My son put an apartment that he had renovated and painted up for lease. A family came to rent it but did not have the full amount needed for the initial deposit. They seemed to be of good character, so my son kindly allowed them to move in, with the balance to be paid a few days later. 

Time passed, and the tenants did not pay the difference as promised. At the end of each month, they made excuses but did not even pay the monthly rent. Eventually, my son realized the tenants were not going to honor their agreement, and he asked them to leave the property. They didn’t move, so he hired a lawyer to begin the legal process of evicting them. The lawyer filed an eviction lawsuit with the court, but whenever my son asked for information about the case, the lawyer said he was waiting for the court to take action.

One day, about two years after the tenants had moved in, my son came to see me, very upset, and said, “Mom, I already finished paying the lawyer, and the end of the year is coming. Soon the courts will go into recess, but my tenants are still there, paying nothing and destroying the apartment.”