Tenant taken by surprise after old landlord sent him a $2,500 check as a 'share' from selling home
While many of us struggle with rude and exploitative landlords who try to get extract every cent out of our pockets, things turned out to be vastly different for one lucky tenant. Back in 2021, Chris Robarge went viral for sharing a heartwarming story of his anonymous landlord who was the "best ever". One day, Robrage who is from Worcester, Massachusetts, received a heartwarming letter from his landlord and a gift that melted everyone's hearts. The story shared on Facebook went viral with people lauding the person and wishing they had a landlord like him.
The best landlord in the world
In his Facebook post, Robarge shared that he was contacted by his former landlord, who asked for his current address out of the blue. He said that he rented a place from the person for quite some time after his divorce and was always charged a fair rent. He said that he also enjoyed his time there.
Then he received a letter in his mail. The letter said that the landlord had sold the house and wanted to share the profit with the long-time tenant, out of fairness. The envelope had a check for $2,500.
"I am still completely beyond an actual way to describe what this act means to me. All that I can say is that there are people who talk about their values and there are people who actually live them, and the reason I wanted to share this is that I want to encourage us all to actually live our values," Robarge wrote.
The landlord explained in the letter that keeping all the proceeds from the sale felt “exploitative and antithetical to a just society." He went on to break down why Robarge deserved a share and how he had always tried to be fair. He wrote that he always tried to keep the rent equal to what it cost for the upkeep of the apartment, including mortgage principal, and interest. Since a part of Robarge's rent went toward the mortgage payments, the landlord wanted to return that portion of the rent.
He also mentioned that he calculated the principal amount paid each month in the rent, and then split them between the tenants who were living in the house. He also added 40% more accounting for an increase in the house cost. “While it’s not much, it’s yours! It was a great house and I’m glad that I was able to share it with you,” the landlord wrote.
As the post went viral, hundreds of users lauded the landlord's actions in the comments. "If this is who I think it is they are a gem of our community and one of my personal heroes (if Im wrong...well they are obviously all of those things anyways)," wrote @CaseyBurns. "'Not all landlords' - this is what I’ll do if I ever own a rental property. Thanks for the inspiration, added another user @VirginiaBechtold.
Robarge later shared an update where he explained what he planned to do with the money. For more updates, follow Chris Robarge on Facebook.
