Trouble next door

[Steve Smillie]

I have a tenant in townhome that is in a safe suburb of St. Paul. He reached out to me about the neighbor smoking pot (still illegal in MN). He said it's pretty heavy and it drifts into his unit, so he asked the neighbor if they could ease up in the evening. Nothing changed so he reached out to me to see what I could do. I looked up the property and saw it was a rental and the owner lives in the same small, neighboring city I live in. I sent a gentle letter to that owner asking if they could talk to their tenant. 2 weeks later, haven't heard back.

Then on Friday night, my tenant called me to tell me the neighbor stopped over, was very aggressive - seemed unhinged and during the conversation, pulled a gun our of his jacket and pointed it at my tenant. Conversation ended. I told my tenant he needs to call the police and go stay somewhere else for the night, but my tenant said he didn't want to call the cops and asked me not to - he was convinced this guy would shoot him. My client called me the next day and said he's moving out (2 months early). Once he's fully out, I'm going to ask him to file a report with the police and I'm going to contact the landlord again (who I'm told is very nice). I suspect the landlord has a (******) rental manager and this neighbor might not even be on the lease. I'm nervous about me or my wife going over there to prep it for showing to a new renter. 

Any ideas? Anything I'm missing? File this under, "so you want to be a landlord..."

[Nathan Gesner]

What stops a bad guy with a gun? A good guy with a gun.

I would definitely file a police report. Anyone that pulls a gun on a neighbor probably has an existing record. A visit from the police may be enough to scare him into scurrying back under a rock somewhere. I would simultaneously put pressure on the other Landlord that allowing this guy to stay is costing you money and you may decide to come after him for it.