A landlord shared with us the difficulty she is currently experiencing with a tenant who just moved out. Although she gave him proper notice and a cleaning checklist several weeks in advance, when she tried to hold him accountable for the poor condition of the property when he moved out, the tenant threatened to sue her.
Now, his parents have gotten into the fray, repeatedly emailing the landlord and leaving threatening phone messages. They say they’ve hired a lawyer and will take her to court.
This landlord is not alone. Many others have experienced concern that a tenant will find some way to “get even” with them, including calling in building inspectors, law enforcement authorities, or lawyers when the tenant doesn’t have a leg to stand on. These tenants are trying to intimidate the landlord in order to keep a security deposit, live rent-free or otherwise violate the lease agreement.
Landlords don’t have to tolerate harassment, intimidation or threats from tenants.
If a tenant threatens you with legal action, ask to speak with the attorney they claim is representing them. Get the lawyer’s phone number and give them a call. Lawyers have an ethical obligation to follow the law, and cannot encourage a tenant to pursue a course of action that is not justified. Chances are, the attorney will speak to you more respectfully, making it easier to resolve the problem. Ask for information from the attorney in writing.
In all likelihood, there is no attorney, and the threat is empty.
In that case, make it clear to the tenant or person harassing you that you will not tolerate any further communications unless in writing.
If the harassment continues, or if at any time you fear for your safety, the safety of others or your property, report the behavior to the police. Prior to founding Tenant Verification Service, Marv Steier served as a Police Officer. In his experiences, a landlord has the option of filing harassment charges against an unruly tenant or others who threaten or try to intimidate the landlord. Steier suggests obtaining the file number for the police complaint, and placing that in the tenant’s file. Making a police report is also an important step in the event you later have to obtain a restraining order against this tenant to keep them away from you or your property.
Keep a record of all communications with the tenant and any one else acting on their behalf.
As a landlord, you hold a serious legal threat of your own –the tenant needs you to give them a reference if they are going to rent again. You can remind them of this fact, but use a non-confrontational manner.
It is not appropriate for the landlord to use idle threats, or profanity, when dealing with problem tenants. If the matter does wind up in court, the judge will look more favorably upon the landlord who remained professional and did not escalate the dispute.
Maintaining a high level of professionalism from the outset if one of the best ways to avoid aggressive tenants. Tenants respect landlords who lay down the law:
Always require a completed Rental Application.
Conduct a thorough Tenant Background Check, including a Credit Report, Criminal Background Check, and Eviction Report, to determine if this applicant has displayed inappropriate behavior in the past.
Call the previous landlord to obtain a reference.
Provide specific rules regarding how the property will be kept during the tenancy.
Complete a Move-In Inspection Report with photos or videos of the condition of the property.
End the tenancy with a walk-through and Move-Out Inspection report, with photos or videos of the condition of the property.
TIP: Conduct an orientation for new tenants. Point them to www.tenantsinfo.com to learn about their rights and responsibilities as tenants. Where tenants know what is expected of them, there are far fewer hassles for the landlord.
This post is provided by Tenant Verification Service, Inc., helping landlords reduce the risks of renting with fraud prevention tools that include Tenant Screening, Tenant Background Checks, (U.S. and Canada), as well as Criminal Background Checks, and Eviction Reports (U.S. only).Landlord Credit Reports
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Disclaimer: The information provided in this post in not intended to be construed as legal advice, nor should it be considered a substitute for obtaining individual legal counsel or consulting your local, state, federal or provincial tenancy laws.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I personally enjoy the newsletter’s that TVS sends out as it provides further clarification and insight for those of us landlord’s whom are not property managers or have a professional background in property management services. I have utilized your services for my existing tenants and it has aided me in posting that they have been current/on-time paying their monthly rent. In closing, I look forward to utilizing your services on future tenants and hope to add my properties under my nest eggs.
I, too am having a acting out or being imtimidating. I live downstairs and I have a couple living upstairs. Their main claim is not being warm enough and the driveway is not plowed to their satisfaction. I do control the heat and it is kept at 70 degrees at all times. To help them solve the problem I have put heat deflectors on the forced air vents, suggested they move items away from the air ducts(they had a live christmas tree in front of one of them)and I have closed off vents in my apartment downstairs so more heat is going upstairs. Still they claim it is not watm enough. His fiance actually yelled at me at the top of her lungs for not fixing it. I di not yell back because that is not how I am. I am trying very hard to accomodate them like I should. So in retaliation they have called the code enforcement person from my town. I spoke with them(the town) and nothing happened. He also has left various messages on my answering machine still not satisfied with the heat and the plowing. He actually measures how much snow there is and calls and complains because it is not plowed. Last night after I came home I did call my plow person and asked him to come plow. But in the mean time my tenant went out to shovel the driveway, I thought he was leaving to go somewhere. His car cannot make it out of my driveway according to him. I think he has bad tires. But instead of putting the snow on the other side of the driveway where there is tons of room to deposit the snow( I have 2 1/2 acres of land) he buried my car. On the driver side he put 3 feet of snow and in front of my car there was at least a foot. I did not take the bate I just waited until he finished and went out and unburied my car and then my plow person came and cleared the driveway of the rest. I have a contract for plowing because the driveway is 200 feet long and it is plowed at 3 inches and above. There is only 5 more months left on their lease. I did get references and checked them out. One of them was at his workplace but unfortunately he was recently fired from there. So please tell me what further I can do to help this situation. I feel he is trying to intimidate and bate me for a confrontation and that is not my style to argue. Thanks for this article
I found this article while researching harrasement. I have a town home that I couldn’t sell and my tenants came to me and signed a lease for two years with lease to purchase option. He hired the attorney and got the lease agreement made. He offered me 5K as the deposit for the purchase which I accepted. He wanted to prove by giving me this money that he is honest and “will” purchase the property. Exactly 6 months before the lease was supposed to expire he stopped paying me rent, saying he wants the money to be used in lieu of the rent (where as the agreements we signed specifically say he cannot do that). I called him numerous times 3 months before he stopped paying rent for working on the Home Owner’s Complaints against him that I received but he never picked up my phone. After he stopped paying me rent, I called him to do the same and he replied with one sentence “talk to my attorney and if you don’t use my money against the rent I will drag you in the court for the next 9 months”. I hired an attorney, it took us 6 months to get a court date for eviction (imagine that), in that time I never called him to said anything but kept getting threatning messages from him through people we both knew about him dragging me in the court and also that he is waiting for me to go into foreclosure so that he can negotiate with the bank and buy the house. On the day of the court, he filed a report against my wife for harrasement (my wife hasn’t even been in the city for almost 2 1/2 years). I had send him a notice to inspect the property and as I went there to inspect (I had never disturbed him while he was living for the entire two years and never went into the property – I live in a different city), he wasn’t at home and upon calling him he said he will be there in a minute. He came and instead of letting me in the house he said I did not setup an appointment with him and he will not let me in the house. He also said that he has filed a harrasement case against my wife and he will get arrest warrants issued against her, so I should better leave. I had police officers with me, I just told everyone that I don’t want any problems so its okay and I will not go into the property. We went to the court that day and the Judge dismissed the case saying it was not in his jurisdiction. Now, I have not had rent since last 6 months, he is telling everyone (common friends calling me a telling me that) that he kicked me out of my own house and has won the case. On top of that he is threatning to get arrest warrants for my wife – my wife hasn’t even seen him up till now. Can anyone help me with this? Please
i have a tenant that keep telling my dad he is going to kill him what should we do
It seems to me that the tenants have all the control in a rental situation, i own two houses on one lot in los angeles california, i live in the guest house and the tenants {two sisters and once child each} live in the main house, when i let them move in i had an addendum added so they pay 1/2 the water bill, i would send them bills and they would continuously igore them, they are the type of people that are very passive aggressive, and act like they are innocent and sweet to your face and then stab you in the back, its been two years now and they have yet to pay one cent of the water bill, they have been late on the rent about 85% of them time, I finally charged them a late fee for the first time last month, they couldnt believe it! and wrote me letter saying what a horrible discusting person i was… i have baked cakes for them, fixed anything they called me to fix right away, i feel i have been so incredibly taken advantage of, now i want them out and being in a rent control area of los angeles, i might have to pay them a huge amout to relocate them, does anyone have any ideas for me???? help!!!!!!!!
I have a female tenant that resides in a shared apartment with 3 other girls. She is so messy and abusive verbally, she has chased 3 of my tenants away. She has made claims that im a racist landlord as if that were the case, why would I have let her move in. the problem tenant as well as the other 3 female tenants are black as well. When I found out she was intimidating people by threats, I confronted her about this and she started getting hostile with ,me. I have asked her numerous times to stop engaging in conflict with other tenants and she says she isnt yet 3 have moved out and 3 others have said the same thing about her. One tenant has filed a complaint with police department, the others are too scared to file complaints as she has threatened to have her people come by and take people down if do anything. She has told people inthe building she is on probation for a felony she committed. Currently Dept of soc services is paying her rent. I just hired an attorney. She has made threats to other tenants that if she was to get evicted she would burn the house down. Just last week she found out im going forward with an eviction process against her and she “had a grease fire” in the kitchen and burned down my kitchen. Fire department labeled it as a grease fire yet she was “in the shower” when it happened. After the fire was going, one of the other tenants on her floor was actually there and called me to let me know what was going on. The problem tenant never called me or the fire department when the fire started. I be;lieve she junped in the shower long enbough to wet her hair..pretend she knew nothing and went upstairs to tell the guys on 2nd floor there was a fire yet she has had arguments with them constantly. Every day I bring in a new tenant, they move out the same day or in a short time. This woman is crazy and although i c ant prove anything i know im right and i know what she has done. Any thoughts?
OMG this is my tenant exactly! He has tried to bully and intimidate me, refused to follow tenancy terms throughout, told us he can do what he wants, yell and swear in my face whilst foaming at the mouth, pointing fingers at me. Refuse to pay rent but want to stay, refuse to leave, then want to leave and break the lease without penalty. Threatens to take us to court and try to make my husband lose his job and lots of money, his words. Abandon the unit after agreeing to leave and we allowed them to break the lease just to keep peace, not show up to move out, keep the keys, threaten to come back in with police based on the original lease (the one they broke and moved out on) threaten to break into the house, disturb new tenant…then call the police on us while harrasing us because he knew we would call them – and they had heard his bs lies first! Will not stop calling, texting, email threats and intimidation, had to change phone number. Shows up at house with police, claiming he still lives here with young daughter home alone scaring her. HELL. Still we remained professional and careful but with some people they are capable of so much vindictive retalitory bs.
Help! What can I do my tenant is a military officer from the local air force base, and has been intimadating me from day one. They refuse to do the yard work, per lease agreement and constantly harrass us for imaginary repairs. I called the local,police when they started screaming. Police showed up and would not let me file a report. My husband and I usually do all repairs, we built 2 homes and he is very excellent. After the 12 month lease, the agreement states it goes month to month… can I tell them they have to vacate. He conned me into cheap rent and now this.
Hi,
I have a female tenant who lives with her son ,she has rented two rooms from us. I have a male lawyer tenant who also lives in the room that is adjacent to their room.
The lady speaks rudely to me and leaves her dirty dishes in the sink we clean after her. She bakes the cupcakes and serves it to the other tenants infront of me and does not offer me any thing.
The reason is that she does not want me to get the chance to tell her to eash her own dishes or take the fridge out of her son’s room as per the lease agreement.
The male and the female tenent show alot of love and friendship for each other and
do not want to comply by the rules of the house for example leaving their empty beer, soda,bottles ,cans behind. Leaving the heater on for day and night, keeping all the lights on etc.
I am scared of them what should i do?
If a tenant threatens the property owner’s son to burn down the property owners home but the phone conversation is a non consensual recording is there any way the property owner use the tape as evidence in an eviction?
Hi John,
The rules regarding recorded conversations vary from one place to the next, and same with the rules of evidence. You need to speak with a landlord or trial attorney in your area. Thanks, Chris
I have a Tenant that pressed charges on her Husband for strangulation a couple years ago. He did some time for that. He is currently back on the property living with her. I know that there was a no-contact order, but it may have lapsed. This man has made several attempts to let me know “what I should or should not be doing as a on-site Manager” I have posted several notices to his wife…whom is my Tenant-he is considered an Unauthorized Occupant at this point and refuses to do an application or give me documentation on the lifted no-contact order. He called Code Enforcement on me and it failed. He is now currently taking photo’s of the property, my crew as they work and of myself while working too. Recently, I caught he and his wife trying to look through the windows of the office while it was closed. He has screamed and cussed in my face and has several other Tenants now caught up in the drama he has created. I live in the same building as they do. I am a small woman and he stands 6’4″ and is really intimidating. He is now scaring and harassing other Tenants as well…..I have tried to find information to help with Managers and Owners…there is NONE! All laws regarding Tenant/Landlord’s is for the Tenant only!
I have posted several notices asking to meet with me to resolve these issues. They ignore them. I need to know if I file a 30 No-Cause to evict them….can they claim retaliation? They called Code Enforcement the beginning of this month…I just want them to leave so Peace is restored…HELP!