Tenant Possibly Selling Hard Drugs

[Nathan Estochen]

Hi all,

I have a 3 unit multifamily in not the best area. One of my tenants has been complaining the past couple months that my inherited tenant has frequent comings and goings of people that look like drug fiends exhibiting drug fiend behavior such as banging on the door at very early/late times as if uninvited.

I haven't acted on it because I have no proof. But last night the police responded to an overdose at the property. 

Has anyone dealt with a situation like this? Does the overdose give me any leverage in working towards an eviction?

Evicting in the middle of winter in Massachusetts obviously isn't preferable - any advice as to aggressively pursuing eviction or maybe stalling?

Thanks!

[Michele Fischer]

You may want to explore using month to month agreements in lower income areas.  It gives you more flexibility on when and why to end the contract.

We had one family where the neighbors contacted us and said they were growing drugs.  We put the burden of proof back on them, to document, to provide photos, to call the police.  We did schedule a maintenance inspection to look for any suspicious activity and found none.  We let them stay, but we got them out much later when more damage was done to the unit, including riding a motorcycle into the living room to escape the police.  Taking the easy route is not always the best route.

See if your local police department has a community officer.  They will usually tell you if the property is a problem and/or suspected drug house.  Our police department has a landlord program, so we have a strong crime free addendum and we could end the contract based on the police report.  Whenever we get a police report (and we get a lot) we let the tenants know that we know and that it cannot continue.

If your lease doesn't address criminal activity, or not strong enough, I'd probably write a letter or cease notice listing the specific behaviors you want them to stop (police reports, visitors disturbing the peace after hours, etc.) to let them know you are watching more closely.  Hopefully you can toe that to them not obeying the lease or city ordinances.  They may clean up their act to get you into springtime.  We've camped out in front of properties from time to time, view it as an adventure and chance to get more or less comfortable with the current situation.