Finding a good landlord is very difficult if you want to rent a house. To be fair, many do justify the stereotype of the landlord. A story about a landlord who was kind-hearted was posted on Facebook. Chris Robarge was surprised when one of his old landlords asked for his current address. It was weird for the landlord to ask for his current address since he hadn’t been there in a while. He received a letter a few days later. He was shocked. The check was for 2,500 dollars. The landlord attached a letter explaining that he had sold the house for a good price. He wanted to share some of the proceeds with his tenants.
After moving out of his home, Chris Robarge rented out the place on Facebook. Robarge said it was the first place he called home. It’s clear now that the landlord was welcoming and kind. Chris said, “It’s a letter from that person, informing me that they sold their house and that they were paying me and every tenant they ever had for what we contributed to the profit they made from selling the house.”
Robarge was very shocked. Before posting about it on social media, he took permission from his landlord. He then wrote, “I have been sitting with this for more than a day and 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.”
Landlord’s letter to Chris.
The thought process behind the check was explained in a letter by the landlord. “I recently sold the house and the rent you paid each month contributed to paying off the mortgage and I firmly believe the capitalist tradition of retaining money after the sale of a property is exploitative and antithetical to society. I wanted to return to you the portion of the rent you paid,” said the landlord. He explained how he came to the sum by taking the increase in the value of the home when he bought it into account. Then he concluded by saying, “It was a great house and I’m glad that I was able to share it with you.”
Robarge said he would give away the rest of the money to help others. He then concluded by saying, “I am giving away the rest of the money. I want this good deed to reach as far as possible. I have already given $500 to Black and Pink Massachusetts, I’m going to fill every Worcester Free Fridge, I’m making a donation to OurStory Edutainment, and I’m going to give some money out in the streets to people who need it. If you can’t do what my former landlord did, let this inspire you to give whatever you can spare to someone or someplace that needs it.”
Chris’s response to the landlord’s letter.
Many people appreciated the landlord for his act of kindness. The landlord wrote, “This made me cry. We have been through some heart-wrenching times these past few months from deaths to suicides job loss etc. I could not get people to pay me that they owed me and out of the blue, a pastor friend brought us 500 inside a Thanksgiving card. We were close to being homeless. It saved us. I intend to pay it forward as well.” To which Chris replied, “This is it. This is how all the best things happen for people, and all it takes.” Another person commented, “Wonderful surprise! There are still some caring people in the world!”
