Nightmare illegal gold-digger tenant - need advice please

[Matthew S.]

Hi All,

My 61-year old father recently signed a lease with a 40-year-old Russian woman who had recently moved to America on a tourist visa and started working illegally ((he did not find this out at the time). She moved with her 10-year-old son in to the basement of my dad's house, which is in Northern Virginia / Fairfax County area.

That was 6 weeks ago. Immediately after she moved in, this woman started cooking for my father - who is an emotionally needy, vulnerable older man. My dad responded by caretaking the son, driving him places, buying the tenant dinner, and so on. You can see where this is going... Within 3 weeks, she incredibly had asked him if he would marry her. Not kidding. Now, after 6 weeks, I just found out that for the last 3 weeks she has been badgering him to marry her and getting upset that he was resistant to this idea (as if she has any right...)

Obviously, the tenant screening process was totally flawed. We cannot change that now though. The question is how to deal with the situation - I need to help protect my dad emotionally and financially.

I am not sure exactly what we can do. At this point I have spoken at length to my dad, who does not want to marry her thank goodness. He has said that he will not do anything right away. But he is in a difficult situation with this person in his house most every day putting pressure on him.

Further considerations:

- My dad is a green card holder, not a citizen of the US. Even if he did marry this woman, it would not provide her with immediate path to citizenship. She would have to return to Russia and be on a waiting list to get a green card (as a married partner of a green card holder) for 2 years. Despite knowing this she still keeps pressuring my dad to marry. The timeframe involved (after knowing someone for 3 weeks) is just ridiculous.

- The woman tenant had already been here 3 months on a 6-month tourist Visa, working illegally, when she applied for and got the lease with my dad. As of today she has a bit less than 2 months left on this tourist Visa. My father is a Republican and against this type of thing.

- My dad feels he has an obligation to help this woman and her son, which I have told him is ridiculous considering how she is trying to use him. He does listen to me and puts a lot of weight in what I say.

- My dad now feels he has to help the woman get a 1-year student Visa, which might be the only way for her to stay here legally. However I have warned my dad that this would involve her needing to come up with an additional $2000-3000 a month to go to college, among other issues, being less able to work illegally and afford the rent, etc. I have told my dad that absolutely under no circumstances should he provide her with money to go to school. It would make no sense to have someone rent the basement for $700/mo but be giving them more than that per month in free money. This whole conflation of business and personal makes no sense. He agrees.

I am really angry about this whole situation. It shows how important proper screening is. I knew about this pending tenant at first, but didn't know all the details. Notably the tenant lies about their Visa status during the application process, and also withheld employment details (as a cover up of the illegal nature of the work). My dad went along with this probably being affected by the woman's attractiveness. I wish I had known more earlier about this but can't change it now.

I am wondering what other readers would do in this situation. In my opinion, the best outcome would be to evict this tenant. The issue is my father feels guilt and responsibility for these people that he only met a few weeks ago. He needs to see this is a business relationship and they started it by lying to get in, and that he owes them nothing, and that the risks to his emotional and financial wellbeing are real. I have already been speaking to him about this.

I am also wondering if lying on the tenant application about Visa status etc is a reason to evict. In any case, the first 3 months of the lease are structured month-to-month (then the last 9 months act like a full year lease). So my dad could still terminate the lease within about a month at this point. 

I am meeting him tomorrow to discuss. Please give me any thoughts you have. Sorry for long post.

Matt