Editor:

I would like to reveal the terrible plight of landlords in Refugio County since the justice system prevails on behalf of the tenants in seemingly all cases.

Many tenants squat on properties and just stop paying rent and wait for the landlord to fail to pay taxes due to the tenant’s delinquency. Then they can just pick up the properties at the tax auction for pennies on the dollar of what the property is worth.

My father’s estate is an unfortunate victim since he owned half the Refugio Shopping Center on North Alamo which succumbed to taxes due to delinquency.

Another property was his Mini-Mart complex on Santiago. The tenant was delinquent, let it run down until they finally got it for taxes.

I am sure other landlords are falling like flies due to delinquency and irresponsibility of people like those who left our home at 111 Osage in terrible condition after non-payment for months.

After we attempted to evict the tenant, he stripped the home of valuable fixtures and French doors and slammed holes in the walls and flooded the basement.

The community needs to stand and address these types of people. They move to other rental property and will do the same thing to that landlord.

Whoever owns rental property in Refugio needs to communicate to beware of these tenants and publish a list of violators so they are eventually removed from the city.

The tenant of the 111 Osage Street property owes the Vicente Govella Estate $1,800 in back rent plus about $15,000 in damages to the home, but the justice system is not setup to go after these people and enforce payment.

Refugio Community, please stand up before we all get knocked down into oblivion.