Pacific Heights, Red Flags.

In the movie Pacific Heights, the main characters are a couple in San Francisco who purchase a house with rental units and decide to remodel the home and rent the extra units to turn a small profit. The two complete the remodeling and begin to interview possible tenants for the studio and 1 bedroom units. The 1 bedroom is rented first and the process for the most part is done by the book. However the studio apartment is first shown to a man who appears to want to bypass the correct process but in the end complies with the landlord request. The credit application is returned the next day under the door of the Victorian home and lost from there never finding its way to the landlord. Whether it was a mistake or a set up what follows next is for sure to cause many of problems for all parties living within the home. Michael Keaton plays a man who perceives himself to be wealthy based on the porche he drives and the several hundred dollars he flaunts while looking over the studio apt. Red Flag 1. He neglects to fill out the credit application stating his references will speak for themselves and all the landlord need do is call to verify. Red Flag 2. Keaton then offers to pay the first six months up front as he counts several hundred dollars, he says he’s a little short but assures the landlord he will wire the money within the week. Red Flag 3. The following day the man brings in personal belongings into the unit and the female landlord takes minimal to no action. At this point you’d think the situation would have corrected itself before going further. She should have never allowed a single belonging to remain in the home until or unless there was a proper lease written and signed. By not doing so under California law the landlords willingly turned over possession to the new tenants. Red Flag 4. From this point the story only becomes weirder. The final flag I think is when the references don’t pan out and the bank has no knowledge of the supposed wire transaction for the rent. Soon after this point the landlord finds out he has little recourse and the problem will now take anywhere from 6-8 weeks to 6-8 months to evict, depending. Quite the price to pay for not dotting your I’s and crossing your T’s when initating a lease agreement. Win or lose from here on out you have already lost all you stood to gain for several months rent.