Worst tenant ever - I missed a giant RED FLAG

[Rick Bassett]

If everything goes well then our worst tenant ever will be moved-out in just under 12 hours from now, the champagne is on ice and we are cautiously optimistic. 

Interestedly enough, the problems with this tenant have very little to do with money as she's current on her rent and she's kept our house in decent shape (from what we can see so far) -and- she is leaving on her own, no eviction. 

But she's been a nightmare in just about every other way by being overly needy on dozens of things that weren't real issues including spiders, mold claims (in her dirty bathtub), to heat complaints (no heat, they turned the furnace off to save money)...and on and on.

Reflecting back on the problems with her tenancy, I can only blame myself as I missed a giant RED FLAG when screening her as she mentioned that she was a bit OCD during the walk thru and said that she had to have things 'just so'.

I now believe that line to mean "I'm bats#t crazy, so get used to being my servant". 

She's been able to turn our passive investment into an very active 'hands-on' investment during her stay as she's managed to monopolize more of our time than all of our other tenants combined. Ignoring her, as we tried a few times, didn't work out well as she then took to calling the Fire Dept and Police Dept to the house to respond to her non-emergencies...the good Uniformed men & women of our town weren't pleased and strongly suggested that I get her under control.

In any event, I'll be watching for this OCD RED FLAG in future screenings.

Rick

[James R.]

@Rick Bassett  I had one of those.  Like you, I chose to ignore comments she made during our face-to-face interview/screening.  This was back when I was a still-learning landlord.  

This woman was just like your tenant and finally after she concocted a ludicrous story about the upper tenant, I sent her a notice to vacate.  

She called a lawyer citing that as long as she paid her rent on time, I could not ask her to leave.  WI law allows landlords to ask tenants to leave without giving a reason.  

That was her last attempt at sucking the life out of me.  

Like you, the champagne was on ice and when I finally checked her out (without incident by the way and she cleaned apartment spotless) we popped the cork right there in the apartment!  

Good riddance!  Any tenant now that is a PITA (pain in the ***) goes on a month-to-month and when I've finally had enough, they are sent packing!

Hope all works out for you and thanks for the entertaining story!