Helga Hauser is an immigrant. In the old country, she was a nurse. But she can’t work as a nurse in the United States, because she does not have the government certification. She and her husband brought all their savings with them to the new country, and they were able to prove that they could support themselves and not be a burden on the public before they were allowed to legally enter the United States as immigrants.
The Hausers invested in rental property. They took inexpensive loans to buy nice houses to rent at reasonable prices to ordinary people. At first everything went well. But then Mr. Hauser got sick and died, leaving behind lots of medical expenses. Meanwhile, the neighborhood in which the rental houses were located became less desirable, and the newer tenants not only did not pay their rent on time, but they also left the houses in a complete mess, once they were evicted. On top of that, even just evicting them is not easy, especially if one of the tenants is pregnant, and the law has all sorts of provisions to prevent landlords from summarily ejecting non-paying tenants. As for collecting the back rent, the law does not make any reasonable provisions. If the tenants are judgment proof, the landlord is out of luck.
Helga Hauser sings about her deplorable predicament in the following song from the musical, The Debt Collector. The recording was mixed and mastered by Rick Long of Salt Lake City, Utah.
Mrs. Hauser is a good woman. She is prim and proper, her hair up in a bun, her clothes ironed and starched. She would never consider doing anything illegal. But she finds herself with a tough choice: go on welfare herself or get a vigilante debt collector to render to her what is owed her.
When collecting rent is outlawed, only outlaws can be landlords.
If you would like to learn more about THE DEBT COLLECTOR, a libertarian musical stage play by Daniel Carter and Aya Katz, read the following synopsis.
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Have you ever seen the movie Pacific Heights? This movie deals with being a landlord from a slightly different angle than your play, but it deals with similar themes. Michael Keaton pretends to be a perspective tenant, and he plays the boyfriend and girlfriend landlord off each other. When Melanie Griffins character finds him living there one day, she assumes her boyfriend rented the unit to him. Soon the couple discover neither one of them rented out the unit for them, and he has taken possession of it without their consent. He broke in and took over the building. He begins to destroy the building by infesting it with bugs, and doing other nefarious things to harass the other tenants the couple is renting to. The landlord gets tired of Michael Keaton doing things he should not, like drilling into the wall. He turns off his power thinking this will put a stop to it, but then Keaton calls the cops on the landlord. The police inform him that even though Keaton has not paid rent, possession is 9/10’s of the law, and he is not allowed to turn off the power on his tenant. The landlord couple then have to go through the legal system which is not of very much help, and Melanie Griffin eventually finds another way to deal with this psychopath tenant. This is a completely different topic, but reminds me of the issues landlords can have with tenants.
No, I’ve never seen Pacific Heights, although I think I have heard of it. It sounds like a dark comedy. Did they give a reason in the movie why the tenant was behaving in this way? Did he have a grudge against one of the landlords and was this some kind of twisted revenge?
The tenants in THE DEBT COLLECTOR are not like that. They don’t have it in for Mrs. Hauser — they are just using her, to the extent that it is easy for them to do so, and because they have never stopped to think how wrong it is. Since the law is on their side, they believe that landlords are probably all rich and can afford non-paying tenants.
I guess I should have said the similar theme between that movie and your play is it seems landlords have very little recourse when a tenant is not paying rent. It is not fair, but it seems in many cases things are in favorite of the tenant. I have seen a few cases where landlords might not be the best, but I have known more people who rent out a house or apartment to a family, and then have many issues later on. I would not want to be a landlord, for those reasons. Actually I remember the people who owned my childhood house years ago said that before they sold it, they had tried renting it to a teacher because they thought she would treat the house nicely. It turned out she had wild parties, and left a lot of trash behind. Actually most individuals and families who rent out homes and apartments are not rich, and they invest their money in improving properties. These days it seems like more corporations are leasing out apartments, and not as many individuals. It seems, to me anyone, a family who rents out a house would have to deal with a lot of issues, and might go bankrupt in the process.
Pacific Heights is not a comedy, it is a dark drama, actually. It is about a couple who bought a house in San Francisco, and the thought they might be able to pay out the mortgage more quickly by renting out rooms. Little did they know Michael Kenton would come along, and destroy there dream. Michael Keaton’s character sneaks into houses for rent, and then takes these over. His character has psychological issues, and enjoys the thrill of using the law to take over properties by pretending to be a tenant who is mistreated, when he is really just a person who is squatting in houses. This movie is quite different than your play. Keaton’s character comes from a rich background and even gets a yearly allowance, but his family cut him off because he always tried to harass people, like he does with this couple.
Yes, you’re right, that is the common theme: landlords have no recourse against tenants who don’t pay rent. These laws were put into effect supposedly to help people who have nowhere to live, but because of this, only large corporations can manage to survive in the rental market for long. It’s just another example of how laws intended to shield the poor from the rich actually benefit large companies and freeloaders, but do real harm to the average law abiding person, whether a landlord or a tenant.