Crime Committed at Rental - Can Police Seize Property?

[Jenna Estefan]

Luckily, this is not my property, but a past client's, and the situation is interesting to me so I thought I'd see if anyone else here has had any experiences with this. 

When my client moved these tenants in, he foolishly did 0 screening. They were relatives of different tenants he has, and that was basically the extent of any checking he did on them. Back in October, there was a crime committed at the property, and the police told him he needed to get the tenants out. Here we are in Jan, and he yet to do so. He says the police call him a couple times a week, and now he is ignoring their calls. Why he is not dealing with this urgently is beyond me. He says the tenants have been paying their rent, and the crimes are not his problem but the police's problem. 

When I gave the background of the situation to the eviction attorney I referred him to, she said, Yes! He needs to evict or the police can seize the property. As soon as the eviction is filed and underway, then the police cannot move forward with the seizure. 

Maybe I am ignorant, but I was surprised to hear that the police could seize your property if a crime was committed there. The house is now listed with a different agent (I didn't take the listing because he wanted to overprice it by $30k on a $200k house, not to mention I would be concerned about safety issues while showing the house with these particular tenants). In the agent remarks section of the listing, it says that the tenants are moving out by Feb 28, but could stay. This just seems like a huge liability on the listing agent and seller's parts. 

I am curious to hear your thoughts on this, and if anyone else has run into a similar experience? Has anyone ever had their property actually seized by the police?