Nightmare tenants: stories from an evictions agent.

Property owners sometimes hire me to do their evictions and help clean up. Here are a few things I learned:

1 -- Your life is worth less than a rent check; never turn your back on a tenant facing eviction.

Impulse control problems related to suspected mental illness is a serious problem for landlords in low-income areas. My first eviction case was that of a couple. The woman had flown into a rage at the man who had arrived to make repairs to her unit, and admitted during the mediation session that she had thrown a cinder block at him. The man admitted to producing letters claiming to be "the new landlord" and had tried to demand that other nearby tenants pay him, in cash. The man had done some work for the landlord and had gotten to know who the other tenants were, and was desperate for rent money. If the repairman had turned his back, he could've been killed, and his fast reflexes probably helped save his life. By the way, the tenants' rent was $500, nearly half the market rate. So now I know what a life is worth to tenants desperate to keep a roof over their head.

2 -- Change the locks after each eviction, immediately.

The small rock was placed carefully at the front door a few days after the eviction. I swept it into the dirt with my foot before hauling in $200 of cleaning and painting supplies from Home Depot. A few days later, the front mat disappeared. I immediately replaced it. My mistake was that I did not change the locks after being handed the key by the embittered tenant, who notified me that his former roommate had stored his speakers in the home. A few days later, I could not get in. I spent a week asking around, only to find out that the repairman did not have any keys to the place, and the landlord was still not back from a trip. Frustrated, I recruited a few hood locksmiths to take out the lock, and discovered that a former roommate had decided to come back to burgle the unit for a few of the fixtures. I then discovered that the cleaning and painting supplies had also been stolen.

*NOTE: many of the tenants that had been accepted by the (very naive) landlord were destitute, so it is not worth the pain upon the taxpayers to go after them via criminal charges.

^---- Here is me with some of the supplies that ended up being stolen.

3 -- "I'll pay out of my tax return" should never be allowed.

She arrived with a pack of children, a sob story, and a tidy pile of cash - and left owing thousands of dollars. Each month, she'd fall slightly more behind, until July, when she started claiming the stress of possible eviction was sending her blood pressure through the roof, requiring her to be brought to the hospital. EMS was called multiple times, and relatives from other parts of town started showing up to care for the children. Her chief gripe was that "millionaire landlords" should give her free rent. Cue the "housing is a human right" speeches. She was already far behind, but who wants to evict children with winter fast approaching? So the logical solution was to collect from her tax refund, right? Big mistake. A new car appeared in the driveway, no money was paid, and a flood of excuses were given. A deal was made at mediation and the deal was broken the next week. Lesson learned.

I've been working eviction cases over the last several years, and have learned a lot about landlording by what I've seen, heard, and experienced. If you want to learn more about rentals, landlording, evictions, etc. - you know where that Upvote button is at.