Tenant-Neighbors problems

[pdn6420]

What is the name of your state? Maryland in Frederick county

Hi,

I rented a house in good faith to a mother of 3 who is in the housing assistant program i.e. section 8 voucher. The lease is for 24 months with roughly 14 months remaining. She started to have some issues with the neighbors back in April. Primarily with kids problems as she has a 12 year old sons. She would call the police instead of talking to the adults directly which brought on a lot of animosity within the community. There were at least 2 incidents I know of that eggs were thrown at the house and other people house and the police was called but no conclusion as to who did it. The lease has a default provision for objectionable conduct that would cause annoyance to neighbors such that I could terminate the lease. I already wrote her a notice back in May as well as a face to face discussion.

Last week, a group of neighbors got together and petition me to do something about the tenants. Their claims were that she and her son were the causes of a lot of problems in the neighborhood. I spoke to a few people in the neighborhood and got generally the same impression. The interesting thing is that this woman had never directly spoken to the accusers. They seem to be afraid of her making false accusations or some such things.

I am at a lost as to who to believe. The stories are always 180 degrees apart. However, I know that a lot of the neighbors are on edge because of these few people.

Can someone please help with next steps? I already asked the police for records and have the petition in hands. Can I terminate the lease base on this petition and if so will that open me to further litigation that I do not anticipate.?

I want to get these people together to discuss like adults but the chances are none to slim.

Thanks.

[BL]

Originally Posted by pdn6420

What is the name of your state? Maryland in Frederick county

Hi,

I rented a house in good faith to a mother of 3 who is in the housing assistant program i.e. section 8 voucher. The lease is for 24 months with roughly 14 months remaining. She started to have some issues with the neighbors back in April. Primarily with kids problems as she has a 12 year old sons. She would call the police instead of talking to the adults directly which brought on a lot of animosity within the community. There were at least 2 incidents I know of that eggs were thrown at the house and other people house and the police was called but no conclusion as to who did it. The lease has a default provision for objectionable conduct that would cause annoyance to neighbors such that I could terminate the lease. I already wrote her a notice back in May as well as a face to face discussion.

Last week, a group of neighbors got together and petition me to do something about the tenants. Their claims were that she and her son were the causes of a lot of problems in the neighborhood. I spoke to a few people in the neighborhood and got generally the same impression. The interesting thing is that this woman had never directly spoken to the accusers. They seem to be afraid of her making false accusations or some such things.

I am at a lost as to who to believe. The stories are always 180 degrees apart. However, I know that a lot of the neighbors are on edge because of these few people.

Can someone please help with next steps? I already asked the police for records and have the petition in hands. Can I terminate the lease base on this petition and if so will that open me to further litigation that I do not anticipate.?

I want to get these people together to discuss like adults but the chances are none to slim.

Thanks.

It is her right to call the police . Since you spoke to her , I presume her story was these incidences were started by the other neighboring kids .

Your lease works both ways . Often times the offenders , and their parents will blame the complain taint .

If that is the case , it wouldn't be fair to try an evict the complainants .

Now if there were excessive police calls about these sec. 8 tenants then you could use objectionable tenancy .

I do not see a Judge granting the Petition , but who knows .

If there were no trouble prior to these tenants moving in and you can get a statement by the police Dept. to that effect , the Court may lean in your favor .

[FarmerJ]

Next time one of the neighbors complains to you ask them `please give me copies of your police reports, if you dont have any copys of the reports for your own record contact the police and please make me a copy` Your tenant no matter if she is in a housing program or not deserves the same kind of proofs that you would use with any other tenant who some one thinks is acting badly. Not all tenants are angels BUT the same applys to neighbors who may have a stereotype all ready planted of what RENTERS are like. If your going to attempt to go the route of wanting to declare a breach of lease your going to do better with good sources of proof like police reports . Your tenant already understands the importance of creating a paper trail. Ill bet if you try to evict her with out police report records she may offer her copys of her calls to them about the neighbors.

[pdn6420]

Thank you both for your inputs. They are great points. I have sent for the police reports and will be getting them. I do agree with FamerJ about treating everyone equally.

Can the landlord be liable in small claim court if the police considers the calls to be civil related and that there is nothing they can do? This is what implied by the neighborhood that allowing the disturbance to continue, I can be made liable.

By the way, all three of these ladies have never spoken directly nor know what they look like.!!!!

Thank you for your inputs.

[FarmerJ]

In civil court people can be sued for A to Z and anything inbetween that the filer claims happened . example is you say tenant damaged a home over and above normal wear and tear, well your copys of certified letters to the tenant warning them about the damage you found on last inspection or your exit pics showing how badly they burned the 3 yr old counter top or what ever the damage is before and after repair along with your rects showing that you had the items repaired or replaced would make your claim more provable than with out. If police reports do not reveal a criminal complaint and matter is considered a civil one then how can you be responsible for your tenants actions ? If your propertys neighbors are that unhappy but have failed to call the police let them have at it and complain in civil court all they want. I used to have one homeowner west of my multi unit who had the nerve to complain in a news paper article on rentals about me and my property, she even complained about my property getting a homestead tax credit in the article but failed to mention that state law allowed it. She failed to mention how my living there quieted the building down to the point that others on the block were quite pleased at the lack of noise with a owner occupant. She complained about the condition of my property but failed to mention that I had repainted and put on alum trim, or how I replaced about 1/3 of the grass with flowers and plants, She complained from A to Z , She even threatened to sue me because her basement took water on in heavy heavy flooding or fast spring melts, My property was higher than hers, city told me I didnt do any thing to cause the problem so unless I made changes that forced drainage onto her yard not to be concerned. SO what does she do , there was house to her west that had been foreclosed on, then city condemned it and it was torn down, She went and dug up her yard to install what she called a french ditch pointing right to the middle of that lot, New house was built and I dont think she ever told the owners of the new home that she diverted run off from her yard in such a way that they might need sump pump. Find a way to tell the adjacent home owners who claim there is a problem to put up hard proof or shut up.

[OHlandlord]

You need to remember that this tenant is on Section 8. And while we do treat all tenants the same, it is harder to evict metro tenants for a couple of reasons. First of all, they have the Metro system on their side and their caseworkers will work with the tenant to allow them to stay there. Secondly, if they qualify for S8 housing vouchers, they will also qualify for free legal aide attorneys to fight an eviction. You will have to pay for your attorney, they don't. Lastly, they have to specifically do something that violates the law or your lease to be able to evict them. If the police haven't cited her or her son for any of the incidents, you have no concrete proof. Without police reports of disturbances of the neighbors, they are not violating the right to peaceful enjoyment.

I have had these issues with S8 tenants. Even one that had 22 lease violations within 6 mos. could not be evicted. Your best course of action is to tell the neighbors that you have no grounds to evict yet. Tell them that they must file police reports for any disturbances the tenant causes. Get copies of all reports. Give the tenant notices of lease violations for any clauses she breaks. Build a paper trail to show what is going on. Only then will you be able to prove that she is disturbing the neighbors and be able to evict.

One other option is if S8 allows you to ask for a yearly increase. Here, metro allows you to ask for this increase about 60 days before the yearly anniversary of move-in (about now for you). If they send you a letter for this, you have the right to an increase in rent. Hopefully the lease they gave you to use allows this. If you and metro can't agree on the increase, the contract is ended. The tenant would have to move since she couldn't receive assistance for your unit. If you used your own lease, you probably don't have this option.