Bad press for CLH, page-9

We do not know the facts - for instance: how co-operative has the debtor been; how much effort has the debtor put into tempering their expenses to live on one wage?

I had a landlord in Canberra who made the mistake of letting a property to a down-and-out family, because the female party was expecting a child. Anyhow, they soon stopped paying rent on the logic that they were poor, and the landlord owned multiple properties. After a long time he was able to get them out of the property, and the small-claims tribunal ordered the ex-tenants to pay a pittance ($10, I seem to recall) a week to repay money owed, but they soon stopped paying that, and he repeatedly had to complain to the small-claims tribunal. I think he eventually just gave up, and made sure he never let a property to someone on Struggle Street again.

I rented that property afterwards, and the front and the back yards were strewn with cigarette butts. A neighbour said that because they had a baby, the couple would sit on the front steps smoking, and flicking the butts. They would have spent more on cigarettes than what they were supposed to repay the landlord. Like many poor people, they thought that the world owed them a living.