KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 16 — A landlord in Massachusetts, United States has won social media praises after he decided to share the profits from the sale of his home with former tenants who helped to pay the mortgage.
One of the tenants, Chris Robarge posted on his Facebook recently that he was contacted by the former landlord to ask for his current address.
A few days later Robarge received a letter in the post informing him that the landlord wanted to pay him back for the contribution he had made to the home, as well as everyone else who had rented it, The Mirror reported.
Enclosed was a cheque for US$2,500 (RM10,591) and a message explaining that the landlord had tried to keep rent “equivalent to the monthly expenses of keeping the house” for everyone who had lived there.
In the letter, the landlord said:
“I calculated the amount of principal you paid each month you lived there, split it by who was living in the house at the time, and added 40% (the increase in value of the home from when I bought it).
“While it’s not much, it’s yours! It was a great house and I’m glad I was able to share it with you.”
Robarge said it had been the first place he had called home after going through a divorce, and that he was left stunned by the gesture.
“I have been sitting with this for more than a day and I am still completely beyond an actual way to describe what this act means to me.”
“All that I can say is that there are people who talk about their values and there are people who actually live them, and the reason I wanted to share this is that I want to encourage us all to actually live our values. Do it off the clock, do it when no one is watching, do it always.”
His landlord’s act of kindness has inspired one of his own where Robarge said he would be keeping US$500 (RM2,118) for car repairs and giving the rest away to worthy causes and people in need.
The post had since received more than 11,000 reactions and shared 4,700 times on Facebook.
