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OT - Evicting a Drug Dealing Tenant

I understand your pov and sentiment.
I share the sentiment.

My advice was totally different.
Just like e.g. with major rich asshole clients, you should try to avoid confrontation.

A soft approach may cost a tiny bit more, short term, but its peanuts.
The risk of problems is low .. but the cost of the problems if they happen is tremendous, 100x the benefit.

I have examples, clients, of people who are absolutely not guilty, ruined by similar stuff.

As a human being, in often difficult and contentious stuff (in the past), I have learned better, myself.
I use less "right, legal" and more "practical".
I make more money, my life is much easier, my wife is happier.

What I learned. Dont get mad. Get Paid.
A business(man) survives on profits.

My wife taught me this.
It was really hard for me, and I´m still struggling.

Basic premise is correct.
Some exceptions apply.

Im grateful to my wife.
(Also very much in love. After 12 years. With 2 years old daughter.)

My advice is/was all about getting a solution, not getting even/right whatever, with not even any real problems so far.
Problems, I think, are likely. (Especially in the US. In europe, much less.)

Fwiw..
In europe, or over here in Spain, this would be an easy problem, no aggro.
A short polite conversation, and understanding that the local police will have a few visits, near term,/continuously.
All parties, and so called clients of the tenant, understand the rules.

No-one gets harrassed or prosecuted.
Anyone can get arrested in such, legally. In practice its forbidden.

Its a great system.

Spain has one of the best, if not the best, system for dealing with this type of stuff.
(Other stuff .. no).

Here, violence and all/any weapons have heavy penalties. Drugs/silly crime have low penalties.
No-one in small crimes uses or has weapons. Ever.
Eg. 7 years jail for handgun.
3-6 months without.

Fwiw .. and not relevant .. I am not soft on crime.
Im a vet.
I advocate working, practical solutions, for everything.
Its much better, like here, where criminals dont have guns, cops have few, and no-one ever uses them.
Really.
(I had guns pointed at me 300+ times in africa/mexico.
I dont enjoy the experience. I try to minimise it.
I could, easily, have a legal license for a gun. I see it as more of a negative than a positive.).

Barcelona where I live (just above, now) is the safest major city I know of.
(lots of) experience in London, Paris, Lusaka, Dar es Salam, Amsterdam, Berlin, Mexico City, whatever.

Seal the basement drains, and have a plumbing pipe burst.
 
My rental is next door to me but I have dealt with this twice, both times with the 5 day no pay clause in my lease.

The second time I had to get the constable out to serve papers and evict him, however there was no after effects in either case.

The first guy hit the obits in 6 months the second in 3, both OD-ed.
 
Never trust a drug addict/dealer, and don't have any pity for any reason, this sort of manipulation bs is their game.

Make sure you wife/kids are safe, if they need to go to relatives/friends for a few days they should.
Hand him the 5 day notice, make sure he's gone by then.

Have good security installed, a few cameras, cause he very well may be back... and she needs to stop leaving her keys in the car!!!

I had a house destroyed by drug dealers/robbers/dirt bag criminals who rented it for 2months. I can tell you that the police/court system and tenant laws mostly only serves to protect this sort of scum. We were lucky that they left the day before our arrival to boot them out, and no they weren't gonna get 3 months...
 
Lawers dont help - ever.
They help convict and or punish those with means to pay. Most people are not in this class.

Don't be thick, the lawyer will enable the OP to expedite the eviction process.

Hoping the asshole will go away with a cash payment is stoopid. It will likely lead to requests for more cash.


Rex
 
Don't be thick, the lawyer will enable the OP to expedite the eviction process.

Hoping the asshole will go away with a cash payment is stoopid. It will likely lead to requests for more cash.


Rex
True, he will take the cash and be back for more... Druggies are the Ultimate Parasite!! I have had several dealings with meth and crack addicts. They are not capable of a logical thought process. To the OP, please be diligent, perhaps move the wife and child away to a safe place until situation is resolved.
 
Start eviction, unpaid rent, just do it. Anything else is wasting your time. By all means try getting him busted later, but get the eviction rolling, over here they can go on for a fair while, hence being nice guy could easily just hurt you down the road.

Correct. File an unlawful detainer action on two counts: 1. Unpaid rent and 2. Violation of state laws, i.e. sales of illegal drugs in violation of state and federal law.

It might take a lawyer since there is a lot of paper work with which you may be unfamiliar, but it will get the job done. Anything else is futile.

Oh yeah, be sure to press charges against him. It will help to speed the process. Oral promises from a criminal are not worth the paper they are written on.

As far as later retribution, I'd just tell him to bring it on. That's just me. however. Some folks have a higher tolerance level for stupid criminal assholes than I do.
 
Well, no. But you can install motion activated lights and some security cameras on high polls so they can not be easily damaged. Motorize them so they scan the whole area. The buyers come around and get videotaped. I don't think they would come back a second time. Probably run when the lights come on and the cameras pan across them.

And DO start the eviction process. Be sure to READ your lease and follow it to the letter.



Get one of those million candlepower spotlights. Start watching and when he starts doing deals, shine the tenant and the recipient. If they move the deals inside start shining the the buyers as they arrive and leave. Do this for a while, and then offer to let your tenant out of his lease.
 
To the OP - So four days have gone by. Has your tenant been served?

I'm a small time landlord and have done half a dozen evictions over the past 22 years. All my tenant rent month to month. Only once did the eviction process even get to a court hearing (tenant was given 10 days to move out).

While it is legal for me (in Michigan) to either mail or personally serve the the Notice to Quit to the tenant, I have always spent the $35 or so to have an "Officer of the Court" be the process server - first to have a 2nd record of being served and for the physiological aspect - more official than if the landlord stopped by and handed them the Notice to Quit. As others have mentioned, to talk to lawyer - if I were in your shoes I would gladly spend $150 to $250 for advice. Then again, your tenant would have gotten a notice to quit after the first joy ride or once he was more than a week late in paying rent.

BTW, my contract has penalties for late payment - $40 for the first day late, $25/day after that - after about a week its highly unlikely that any tenant of mine would be able to dig themselves out the late payment hole. Its my big stick.
 








 
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