Far more importantly than that: the landlord, usually morgaged, is making a tenuous claim of ownership of the tenant's home. If the landlord does not keep up wi

Far more importantly than that: the landlord, usually morgaged, is making a tenuous claim of ownership of the tenant's home. If the landlord does not keep up with his payments the tenant and his family face the prospect of disruption and upheaval of far greater import than any monentey shortfall the landlord might risk. Therefore the tenant has by far the greater claim to an assurance of the landlord's credit worthiness than vice versa.