Not Renewing Month to Month Lease?

Question

I recently bought a 20 unit building and closed on the 10th of December. On the 11th I started dealing with the complaints of one tenant on almost a daily basis. All of the complaints are noise related and all have been unreasonable and impossible for me to resolve in my opinion. Some of the complaints I can prove don't even exist. Skip to the last paragraph if you don't want to read in detail all the complaints I am getting, if you are bored and want a laugh read through.

The tenant is complaining about noise he hears from the people above him. We aren't talking about having people over, loud parties, music, TV, or anything like that. I am talking about stuff like the tenant below wants me to make the upstairs tenants not take showers before work because they work "Ridiculous hours". The upstairs tenants get up at 5:00-5:30am for work, and the tenant below feels it's unreasonable for them to walk around at that hour, or shower before work. He also complains about hearing thier washer and dryer run. One of the upstairs tenants has a respiratory problem and coughs a lot, the complaining tenant can hear it and wants me to make that stop.

He has even told me that people are breaking into the vacant apartment next to his in the middle of the night to use the washer and dryer as he hears the washer and dryer in the vacant unit running late at night. I know this is completly made up as while there is a washer and dryer in the unit, I haven't had it installed yet. It's sitting in there not even hooked up, still with the protective plastic on it, so it's impossible for anyone to use it.

He is also upset that one of the tenants goes out on the balcony and according to the complaining tenant goes out on the balcony every time he does. He has even asked me to "Come hide in the bushes and I will call you right before I go outside on my balcony so you can catch them going out on thier balcony when I go out". Another balcony complaint is apparently the people upstairs have spit off the balcony and the downstairs tenant finds it gross and wants me to make them stop.

Christmas mornings complaint was that the upstairs tenants are now following him around the apartment upstairs and banging on the floor. They somehow know when he goes from one room to the next in his apartment and follow him around and bang on the floor of whatever room he's in.

Before I took possession of the building he had the previous owner send the upstairs tenants a letter asking them not to use thier exercise bike in the morning as it disturbs him. The people upstairs don't own an exercise bike.

The complaining tenant has only been there 3 months, and the upstairs tenants have been there almost 4 years, they never had a complaint against them about noise before the complaining tenant moved in.

I offered to allow the complaining tenant to move into one of the vacant units I have in a different building, and he wasn't interested. I explained there isn't much of anything I can do as I can't prevent the upstairs tenants from reasonable use of thier apartment. He still wants to call almost daily to complain, when he does he keeps me on the phone for 30-45 minutes. Truth be told I think he isn't "all there", and I feel bad for him, but I don't have the time to deal with silly and or made up complaints every day. He is on a month to month lease and I decided yesterday to not renew it, and told him that I was ending his lease, and mailed out a letter for the required 30 day notice to end the lease. When talking to a friend who is also a landlord he told me to be careful as it may be considered retaliation to not renew a lease after he has been complaining about noise. I don't see how it would be retaliation, I am not trying to get even with the guy or anything, he hasn't harmed me other than just being a pest. I just don't want to continue to deal with silly wastes of time and would rather find a tenant who isn't going to be a constant hassle all the time. He clearly isn't happy, I can't make him happy, and I am not happy to deal with all his drama and BS. Seemed the best solution is to part ways.

Is there anything I need to be concerned about with "retaliation" in this situation?

Ed Wood · Answer

TL;DR

just going off the subject line...

you can google it it's something like 30 days notice for a 1 year or less and 60 days notice for a year or more...

David Krulac · Answer

@Jeff Owens

Check your local and state law. Here in PA a month to month lease can be terminated by either party with 30 days notice for no reason,

Some people are very sound sensitive and light sleepers. They probably should live in places that are condusive to their sensitivities, like SFH and not close to other neighbors and sound sources.

Jeff Owens · Answer

I know what you mean Rob. Some of the things we see and experience you have to be a landlord to appreciate. I consider my problems minor, I have a close friend with 41 low income units. The people he rents to are an interesting group no one would believe exist, his stories are beyond interesting. Because of him I now know where all the weirdos I see at the DMV sleep at night.

I just recently started going to a weekly Real Estate investors group meeting/dinner thing in my city. Good place for landlords around here to network with other local landlords, share info, keep up with whatever new ways to screw landlords Roanoke City has worked to come up with, help each other out with problems, and vent about problem tenants we face. I enjoy it. You may want to check and see if you have a similar group wherever you live, if you do, they won't be shocked by any stories you have to share, they have probably seen it before a million times.

Rob K. · Answer

This made me lol - literally. It's amazing that these people actually exist.

I like when I tell funny stories about tenants and people think I made it up. I have to explain to them that I would have to have a mental and/or moral defect to fabricate such stories.

Jeff Owens · Answer

Rob K. - Sounds a lot like what I am dealing with. There is certainly a high level of paranoia with this guy. For instance I questioned the other person in the building who lives next door to the supposed noise making tenants to see if he had any noise complaints, and he didn't. I explained it to the complaining tenant and he told me that the banging on the floor only happens when the other guy leaves. He said "Jeff they are smart, they know it's only me in here and it's 3 of them against me, they wait until there are no witnesses before banging and making noise"

I could write a book about this guy and I have only dealt with him for 17 days so far, not even a whole month yet. That's why I said enough, better to end it now, he isn't happy, I can't make him happy, he can go be another landlords problem.

Jeff Owens · Answer

Chris K., you may be right. I normally would never intentionally create a vacancy. That's $625 a month not going into my pocket during the hardest months of the year to rent out property, this apartment will probably sit for a couple months, so I certainly didn't make the decision lightly.

There is more too it than just the complaints and lack of respect for my time, certain mannerisms and things he has said that make me uneasy, things hard to describe and quantify. I never would have rented to him had I owned the building when he applied.

Rob K. · Answer

Sounds like a real head case. I would either get rid of this guy, as you're doing, or tell him he can stay, but needs to stop bothering you. Let him know that if there's a repair issue, or something illegal going on, you will take care of it. Otherwise, he needs to STFU and get on with his life. I would explain it to him just like that too. It might not be the most professional way to get it across, but will be effective.

My friend has a wack job in one of his houses. She calls him all the time at all hours. The stories that he tells me about her are comical (because it's happening to him and not me), but she is a total loon. She thinks everyone is "out to get her" and calls him for everything.

Chris K. · Answer

Assuming that he's paying on time and not causing any other issues, I personally wouldn't have sent him the 30 day notice. I think I would have done like @Dan C. and just brush them off. Theres no way he should have you on the phone for 30-45 min at a time.

Dan C. · Answer

I had a tenant like that once, she was ridiculously sensitive to noise from other tenants. Just like you are describing, totally unreasonable complaints - people getting ready for work, talking on the phone, I mean, c'mon. My response was to level with her and say there was nothing I would do. After that I disregarded her complaints and did not let it bother me. She eventually realized it was her problem and moved somewhere that was a better situation for her. I later read that there is some type of disorder where a person is over-sensitive to noise and I think that is what this tenant had.

Not Renewing Month to Month Lease?

Not Renewing Month to Month Lease?

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