Tenant want to bring her daughter on probation to live in rental home

[Steven McCain]

Dear BP friends, 

I am looking for some advice on a rental property. Renters moved into my rental property recently. Several days ago, one of tenants told me that her adult daughter was in jail for several years and will be released from jail and will be on probation. She asked if I can allow her daughter to live in the rental property during her probation.  The probation officer needs to get landlord approval to investigate the rental property for her daughter's probation living place.

Based on the information, her daughter's case was because of illegal transpiration/use of drugs. Personally I haven't have such cases before, so I am concerned because her daughter was involved in drugs in the past, not sure what will happen next if I am allow her daughter to live in my rental place.

So want to get more advice here from BP friends to see what is the risk and your experience/suggestions. Then I need to decide if I can allow her daughter to live in my rental property.

Appreciated your thoughts!

[JD Martin]

Well, I will preface this by saying I tend to lean biased against criminals. I don't believe much of the criminal justice system works in terms of reform/rehabilitation, and I'm not sure many of the criminals want to be reformed/rehabilitated anyway. So just keep that in mind.

What will happen: well, ideally, nothing. Her parents will keep an eye on her and if she does slip back into a drug habit it's likely to happen away from the house since probation can pop up any time. Assuming you've got good tenants that you screened well, the daughter's problem doesn't/won't become yours. 

What could happen: run the gamut here. Parents become part of the narcotics gang; the police smash down your door to round up suspects. Drug buyers showing up on a regular basis and vandalizing the property. Rent money getting stolen or spent on drugs. 

What you really should ask yourself is this: if the daughter had got out of prison before you rented to them, and her situation was known to you when these people applied, would you have approved their application? If the answer is no, then you probably should say no. Drug & drug related offenses are high rates of recidivism, because addictions are tough to kick and tend to be lifelong. A lot of drug laws that make people criminals are stupid, so there's that, but there's a lot of crime related to the actions of addictions from theft & burglary to assaults & murder.