Homes are expensive. If you want to buy one in the US right now, you have to take out a 7 percent mortgage on an asset that has risen 40 per cent in price over three years. So many choose to rent instead. But this arrangement also has its share of problems, many of which can be caused by a problematic landlord.

Reddit user lvl100Evasion just experienced this firsthand. Talking to the platform’s community ‘Mildly Infuriating,’ they shared the eviction letter they received after being late to make the rent payment by just 15 minutes, along with all the nonsense it entailed.

This tenant got an eviction letter from their landlord

Image credits: lvl100Evasion

Because they were late to pay for rent by 15 minutes

Image credits: Ketut Subiyanto (not the actual photo)

Image credits: lvl100Evasion

Usually tenants have 3-7 days to pay overdue rent, not 15 minutes

Image credits: LesiaScotch (not the actual photo)

When we’re talking about rent due dates, the lease agreement is the primary document establishing the terms and conditions between tenants and landlords. In most cases, it clearly specifies when the payments need to be made, so since the Redditor hasn’t shared theirs, it’s hard to determine all of the details of their situation.

The lease agreement usually includes information on grace periods and late fees as well (grace periods are the time given to tenants to make a payment beyond the due date without penalty and late fees are the charges tenants incur if they fail to pay by the end of the grace period).

According to Marcia Stewart, who co-authored such books as Every Tenant’s Legal Guide and Leases & Rental Agreements, tenants often feel that the form of payment—cash or check—should be up to them but unfortunately, it’s not their call.

“Most landlords require rent be paid by check or money order, but some landlords now allow payment by credit card … or automatic debit (rent payments are debited automatically each month from your bank account and transferred into the landlord’s account),” she explains.

If you don’t pay rent when it’s due, expect your landlord to do the following:

• call, email, or otherwise contact you, demanding the rent;
• begin assessing late fees if there is a late fee provision in your lease or rental agreement;
• send you a termination notice, telling you that if the rent is not paid within a certain number of days or if you haven’t moved out by then, the landlord will begin eviction proceedings.

But usually tenants have 3-7 days to pay overdue rent. Not 15 minutes.

Rent increases lead to more people being kicked out onto the streets

Image credits: RossHelen (not the actual photo)

According to Carl Gershenson of Princeton University’s Eviction Lab in New Jersey, in recent years, many cities across the US have seen dramatic rent increases and because of that, eviction filing rates have surged, particularly in the South and Southwest.

Rent hikes across the country are most painful for working single mothers, retirees and people receiving disability payments from the government.

The Redditor mentioned that they “hate being a Millennial,” and while their pain is palpable in the text they wrote, surprisingly, the Americans most at risk of eviction are babies and toddlers.

Of the 7.6 million individuals facing eviction each year, nearly 40%—2.9 (2.7 to 3.2) million—were children, weathering instability during crucial years for their development.

“When I started writing about these issues, I kind of thought kids would shield families from eviction,” said Matthew Desmond, who leads the Princeton Eviction Lab. “But they expose families to eviction.”

For landlords, children often bring unwanted risk — they make noise, they draw on walls, and they require lead testing. For parents, having a baby can sometimes cause a financial shock, making them more likely to miss rent.

Hopefully, lvl100Evasion will find a way to bounce back.

Some of the people who read the story said they had similar experiences

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