Have you ever been scammed? We were scammed by our renters this past Saturday right under our noses. Arrggg......It makes me feel violated, taken advantage of and on some level, vulnerable.
We are blessed to have been able to build an apt. on our property. Five years ago this summer we built down our hill a big garage/shop and office (for my husband). Our house doesn't have a garage so when our first set of boys were getting to their teen years we decided it would be good to have a garage for them to work on projects and motorcycles, dirt bikes, etc. We took the plunge and spent an exhausting summer building. We built the apt. above the garage to pay for building the garage as we really didn't have an extra 50K sitting around.
We've always had great renters. We normally rent word of mouth on the college campus that we minister at. This last time we rented that didn't work out so we ran an ad and rented it that way. The couple moved in last Sept. and everything's been great.....then last Sat. morning a U-Haul truck was parked and they were loading it. The husband had called my husband the day before and said his grandfather had died and they were going away for a couple of weeks to mind his store. He also said he'd be paying April rent. When I saw the moving van on Sat. morning. I questioned my husband as to how much stuff do you take with you for 2 weeks?!! I especially thought it strange that she was loading her ironing board!!!
While this was going on I left for the day for a women's day retreat with our church. That left my husband home all day alone with the kids. I think if I had been here I would have continued to question things and we would have put our heads together and saved ourselves some grief. But that's not what happened.
After I was gone, the wife came up and talked with my husband. She asked him how his recent missions trip to Mexico went and shared that she had been with a short term missions org. She said they had been cleaning the apt. really well and that we could rent it for a couple of weeks if we wanted too. My husband asked if they were coming back and she said, Oh yes, in a couple of weeks and we'll be paying you April rent.
So, they loading...... everything and then left. That night while lying in bed I said to my husband, I think they lied. I don't think they're coming back. It was just all too weird. He wanted to think the best and remain hopeful. There wasn't really anything we could do till Mon. anyway, so we laid it to rest.
Today my husband checked out his employment status here in town and found out he quit. He then called him on his cell phone and found the number has been disconnected. When he came home he announced to me that it's kinda like Ananias and Saphira. They conspired and lied. My husband wants to pursue it and may. I suggested leaving them to God as they 'claim' to be christians.
It feels worse because they did it right under our nose. We have never required a last month deposit. Now we will. We only have their $500 deposit. I placed an ad in the paper for starting this Wed. and I get to paint and clean tonight and tomorrow night. I'll have help from my children and we'll it as fun as we can, but with no for-warning it's hard to 'gear up.'
Well thanks for letting me share and 'dump.' It's nice to have a rental and it does add a bit to our monthly budget, but it's a responsibility too and one that's easy to forget at times.
God Bless your day and give you grace to respond Christ-like to all he sends your way. Please pray the same for me.
