Breach of Lease for a problem tenant.

Wow, we’re already halfway through the first month of 2016! Happy new year everyone! I hope you’ve written down some attainable goals and are already feverishly working towards them.

I have a new landlording story that involves Breach of Lease and a Section 8 tenant.

My tenant had just renewed her lease for a 2nd year a few months ago. During her first year, overall, things were fine. She always paid her portion of rent on time, was fairly quiet, and didn’t hassle me. But things changed. She had visitors who never left. They were loud and disruptive causing the downstairs tenants to complain. There wasn’t much I could do about the noise. But then damage started happening.

First, my tenant overflowed her bathtub to the point that the water was leaking through the floor and into the bathroom in the downstairs apartment. That required a new ceiling and some paint. Then one day, she called me and mentioned that her front door needed work. Next, I receive notice from the downstairs tenants that a window upstairs is broken. In addition, this particular month I did not receive a rent payment from her. I immediately sent a 24-hour Notice of Inspection/Entry.

Broken window temporarily covered up with cardboard

Pro Tip: Never buy expensive blinds. Just get the cheap ones from places like Big Lots.

I arrived armed with a Breach of Lease notice, a Failure to Pay Rent notice, and my handyman. We find her apartment door is so damaged that it will not close and secure properly. This was a new door that I had purchased just over one year ago. The tenant is home and we come in and look around for damage, water leaks, and the broken window. It seems that the person who moved in has the bed right next to the window and apparently kicked it in his sleep. How it was done is irrelevant. I also find a broken bedroom door, trash and food all over the kitchen (after telling her multiple times before to cure this). This would be the reason she’s had mouse and bug problems. There’s tons of gnats flying around in there, and depending on the day, the smell of rotting food is terrible. Previous times I told her to remedy her smelly trash situation, she would then literally just throw her bags of trash out the window into the backyard instead of bringing it down there properly and putting it in the provided trashcans. When I sternly discussed that issue with her, she would then remove the trash from her apartment only to place it outside her door and smell up the entire hallway. The problems had been building up and the inspection day was the final straw.

Once we hand her the Breach of Lease and FTPR notices, she loses her cool and decides it’s a good idea to get in my face and yell at me. Since this is going no where and my business there is done, we just leave. I promptly draw up a second Breach of Lease stating all the damage, the physical threats, and give over 30 days for her to move out. A copy of this was sent to the Housing Office. I feel I could have argued for the 14 days notice to vacate that Maryland law states for Breach of Lease if it involves behavior by a tenant or a person who is on the property with the tenant’s consent, which demonstrates a clear and imminent danger of the tenant or person doing serious harm to themselves, other tenants, the landlord, the landlord’s property or representatives, or any other person on the property. But I decided to be conservative and stick with 30 days. See more at: Maryland Breach of Lease

To my surprise, someone from the “Integrity Unit” of Housing called me to discuss the situation. They asked for photos of the damage and trash and the tenant is now in jeopardy of losing her housing voucher.

The day came and went that the tenant was due to vacate the premises. My LLC had to now file with court the Breach of Lease so that we could formally evict her. This brought about an interesting misunderstanding when it comes to LLCs/businesses representing themselves in court. I could find nothing that *clearly* stated I could represent my LLC in Breach of Lease court, but I was thinking that I probably could since I can represent myself in Rent Court. I pinged three different attorneys and two of them verified that a business entity can represent themselves in court for Breach of Lease and/or small claims court. The third attorney said I would need representation and he was happy to help; either he is not the best attorney, or he was just hoping for a quick buck. By the way, it was free to ask all three of these attorneys this question.

Turns out, I won’t need to go to court because the tenant has officially moved out and returned the keys. The property is in our possession and already getting cleaned out to become rent-ready! I would happily rent to the right Section 8 applicant again. I have had a pretty good experience with the program this far; the damage this girl and her friends did is nothing compared to some truly nightmare tenants. A deep cleaning, a new window, couple new doors, paint, and this should be ready to go!