Tenant being evicted Cardboards up Windows

[Rick Bassett]

I did a drive by on a property today where we are in the process of evicting a tenant for non-payment of rent and noticed that tenant has cardboared up some of the front windows of the house. 

There were tenant-owned blinds in the window prior to this. It’s the oddest thing and it defaces the property, which is a violation of our lease. I’m not sure what to make of it other than perhaps she is trying to bait us into making a mistake. Our lease allows us to enter the property for periodic inspections with notice but she’s been uncooperative since the Notice to Quit and we don’t want to give her any reason to blame the eviction on us.

[Robert P.]

The best advice I have ever received from a RE lawyer was to try to limit contact as much as possible with a tenant you are evicting. As much as you want them to take down the cardboard or enter the unit, hold back and just let the process go through. You don't want to do anything that could hurt you with evicting this person.