Tenant fears for her safety... wants to move out.

[Account Closed]

Just to prove that there is no "normal" day at the office when you deal with tenants, I had an interesting case today.

So a high profile crime ocurred some months back in the neighborhood of one of my rentals. Its been covered extensively in the local press. At least part of the crime therefore happened right across the road from my rental unit.

My tenants' (a lovely older couple) lease is expiring at the end of July and my property manager emailed them to ask if they were staying. The wife comes into the office of my property manager this morning in tears. She and her husband want to stay long term she but she is fearful of her safety and says they will be moving out. She witnessed some part of the crime and is now considered a witness in the court case. Now she has the press permanently camped outside her house and they are hounding her every day. Her husband is a trucker and is gone mostly during the week so she is having to face this on her own and is afraid to even walk out her house because they swamp her and try to get an interview with her.

I feel so bad for her. She is so nice (she spends hours in the garden which looks like a postcard, and they take care of my rental as if it were their own home). The poor dear.

I have another unit vacant (tenant ended her lease and moved out yesterday) that may work for them but unfortunately it doesn't have a garden, only a balcony.

Just goes to show, anything can happen.

[Jean Bolger]

Oh that's sad. I guess I would suggest you go over and do some handholding. Let her know you support her in whatever she decides, and that you won't try to actively re-rent their place until August, so there's no need for them to give formal notice til then.  I'd guess she might calm down by the end of July, and the reality of having to look for a new place will have settled in. It sure doesn't seem she's in any actual danger (she's not married to the nutter, after all) and hopefully the shock will wear off by the end of the month.

I had a gruesome suicide on the porch of one of my properties. The tenant in the unit one of the units couldn't stand to go back for a week. But after she got over the initial shock she stayed two years.