Eviction Horror Stories: Episode 4
We’ve been buying, renovating, and managing rental properties in Detroit for almost 30 years.
So it’s pretty safe to say that we’ve seen it all – from tenants who refuse to leave to ones who break in again, just when you thought you’d finally evicted them for good.
So much, in fact, that we decided to start sharing all of these eviction stories, so that landlords and other property managers can learn the same lessons we’re learning on the job every day.
Today is Episode 4 – a story about COVID eviction moratoriums, tenant harassment, bedbugs, and more…
And, trust us, the way it ends will surprise you.
An Eviction That’s Not What it Seems
This was an interesting case, to say the least.
We took over management of an entire residential building in July 2021, and we’ve been managing it ever since. This story involves just one tenant in one unit within the building.
His rent was fairly low – around $500 a month. For the first few months, he mostly paid on time. Sometimes, he’d pay a little late. But he always paid, in the end.
Fast forward 4 months, to November 2021, and the situation started to change. That month, he paid just half of the rent amount, and then in December he didn’t pay any rent at all.
In January 2022 he made a larger payment, but then started missing months again. So we started the eviction process, but since it was during the moratorium on evictions during the pandemic, there wasn’t much we could do at that time.
The tenant replied to the eviction notice by saying that he was on a payment plan. But we were very clear that the only way we would stop the eviction process from proceeding after the moratorium ended was with a full payment.
Then it got really bad.
When Tenants Turn Nasty
Almost immediately, the tenant started harassing our property management team and our attorneys by calling them every day nonstop.
To make matters worse, he somehow got ahold of the judge’s direct number and started calling him nonstop, too!
The real icing on top is that the tenant said that we were, in fact, the ones harassing him, although it was clearly the complete opposite.
Understandably, the judge got pissed off with all of this and was fed up with the entire situation. Frankly, we were, too.
However, little did we know that, at the same time, the tenant was also communicating directly with the owner of the property. Our client was receiving multiple calls and texts a day as the tenant tried to negotiate a separate deal with him.
During their conversations, the owner (understandably) got annoyed, and the tenant provoked him into saying something insulting.
We only found out about this when we got to court and the tenant produced the conversation as evidence in his defense.
That was a huge blow to our case, and the judge ordered the owner to appear in court, because he was going to be sanctioned. The owner agreed to come down, despite the fact that he lives 4 hours away in Canada.
However, on the day of the hearing, he wasn’t able to make it due to a family emergency.
So the judge ordered us to accept some sort of rental assistance program in order for the tenant to stay.
The Lightbulb Moment
We did the paperwork for the payment plan. We accepted it. The tenant sent a check.
But by the time we received it, he was already behind 3 months in rent again.
At this point, we had figured out what we were dealing with:
A professional tenant.
These are the people who manage to live in places while paying reduced rent or NO rent. They do this by constantly flirting with eviction, but always managing to do the bare minimum at the last moment to stay, without ever paying full rent.
Eventually, they’ll get evicted and move on to repeat the process at their next property.
The owner asked us to try to work something out with the tenant, but we were uncomfortable with that idea, because he was still provoking everyone. For example, he was causing issues in the building with other tenants, and he wasn’t paying his electricity bill, so instead he ran an extension cord across the hallway into his unit from another vacant unit.
On top of that, the property had suffered a major roof leak earlier in the year which caused significant structural damage. The insurance company had to get into the unit to assess and repair the damage, but the tenant refused to move to another unit to allow them access.
So we finally agreed on an eviction with the landlord. From there, we filed a 30 day eviction notice and terminated the tenant’s tenancy. But even this, we had to fight to get approved.
Because of what had happened previously, we had to prove to the judge that we weren’t retaliating against the tenant on the basis of the past eviction attempt. These were new circumstances, unrelated to the late and missing payments issue before.
Fortunately, the judge agreed. He granted the writ of eviction.
One Last Twist
But wait, it’s not over. And the way this all ended is truly crazy.
We got all the way up to the writ stage, and it seemed like the light at the end of the tunnel was approaching at last.
But alas, it wasn’t to be.
At this point, the tenant had actually finally vacated the property. He officially returned the keys to us and turned the property over, and we cleared out the unit of the trash and items remaining inside, as is normal after a Move-Out. Then we let the insurance company in to do their thing.
The tenant did not like this at all. Apparently, he had left some items with sentimental value inside the unit. So when he found out we cleared out the property already, he filed a motion against us.
When he showed up to court, they had to escort him off the courthouse property. Why? Because unfortunately, he was covered in bedbugs, which presented an infestation risk, and he was also behaving extremely rudely to the other people present.
So to keep the peace, they had him exit the courthouse and log on via Zoom to join the motion meeting instead. When he logged onto the video call, he was very upset and cursed at everyone in the courthouse, and was therefore kicked out of the Zoom meeting, also.
THAT is how we finally legally got a writ of eviction (after he had already vacated the property).
Lessons for Landlords
So what’s the moral of this insane story?
We think there are a few things this experience really highlights for landlords or other property managers:
- The Importance of Tenant Screening
We’ll talk about this until the cows come home.
Make sure you verify their rental history so you know you’re not dealing with a professional tenant.
Verify their income so you can choose tenants whose finances are likely to remain stable, even in an economic downturn.
- Systems are Key
You have to spot things like late payments immediately and react fast. You can’t do that without systems.
We’re a company built on systems and organization, we reacted immediately, and STILL this process was a nightmare.
Imagine if we’d let him fall even further behind in payments before filing for eviction?
- Understand your Demographic
This was a very cheap unit in a Class C-minus area.
Cheap rents attract a certain demographic of tenants, who bring with them a certain set of management challenges.
If you don’t understand which type of area you’re investing in, you can easily be shocked by the kinds of tenant problems you encounter.
- Be Careful with Communication
If you have a PMC, let your property manager be the sole contact.
If you’re in a legal dispute, let your lawyer handle all communication.
The more back-and-forths you as a landlord have with tenants, the more likely you are to end up saying something that could later be used against you.
Luckily, we’ve been at this for a while now, so nothing really surprises us anymore.
But for landlords who’ve experienced similar issues with tenants, focusing more on tenant screening and developing efficient systems should help reduce your rental business headaches in the future.
We hope these stories help you learn from our experiences how to manage your own properties smarter.
But if you’d rather have us do it for you, we’re great at that, too. Contact us to get started.