My tenant got shot. What do I do?

[Justin Harford]

Greetings bigger pockets.

I need urgent help. I am living in an owner occupied duplex and renting out the other side. This is my first rental and I closed last December.

My tenant just got shot last night. It's not clear if he got shot by himself or by someone else, though it happened inside, and the officer did not mention anything about a break-in. I hope I will be finding out more details about that later today.

He had a girlfriend and they had recently broken up. They also have a child and a pet.

It seems like there are a lot of implications that this has, and that I need help understanding. I also need to figure out what the next steps are for myself. Should I get new tenants? How do I approach it with his girlfriend and him if they want to stay or not? It seems like they would want to go but I'm not sure. How easy is it to even rent out again? It looks like Oregon law says that I don't have to disclose to prospective future tenants, though I think it was fairly obvious that something had happened since the police and the fire department were there for so long.

Has this ever happened to anyone and what steps did you take?

[Marcia Maynard]

Attempted suicide or domestic violence or both. Whatever the reason, I would have a sit down talk with your tenants. Check in to make sure they are okay and find out what they need at this point. 

If they need to move, make it easy for them to leave by releasing them from their lease obligations without penalty. Move forward as you would with the termination of any tenancy and make-ready the unit for the next tenant.

If they need to stay, go over the terms of the rental agreement and re-establish understanding about the property rules regarding "peace and quiet" "safety" "crime" and "firearms on the property." It's quite likely that discharging a firearm within the city limits is a violation of a local ordinance, it is in my town, so check out that aspect. If one of your tenants or their invitee was the one who discharged the firearm, then that could easily be a violation of one of the terms in the current lease agreement and grounds for serving a Notice to Comply, or similar type notice to bring them back into compliance.

Do not attempt to evict without clearing this through an attorney, as you don't want to violate laws that protect the rights of the tenants. Attempted suicide can result from mental duress and/or mental illness, so think about protected classes of people. Assault and attempted murder are crimes, so if that was the case, you could quite likely evict the perpetrator. Collect your facts first and seek legal counsel.