Tenants leaving things in hallways?

[Thomas Hickey]

Hi All, One issue of contention over the years I've found is tenants using the hallways as personal storage. Typically when I leave a note/ ask the items do not leave or return eventually. This is not effective. I'm pretty busy so I don't have time to be wasting communicating/ keeping track of items in hallways so I sometimes throw away items when there are signs stating "no storage" and it says in lease items will be disposed of. Obviously I get complaints about this but they do get the message. Has anyone found any better methods to prevent storage in the hallways? Thanks, Tom

[Bettina F.]

Nothing looks more ghetto than tenants leaving their personal belongings in common areas.  It can quickly spiral out of control and be a tripping/fire hazard to the other tenants.  This is part of my pre-move in Landlord Speech and is clearly prohibited in the rules section of our lease.  

I would issue a legal Cure or Quit and enforce it.  The good news is that you will only have to evict one tenant and the entire building will shape up.