My Tenant from Hell Story

[Troy Fisher]

We all love these guys right? Well after non-payment and being served with a pay or quit notice multiple times, and direct instructions to the old property managers to evict immediately. One day I went to the property to check it out and discovered that a back window was smashed out and broken. I again instructed said ex-property manager to evict. 4 months later, with tons of excuses on why he hasn't been evicted. New property manager posted a 5 day, and then began eviction process (Thank god!).

She was at the property for an unrelated issue and the Tenant told her he couldn't get evicted because the property we in foreclosure! Ha! Right. She said no it's not, you need to go. He called her some nasty things and threatened her with physical harm. Well two days later the constable was there to lock him out. The locks were changed immediately.

Which brings us to today. He picked the lock, broke into the apartment and smashed almost every window, broke the pvc pipes under all of the sinks, and was there when our handyman went to check up on the property and evaluate the previous damage. Tenant pulled a knife on him thankfully the handyman guy got away, and called the sheriffs. He was quickly arrested and is being charged with a bunch of different things. We also suspect him of having dealt drugs, not that we can prove it.

Awesome!

What's your story?

[Liam Goble]

I have a bad tenant, but that's a story for another time. My story is the contractor on my first flip (started only three weeks ago).

I had some hesitation using my contractor, but wanted to give him a shot for a few reasons. I knew the most difficult part of working with him was going to be management of his time/energy. Because of this, I negotiated a great rate from him, with specific bonuses in place if he hit certain milestones. The rate we negotiated was $15/hr with a $1,200 bonus for completion by contractors-anticipated-completion-plus-2-weeks. In addition, if we sold the house for more than a certain price, he would receive an additional $800.

My first clue was about two days after we discussed the pay situation, and he called to say "Well, since it'll be a $2,000 bonus anyway, why don't you just give it to me now?" My reply: a flat "No".

Warning number two came when the contractor called me up while he was completing the demolition and said "you know, I've been thinking about that upstairs hallway. How about we put in a nice hanging light to augment..." the rest of what he said was lost on me. I told him the thinking had been done by my partner and I, I just needed him to execute the plan.

The final strike came this week. On Monday, we were discussing the bathroom layout and my contractor again reiterated his stance that we need to move waste plumbing around in the bathroom. I said "[Contractor], do not touch the plumbing until I talk with my partner and we can discuss on site on Tuesday evening." I thought I was fairly explicit in my request.

Tuesday morning, I called to check in with the contractor and determine how far he got with some of the framing that needed to happen. He replied "Well, I didn't get around to the framing, but I spent about four or five hours yesterday tearing out all the plumbing in the bathroom."

[Me] "You're kidding, right?"

[Contractor] "No man, it's going to be easy and cheap to put it all back together. Don't worry, it's going to be like $100 or so in labor and another $130-$150 for the materials."

At this point, the room was almost spinning around me. I asked if he knew what I had said on Monday. "Yes, yes, but I just thought that it would be easy and cheap."

Needless to say, I asked that he not return to the site this week, and today, he's getting paid for the proper work he completed, less the time/cost to repair the plumbing that he screwed up (plus getting fired from the job).