How to deal with racist tenant?

[Jessica Sorensen]

In order to learn more about the day to day of buy and hold investing, I've been assisting my former landlord over the last couple years with managing his 40+ units. This is a first... A new tenant moved into one of his 4-plex buildings about 3-4 months ago, and recently we have had several complaints from one of the other tenants that she has been extremely rude and disrespectful to him and his wife. She has apparently been cornering them in common areas, saying things like they aren't good enough for this neighborhood, and using racist insults. They also claim she is going out of her way to make noise in her apartment (they share a wall), slamming cabinets, stomping, allowing her friends to hang out in the shared hallway and talk loudly. (I believe them.) My contractor also mentioned that she was "incredibly unpleasant" to him while he was there making repairs for her.

We've talked to her about the noise, but directly insulting other tenants (especially based on race) is unacceptable. This woman still has another 6-7 months on the lease, but she is making our other tenants so uncomfortable that they are thinking about breaking their lease and finding a new place to live. They have been great, long term tenants, and I don't want this to drive them away. However, we don't have any actual proof besides the couple's word against hers. What can we do here? Can we evict based on this?