Renters Arrest for Burglary in Neighborhood.

[George Fredriksen]

Hello, I am a new landlord and 2 months into my first tenants lease his 16 year old son was caught and arrested for breaking and entering a neighbors home. He was caught VIA video footage. I did a background check on the father and he cleared with flying colors come to find out that his son has been on house arrest and arrested for burglary multiple times before. What are my rights as a landlord. The crime at question did not happen on my property but 2 houses down. But the stolen property was recovered in my rental property when the probation officer and cops did a "random" inspection after the neighbor reported it to the authorities. IS this ground for eviction for criminal actions even though the crime did not happen on the rental property.

[Greg H.]

Keep in mind it is very difficult to evict a tenant for lease violations other than non payment of rent .  While we would all like for our tenants and their children to be fine and upstanding citizens in and away from our properties, we cannot legislate it.  The issues I see are :

-The minor child's alledged offense took place off the property and has not been adjudicated( That old innocent until proven guilty thing)

-The tenant can go before the court and plead his case with a sob story that he needs stability for his son to get him back on the right path

-No legal reason to evict as the incident was off property and the rent is current