Our bad judgement of character.

The past month had been quite stressful for us. It all started when our landlord came to us 6 weeks ago with a letter for us to sign. He sold the house in August and would close mid December. The letter was a Release of Our Lease Contract. He said it was just protocol and was advised by his lawyer to have this letter signed by us. He had reassured us that nothing would change and that he would just transfer the lease over to the new owners. Well, two weeks later he gave us an eviction notice. We had to be out by November 30th because he had to deliver the house vacant to the new owners. That would give us only a month to pack up and move out. We were shocked by this. Mr. How had tricked us into signing the release form. We are not stupid people. We were just too trustworthy. And because we had sign it, there was nothing that we could legally do. Scott tried to ask him if we can revoke it since the new owners do want to take us on as tenants. We would pay him for the two weeks until our new lease kicks in. He stayed firm with his answer, "I have to deliver the house vacant. Just following my lawyer's orders.". Because he was driven by greed and not wanting to lose the deal, he had lost his compassion and kind-heartedness. Ever since that day, I had lost every ounce of respect that I had for this man.

When we first met Mr. How and his wife Pearl, we couldn't stop talking about them. They were one of the nicest people that we have ever met. Pearl was a retired school teacher so I immediately connected with her. Their only daughter lives in Ireland and doesn't visit very
often because travelling with three little kids is too difficult. I guess our kids reminded
them of their grandkids so they treated us really nicely. They knew about our building project and were flexible with our lease. "You can pay per month if you wish." he had said.

In return for their kindness, we were very patient with them when it came to issues around the house. For instance, the garage door opener wasn't working properly. It would always open for no reason and when we did want it to open, it wouldn't open. Scott asked Mr. How to replace it, to which he refused. He said that we weren't using the garage to park our car so it's not a priority. But we park our strollers there and we use our strollers everyday!! Other tenants would not have done this but Scott went out and bought a new automatic garage door opener. It was no big deal for us to pay for the door opener and we avoided a disagreement so we were content with what we did. After all, they had been so kind to us.

When the flood happened, we were so angry because not only did we lose monetary value for our things, but we had lost a lot of sentimental items that could never be replaced. Not once did Mr. How apologize for our damages and losses. The flood was an accident but it could've been prevented had he replaced the sum pump with a new one when he renovated the house.

Did money cause Mr. How to become this cold-hearted, uncompassionate person? Or was this his true character, finally revealed?

Either way, Scott and I are truly hurt by this whole situation. We are very disappointed in ourselves for misjudging this man's bad character. Every time something like this happens, we lose a little more faith in believing in people. I find this really sad...