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Crazy tenant situation - updated with crazy email.
I have a house in my home town, a little earthquake damaged, but still standing strong. It is currently rented to an old friend of mine.
She has quite a few animals, and begged me to rent the house to her about two and a half years ago. At the time it had just gone vacant, and I had hoped to renovate. However, she needed a place, and I knew she was a good tenant at her previous house, so I said yes.
Since then, she has moved her boyfriend in, and the lawns, gardens and cleaning at the house have become Very substandard. Plus she had started breeding rabbits in the back yard. The neighbours have complained about the state of the exterior, which is upsetting to me.
Recently I changed property management companies, as I didn't think the other one was doing a very good job, and since then my tenant, lets call her Katie, has been reporting crazy maintenance, and sending juvenile and bratty emails to Robyn, my property manager, oh, and lying, and not paying all her rent on time. Robyn took my property on as a favour to a friend of mine. I Love Robyn, she is awesome, but she is tiring of my nutts tenant. As am I.
Today Katie text me and said she wants Robyn to come to the house to do inspection (they do 4 a year) only when they Aren't there, and preferably not do any at all, and drop communication with them at any other time. And if she doesn't then they will move out. But it's okay because she will pay for any maintenance that comes up and I will know my house is in good hands!!!
Am I crazy, or is this situation crazy? I think it's time to kick her out and renovate so I can get a better tenant for more rent, but, how do I tell that to someone who tells everyone she is my best friend? (and tells strangers that she owns the house). I think she will find it hard to find somewhere else, and at such a cheap price, but I just can't stand the strain and embarrassment she is causing me. Or should I just be nice and let her have run of the house? I'm unsure how much the bank will loan me for the renovations.
Any suggestions?
Re: Crazy tenant situation - updated with crazy email.
Hm... this is a sticky situation. I guess that reason says that you should kick her out, and emotions probably tell you to let her stay because she's your friend. Ultimately, though, if she is as good of friend to you as she says she is, she will understand that she is not treating your property with the respect that a friend should.
I would probably start by explaining the situation. "Katie, since we're good friends, I think that you have the right to know what's going on with my house right now. I don't appreciate how you are treating it, and neither do the neighbors or the property manager whom I want to maintain a good relationship with. I'm willing to give you a chance to start treating my property and other friends with more respect before I have to make the difficult choice of whether or not I can continue renting this property to you. I hope that you can respect our friendship and my property enough to treat it better in the future."
Then, if it doesn't change, at least you warned her before you kick her out. Good luck!
I basically agree.
At the same time, I can't imagine that she thinks that highly of your friendship if she doesn't have the decency to keep up with the home.
Bottom line is, you have to stick up for yourself. This is your property and your investment we're talking about. You can bet I'd be giving my 'friend' 1 month to clean up her act and then, if the state of the property was unacceptable, I'd tell her I'm terminating the lease. You don't mess with my money.
ETA: Reading over your post again, I'd probably get in touch with a bank first and figure out how much of a loan you can get and go from there.
The kicker for me is that Katie isn't paying her rent on time. She's abusing your friendship and wrecking your investment. Not cool. If it was me, I'd tell her straight up that the property isn't being cared for and she isn't likely to start caring now, so I'm giving her 3 months to find somewhere else to live because the lease is being terminated.
Do the creep.
I'd like to suggest that technically, though you are old friends, she has crossed way too many lines to merit much further leniency on your part.
Friendship or no, your property is YOUR investment, and I'd personally have to decide if the mistreatment of my home and the disruption of the property manager, and the neighbors, was worth putting up with for a friend who didn't seem to be treating me as one.
Maybe I seem harsh, but from where I sit, you have been generous to a friend who abused that privilege the second she a) stopped paying her rent b) began growing a small zoo in the backyard and c) became disrespectful and a nuisance to the neighborhood.
You bet your sweet bippy I'd be overly good to a house that was rented to me by a friend or family member, no matter how distant, because it's just plain bad manners to take advantage of a giving person, period.
And I agree with Louis; see what kind of loan you can get from the bank as you ponder over what to do officially.
GL!!!
Thanks for validating my feelings. If only I could copy you into her last email....hmmm...maybe I will copy and past, wait there...
" Look, if you don't wantto help then just forget it. I will sort it out myself.
Katherine was persuaded to put the outlet where you wanted. She initiallywanted it in the master bed room. I know I wont be the last tenant but who isgoing to use a bedroom with no insulation that could double as a fridge?! Theglass in the front door is not double glazed and doesn't even have propersealing around the sides. And who cares if the bathroom is warm? I have alreadyput a curtain over the door and it does help but not much. When I say we areusing more fuel I mean that we are using more fuel with the vents covered andthe heat trasfer systerm TURNED OFF! Of course it doesn't make more heat, whowould think that?
Alot of the heat is being lost up through the roof which, as I said, has gapsin the insulation up to the roof tiles. I can stand in the hallway and seedaylight through the gaps between the ceiling and the walls. I am actuallythinking long term for Katherine's sake, not mine. Who would want to live inthis house as it is? Definatly not a family with kids.
I know you get into a system of answering tenats requests in a certain way, ithappens with all customer facing jobs. Even Kay has fallen into it. But it doesmake the tenants feel very fobbed off and powerless. Ever since you guys havetaken over this property we have felt unlistened to and un-cared about. I havebeen trying very hard to be polite and reasonable for Kays sake, she needssomeone in the country to look after her properties and the last thing I wantis to get her kicked off your books.
Look, we are planning on buying anyway, so how about we just stop talkingexcept at flat inspections. I'll do the work and you get paid for it and weleave it at that. Deal?"
Yikes!!!
The bank won't let me any more on top of my homeloan due to lost value because of the earthquakes. I need some quick thinking girls, I don't want to be stuck with this nutcase.
I assume this is an e-mail written by Katie to the property manager, yes?
First off, I wouldn't stand for a tenant to be talking to my property manager in that way.
Second, I don't know what laws are in place where you live, but I'm pretty sure you can terminate a lease for any number of reasons. The neighbors are complaining about the state of the home, which is decreasing their own home's value and Katie is not taking care of anything. So it would probably be better for the poor property if it sat empty for a few months instead of having her and her boyfriend and zoo living there. In my city, not taking care of a property is plenty reason to kick someone out of a rental.
Oh and she's not paying her rent on time. If DH and I are 5 days past due, we get kicked out. They're strict where we live, but that's okay. That keeps out less-than-favorable tenants.
And ditto everything branz said. She and I agree that this girl is just abusing your 'friendship' because she thinks you won't do anything about her mess and allow her to keep living there.
Do the creep.