Well, that escalated quickly... (tenant accused me of stealing)

[Joe P.]

This was an interesting one. The heat at one of my units has been wonky -- its steam radiator heat with the old-school upright radiators, and some were giving off great heat and some were not. This particular unit has 3 people living in it -- a mother and her two sons. Mom only speaks Spanish, and mom and the eldest son (adult) are on the lease.

All week we've been trying some different things to solve the heating problem -- I was the only visitor to the house -- and today my plumbing/heating guy came by with his associate to flush the system. Only mom was home today, and she handed me the rent money in full as soon as I walked in the door. My guys get to work as we're up and down doing work, and then all the sudden we hear screaming and one of the guys tells us to come upstairs.

Mom (in Spanish) accused me, one of the workers, or someone that has worked for me, of stealing her watch. Mind you she's frantic and we're using google translate and the little bit of table Spanish we know to try and figure this out. She goes right to saying she's going to withhold it from the rent and continues to be near hysterical. I tell her in Spanish (thanks google!) that we're calling the police.

Thankfully the eldest son came home and translated, saying she's really upset (no kidding, we could tell) but he wants to look for the watch. Doesn't think we did anything and not sure why she's acting that way. I said we called the police since she believes there was a theft and we would be outside waiting.

The police come up and while we were waiting, apparently, mom DRIVES OFF (we didn't see it, probably too busy talking about how nutty this whole thing is) and the police officer grabs our information. Says since she isn't home...no victim, no crime, and she'll get us a report.

Mom magically comes home with her youngest son (I think she pulled him out of school) after the police leave and she won't even speak to me...just screaming at her kids to go inside. I spoke a little longer with the adult son, he seemed apologetic and said that they were going to look for the watch.

So I'm home now, and curious to know what my options are. Frankly I don't know how we can continue a relationship after being accused of a crime. How would mom and family be comfortable living in a home where she believes her landlord or landlord's sub are stealing, and how could I be comfortable knowing I may have a hostile tenant who thinks I or a sub are stealing from her? How do you recover? 

I'm thinking of telling them to clean up the place (not dirty, just prepare it for renting to someone else) and offering to mutually terminate the lease? I don't see a point in trying to mend this as she's either ghostly concerned her landlord is stealing, or is trying to pull a fast one on us.

I'm not sure if I'm overreacting, but how the heck could I move past this? They've been fine up to this point, rent is always on time, everyone was nice. The home itself has had issues that we've solved (quite a few in the beginning, but the house is new to us and so we're finding out problems as its being lived in...and solving them) but again, ultimately, my mind says how much worse will this get?

For those of you "need to screen better" folks -- this was the pick of the litter. Good credit, funds in hand, no prior evictions, glowing reports from previous landlord, verified employment with glowing reviews from management, etc.

[Brian H.]

@Joe P.

Based on all the positives in regards to the information on the tenants from employers and past landlords... and everything checking out financially with them to live there... I would step back and see what happens.  Also, be careful to have anyone else's back 100% in regards to saying who did not take anything. I am not saying anyone stole the watch... but you can never say 100% that someone else (contractor) did not.  You'd be amazed at the people who get caught stealing. A lot of times it is about the high and not the item itself. It's a problem, not a need.  Hopefully, it is lost under a couch or something.... and found. But just be careful to vouch for people when you didn't have eyes on them the ENTIRE time. You just never know.  

I hope this all resolves quickly. I would not start thinking of having them move. Sound like decent tenants on paper.  Maybe this is a very sentimental object to the mother and she lashed out because she is scared and worried.