So, we've got this one tenant that has always been a thorn in our side. He always pays a week or two late, although he always pays the late fee so it's not a big deal. But, and this is the key part, is that every time we come over there, there's something new that's broken. It's been doorknobs, toilet seats, door frame, we even had a plumber out to snake his bath tub because he said it was draining slow. After the plumber snaked it he installed the stopper (since there wasn't one before) and we wanted to make sure that it wouldn't get blocked up again. Well we were over there the other day to replace all the batteries in the smoke detectors and noticed that it had been removed...
Besides being rough on the apartment, the other tenants have told me that he's yelled at them numerous times, slammed doors right before they could get to him, etc. Anyway, I could go on and on about this guy.
Last month his kids are by our driveway pulling rocks off the retaining walls and throwing them with other neighborhood kids. We call the cops. After the cops leave he goes absolutely wild texting me. Long and short is that as a retaliation he says he's going to call the health board about mold in his bathroom. I tell him 1) None of the other tenants have any mold issues, nor have they ever, it's his responsibility to vent the room and clean the walls. and 2) I'll have someone come out and inspect it. So I have a company come out and inspect, ask them to write me a recommendation on what to do. They basically agree with me that it needs to be vented when getting showers, and that it needs to be cleaned regularly. They also suggested sealing the paint with something like Kilz. So off I go to pickup the Kilz, and I ask the tenant either A) when is a good time for me to do it or B) If you want to do it then you can do it whenever you want, I'll drop the materials off tomorrow. He says he'll do it, it's no problem, I drop the stuff off and that's that. Or so I thought.
This month he was late as usual on the rent, told him he was coming up on the last days possible to pay it. He asked how much we were taking off for rent, and yes, he worded it that way. I said rent is what it is, that we didn't have an agreement to take anything off, however, I am willing to give him a gift card as a happy holidays/thank you. He tells me to keep my gift card, don't ask him to do **** again.
I pick up the rent and deposit it. My business partner then notices there is no late fee on there (It's only $20, we need to bump that up). I shoot him a text and say 'Hey, John noticed there wasn't a late fee on the rent, put it in the black box tomorrow by 6pm so he can pick it up."
He responds back "Sorry, that was for painting the bathroom."
Then a couple minutes later he says "You want to give me a three day notice go ahead and then you can give me an eviction notice and I'll see you in court"
So now we're kind of in a pickle. My business partner says if we let him slide this time we can possible set a negative precedent on the late fee. Plus then it makes it seem like we're push overs. From my limited time investing and being a land lord I feel like there's ways to be more suave about this. Plus I've read stories about tenants wrecking the place on their way out just to "get even." What are your thoughts on this?
Would you evict? Why or why not.
