What's Your Tenant Horror Story?
Brandon TurnerPro Member
Investor · Maui, HI · Member since 2009 · 13k+ posts · 3k+ votesYears ago, I had a tenant who's toilet got plugged - but they continued to use it until it overflowed on a weekend and I was the only maintenance guy we had. It was the last toilet I ever worked on... and probably the worst experience of my life!
What's your worst tenant horror story? And what did you learn from that?
One time in the late 90's, I was enjoying a nice Saturday morning on my computer and drinking coffee. I got a call from a really good tenant that there was a problem with the house. The house was a two bedroom ranch on a crawl space. The furnace was old AND in the crawl space. (Note to all - don't buy a house with the furnace in the crawl unless you're getting a super deal).
My tenant went on to say that the furnace was making a "gurgling" sound and the entire house was filled with steam like a sauna. I told him to go outside and look into the crawl space. He did just that and told me it was full of "water".
I drove to the house, making up new swear words along the way. When I got there, I made a B-line (whatever that is) to the crawl space door. When I looked in, the entire crawl space had at least eight inches of some type of fluid. Just then, I heard the toilet flush and could see it all bubbling up into the crawl. This is when my morning went from bad to worse. The crawl space was full of human S#@*.
I called my plumber and he said he would be right over. I've been using this guy for 15+ years and he LOVES to work. I once called him at 8am on a Sunday that I had a problem with a house and he was there by 8:30. (No, you can not have his number).
This next paragraph is all alleged speculation.
A guy that looks like me went to a place that rents pumps. He rented a two inch pump with hose and purchased some thick rubber gloves that cost $12. He then took the pump to the house and pumped all of that feces into the street.
Once the sewage was evacuated from the crawl space, the plumber found two problems. #1 - The sewer line was full of tree roots. #2 - Some mental midget had placed a homemade wooden cap on the cleanout next to the main stack. Had they used the regular kind that screws in, all of that sewage would have backed up into the bathtub and I would've gotten a call right away and avoided the entire crawl space fiasco.
A couple of funny things happened that day. The plumber was going to the store to buy some stuff and wanted me to hand him the cap so he could use it to size the proper one. I was still wearing the $12 industrial gloves and he reached out with a bare hand to grab it. I told him it was covered in (expletive). He replied, "That's ok. I'm not having lunch for a while." The other funny thing that happened is when I was allegedly returning the pump, there was a guy at the rental place renting a 32 foot ladder. The worker asked him if he had a vehicle big enough to handle it. He relpied, "I've got a Dodge Neon. It will be fine."
A couple years later, I had tree roots in a sewer at the house that I used to live in. I called the plumber out to fix it. I wasn't home, but my wife was. He was thirsty and she gave him a glass of water. When I found that out, I made sure that she threw that glass right into the trash.
We learned our lesson from our first tenants; an older woman (in her 60's), her adult daughter and the daughters two teenage girls. At first they were excellent tenants, even calling us on the first to come pick up the rent. Things started to go down hill and they simply took off on the sixth month, leaving behind what ended up being 42 bags of garbage, rotting food in the fridge, cat litter pans full of...well, you can guess.
I ended up "raking" up the oldest daughters room to clean it up and was glad I was wearing gloves since, as I got down to the last layer it consisted of used tampon containers simple tossed on the floor instead of in the garbage (sorry if this is too much information).
They took the "important" stuff (all the plastic flowers) but left behind all the "unimportant" papers including bank statements and both previous leases (I learned they pulled the same trick on at least two other local landlords) and the new lease...so filing against them was easy since they kindly provided me with their new address where they could be served.
They also left behind new clothes with tags on them and I tried a few of the blouses on; they fit and I made sure I was wearing one of them when we went to court and I won my judgement against them.
Gail
@Brandon Turner My neighbor on the other side of the bay has a great waterfront property where she lives with a couple of houses she rents. She does not really screen or follow a process. Recently she came to my wife who is a great LL, she was in dire need of an ear and some help.
Her tenants-a couple; one on disability welfare and a drunk- both are druggies too. The disabled one gets picked up by driver to go shopping etc. Anyway they stopped paying rent and when confronted the drunk guy threw a shovel at her and cursed her. Our neighbor retreated and called her lawyer who advised her to take care of it herself without an expensive lawyer, in the meantime the tenant served her with a summons charging the LL with harassment and assault!
At our urging the LL got another lawyer who attended court with her. The tenant claimed the landlord had thrown him down some outdoor stairs! The LL is a 75 year old woman. The judge told them all to behave and come back in 10 days.
So the LL who has been losing sleep and tearing out any remaining hair collected character witness letters etc. My wife happened to be present on the day the tenant was alleging being thrown down the stairs and wrote a letter saying no event of any kind took place while she was there. My wife was there for hours that day they were pickling vegetables.
Back in court the assault charges were dropped and the tenant was given time to find other accommodations and be on their way-there was only a verbal 'lease'. Two weeks later the tenants vanished and left the place in a mess of course. It got cleaned up; my wife helped the LL advertise and find tenants who my wife screened, provided a lease, some guidance, and everyone is satisfied!
This LL got really lucky in my opinion, spent a couple of thousand on a lawyer, and the bad tenants are gone and we have a happy ending; but what about all those nasty what if's? There are a bunch aren't there?
Be careful out there my fellow LL's and screen, screen, screen!
Always do your scheduled inspections, have a checklist and include dryer vents! Don't let tenants repair things. Screen and do your best when renting, but things can change quickly. We have had some horror stories, but in almost all cases had we been more diligent we could have avoided them or gotten the tenants out sooner and minimized damages. Stay away from rentals with septics and wells. Reading horror stories, I feel your pain. A senior couple we knew had a very nice duplex. Tenants on one side started cooking meth. They had to gut the entire unit after the tenants were arrested. Is there insurance one can buy for tenant damages?