Ever had a rental raided by SWAT or the FBI?

[Gregory Montalto]

A contractor friend was over today and told me this crazy story about a property he owned a few years ago. He was your typical accidental landlord after not being able to sell his primary residence and moving to a new place. It was a decent 4 bedroom in a middle class neighborhood, rented for $1,000 a month to four guys in their late 20s. Contractor did not properly screen the tenants.

After two months of the moving in, he gets a phone call from their previous landlord, who apparently proactively tracked down his contact information down to inform him that the four guys were bad news. Noise complaints, late rents, uncleaned after moving out. One of the tenants moved out ("the best one"), and a new guy moved in who was "a little shady".

Long story short, the newest tenant was a drug dealer who was under surveillance by the police. He had been having pot shipped from the West Coast in PODs that were delivered to abandoned houses, and was using the POD to stash the weed and was dealing out of the rental property. The local police and ATF raid the house, busting in the front door and then using a sledge hammer to remove a safe that was bolted to the hardwood floor in the bedroom. Gaping 3 foot hole in the foot, completely smashed door and door frame. All the police left behind was the business card of the lead detective.

Contractor calls the detective, who informs him that the department doesn't cover property damage after raids. He was told he could go ahead and file a civil suit, but that it would be thrown out in court. In the end, his home owners insurance covered the majority of the damage. But it was a historic home with an antique front door and antique pine hardwoods, neither of which could be adequately replaced with the insurance money.

On the positive side (if you can call it that) he was able to begin the eviction process on the remaining tenants immediately. He wound up fixing up the house and selling it for a loss, never again to be a "landlord". Sad story.

Has anyone else had an experience with the authorities forcing their way into a rental and damaging the property?

[Jesse Sumner]

One of my clients received a call from the FBI about one of his commercial tenants in another state. He said they were good tenants and operated a store in his strip mall and he didn't really know anything about them. Apparently, they used the business as a front to start tunneling down and under the street into the bank across the street. However, they were off on their measurements and came up through the floor and missed the bank vault. When the bank employees came in the next morning there was a huge hole in the floor and the business owners were nowhere to be found.