It’s tough trying to find a place to live out there these days…

And it’s even tougher when you’ve been a bad tenant in the past and old landlords won’t vouch for you.

So, is this guy being an ******* for how he’s treating an old tenant?

Read on and see what you think.

AITA for giving negative references for my former tenant and making it hard for her to find a place to rent?

“I [56M] rent out a house my late brother left me.

I had a long streak of good tenants, until the one before the current one, who was named Jamie. Jamie was a 30 year old, low-income single mom of three kids.

To my knowledge I was the first person she’d rented from, as she had lived with her mom and boyfriend before that.

This was not a good situation.

She was a nightmare of a tenant (no regard for the rules, late with payments, destructive of property, moved in multiple people without my consent, very rude, and many other things).

Perhaps the worst thing about her was her disobedience of the HOA rules: though they were explained clearly to her many times, she violated the rules on an almost daily basis and racked up a fee of $800 by the time she was gone.

She refused to pay this fine and I had to cover it in full. I was able to evict her after four months of her living there.

A little while after she was evicted, I began getting calls from prospective renters inquiring about Jamie, meaning that she was putting me as a reference (probably not the smartest move).

She was WRONG.

It’s likely she was expecting me to give a “neutral reference”, where the landlord simply confirms the dates that the tenant lived there and says nothing else. Well, she was wrong. I gave terrible (but completely honest) references.

Five or so prospective renters contacted me over the course of the next couple months and I told all of them the truth about Jamie. These calls stopped after a while, indicating she wised up and stopped listing me.

Just recently, I received a phone call from Jamie. She told me that she has been unable to find a home due to not having any previous landlords to list as a reference (landlords see this as a big red flag), and that she lost her job shortly after I evicted her.

She is in a bad situation…

She said she and the kids had to live with her mother, who is in her words an “abusive narcissist”, this whole time. Jamie told me that this is greatly affecting her mental health and that she has reason to believe her mom may soon kick them out, and they have nowhere to go and she fears they could become homeless.

She was begging me to start giving “neutral references”, so she can have someone to list as a reference and have a better chance of finding a place to rent.

He’s not budging.

I told her no, reminded her of what an awful tenant she was and made it clear that if anyone contacts me about her, I will give an honest answer.

She continued to plead with me, and eventually broke down crying. I had to hang up on her.

AITA for not giving “neutral references” for Jamie, and thus making it a challenge for her to find a new place to live?”

Check out what Reddit users had to say about this.

This person said he’s NTA.

This Reddit user agreed.

Another individual spoke up.

This Reddit user shared their thoughts.

This reader had a lot to say.

Maybe he’s being a bit too harsh…

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.