“Your tenant has someone living in the outside closet,” said the neighbor.

It was early morning and I was getting ready to go to the office, so I thanked the caller for letting me know, and I hung up. I remember being very surprised because this tenant, a woman, and her children, had been my tenant for several years without incident. At the last inspection, the house was tidy and well-maintained.

As it turned out, my tenant had found herself a new man and he was apparently selling drugs from the tiny closet in the carport. I wish I could say this was a first, but it was not. Tenants somehow think it’s okay to “sublease” a part of the home and then claim to have no knowledge about what the new tenant may be doing.   This is an obvious violation of the terms of the Rental Agreement, but even worse, this tenant was also putting herself and her children at risk of losing their Section 8 benefits.

The denials came fast and furious.  “Who told you that? I pay rent so it’s none of your business what I do. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

It’s a small town and I have ways of finding things out. I don’t really know if someone was actually sleeping in that closet, but all indications were that the drug dealing was true. The law being what it is, you can’t just accuse a tenant of drug dealing unless you see it with your own eyes. My preferred way of handling this is to let the tenant know that the property is under surveillance by the cops, whether that is true or not. This will usually end the activity and/or the tenancy fairly quickly.

I decided to let the tenant know that the DEA had contacted me about the suspected activity. When I arrived at the property, I could hear her and the children screaming as I approached. She could see me coming and so she decided it was her chance to escape. She ran past me as I stood in her driveway.

I asked the boyfriend what was going on. His response was that “This is how we take care of our women in Chicago.” Now, I had a lot of things to say at this point starting with a request for him to take his ass back to Chicago. But I am there as a representative for the homeowner and must remain professional at all times.   Under these circumstances, that means I shut my mouth (which was beyond difficult), I waited for the children to run out of the house to join their mother, and I left to call the police.

As will happen many times in this situation, the rent soon became delinquent.  Despite having assistance, her portion was not being paid, efforts to contact her failed, and I had no choice but to start eviction proceedings. It is very rare that I have to do a full legal eviction of a tenant. Unfortunately, 99% of the time, it is because of a situation just like this, where a single female hooks up with the wrong guy, and all hell breaks loose.

When they were finally gone, I found the home in shambles. There were holes in every wall and doors hanging off the hinges. The refrigerator was in the yard, yes, in the front yard, and full of maggots.

It was time to call the homeowner and get the restoration process started. Much to my dismay, the homeowner took one look at the house and fired me on the spot.  He was understandably upset and the security deposit was not enough to cover all of the damages.

The tenant had meanwhile moved into a new home using a Section 8 voucher with her boyfriend added. This made me furious, especially when there are so many other families in need. Why should anybody be allowed to completely trash a house and walk away like nothing happened? So I filed a complaint with Section 8.

I was shocked to find out that Section 8 would not even contemplate the removal of this tenant from their program until, and unless, I could provide them with a judgment. Getting a judgment requires returning to court and paying more attorney fees. The homeowner got rid of the tenant and that’s all they really wanted. This homeowner certainly wasn’t going to pay anymore to get a piece of paper entitling them to the money they will likely never see.

This is just one example of how some bad tenants can go from one property to the next doing the same thing over and over.

🔑 ALWAYS call the previous landlord(s) whenever possible. Although the tenant started this relationship after moving into our property, the next landlord didn’t bother to call us for a reference and they trashed his place as well.