Non compliant, rude and arrogant tenant

[Ash S.]

At the time of screening, he had a credit score of around 600-615. 94% time on-time payment and one collection. I took a risk as this tenant has a family. Tenant was more than willing to get into the property(as he gave holding deposit even before seeing the property in-person). Mine is a brand new single family home in a very growing area so it's very much in demand. 

Unfortunately within 1 month, enough things has happened with this rental, like

1.Tenant is plain simple rude/arrogant in tone, expect all their problems to be fixed by me(i called the electricity company to get connection in their name, called city to get water/trash/sewage in their name. Tenant was expecting that i should pay for all the utilities even when it's clearly mentioned in the lease.

2.Not following lease and have at least 10+ violations in very first month.

3.When repairs has to happen expect contractors to come on weekend or during late evening only so contractors are not happy either.

4. Making calls after 8:30 pm for trivial issues.

5. Neighbors and HOA also complained to me about the tenant.

In the past, when i tried calling the previous landlord(high rise multifamily residential)-nobody responded to my voice mails. Employer gave above average feedback.

Though tenant is paying rent on time but overall attitude is an issue. What can i do? Tolerate the tenant till the lease get over?

How I can put this in the rental history of the tenant so that this high maintenance tenant become reasonable and doesn't behave like this with any future landlord?

Can landlord provide inputs to some tenant's rental history? How?

[Ricardo R.]

@Ash S. You need to run your rental(s)/investments properties more like a business. I’m sorry but just reading your original post I see at least one fair housing violation and possibly privacy violations as well depending on how you go about managing your property. It would help a bit if you could elaborate on what the 10+ ‘lease violations’ are. I get it that you don’t want to pay for a PM but with that thought pattern then why pay for any other specialized skill either i.e. electricians, plumbers, etc., etc. I’m guessing you don’t because you’d would rather have someone which knows what they are doing and those it everyday to do those jobs… so why would a PM be any different? I mean this in the kindest way possible …but I don’t know why you would think or what would qualify you to be a ‘PM’ of your rental aside from just being the property owner… again with that train of thought wouldn’t you also be qualified to be all else I.e. a roofer, a plumber, an electrician etc.

Some of the advice you have received here is good and other advice will straight up land you in legal trouble such as one comment which advised you to ‘strongly imply to the Tenant that they should leave’ …. I know you’re looking for specific answers and ideas to your issue here but 1) that is the my point; compared to someone or some company which manages multiple and multiple properties and multiple and multiple Tenants and sees multiple and multiple issues EVERYDAY… by comparison this renders you ‘unqualified’ ; 2) I would like to offer you some useful and actionable advice but there is just not enough information in your post to do so such as what lease violations? What is your criteria? How do you vet your criteria? How do you interact with the Tenant? How do you manage Tenant issues? Etc etc etc… My advice is that if you insist on managing the property yourself you should at the very least sorrowing yourself (your team) with qualified individuals which should include…. an attorney.

[Ricardo R.]

… surround yourself…

[Ash S.]

I did the mistake by being fast in terms of choosing a tenant. Some members pointed correctly unless I have talked to the previous landlord I should not have gone ahead.

Even though I am landlord for 6 years and I had 3 fantastic long term tenants(such nice tenant who even cooperated in property showing when I was selling-yes I sold the property with the tenants in there). I trusted what somebody said and what Zillow background check presented to me. Only the 4th tenant - I did mistake. 

But is this issue going to be fixed by having property management? May be not.

It's an overkill to have property manager for just two rental properties. I have a first hand experience, being in HOA, that middle layer(property manager) may not help unless you have a good/responsive property manager who is also affordable. All these property and HOA management companies hire smart attorneys and get a very one sided legal contract. Most of the times, community manager and property manager is held harmless for any of their decisions. The multi family where this problem tenant was living is managed by https://robinsongroupre.com/. Local property manager didn't responded to my phone calls(for verification for the tenant) for almost 40+ days. So all the property managers in this forum, how they will vouch for property management?  Called their corporate office  but no response even after 4+ weeks. Fax also fail.  "The Robinson Group" has 259 google reviews and rate 1.5 stars(one has to give least 1 star in their ratings or reviews). So please don't advocate for property management blindly. Yes there are some very awesome property managers who are difficult to find.

[Eliott Elias]

You're a business, you don't landlord to people you like. You landlord to people who pay the bills 

[Johnathan Travis]

Rental income is good passive income. But one bad tenant will change everything for you. Sorry about your situation.

Haste makes waste, no short cuts in terms of evaluating prospects. It's better to have few weeks/months of vacancy rather than having a bad tenant. 

My take is this tenant might be evicted that's he/she was so much in haste like paying holding deposit without seeing the property. That's a big red flag that you ignored. 

Tell them in a strict manner about expectations. If they didn't change just evict them. Let this kind of person have eviction in their rental history and they will remember it at least for 7 years(I am not aware how landlord/Court/Attorneys can put eviction in somebody's rental history though).

Regarding some of the folks advocating for property management, they are just trying to create scare and tell landlords to hire property management. I had used a property manager in one of my properties. In one such cases I had a troublesome tenant. For so long that property manager kept things to her and didn't tell me anything about tenants. Poor communication and co-ordination. After 4 months of stress, I finally decided to evict with $1000 flat fees attorney who did everything for me. Eviction cases are setup fast. I was so thrilled to see that troublesome tenant leave my property after losing eviction case. His attorney tried to mediate but I was persistent not to settle as I have gone thru enough. I was asked by court to make sincere efforts to search replacement tenant. I found another tenant after 1.5 months. For those whole 1.5 months, Mr. Troublesome tenant had to pay as a rent. I trust in God and evil folks definitely face bad karma.

[Jeremy H.]

I personally don't let tenants even move in without proof of the utilities in their name - they sign a lease that says they must do it by a certain date, provide proof etc. 

A lot of this stuff is simple issues that could be solved with simple solutions. 

Cannot imagine ever giving a tenant my personal cell phone number either - absolutely insane. 

You don't want to hire a PM company...yet the subject of this whole thread is just a reason why you should. Screen them and pick out a good one. 

[Ash S.]

At least one issue is resolved.  I just communicated in very firm manner via certified mail. Tenant made the full payment for drywall repairs though tenant was insisting deduct from security deposit few days back. Thanks for all your inputs.