All Forum Posts by: Wendy Li

Do you think it would it be better to simply start an eviction process now rather than wait until the hold over?  She would have to continue her rent payments until the last month and we could have some time to clean up the property as well.  

 They showed us her caregiver cards and we discussed it with a lawyer.  She's legally allowed to sell though growing it in our house has violated our lease agreement.  What we're concerned about is if it will cost more money to evict her than what we'll lose with the time it takes to find a new renter. 

The house is in MI by the way and we're in a family neighborhood where the school year starts on the same day as the end of her lease agreement (thus why we want her out at that exact day).

Our tenant broke the lease agreement on several clauses recently by running a legal grow facility without our knowledge.  They include lawful use for residential purposes only, alterations without approval and probably growth of controlled substances.  We decided that we didn't want to deal with the hassle of an eviction as her lease agreement ended in a month and simply sent her a termination of lease agreement.  However she has sent us a notification telling us that she wished to extend the lease another 18 days and would be paying rent for those days.  

We want her out of the house by the end of the lease agreement or honestly at this point even earlier would be better.  She's making it difficult for us to find a new tenant by pushing us out of prime rental period and basically threatening us by telling us evicting her at this point would be a waste of money.  Do you have any suggestions on what we can do to lose as little money as possible?  

She has agreed on the letter to make the house show presentable by the end of the lease date and allow visitors in while she stays for the extended three weeks.  

Our goals: 

1. We want the tenant to deal with cleaning up the damage and changes she has done to our basement with the grow facility and don't want to put money into the repairs ourselves. She also hasn't maintained our lawn, but I'm not sure if that's covered by her maintenance requirements.  

2. We want to lose as little money as possible between finding a new renter.  

3. We're pissed beyond belief and just want her out now so we can stop dealing with her lies and delay tactics.  

Possible options:

1. We evict her.  Under our lease agreement we have the right to evict if she breaks the lease agreement.  What we're afraid of is she'll abandon her duties to clean up the grow facility and it will take a considerable amount of time to fix it up ourselves.  

Our lease agreement states: 

Termination and Re-entry: Default in any of the convenants of this lease by lessee entitles lessor to terminate the tenancy and retake possession of the premises as provided by law. Lessee acknowledges that Lessor will incur certain expenses and damages in connection with retaking possession and re-leasing the premises, and Lessee shall be responsible for all lost rent until the premises are re-leased and all damages allowed by law. 

Will this cover us for rent during her lease agreement period only or will this cover us for rent until we find a new rentor?  

2. We allow her to stay past the extended period.  I can't see any benefit to this besides she will most likely clean up the house herself and be more cooperative.  Honestly though, we can't trust her to do anything at this point. 

3. We force her out on the last day of the lease and don't evict her.  It would save us time for finding a new rentor but she would be less likely to cooperate.  

Could you offer your opinions or advice on the situation?  We're planning to hire an attorney at this point, but would like to know what more experienced landlords have to say as well.  

The house is in Ann Arbor with a good school district.  The  current market value is 300-330k.  However we bought the house new at 335k and spent around 15-20k installing grass, sprinklers, a deck and AC.  

We are not considering renewing the lease agreement.  

Would there be any way to receive compensation for the damages done if we had someone get an estimate of how much it would cost to clean up the op and remodel after she moves out?  I can't figure out if she was legally required to disclose to us that she was growing but it seems illogical that there be no consequences to her for hiding this from us if we have to disclose the problem to any future tenants or buyers but had no say in allowing her to grow on our property.  

She's offered to increase the rent from 2.1k to 3k.  However I don't know if it's worth it considering the damage she's doing to the property with the grow installed and the potential fire hazard.  Also it's also impossible to trust anything she's saying after this...   

Our property is in MI but we live in CA so it's hard to keep track of the tenant.  We recently visited and discovered that they have been cultivating marijuana in the basement.  They were growing and dispensing marijuana before the start of their lease and yet did not notify us.  Without a lawyer's perusal, we can tell that what they're doing is registered and legal.  So now we're faced with two unappealing choices and would like the advice of those who might have been in similar positions.

1. Sell them the house

They want to the property as is. However the house is currently below the value at which we bought it and we would be losing ~50k if we sold at the current estimated prices, not including Realtor fees and the additions we made to the property( adding in AC, deck, lawn, sprinklers).  The house will be difficult to sell to anyone else because we will need to notify any potential buyers that the property was a grow house.  

2. Evict or wait out the lease agreement and search for a new renter

She has been renting with us for more than 3 years and continuously growing since then.  The additions she has made to the property without our approval alone is cause for eviction.  Either that, or more likely, we will wait out our lease agreement and refuse to renew (one month remaining). We will have to spend a significant amount of money repairing damages done and it will be significantly more difficult to find a renter if we have to disclose that the house was used as a grow-op.  

Is there anything we can do to reduce our losses?  Any opinions or advice on these options?  Any other options you could suggest.  We will not be allowing her to renew the lease for obvious reasons.  

For anyone who has faced a similar situation.  How did you handle it?  Does anyone have advice and suggestions that they could offer?