Landlord Horror Stories
Joshua D.Pro Member
BiggerPockets Founder · HI · Member since 2008 · 16k+ posts · 5k+ votesDo you have a landlord horror story?
Share it with us . . .. :shoot:
Josh,
I assume you mean a tenant-from-hell story as opposed to a landlord horror story (we all know landlords are perfect)!
My latest tenant-from-hell story started as they all do with very poor judgement by one of my tenants. This female tenant decided to allow a new shack-up boyfriend to move in with her (in violation of the lease).
My first indication that anything was wrong occurred when the tenant called me to report that she was feeling very uneasy about her live-in boyfriend. Of course, my response was that she wasn't allowed to have a live-in boyfriend and that her problem was not my problem.
About a week or so later, I was at her apartment to fix the heating. At that time, she complained that she felt unsafe with her boyfriend. Although this was still not my problem, I told her that I would help her check her boyfriend's criminal record. She had a computer with an internet connection, so we looked up this guy. As it turned out, she had a very good reason to be afraid. He had 3 felony convictions for trafficking in cocaine and another for carrying a concealed weapon under disability. He also had numerous misdemeanor convictions including domestic violence. Now, she was REALLY afraid and with very good reason!
She asked me how she could get rid of him. I told her that legally, she would probably have to evict him to get him out. That would mean that he would be living with her for at least another 5 weeks. I also told her that I had another tenant that packed up a boyfriends stuff when he wasn't there and threw it out onto the sidewalk, but that I couldn't advise that. However, I told her that if she decided to throw his stuff out that I would change the locks for her (since I didn't want the guy to kill her).
A few days later, I received a call from the tenant. The shack-up boyfriend would be out of town for about 2 hours and she was throwing his stuff out onto the sidewalk. I told her that I would be right over to change the locks. I changed the locks and left.
That evening, I got a call from the boyfriend. He accused me of illegally evicting him. I told him that he didn't live there and wasn't on the lease. At any rate, I didn't evict him. He threatened to sue me and I said "go ahead".
To make a long story short, the felon was now homeless and not happy about it. Over the next few days, he slashed the tenants tires TWICE. He then caught the tenant sitting in her car and threw a brick at her front windshield. A couple of days later, he shot her car with a pellet gun. He has been actively stalking her. She finally got a restraining order against him and she moved out of the apartment (without notice) with help from the local domestic violence group.
This loser has called me several times with numerous threats, but I have an unlisted phone number and I never tell anyone my address. I personally haven't seen him in the last couple of weeks.
Not really a horror story, but just the everyday reality of dealing with low income tenants and their soap opera lives.
Mike
One is mine, one is from a friend.
1. Call tenant about being late, again. Tenant says he has the rent and will be right over. I pointed out that with the late charges the total was $X. Tenant says OK and is heading out the door. 2 hours later (the house is 3 miles away) tenant shows up, hands the cash over, it's $250 short.
You said you had it all. Well, I did but I saw a cool stereo at the store so I bought it. OK, hold on while I write you a receipt. Instead of a receipt I wrote up a 3 day notice and handed it over!
Against my better judgement I rented to a guy who was a friend of a co-worker. Co-worker knew and told me the guy was a bit flaky but I was a bit desparate. Guy was a constant late payer and sometimes got 2 months behind but then would mostly catch up. Was ready to start eviction process when he brought me all the money. The next day the co-worker told me that she and her husband had just loaned money to their friend because they didn't want to see him and his family on the street.
I told the co-worker that it was better that they get screwed than me, but she told me that her husband had insisted the deadbeat sign over the title to his truck before they gave him any money! Anyway a couple of months later and we're back with him late and I start eviction and he decides to move out. But he backs his truck over the grass to the front door, fills it with firewood and other crap and gets it stuck up to the axle.
I show up, see the truck, call a wrecker and my co-worker. Tell them they can have the truck for $1200. We finally settled on them giving me $750 for the truck and firewood, I kept the other junk for yard sale.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.
all cash
My tenant problem sounds pretty darn minor.....I bought a property and signed a new month to month with a young couple. They told me they had no pets and only they lived in the apartment (2 people). Now after a month I see a additional person coming and going, and what do you know he has a dog. So, I stopped by the apt. one day and the third "tenant": is there. I said, "oh do you live here? Does this dog also live here?" The two real tenants say, "no, he and the dog do not live here." So, I let a couple more weeks pass and again and again I see the 3rd guy with the dog coming and going. So, what do I do? So far they have paid and haven't caused any additioonal problems, so....
That's why you need to write into your lease what constitutes a guest and an occupant, as well as no animals are allowed in the premises at anytime whether owned by the occupant or not. My leases stipulate that anyone staying more than 3 days within 12 months is an occupant and must be added to the lease.
Did you still accept the partial payment when you handed him the 3-day? Be careful about doing that, better to not take the money at all. In most states, the court will find against you for accepting partial payment and then trying to evict. In other words, you cannot begin eviction at that point but have to wait until the tenant is late on the next month. He could legally continue to live there on a partial rent payment until the next month's payment is late. Then you can issue the 3-day, but only for that month, not the previous in which you accepted the partial.
Bottom line? Don't ever accept partials.
More reasons for me not to actively manage any rentals I may pick up... :)
Yes, but, Blue starter, what happens when you have a management company?
There is a managed house across from one of my rentals. The management company put in tenants who scream obsenities all day and all night. The police are there all th time.
The tenants climb in and out the windows, and one of them keeps wandering around inside the neighbor's houses and yards.
There is filth and garbage and dead cars on the lawn. There is absolutely no way in hell that ths family had good landlord references.
The police are there all the time becasue of complaints from the neighbors. The management company does nothing about it.
I feel sorry for the owner when he sees what has happened to his nice house. If the inside looks like the outside, he's got about $20,000 worth of damages in less than 8 months.
A house around the corner with a management company has a travel trailer full of people living in the driveway, in addition to the tenants. That's been going on for nearly a year, so the management company isn't doing anything about that either. Those people applied from me, so I know that the guy in the driveway has no job and no savings and 4 kids. The person insde the hlouse had a job that she hadn't started yet when she moved in.
The owner of that house thought he was renting to 1 woman with 2 kids, and not to two families with a total of 6 kids. He's going to be dissappointed when he sees the amount of wear and tear. The yard has been destroyed, so I suspect that the inside of the house looks rough.
PNW,
I agree with you. No one will take care of your rentals like you do. What does the management company care? They get paid regardless of what happens and in fact often get paid more for frequently placing tenants and arranging maintenance. Therefore, the higher the turnover and the more damage done, the more the management company makes. What a deal!
My latest "horror" story is my new apartment building. It is about as bad as I anticipated from a tenant standpoint. The place is frequented by drug addicts and homeless vagrants who are taken advantage of by the tenants in exchange for allowing them to stay overnight. In other words, a couple of the tenants are fleecing these people out of their government checks. It's a mess. To make matters worse, there is violence occurring on nearly a daily basis and one of these incidents in the last couple of weeks involved a gun. It's taken me the last couple of weeks to really get a good idea what's going on and who the main troublemakers are.
I have now told the tenants that if anyone that I recognize as a druggie is seen in their apartment by either me or the police, they will be kicked out. I have also been making frequent trips to the building. On Friday, while I was at the building for about 1 1/2 hours, the police were there FOUR TIMES! I stopped by last evening and gave a druggie the boot after being threatened by him. Then, this afternoon, I stopped by and found another druggie sitting in the hallway. I escorted him off the property also. The tenants already know my reputation, but I think someone will need to be evicted before they realize I'm serious. So, I'm looking for a good reason to evict one of the tenants. Hopefully, that will happen in the next couple of days. In the meantime, I'm working with the police to arrest as many of the druggies and deadbeats as possible. I've just got to keep the pressure on until they make a mistake.
Not really a horror story yet, but simply my latest saga.
Mike
Here is my first horror story.. Well not really a horror story, but a story. I have new tenants, a mother and daughter. Both are "nice" people. I got a call from the mother Friday, she was crying. She told me that they would not have all the rent money. Someone stole her purse which had 1/2 the rent money in it. She was able to give me a copy of the police report. The mother and daughter were scared that I was going to evict them. I agreed to accept the second part of the rent as long as they came up with it either before or on the 15th of the month.
Whats a person suppose to do other then to work with them. If they were not able to provide a copy of the report, then there would have been an issue.
I am probably a landlord's dream-tenant. I am extremely clean, don't break ANYTHING. I always call with updates to my landlord, let him know what's going on. Never have been late, and very OCD when it comes to keeping the house in order. There is a hot tub here that I keep in great condition. I fix things on my own, never made him pay any labor, only for items purchased. My roommates can be messy, and I pretty much have learned over the past few years that being a landlord is something that I probably can't handle. Anybody who keeps their home in a worse condition than I do I'd consider a bad tenant. I'd never have good tenants, so forget it.
horrible stories, btw.
Mike, I would just kick everybody out, renovate the whole place, and start over.
TC, "rent money was stolen" is the number one favorite excuse of drunks who drank all their rent money up.
Your tenants might not be as nice as they appear. Remember, everybody is "nice" when they want something from you. Keep a close eye on them, and hold them to a 2 strikes and you are out policy.
Yes, they have a police report, but it might be true or it might not. Anybody can file a false police report and it doesn't cost the tenant anything to do so.
I certainly will not kick out good tenants because of a couple of rats. The tenants in one apartment have been there for over 25 years. Another apartment has a tenant that has been there 8 years. My objective is to identify the bad actors and kick them out. Then, while keeping the good tenants, find other good tenants to fill the apartments that have had tenants kicked out.
The building doesn't need renovation (except exterior paint) and it certainly doesn't need to be started over.
Mike
PNW
You're not telling me anything I don't already know. After being a cop for several years, I have heard and see a lot when dealing with people, but at the same time, I am not going to start the eviction process on these people for this either.
My tenant story started when my previous roommate recommended her cousin as a roommate. I should have seen the flags when her parents dropped her off, paid her deposit, and left. She was fine for a while, but began to fall behind in rent. She paid a little late, but always paid in full before the 15th. Then I came home and found her smoking weed in the back yard. Once she was more than 2 weeks behind, I knew she couldn't afford the place, at least not while she bought and drove a shinier car than mine! Turns out it was her $200 coke habit that was holding her back. I started eviction and learned about the whole "first day of the month following..." thing. Eventually I won eviction, but came home from a business trip to find she'd thrown a wild party, passed out, and her "friends" walked off with all my stuff. So I took her back to court and won a judgement for rent and damages.
What I know now...
1. Screen tenants. Even her cousin was blind to the drug use.
2. Evict immediately. There are no "nice guy" protections for landlords.
3. Be prepared for 2 court cases if you have to evict.
Jonathan
In Ohio, you can file a "second cause of action" for damages at the same time you file the eviction. I always file the second cause of action and list $3,000 as damages (the maximum that can be awarded in municipal court). If the actual damages are less, you will just ask for that at the hearing on the second cause.
Good Luck,
Mike
MikeOH, in FL, the eviction is handled through civil court, while the damages are handled in small claims court, for anything under $5000.
I had a married couple who moved in and 4 months later came over telling me they had a horrible flea problem and that it was my problem. I explained to them that there were no fleas in the apartment when they moved in or they would have been over sooner. They called anyone who would listen to them trying to get me in trouble. Even going as far as saying I had RATS and MICE running around the building.
I gave them their notice to get out and luckily enough they left within a week of the notice. I had the apartment treated by a pest company and inspected for any rodent activity... which they couldn't find any droppings or other reason to believe I had a rodent problem.
Also, these same people had a thing that if a light bulb would burn out that they would expect me to replace it. I told them no and when they left they took all the light bulbs with them. :roll:
That's funny! Low income tenants are fascinated by light bulbs. I don't know why that is, but light bulbs are a frequent subject among tenants. One of the things that I've heard frequently from tenants is that their "light bulbs pop" (burn out) just about as fast as they put them in and there "must be something wrong with the electricity". I can't tell you how many times I've heard that. Do you think their bulbs pop so frequently because they install stolen light bulbs that have been used thousands of hours? Could it be that they seem to burn out quickly because there electric bill is paid by the government and they don't have any incentive to turn the light outs when they're not using them?
FUNNY!
Mike
I managed a 24 unit building in South Omaha that had primarily Hispanic tenants. We had a problem with them stealing light bulbs out of the laundry and hallway areas, so I had the bright idea (pun intended) to install yellow "bug light" bulbs in an effort to thwart this problem. Within 12 months, when you drove by the property at night, ALL the apartments had a bright yellow glow from their windows...
We ended up changing the light fixtures to HP sodium and/or fluorescent to solve the theft problem.
That's alright.. A recent tenant kept getting shocked from her laptop. I went over and inspected the outlet and tested it. Everything was fine, only to find out 2 weeks later that it was the surge protector that was causing the problem. I knew it wasn't my outlet causing the problem, but I had to go over and put my ohm meter on it and show her the numbers and explain what they meant.
Not complaining, just something that a LL has to do.
Kind of a horror story but it ended ok.... I guess the moral is you can screen tenants all you want....but if they bring a chucklehead on the property you still got bs to deal with.
This was back when I was in college and was an onsite manager at a 30 unit complex in Missouri. I was living at the complex while managing it. Had a tenant who's son living with him had a numbnut friend who'd come around - we'll call "Loser". See where this is heading? Anyway, tenant and his son go on a week's vacation. I get woken up at 4 a.m. - cops knocking on the door. Apparently there was a break-in at tenants unit while he was away. Someone broke out the window and stole something from the unit - didn't know what at the time. I boarded up the window. Found out next day that the other tenants heard the window breaking and saw Loser with 2 accomplices going in his friend's unit and carrying out stereo equipment. Naturally I reported this to the police.
The next night - the boarding is removed from the window and the police again knock on my door at 4 a.m. This is 2 nights sleep that Loser has cost me and I was pissed. I reboarded the window in such a way that the only way to remove was to go inside and knock it out with a hammer. Loser had never gone in through the door so the property was secure.
Couple days later, tenant came back and found what was stolen. I don't know what was going through Loser's mind but he was easily found and arrested. I still shake my head wondering what goes through people's minds when they do stupid crap like that, knowing they're going to get caught....
Long story short, it cost us a couple hundred bucks in window repairs but thankfull no one innocent was hurt. Sadly, Loser didn't get hurt on any of the broken glass - ah well, he had an outstanding warrant on him when they nabbed him for this so maybe he was made a prison girlfriend for a while.
I am a landlord and a member of the Landlord's Association of Enid (Oklahoma). We (the Association) had been lobbying the State Legisture for seven years to change the Landlord/Tenant Laws of OK. this year it looks like we might make it.
Landlords, everywhere, have been having tenant problems since the first rental house was built! There IS a way to get relief. Here's our story.
Landlords in Enid have been suffering serious financial burdens due to the few bad apples. Property damages have ranged into the thousands in repairs.
In Enid, and the rest of OK, tenant damage is a CIVIL matter. You file a complaint in court, pay the $100+ fee, see the judge and 99.9% of the time the tenant doesn't show up, so you are awarded the cost of damages. YEA!!! You say!
Nope!! The tenant has moved twenty miles away. You have no way of finding them, unless you pay out more money for detective work, so there is no way you can ever garnish their wages.
Landlords don't have a very high profit margin, and what profit they do have it can't be spent hunting down the bad apples. You have to put the money back into repairing the house!
The president of our Association has been fighting to get the law changed from Civil to Criminal. This year she figured out how to get it passed.
Instead of going through the Landlord/Tenant Laws (OK Statute Title 41) she went through OK Crimes and Punishment (OK Title 21). Even though Title 21 is not quite right either... here's how it's being changed to help the landlords.
Property damage in OK is a misdeamenor. Punishable with a fine and jail time, depending upon the amount. But, it does not cover Landlords and Tenants. So, the State Representative is lobbying to have a 'sentence' included... the sentance would include wording which would include anyone "UNDER CONTRACT". ie... if you are under contract to be the care taker of private property, and it is damaged while in your care... you are responsible for all the damages.
OK misdeamenors include any property damage up to $2500.00. Felonies are $2500 and over. The State Rep is also working to lower the felony amount to $1500.
Misdeamenor or felony they both go on your criminal record and a warrent can be put out on the offender. This way the bad tenant will eventually get caught and you WILL get your money.
The Enid Association has been canvasing numerous cities in OK and getting landlords and homeowners to support the Bill. The bad tenants make it bad for all of us.... they trash the property, disturb neighborhoods, run drug houses, lower property values and generally make our cities look tacky.
It's time for all the good landlords to fight for their rights. I welcome all your thoughts, questions and comments.
Red
PLEASE LET US KNOW IF YOU GET THAT THROUGH!! Maybe we can start a tidal wave of common sense through the US (leftist coastal areas excepted).
Thanks for your efforts!
Mike
I am a student and live several hours away. I needed to rent a unit to someone and was trying to screen everything over the phone and thru another tenant. The older couple tenants liked the lady, said she was very nice. I asked her for references, LL and employment. She gave me 2 names, LL and Boss. I called an older lady who said she rented for several years and paid on time- more than I was charging. I called "Boss" and she said she worked for over two yrs in daycare and made around $500 per week, good worker.
So, I rent to her and the troubles start. First, she piles all her garbage in back underneath her porch. After about 3 or 4 mos., me and another tenant drag all the garbage to to front and I demand she sign up for garbage service. I pick up the garbage lid on her can and a RAT jumps 4 feet in the air. They pick up the garbage, but she continues to have garbage problems and eventually is 3 mos behind on rent, she was three months behind right before Christmas- but paid up.
Finally, She calls about the air conditioning around june- I tell her that the unit is bad and it may take 2 weeks to get fixed. She decides to bolt, but doesn't bother telling me or moving anything.
Long story short, I attempt to evict, but can never serve her- she avoids service. Finally she picks up some of her stuff and basically abandons her property. We find a diary she left explaining that she sold rocks to pay for Christmas. She moved in a boyfreind who was a loser and basically just put utilities in his name and did not pay.
Funny, I found an eviction notice from a year ago- reasons for eviction- Excessive Garbage, Pets- (She also had numerous pets) and behind 3 mos on rent- and she only lived two blocks down the road- She had given me false references. She destroyed my place- fortunately, it taught me some valuable lessons, it only costs about a grand to fix up, and I have a great tenant now.
Another person I evicted that same summer had an judgment notice for eviction among their belongings that they left as well. They were evicted for the same reasons that I evicted for. Point is that bad tenants will continue to be bad tenants and repeat the cycle.
My first tenant after I bought this property moved in last december, and I have the ****** luck of living right below my rental (its a duplex). He tells me how his wife divorced him ruined his credit and blablabla so dumb me decides to try him out, he was very polite, nice, and he worked for my neighbor who's a general contractor so I figured the guy would pay. A week after signing he comes knocking here and asks my mom to exchange a check for him. I was at work so my mother calls me tells me this, I remember telling myself "that's it, this guy is gonna be trouble". He came up 200$ short on the 1st month payment, then 2nd month came he didn't give me anything but excuses that he didn't have work that week and all. Around the 6th I call him and he starts beeing a smartass telling me he's not paying me and if I don't like it to take it to court. He didn't have to tell me twice :mrgreen: I started the eviction process, in the meanwhile I learned from a someone I know that he's been buying cocaine and crack from someone that friend knows. His drug dealer kept coming over, he'd stay up until 4h00am, make noise, etc I had some furniture in the rental basically and old bed, a desk, a 27 inch tv, a fridge and a range, he just used that because I didn't have time to remove then and didn't really care anyway, he never brought in ANY of his own furniture (he kept telling me his stuff was in a locker while in fact he didn't have anything). Court date came, he didn't show up, so the judge awarded me 2000$ for late rents and other fees, when time came to evict him he took off with some girl I had never seen before, poor her she doesn't know what she got into! He was nice enough to splash blue paint all over the walls (and lots of it) and destroy my kitchen counters. At the end I didn't even care about the money anymore, it was a matter of him leaving or me committing a major crime, so I'm glad he left before things escalated.