[throwaway626]

You made an investment decision (allowing hotel guests to legally become tenants) and it ended poorly for you. Why should the government bail you out for “almost no cost”? The legal system doesn’t exist to insulate you from risk.

[lotsofpulp]

It did not use to take 6+ months to evict a non paying tenant. This is a post Covid phenomenon. That is an insane amount of time to prove that someone did not pay you. How can anyone trust in the legal system if such a simple thing takes so long to get resolved?

The legal system should exist to remedy legal disputes, for everyone, in a timely manner. Whether it be a big business or a small business or a personal dispute.

A clogged legal system where simple disputes take an inordinate time to resolve is a sign of decay and corruption. You end up with people losing trust in the system, so now you have an incentive to take advantage, because others are going to take advantage of you. And then it becomes a game of who you know (more than it already is), or taking matters into your own hands.

[throwaway626]

I’m sorry you failed to react to changing market conditions. Have you considered reinvesting in a less risky sector, like index funds?

[lotsofpulp]

We did react once we had the information. Do you expect businesses to monitor how long court cases take on a regular basis?

Now, our many long term hotel guest have to pack up all their shit after a certain number of nights and go stay at a different hotel. So society inconveniences productive people, and conveniences a scammer. Does not sound like a net win for society.

I don’t know if you are trolling, but if you are not, trust is worth a lot. Trust is what makes businesses in the developed world so productive, and lack of trust is what makes business so costly in the developing world.

[throwaway626]

I’m not trolling. I’m treating your business no different from any other business. You don’t deserve even more special treatment from the justice system merely because you’re a landlord.

One company I partly own sued a customer for nonpayment several years ago. Customer declared bankruptcy. Sucks for all the same reasons as your relatively tiny tenant dispute. At the next board meeting, we didn’t waste our time bemoaning the existence of bankruptcy protection—after all, we may benefit from it ourselves someday. Instead we developed plans for how to mitigate the risk of nonpayment in the future.

You run a business; act like it. Accept the inherent danger of swimming or get out of the pool.

[lotsofpulp]

> You don’t deserve even more special treatment from the justice system merely because you’re a landlord.

I never wrote that I did. I merely provided an example showing the consequences of not having properly functioning courts.

I am not bemoaning protections for tenants. I am bemoaning not clearing the dispute for inordinate amounts of time. Which leads to discrimination.

> Accept the inherent danger of swimming or get out of the pool.

I would rather not see my country become the developing country my parents moved away from, hence spreading an opinion about this issue (which is broader than just tenant laws).

[WalterBright]

By adding risk to being a landlord, the result is higher rental rates to cover the risk.