There are some who advocate for not paying rent. I see posts all the time on social media and posted on the street. I’m not sure the logic behind this given that they probably pay the $5.79 when buying bags of milk and they also pay for gas too. Rent is a contract with your landlord that you promise to pay for living in the home. Fulfilling your responsibilities is part of being an adult. It’s part of living up to what you say you’ll do. It’s recognizing that the landlord isn’t allowed to stop paying property taxes, mortgage, maintenance fees or insurance because they prefer. It should not be a bargaining tool because you can’t get along with your landlord. These ‘don’t pay the rent’ concepts are radical ideas that make sense on some level for a working-class struggle, but while they’re fighting landlords in the name of bringing down capitalism, it’s those very landlords that may be part of the working class they try to protect. It’s also disingenuous to wrap the language of ‘not paying what you owe’ or ‘stealing’ as something like ‘keep your rent.’
And I get it. There are bigger arguments about rent-seeking, income disparity, the effects of COVID, and the income gap including the continued exploitation of the poor. I would just say it’s worth recognizing that not all landlords are part of a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) and some of them are people just like me who started out as part of the living poor. My path to home ownership took many twists and turns and it wasn’t easy at all. I wanted to get into a property for the future of my family. There should be more of us out there, but we’re being utterly destroyed by bad tenants and injustice that no one seems to notice. I know the more common injustice is to the tenant, I was that tenant many, many times fighting with slumlords in Toronto. But, common as it may be, it doesn’t mean that when landlords are abused, we should ignore it. Justice is deserved on both sides of that equation.
It’s a radical idea, but if you can’t afford something, try and find it for less cost. If you’re struggling, ask for help. If you’re like my current bad tenant, you’ll just refuse to pay rent, repair any damage, lie, be abusive, neglectful and continue living like this with no repercussions – all the while threatening to do worse. No one should be given leeway to act like this. And just the same, a large portion of the attention around rent and housing has fuelled adversarial relationships between the two.
What’s interesting is that for those owners that have been carrying costs below market value, they can pass these savings on to the tenant, but many I hear say that the high risk and high cost of dealing with problematic tenants mean they’ll always try to get the maximum rent whenever they can. This approach doesn’t serve the market, nor does “keeping” rent. We have to find ways to build bridges between landlords and tenants or perhaps all new housing will just be managed by big-pocketed property management companies.
