A manager goes out to talk with a tenant regarding renewal of their lease. Upon walking up to the door they note that the large front window has been obviously broken and boarded up. They knock on the front door and the tenant answers the door. He inquires as to the broken window, and as he does so he notices that there is water damage on the wall below the window and along the hardwood flooring.
The tenant, nervously answers the question, What happened?
"My son broke the window when he threw a rock at it. I didn't want him to get in trouble because I knew we would have to pay for it..."
Long story short, the window was broken 2 months prior, and they didn't want to have to pay to fix the window, so they boarded it up. Sadly, because of the water damage caused by NOT fixing the window, they ended up having to remediate mold, re-drywall the area, and pay to have the hardwood floor section AND replace the window. Sometimes trying to avoid a small consequence actually will make it worse in the long run.
