and builders, for all
#, three are more or less affected by the sit
uation. There is just touch of humor
in it, too, for, like the small boy, each
one of these is innocent, according to his
own account, and insists that it is the fault
of -'the other feller.' The lodging of
rents has become an occurrence common
to all sections of the city, and it is affect
! ing the holders of all kinds of property.
The general public has an idea that this
sort of thing is done only in the tenement
districts of the lower East and upper West
] S4uCS- ute Will uOdDltSS DC SUI IA iSCd ~
! learn that some people who live in fine
houses in streets adjacent to the fashion
able avenues are also rent-dodgers in the
strictest sense of the term.
Why are you giving up your house so
soon ?" asks Mrs. Blank of Mrs. Dash, when
the furniture van drives up in the early
morning hour.
And Mrs. Dash, who is at the end of a
one or two months term of residence,
~ conditions, or possibly says that John
finds the house is too far from his busi-
ness Now, the fact is Mrs. Dash has prob
ably been evicted for non-payment of rent.
But the innocent viii ask: Doesn't she
have to pay rent in advance? She does not,
thanks TO advertisements that offer free
rent for month or more as an inducement
TO tenants. Mrs Dash has accepted the
hospitable invitation. The agent is pa
tient and waits until the middle of the sec
ond month, perhaps, before demanding his
money. When he finds that he has been
deceived in the character of his tenants.
he serves a notice TO move, and when the
month is up they go forth to seek other
pastures new and agents green.
II may be asked why the expense of NOV
ing does not deter people from practicing
this confidence game. The competition for
tenants is so great that the agents fire.
quently play right into the hands of dis
honest people by not only giving the rent
free. but by also providing vans and pay
ing the expense of the moving. In the case
OF fats and tenements that are for sale.
another peculiar practice is common nova
days, the purpose of which is 10 deceive
possible purchasers as to the desirability
of the property. The broker in order TO
convey the idea that his houses are desir-
able for investors. not only fills them with
rent-dodging tenants, but frequently
makes il appear that the sum paid for the
fat or house is greater than the actual
amount.
In the case of fat that rents ordinarily
for $50 the receipt viii be made out for
$25, and the prospective buyer who looks
at the tenants receipts to estimate values
is deceived After he has bought the
property il not infrequently happens that
he presents the tenants a bill at the end
of the month for the amount which the re-
ceipts indicated was their monthly rental
Then a fight follows, and once again the
tenants get an excuse for moving A sim
liar practice is habitual downtown in new
Office buildings which are for sale In
some Of these all sorts of inducements are
made TO people to take Offices and free
rent for long as six or seven months is
bait that has been held out more than
once
l4t Dul4QlHSs appear 10 Dt QOiuS ii luTlN-
ing business, when in reality a large share
of the income is purely fictitious. Some OF
the brokers and agents freely admit that
/ these sort of conditions exist, but say that
as long as others do it they are forced to
resort TO the same methods 10 protect
themselves and to secure business. They
say that some of the brokers come to their
tenants and by the species OF bribing that
has been described induce them to break
ftrfs- n ~
also whose tenants are such that they are
/ not obliged to go into competition of this
character. The only remedy for the evils
OF this system Of doing business would
seem TO be some sort of co-operation on
the part of the persons who have vacant
/ properties which they are trying to fiIl
/ Brokers. however, say that such thing is
apparently an impossibility
The following which is quoted from a re-
port OF the University Settlement Society.
seems applicable not only TO the East Side
/ bur to other parts Of the city as well:
'Rent-dodging is Increasing. and In pro-
1 portion as II increases it becomes more and
more tempting. Though rent-dodgers sup
pose that by not paying rent they simply
I reduce the incomes of their landlords and
/ though the public agrees with them and
often justifies their action on the ground
I that landlords are generally rich and ten
ants generally poor, yet, in fact they al
ways. in the long run live rent free at the
expense rot of rich landlords but of theiI
I poor fellow-tenants. II Is generally ad-
mitted that the East Side landlord expects
TO collect rent for only nine or ten months
! In the year: that is, each apartment in his
/ house is, on the average, either vacant or
more often. occupied but not paid for. dur
! ing two Or three months each year. Ac-
! coTdingly he charges not one-tweIfth but
one-ninth or one-tenth of what he decides
/ he must collect during the year.
NO one, to be sure. expects landlords tc
collect rent from all their apartments for
every month of the year; often they would
/ do better TO keep apartments vacant G
month rather than let in tenants well
known 10 other landlords as very unde-
sirable Occasionally they should let scmf
! good old tenant live rent free for several
months when he is too I'll to work. Bat
landlords should collect rent from all theiI
apartments for eleven months or more In
stead of nine or ten.
Experience has proved repeatedly and
| conclusiyely that the landlord makes nnosi
money when he or his agent shows an In
/ terest In his tenants; when he learns some
thing of thair past before he rents rooms tc
1 them when he insists that they pay prompt
! iy. Landlords however VIII change their
| plans slowly. The honest and thrifty ten
ants and their friends must as effectively
| as possible demand change; they must
oppose as their enemies the rent dodgers
and the thoughtless, careless landlords who
| encourage rent-dodging. and the strict bu.
sympathetic landlords they must regard q,
their friends