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Gwen Fyfe
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Cleveland, OH
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Would you blacklist whole family of an evicted tenant?

Gwen Fyfe
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Cleveland, OH
Posted Oct 17 2017, 11:39

This is a bit of a hypothetical, but I'm starting to think it's going to happen at some point. It's also a funny story. :)

I'm currently in the middle of evicting one of my tenants, Nora Jerk. Nora is a single lady with a young daughter. Nora has an identical twin sister, Cora Jerk, who also has a young daughter. (Names changed, but yes, they are identical twins with rhyming names!) Nora works a lot, so Cora is often at the property watching both girls. Or maybe it's Nora. To be honest, Cora could tell me she was Nora and I wouldn't be able to tell. They look that much alike. I would definitely not put it past Nora for her to use it to her advantage, for instance by saying "I never got that notice, you must have given it to my twin while she was here."

Since I can't tell Nora and Cora apart, and I'm evicting Nora, I'm considering blacklisting Cora too. And then I thought, well, at that point I really shouldn't take anyone from the Jerk family. I don't think that "being closely related to at least one jerk" is a protected class, so I think I'm in the clear legally.

But the community I live in so tight-knit, that I might just want to make that a policy for all family members of an evicted tenant. I think it'll come up again in the future. (For added context, Jim lives on the other side of the duplex, and Jim's sister has already said she'd like Nora's unit when it's ready. Lots of families stay right in this town forever, and word of good landlords spreads quickly.)

What would you do? If you've evicted someone, would you accept one of their family members as a tenant?

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