Whether to evict or not

[Kelly Arthur]

NJ BiggerPockets Family I need your help.  I bought a 3 unit in West Orange in June. It came with 2 great tenants and 1 tenant from Hell.  Based on what I found out after I bought it, she and the previous owner hated each other. I can definitely see his point of view.  It was to the point where he hired a property manager just to deal with her so he would have to be bothered.  The property manager quit!!! Again, I found all of this out after I bought the property.

Since I've owned it, I've done multiple repairs on her unit and a good portion of it was her neglect. Such as clogging the sinks (hair and grease) and letting the shower and sinks overflow to the point where the ceiling in bathroom on in the unit below collapsed from all of the water.  When the contractor went over to repair it he said the water came down like a waterfall. After that repair was done and the clogs were cleared, I got a call from units 1 and 2 one evening saying that their ceilings were leaking (again). I went over with my contractor and ran all of the sinks, the shower for 15 minutes and there were no leaks below. It turns out that she does laundry by hand in a basin and it tipped over.

There have been several other repairs causing me to spend month each month.  The kicker is that she is evil and belligerent. Every contractor, plumber, handyman that I've sent over all have said that she yelled or cursed at them while they were there.  They have all provided documentation on the condition of her unit and the negligence on her part. This is not the biggest issue. The unit is a 1-bedroom 582 sq ft space and 4 people are living there and 3 are adults. Only 1 of them is on the lease. She moved her elderly mother into the apartment sometime after moving in and she is basically an unauthorized tenant.  The other adult is her 18 year old daughter which I have no problem with since that is her child.

I served her with a notice to cease indicating all of her lease term violations.  It's been a month and the elderly mother is still there and she also will not give me access to the unit (which was another one of her violations), however, she pays her rent on time each month.  What would you do in this situation?  My thought was to offer her 3 options: 1.) Try to convince her to leave since she's breaking the city occupancy ordinance and if that doesn't work then 2.) Offer her cash for keys and lastly 3.) proceed with the eviction indicating to her that if we go that route she a.) will be forced to leave with no money, b.) she'll be out on the street, c.) she'll have an eviction on her record , d.) an eviction will make it hard to rent somewhere else.

Any feedback is appreciated.

[Cara Lonsdale]

Wow!  You are brave!!!

My first piece of advice is completely remove the emotion out of it.  I laugh as I write that because I am getting all worked up with emotion on your behalf just reading your situation!

The truth of the matter is, you have started down the right path, but you haven't followed through on any of your threats, so why should she take you seriously?  If you issued her a cure notice (notice of violations for her to "cure" within a certain period of time), and she didn't cure the items, then you have basically diluted your demands to her.

My opinion is that she DEFINITELY needs to go!!!  The way you describe it, she is not only costing you more in repairs than her rent covers, but she is also jeopardizing your relationship with the other "good" tenants, whether you realize it or not.  Trust me when I tell you that the other tenants are watching this situation.  If they don't see you act when necessary, they will lose faith in your ability to provide them a safe and desirable place to live.  It won't take many of those type of incidents to make the other tenants move.

The other issue is that you may be in just as much trouble with the city for the overpopulated apartment as the tenant if the city can prove that you knew about it and did nothing.  Most states require property owners to know what is going on in their properties, and be responsible for it.  If you have already issued her a cure notice for the extra people, but then didn't follow through, that could be an issue for you with the city.  I would look into that if I were you.

I would NOT offer her money to leave.  I would assume that the unit will be trashed when she vacates, so that won't change either way.  You have a legal way to get her out if she has not cured the violations.  So take it.  Having the contractors' statements just puts icing on the cake.