What to do about hoarder tenants ?

[Erin Auman]

What’s the best way to deal with hoarder tenants? We’ve already started the eviction process because they haven’t paid rent. We did an inspection today, and it’s much worse than we thought. Should we contact any other agencies, like Health and Human Services or the Department of Families? Or just deal with cleanup after they are finally gone?

[Ashley Kehr]

Oh no! My friend just had this problem and it cost them thousands to have it removed. Hopefully if they love their stuff they will take it with them. You could offer them cash for keys with a twist. Offer to pay for a moving truck for them to load their stuff into. You'll at least save on movers if they do it themselves and dumpster fees. It might give them some incentive to move out prior to the eviction. If they have children you could threaten to call Child Protective services. I really hope kids aren't living in that situation though. Best of luck to you!

[Becca Collins]

“Threaten to call child protective services”, Ashley? What kind of monster uses this as a threat to evict people? You call CPS when a child is in danger, you don’t threaten parents with this action and then decide not to call if they comply with your demands. Either the child is in danger or not, your self serving threats put children and families at risk. 

[Mindy Jensen]

@Becca Collins, Ashley isn't suggesting that Erin call CPS for the eviction, she's suggesting Erin call CPS if she feels the children are in danger from the hoarding going on in the home. 

Hoarders, those tv-show level hoarders, can be putting their children in dangerous situations if the home is so unclean or so filled with things that the children are unsafe. That's why Ashley is suggesting CPS.

[Scott Trench]

I had a problem where the tenants had a large amount of junk around the property and inside their unit. These tenants were also late on rent regularly, fought with one another loudly, disturbing their neighbors, and were generally really bad neighbors. It's my JOB to make sure that the place is livable for all of the tenants (this particular structure is a quadplex). They were making the place unlivable for their neighbors, due to me being a poor landlord and not addressing the problem.

If I had proceeded with eviction, as was my right, I would have had a legal battle, not gotten my property back for at least 30 days, and likely had a huge mess to deal with. On their side, on top of what I suspect was a lack of gainful employment and poor credit (inherited tenants) for at least one of the tenants, they would have gotten an eviction on their record. A bad outcome for both parties. Instead, I went the "cash for keys" method. 

I knew that they had wrecked the unit on the inside and that I was in for a major rehab already. In spite of that, I offered them $1,000 in cash, plus their security deposit, plus no pro-rata rent if they and their mountain of junk (I actually specified that ALL junk, theirs or not, had to be removed from the property) were gone by the end of the next week.

Boy, did they come through. $1,000 in cash proved to be a huge motivator, got me a completely clear yard with no personal property left inside or out, and gave me an empty unit I could remodel immediately. 

Is it too late to try such a tactic in your situation? If not, might be worth considering. If it is, then I think you accurately assess the situation in assuming you are out lots of money in cleanup and lost rent, are going to make an enemy, and will have to clean up and then remodel, likely at large expense.