Tenant arguments may escalate to violence

[Palmer Wilkins]

I bought a short sale multifamily building last winter and have been taking care of the deferred maintenance and increasing the occupancy with new tenants appropriately screened by my property manager. All was going well except for a few recent smaller issues that seem manageable.

The issue is that last weekend two different tenants began fighting over one stealing another's cutlery. These two are existing tenants from the previous owner who was a slumlord and rented to anyone with a pulse.

One tenant has an alcohol problem, let's call him drunk tenant. The other one seems to have a drug problem and has been one I'd like to get rid of anyway. Let's call him crazy tenant. The two had a big fight with raised voices. It scared my other tenants. Especially the new ones.

Both tenants were sent 7 day notices to cure or face eviction. It turns out that crazy tenant is still causing problems with the drunk tenant. Also, he was apparently seen stealing the bike of another new tenant and has a guy now living in his unit that just got out of prison.

I have to get rid of this guy. This kicker is that he said if he gets kicked out, he's going to come back and kill the drunk tenant.

I'm thinking I will instruct the property manager to kick them both out--the drunk first and then the crazy one--but I'm afraid the crazy guy will retaliate in some way.

The police are aware of the incident, but feel like they won't do anything until something really bad happens. I'm all about getting rid of these tenants, but the threats are what are stumping me and my property manager.

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!