Posted by rc on November 06, 2006 at 07:36:52:
One thing you can do if they are from the same town is go to the police station and ask for all the calls to the tenant’s last address. Makes for interesting reading and can give you and idea of the company this person may keep.
Drug bust in my building - Posted by Tim
Posted by Tim on November 04, 2006 at 19:33:09:
I recently had tenants in two of units of a 4-plex arrested for crack possession. They are both section 8 tenants. A visitor of one of my tenants was arrested for possession with intent to sell, with a substantial amount seized ($5K street value). Everybody bonded out, and are causing problems in the neighborhood. The people hanging around are scaring the other people in the neighborhood.
The owner of a neighboring building called to complain that he’s lost two of his tenants because they don’t want to live next to “drug dealers”.
I have a property manager for this property, and I’ve instructed him to evict the tenants in the two units. One is behind in rent anyway, so she’ll be evicted for that. The other is current, but my property manager said we can serve 30-day notice.
My question is, what efforts can I make to mitigate the damage to the reputation of the property related to drugs? It’s a tough rental market right now, and the building next to me will have two “For-Rents” at the same time as mine. It’s also a small town (population 10,000), and drug busts are rare here. I’m frankly suprised this kind of thing went on around here.
Does anybody have experience in this subject? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Tim
Drugs, Drugs and more drugs - Posted by Gene
Posted by Gene on November 06, 2006 at 22:27:41:
Drugs are very common in my market. I can handle the pot heads but the tweakers can be scary.
A few houses/mobiles I have rehabed had “grow rooms” set up. I have even looked at potential deals which smelled wrong…I am pretty sure they were meth labs in the past.
Another time I called a FSBO and made an appointment. I went over to meet them and they didn’t answer the door. Do I looked over the side fence to the backyard to see if anyone was there…In the garage window I could see dozens of pot plants with tons of lights. I went back to the door and when the seller finally answered…I wasn’t supprized he didn’t want to show me the garage.
Another funny story…I had a tenant that was a pot head…he was in the house when I bought it and usually paid the rent (even though I raised it right away) on time so I let him stay. Well one month I didn’t get the rent. So I posted a eviction notice…His mom called me and said he got arrested, she moved all the stuff out but didn’t really clean out the place. Then she called and asked me to give him a good refrence. She said…“Johny would have paid the rent ahead of time if he knew the was warrent for him.”
LOL!
Gene
Drugs? I’m SHOCKED !!! - Posted by Jimmy
Posted by Jimmy on November 06, 2006 at 08:34:12:
Dude: I have three different police departments on speed dial in my cell phone. Here’s a story for you, which might be illuminating.
I bought an entire block of houses and duplexes in a small town in east TX. worst street in this town. [I knew this going in, and paid very little for properties.] the day I closed the deal, I visited the police chief. I gave him a list of the properties and tenants, and asked him who needs to go. He studied the list, and gave me 4 names. I had 3 of them out within 30 days. but not without a fight. one of them vandalized a vacant home next door the day the E-papers were served. the 4th tenant (the one I did not get rid of immediately), is now gone. but I bought a sad story about his new wife and baby and let him hang around for a while. until he got realy high one night and fired 16 rounds into another guy’s car. my mistake.
6 months later, this block looks 100% better. and the town has noticed it. The local paper just did a story about the resurrection of this area. the police chief has called me twice, warning me about prospective tenants (he knew some bad people were getting thrown out of their apartments, and did not want them to find their way into my stuff). the chamber of commerce president has referred me some excellent tenants. small towns can work nicely, if you get the right people on your side.
here’s the model:
take out the trash (actual trash and 2-legged variety).
don’t take on new trash. do background checks. since I started doing these checks a few months back, I have excluded several people with prior evictions, references that did not check out, etc. Always talk to prior landlords. If the applicant won’t give the info, they get rejected.
upgrade the properites, but only after taking out the trash.
get chummy with law enforcement, chamber of commerce, etc. if you show them that you are a super-responsible landlord, they will do you favors.
Re: Drug bust in my building - Posted by Sailor
Posted by Sailor on November 05, 2006 at 04:02:36:
If you are surprised by the drug activity in Section 8 housing,
especially your own, you’ve had your head in the sand, kid. In a
small town like yours, if your PM doesn’t know what is going on (&
few do), then it is time to take over the reins & go back to
Landlording 101. This is not a passive income stream, no matter
how much you pay a mgt co. I don’t know your state, Tim, but a
drug bust, or even a suspicion of drugs probably does not require
you to go through the same eviction process as for non-payment
of rent. Here in NC I can get tenants out as soon as I can get
them into court. I frequently bring sweets by the Sheriff’s Dept,
so can always find a deputy willing to do a quick serve for me.
Even if your PM does know the law, you’ve got to know it better.
Frequent landlord or mgt presence is absolutely essential in low
income housing. Your Zero Tolerance for drugs or any kind of
abuse should be clearly stated in your building rules & Rental
Agreement. Yes, you can enforce your own rules, & if you kick
out a Section 8 tenant, he/she w/probably lose benefits, so you’ve
got some real teeth here.
I go by my property several times a week, & always watch for
unusual activity–strange cars, folks who should be working who
aren’t, loud music, foul language, unsupervised children, debris,
etc. I also chat w/neighbors, who have always been willing to rat
out their peers. I’m not a nosy person, but I do keep both eyes
open, & never fail to read the police blotter & court reports in the
paper. (I’ve caught 2 tenants that way in the past year). Folks
who do drugs are not discrete about their appearance or
activities, & crackheads can be spotted across a crowded street.
If you don’t have a tight set of Rules, LMK & I’ll send you a copy of
mine. Your liability exposure is so high in this situation that you
need to get in high gear right away to protect yourself & your
property. Prepare & serve your Notices to Quit today, & get those
bad tenants out w/out delay. Make lots of noise in your building
& to the neighbors about your efforts to clean up. Spruce up the
building (paint, flower boxes, real or fake security cameras,
whatever, as a signal that you are paying attention.) Let your
good tenants & neighbors know you are working to protect them.
Start a neighborhood watch program. Enforce a no loitering
policy. Bring chocolate chip cookies to the good tenants. Right
now your tenants are running the show. Get the good ones
working on your behalf by showing you care about what goes on.
Keep your eyes & ears open. For such a small building you
probably don’t need a PM. You make part of your living from this
endeavor, so it behooves you to be hands on. Once you are
knowledgeable & savvy, & your tenants are well-trained, you can
have someone else take over some of your responsibilities, but
know that most PMs do not do much work for the $$$ they
receive.
Even a property w/good tenants can be a pain in the patoot
sometimes, but know that they deserve a good landlord who
knows how to maintain the building in which they reside.
Providing decent affordable housing can truly be a rewarding
calling, & you have an opportunity to go great good for your
tenants & your community. Good luck!
Tye
Re: Drug bust in my building - Posted by Mike
Posted by Mike on November 04, 2006 at 21:02:56:
I had an issue like this in one of my buildings- we knew this guy was a problem- I instructed my property manager to evict him. The next day- the building was swarmed but the guy got away.
Then we started seeing alot of people hanging around on the front porch- being loud- it just wasnt a family friendly environment.
I met with the local police to see if we could partner on cleaning-up the area. I put up No Trespassing signs and gave the local police the authorization to enforce the signs and go in the common areas of the building. It took about 3 weeks of stepped-up police patrols but the place did quiet down.
Re: Drug bust in my building - Posted by Mike-OH
Posted by Mike-OH on November 05, 2006 at 06:28:29:
Tim,
Ditto what Sailor said. Excellent advice. I have two other comments for you.
1st, you said that one tenant was already behind on rent. That was your first mistake. You should have started eviction proceedings on the day after her rent became late, even if this was only her portion as a section 8 tenant. In a multi-unit building, doing anythins else is just advertising to all the tenants that they don’t have to pay the rent!
2nd, here’s a little trick that I use with drug addicts/dealers.
Druggies are STUPID! You can absolutely count on that. Even if it is more difficult to evict for drugs in your state (like it is here in Ohio), you can often turn this into a non-payment of rent situation and make it easier to evict. What I do is to make up an eviction notice of ALL their lease violations (drugs, noise, illegal activities, etc) and hand it to them in person. Give them some grief so that they get angry. Then, immediately ask for the rent. They will refuse to pay and YOU’VE GOT THEM! Do not talk to them further and do not accept rent from this point forward. Immediately, start the eviction process based on the non-payment of rent. Of course, this must be done when the rent is due, but it often just as fast or faster than other evictions and a non-payment eviction is almost 100% effective.
It may not be too late to do this for November. If the tenants have not paid their portion of the Section 8 payment, you’re in time. Obviously, if you’re going to evict for non-payment, you must send back the Section 8 payment.
Exercise some caution when dealing with crack dealers and addicts. They can be unpredictable and dangerous. You may want to take some help with you or carry a concealed handgun (with a permit of course). Two of the crack addicts that I evicted earlier in the year were involved in a gun battle last week over a $20 unpaid crack bill.
Here in Ohio, we are just coming out of a terrible rental market. However, it is MUCH better to have vacant units than to have druggies in them. You should be doing a thorough criminal background screening on your tenants. Most crack dealers already have a significant criminal background!
Good Luck,
Mike
Re: Drug bust in my building - Posted by Karl
Posted by Karl on November 05, 2006 at 18:39:04:
I just evicted a tenant because of drugs and the day they were to move they were arrested. I am now looking for a service to use to do background checks. Can you recommend one.
Re: Drug bust in my building - Posted by Mike-OH
Posted by Mike-OH on November 05, 2006 at 20:24:12:
If you can establish that the tenant is from your area, you can usually do the criminal background check (and eviction check) for free on your city’s municipal court web site and your county’s common pleas court web site. If you have any reason to suspect that the potential tenant has lived out of the area, then you can get a national criminal background check from any tenant screening service.
I have used the National Association of Independent Landlords. You can get instant computer checks for a reasonable price. There are a lot of other services that do this also. Just google tenant screening.
Good Luck,
Mike
Re: Drug bust in my building - Posted by Karl
Posted by Karl on November 05, 2006 at 20:31:02:
Thanks Mike. I did google background check and there must be hundreds of them. I wanted to make sure I got a good one.
Thanks