General Landlording & Rental Properties
Market News & Data
General Info
Real Estate Strategies
Landlording & Rental Properties
Real Estate Professionals
Financial, Tax, & Legal
Real Estate Classifieds
Reviews & Feedback
Updated over 1 year ago,
Guest of tenant having block parties while tenant is gone, and more....
I have a duplex with one side rented to a nice lady. Before getting into recent events, she did 2 things that have been causing me issues.
1. She changed the shower head in the MBR which caused a water leak in the wall, and I had to replace carpet and pad. The fault of the issue really was in fragility of the pipe in the wall, but the change was done without my permission. I don't have anything in the lease that forbids changing of the shower head, and the little pipe that was in the wall was essentially that really cheap weak metal substance.
2. She has been smoking in the garage with the door up about a foot with the rational that the garage is not part of the house, which I told her it most certainly is. I do have a mistake in my lease where smoking is not in there. However, it was discussed at length during the screening process.
On Memorial Day weekend, she left town and her God Son (who was living there at the time with her permission) through a HUGE party. I obtained a picture taken from across the street and there were about 50 people lined up to get into the house, and I have no idea how many people were inside. Because of this, she told him he could no longer stay there, and she changed the locks to the house (against the lease). In addition, I think because of this, she put locks on 2 of the 3 bedroom doors.
This past weekend, I was contacted by one of the neighbors who did an amazing job tracking me down, that there was a large party going on, and they were lighting fireworks off all night long. She sent me RING camera footage, and I can see over 15 people running back into the house after a MASSIVE fireworks explosion goes off at ground level. I called her right away, and lo-n-behold, she says she's in Dubai and no one is at her house. I call the police, and head over there for breaking and entering.
Her god-son had figured out a way to get in the sliding door and for the last 3 nights, has had as many as 15 people spending the night there. The police got on the phone with her and the god-son was arrested on her instructions. The rest of the people were let go as they didn't know.
Remarkably the house was in amazing shape. No damage, no spills, no nothing.... It was really weird. Except that the garage just REEKS of weed.
They did light a bush on fire which looks to have only killed the one bush but no more.
So, the house is now empty awaiting her return from Dubai next week. I am checking on the property (inside and out) every day or so to make sure no-one is entering.
What do I do upon her return? Part of me wants to just cancel the lease for non-compliance and get rid of her. Another part wants to increase the rent on her, or increase the deposit I obtained when the lease started. This is literally one of those ****-shows of landlord hell that I thought I would never have happen to me. When talking to her on the phone, she is embarrassed, apologetic, and in my opinion, really did not know what was going on. However, she knew enough of what was going on that she changed the locks without telling me.
Advice?