inherited a drug den tenant

[Jack Knight]

I closed on my second rental property 6 months ago, a 4 family in the Boston/Worcester/Lowell area in a C neighborhood. 3 units are doing fine, but the fourth unit (inherited tenant) has gone from bad to worse and has now pretty clearly developed into a drug den and includes needles on the ground and people with ankle bracelets staying there not on the lease. One person on the lease has a previous offense for a shooting at another location in town, and I suspect others not on the lease may behave similarly.

I have a well regarded property manager running the property and have a lawyer working on eviction from a couple angles primarily breaking the lease terms and disrupting the other tenants. We're avoiding immediately going for back rent due to COVID restrictions on evicting for that. Things are progressing and I am hopeful to have them out by the end of the year. Though we started the eviction process in spring, Massachusetts tenants rights laws, poorly written old lease and COVID are making it extra slow.

In the meantime, I am stuck with these people in the unit. Does anyone have any tips for minimizing potential for danger to myself (property owner living off site a few towns over)? Their interactions are with the PM and lawyer but my name and address are on the property title if they were to look.

How useful is it to ask the police to watch this property, encourage the vice squad to get involved and how likely is that to get back to the tenant and increase the likelihood of retaliation against me or the property?

Also, does anyone have suggestions on how to minimize damage to the unit while they're in there?

Thanks for your comments.