"Accidental Shooting" at a complex. How would you respond?

Question

I just received the following email from my property manager. How would you respond? I'll let a few people give their opinion and then I'll share mine. I just purchased this building 3 months ago so these are all inherited tenants.

Hi
Dave, we had an incident at 123 Main St yesterday where unit 301
discharged a weapon into unit 201. Luckily no injuries. I've talked to
both tenants. Unit 201 is uncomfortable with the situation and has
indicated he wants to move if something is not done about the tenants in
301. Unit 301 claims this was an accident. The police were called but
we do not have a police report number as 201 had to leave for work and
301 wouldn't answer their door (according to 201).

We
have a few options. We can serve a 5-day notice for criminal activity,
which requires 301 to vacate the premises within 5 days. However, if
they do not vacate we need to pursue evictions at which point if they
appear in court, act contrite, and claim it was an accident, the judge
could throw the case out. Alternatively we could just terminate 301's
lease for the end of April (they are on a month to month lease
agreement). This assumes you want to do anything at all.
I
know we have a few units vacant at that building so I wanted to get
your approval before doing anything. I personally am on the fence
between a severe warning and a lease termination for 301. I do
understand accidents happen and I don't want a vacancy if we don't need
one.
We have not been out to take a look at damages yet but will get there as soon as we can.

Nathan Gesner · Answer

I live in a state where guns are rampant and I believe in personal freedom, but I also believe in consequences for bad behavior, even when accidental. An accidental discharge shows a level of ignorance/neglect that I won't tolerate because it may impact the welfare of others. In this case, I would give the tenant written notice demanding they remove all firearms from the premises. If they comply, I would allow them to stay through the end of their lease. I would not renew because there is a high likelihood they will bring the firearms back, even without permission.

I wouldn't bother taking them to court to evict. There's probably not enough time or justification.

I would also make sure they pay for damages caused by the misfire.

I wouldn't bother taking them to court to evict. There's probably not enough time or justification.

I would also make sure they pay for damages caused by the misfire.

Steve K. · Answer

@Dave Klein tough call. You’ve basically got to pick one tenant to keep. All we know about each of them is that one accidentally let off a round in the building and the other complained about it. So on the surface the choice seems pretty obvious. However if it were me a lot would come down to the overall quality of the tenants in each unit, and my decision would partially depend on which one I’d rather keep. Unless 301 is the far better tenant aside from this one incident, I would probably serve them notice of non-renewal. As others have said, there probably isn’t enough grounds for eviction due to illegal activity from this one accident, so non-renewal is the cleaner, cheaper, more certain and probably faster option. If 201 wasn’t so upset I’d probably let 301 stay if they are an otherwise great tenant, as long as they were apologetic and offered to pay for damages and never have a loaded gun in the unit again. But the fact that 201 feels unsafe makes keeping 301 risky because if something similar happens again and somebody in 201 gets hurt you could be facing a negligence lawsuit now that you’ve been notified of the issue, if you fail to take action to resolve it. So yeah, 301 probably gets non-renewed.

Austin F. · Answer

Get the police report interview the tenants, come up with what you think happened and act accordingly. Accidental discharge happens, but there are a million ways to prevent it. If it was in no way malicious or purposeful, and prevention measures have been put in place to keep it from happening again (gun locks, gun safe) you may be throwing away a fine but stupid tenant.

Dan Travieso · Answer

I believe the "cleanest" thing to do is to simply serve notice (as is required by your state) to terminate the lease since he is a month-to-month. That also may be quicker (and cheaper) then a possible court battle for trying to boot them for the discharge. It could also get complicated if he is not arrested, or convicted, since then the property manager may not be able to terminate for "illegal activity".

Greg M. · Answer

Do you make the tenant sign a lease addendum that clearly spells out their responsibilities if they bring a car on to the property? A car owner is 60X more likely to accidentally kill a person with their car than a gun owner is to accidentally kill a person with their gun.

I'm not disagreeing that people are irresponsible with guns. Clearly people are irresponsible with everything in life. Guns just get a bad rap. To put 430 annual gun deaths in perspective, around 335 people drown annually in a bath tub every year. Any bath tub lease addendums you have? 😀

Joe Splitrock · Answer

My only problem with guns is that too many owners are irresponsible. This is why my lease has a no firearms clause. If someone wants firearms, I write a lease addendum that clearly spells out their responsibilities. Gun ownership is a privilege and with it comes responsibility.

I would contact the police and request a copy of the report. They need to talk to 301 and this needs to be fully documented. Try to locate the bullet and have the police take it. They need to verify serial number on the gun and verify legal ownership. If the tenant in 301 doesn't cooperate or fails to produce the gun, I would file for eviction to get them out ASAP.

As far as 201, let them know what actions you are taking. If they are still uncomfortable and want to leave, LET THEM LEAVE. You never want to force a tenant to stay in a situation where they feel unsafe. If you did that and something else happened, you would be held liable. The first time a gun was fired accidentally, you can claim ignorance to the threat. The second time the tenant does something, you don't have that defense.

Nothing will make tenants move faster than bullets flying through their walls.

Marshall Magnus · Answer

Here in Canada we would just get together  apologize to each other over some pancakes and maple syrup..

I kid but that is an unfortunate situation to find yourself in. If there is any beauty to see in the nature of a problem like this, it is that very few things present this level of a challenge. To be the one who deals with it makes you a bigger person for having done so. This is not easy and you could feel proud to overcome the adversity.

And if all else fails, you can try the pancakes and maple syrup route? Works every time.

Dave Klein · Answer

Here's what I replied back with "I think it sends a bad message to the other tenants if we don't doanything. What does this person's criminal history look like? Are they a hood rat who always has a loaded gun and will cause drama?I don't want a vacancy but if they have any sort of record at all I think we need to get them out. Give them notice to vacate. Hopefully, they don't trash the place."We are going to to give 301 notice that we will be ending their tenancy at the end of April. Hopefully they understand the severity of what happened and will not push back. Heck, they could have hit someone and been facing manslaughter charges. I feel reassured that my gut was basically the same as what most of you were suggesting.

"Accidental Shooting" at a complex. How would you respond?

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