They've been my tenants for a bit more than two years now. When they first came to visit the place, I did a full background and credit check, two previous landlord reference and a current employer reference for both of them. They both had a cosigner to make up for their not-so-good credit (he had a bankruptcy because of a messy divorce, she just never had any credit).

They're was no red flags of whatsoever. He worked a good paying job and has been with the same company for 13 years. She worked one part-time job around the year (10 years at the same place) and two seasonal jobs, one in winter (8 years), one in summer (5 years) and collected EI benefits in between.

For 18 months they were the perfect tenants. Paid in time, kept the place clean, didn't caused any trouble. Then something snapped. I don't know what came first but something happen to her. He lost his job when the company he worked for went under. She lost her jobs but I don't know if she lost them then snapped or she snapped then lost them. He got another job that paid way less so he got a second one. And a third one to make up for her not working. It caused a lot of tensions. Then the fits started and it spiralled out of control. Her most repetitive complaint is that he's never around... She pulled a knife on him one night so he left for good (still paying rent thought).

I managed to convince them to break the lease without penalties for both parties as I have someone who could take over. She's not okay with that but she managed to understand it's either that or we're going through the whole eviction process.

I talked with her children's father recently when he came to pick the girls after a nasty fit they witnessed. He said they were together for 8 years and she never ever got angry at him or the girls. Even after their breakup, they had a amiable agreement on custody and he often came over to watch over the girls while she was at work.

It's just a fucking sad story all around.