Tenant move out and loser son went back for more

[Bjorn Ahlblad]

A tenant in one of my duplexes moved out under the cover of darkness late June. She was an inherited tenant when I bought the place in 2015. Always paid rent but had a dark side. Son with serious anger issues who had smoked in the unit etc. 

He went back into the unit on July 4th and set off fireworks outside and inside, had a noisy party, vandalized extensively, got arrested by the police, and made the local news. Alcohol and drugs involved too of course.

This property is managed by a PM who filled me in on all this gore and how the carpets are worn out, will need complete paint and so on. This morning I called my insurance agent, he was most cooperative, he called the local police to get a case number and said this is by now a famous incident!

So, the long and the short of it is that yes, bad stuff can happen to you as a LL; but this is what I have chosen to do. Much of the cost of renovating the unit will be borne by me, and a fair amount will be now covered by insurance; the carpets have burn marks, the walls have got large brown areas, doors have been kicked in, there will be lost rent due to re-hab. All is not lost, turns out I am well covered by insurance and I even get to raise the rent!