Renting by room: Tenant has turned sour

[David Matthews]

Hi all - 

I am in a difficult place, I have 3 rooms for rent in a house, all rented, to 3 separate parties. Initially the first 6 months or so was smooth, now one of the tenants has turned sour and is being a real lemon to the other tenants. I would like to respectfully ask him to find another place to live as soon as possible (he has 6 months left on his lease). 

Please let me know how you think I could go about this. Technically, he could be violating the "peace and quiet enjoyment" clause for others. 

[Silas Avilez]

Hi David, 

Not too familiar with Colorado or their laws but universally lease agreements in black and white will always hold.  With that being said, if you have a clause about peace and quiet as a condition of renting one of those rooms--those roommates HAVE to abide by them.  So, if you have a roommate being sour and the other roomies agree that they are breaking a condition on the lease, you are full within your rights to escalate.  It may take some time, but you absolutely can.   Couple options you do have though: 

1) Have everyone in the house agree to write statements of said violation

2) Let that roommate who is in violation know that you are/willing to escalate if they do not correct their disruptive behavior since it's in the agreement. 

3) If they still do not care, let them know you'll seek all avenues to evict them, and you WILL be requesting reimbursement on whatever the costs of doing so are. (Conditional on your lease) 

Personally, I have done one eviction and the second it was brought up that I will be requesting reimbursement for costs of all paperwork/ legal fees it was the easiest thing ever and they left instantly within a few days. I had to do a full abandonment cleanout afterwards which wasn't the most fun thing to do but I'll take that any day over a drawn-out battle.  

Sorry you're going through this man! Seriously Goodluck.