drug dealing tenant arrested

[dnatal]

What is the name of your state? CA

My on-site manager found too much foot traffic in one of the units of our four-plex and suspected drug selling activity. He called the police, and they found drugs and arrested the tenant. He is on month-to-month lease. All his stuff is in the unit. I don't expect he'll be able to pay rent or keep the apartment and have no idea how long he'll be in jail. This is not his first offense. As the landlord, what do I do now? He hasn't missed a rent payment yet, as his rent is due on the first. I just don't want to drag this out, it took us six months to evict a tenant previously because the court was so slow in responding to the paperwork. If he hasn't paid rent by the late date, do I serve notice? How--to the jail? We do have a specific clause in the lease about drugs, and drug dealing is a violation of the lease.

 

[Ozark_Sophist]

I wouldn't wait. Start eviction now for dealing. Serve to his last known legal address (the apartment) as per your state landlord/tenant law.

Check back for further advice from members who are landlords.

 

[FarmerJ]

First thing you should do is get a copy of the police report, You will need to show the court that the tenant was engaged in a illegal activity if it actually goes that far. The police report is public information and there is no valid reason you cannot be given a copy once the report is completed.

 

[CA LL]

CA SPECIFIC

Police reports/records (different from court records) are now sealed in most of CA due to privacy laws. Only if you are a party to the crime can you get a copy and even that takes a court order sometimes.

VERY IMPORTANT: Are you in rent control area or not? NO court in CA should take SIX MONTHS to evict by the way..so please post where your property is located.

What I would have done instead of this is IF in a NON rent controlled area, simply terminate the tenancy without reason when you knew in your gut as did your onsite what was going on . In CA and all but two other states in non rent/eviction control areas, you can terminate w/o cause and need to prove NOTHING.

Now you are in a mess of a situation. I would strongly suggest you call a LL attorney that SPECIALIZES in evictions in your area and look into the 3-day to QUIT for gross nuisance. It ONLY will work if they were busted (sometimes need to be CONVICTED which takes forever) for drug DEALING (not just possession) on the property. Please explore this with a GOOD EVICTION attorney (NOT a generic RE attorney). If you are in rent control area..even MORE important to get the right attorney.

Otherwise sure you can evict for non payment if that happens. Yes you must serve the tenants in court since you have knowledge of them being there. AND of course since all of their stuff is there...you cannot technically allow ANYONE ELSE to remove it unless you get a signed, preferably notarized statement from the tenant directing it.

I would have just terminated the tenancy. Then again I don't own in rent/eviction control area. If you do it's not that easy. Too late now anyway.

 

[dnatal]

The property is in Fresno, CA. It is not rent controlled. There is a lease in place, he has four more months on a six month lease. According to what I understand of the laws, I am in BIG trouble if I don't terminate his lease due to drug dealing, and though I can't prove it, even the police think it is the case (thus the arrest.)

Given that there is a lease then I don't think I can terminate without cause. We DID act IMMEDIATELY, as soon as we suspected the problem, by contacting the police. I don't understand what you think I should have done differently? Give an eviction notice based on suspicion and then called the police?

We had a similar problem in a unit in Fresno when the tenant stopped paying rent and we suspected drug dealing (the neighborhood has gotten pretty bad.) In this case we didn't call the police, and we filed a three day and then a 30-day notice and hired a lawyer. It took six months to get them out and we never recovered a penny, though legal and court fees ended up being over $1000. We ended up with a judgment against the tenant, but of course no real way to collect anything. Now we have an on-site manager and he is watching everything carefully, and has acted the moment things look like they were wrong.

Since our lease specifies no illegal drug use, not just no dealing of drugs, it seems like I'm within my rights to send the 3-day notice, though since he is in jail, I don't really see how it will work?

And, what do you mean by it being "too late now?" I can't see how anything could have happened any sooner?

 

[CA LL]

Why did you say in your original post he was on a month to month lease then? MTM is NOT a fixed term lease.

My ENTIRE answer was based on that one point. Personally I never use anything but MTM rental agreements for this VERY REASON.

Because evicting for cause w/o substatial proof is a royal pain and quite often NOT successful/difficult to do.

Your other case you screwed up..you should have just served a 3-day for non payment and had a QUALIFIED EVICITON firm handle it from there. No place in CA takes six months to evict anyone for non payment. Unless there is all sorts of stuff you purposely omitted from your posts. Obviously we can't see the reality of the information your do provide. On average in the state of CA to evict for non payment TOTAL TIME is 3 weeks to 6 weeks MAX. But if you screw it up sure it can take longer..seems that was the case because serving a 3-day AND a 30 day when they didn't pay the rent was NOT the right thing to do. NO WONDER it took so long.

Why don't you find a DIFFERENT attorney..a firm that JUST DOES evictions in your area and speak to them about this situation. And please be sure to be more clear with them as to why type of FIXED TERM LEASE you have in place, etc.

Good luck.

 

[ENASNI]

Sheesh

Where are your Priorities , there are some "sopranos" guys that need some refuge! I MEAN really what is going on in your complexes that you have such scum getting in.

I Know I know that is not the question you are asking here. I asked that past question. The thing is ... where is your people the legit ones that help you out here. I mean really, you would not get into some properties without knowing what you were doing>>