Do You Protect Victims of Domestic Violence, Abuse, etc.?

Question

I just read an article about a management company that tried to evict a woman who was the victim of domestic violence. It is an interesting piece and begs the question . . . do you do all that you can to protect victims of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking?

Have a look at the article and lets discuss:
Landlord, victim settle

Account Closed · Answer

[[[[......do you do all that you can to protect victims of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking....]]]]]

Like what? Sit outside their door with a shotgun 24 hours a day?

There is nothing that can be done about people's really bad destructive choices.

My preference would be to give a notice to vacate and take their violence and property destruction elsewhere, except it is against the law to evict a person who is the victim of domestic violence. I know my state isn't the only state where it is against the law.

One step of screening is to call on the applicant's current address and see how many police calls were made to that address. That helps to screen out some of the couple who insist upon punching holes in the walls as part of their domestic relationship.

Mark Hu · Answer

Well, it is well known that police hate domestic violence cases more than any other. Even though they are trained to deal with them, more police die from calls to domestic violence disputes than anything other type of crime (at least that's what I hear).

So I am not going to step in and take on a job even the cops fear.

I would hire a lawyer to find out my legal obligation to the abused wife (or husband) and my options to defend my property rights as well. At any rate I would be screwed to some extent for renting to someone in that situation!

Sue In Denver · Answer

This is a tough one as I do a lot of domestic violence counseling and am also a landlord.

I too would have to take a middle of the road position.  If a perp. kicks in the door of a victim, he/she is not an "invited guest".  He's an intruder.  And to evict someone because some jerk is stalking her was just plain stupid.  Duh, let's further punish someone who has had a crime committed against her.

If someone needed to break a lease so as to move to another place that hopefully the perp didn't know about, I'd likely let them.  A person's life isn't worth my momentary inconvenience and my insurance would cover major damages.  I'd prefer to be able to sleep at night, rather than knowing someone lost their life because I was losing a profit in the short term.

Just my two cents!

Mark Hu · Answer

I believe it is enough of a challenge to provide tenants with decent housing and a reasonable living environment. To ask the manager to be a social worker, judge, and policeman as well is absurd. Anyone who thinks he or she can do all of these things is way over their head.

When I had a situation where things had become violent between a tenant and their roommate, I told her to bring in the police. Of course she refused to do this. If things had gotten worse I would have called in the cops myself. I really am not brilliant enough to step in and fix such a chronic situation myself.

Jonathan Newman · Answer

I have to advocate a more middle-of-the road position.  I would have phone numbers and references for shelters and other resources.  And when a tenant gets a restraining order, I MIGHT be willing to terminate a lease early in exchange for a clean rental, less damages of course.

The potential downside is that tenants talk, and once a tenant knows that all they have to do to move out of one of your places is file a restraining order, you'll find a slew of tenants who are suddenly beaten.

Here is a question.  What would you do if a tenant had her door kicked in?  Would you evict for "failure to supervise guests"?

Would you file a criminal complaint for the door?  Would you insist she file for a violation of the restraining order?

Timothy W. · Answer

We actually have a property in Missouri where a woman shot and killed her abuser as he tried to enter the property.  The property didn't get a negative image for that.  In fact, I think we get a Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition for it.   :beer:

Jenny F. · Answer

AMEN!

Richard F. · Answer

Initiating an eviction in response to an incident such as this is generally not a good idea. There ARE extreme cases where OTHER tenants may also be at risk, but generally, these situations have escalated over time. No doubt there were early signs of problems...I'd love to see their original applications. There are probably indicators there that were ignored. How many prior noise complaints were there? When was the last inspection, and what did the place look like? Odds are there was plenty of reason and opportunity to not rent to them to begin with, or to move them out long before this incident.

At the very least, they should have (at this point) worked WITH the woman to "help" her get relocated, rather than adding to the drama. That was just asking for media attention for a company of that apparent size.

Google "Broken Window Theory".

Michael Rossi · Answer

I think this case is a major injustice.  I absolutely despise the ACLU and all the low life legal-aid lawyers in this country.

Why in the world should the landlord be held responsible for damage caused by the soap opera lives of the tenants?  My lease also says that the tenant is responsible for damage caused by their invitees or guests.  Almost all of this domestic violence between tenants and their ex-shackup boyfriends is caused by the poor judgement of the tenant.

I had a very similar case recently in which one of my tenants chose to shack up with a guy in violation of the lease.  The guy turned out to be a convicted felon with a history of violent behavior and drug trafficking.  (maybe she should have thought about that before she was stupid enough to move him in).  At any rate, she became frightened and kicked him out.  He retaliated by slashing all the tires on her car twice, throwing a brick at her when she was in her car, and shooting a pellet gun at her.

I encouraged her to call the police; get a restraining order; and change her phone number, all of which she did.  She ended up getting help from the coalition against domestic violence and moved elsewhere.

My property was not damaged, but I would have been VERY unhappy with her if it had.  I certainly would not have agreed to pay her money for a settlement under any circumstances.

These women have got to wake up and start thinking about who they are shacking up with!!!  However, that's not going to happen.  Poor judgement is exactly why most of these people are tenants and always will be!

Mike

Tom C · Answer

As a former cop I have dealt with so many domestic's it would blow your mind. In this situation, no I would not evict her and I would certainly press charges on the dirt bag for distroying my home. More then likely she will never got to court, but all you need is a written statement from her saying that he was the one that trashed the place. I personally believe that you cannot get involved in these situtations. All you can do is provide a safe place for them to live. If their drama makes it unsafe, that is not your problem. Many times as soon as you spend countless hours helping this person, they will just get back together anyway. Law enforcement has all the tools and information to help all domestic violence victims, most of the time, the victims won't use those tools or take the advice.

So for your own sanity and protection, stay out of the drama and fight those urges to play white knight.