Tenant Stages Fake Burglary

[furnishedowner]

My "never had an eviction" status is about to change.

A woman's house burned down, and we placed her and "immediate family"--daughter and son-in-law-- in a furnished home.  The insurance company pays the rent, the woman tenant signed the lease.

They had 9 vicious Chihuahuas so we got a huge deposit, cleaning deposit, and pet deposit.

Since then numerous problems:
Water bill went from $69/mo. to $339, then $229.  Tenant informed verbally twice and then in writing to QUIT WATERING.

Adjacent tenant reports that she called police about a middle of the night husband/wife fight--"I"M GOING TO KILL YOU!"  Police came and took report.

Yesterday I learned of a "burglary".  It appears staged, according to police officer who took the report, although he could only report the facts.  A glass pane was broken in the door, our DVR combo taken, and their (Aaron Rents-owned) laptop.  The police officer wondered why the 9 vicious little dogs didn't bark, and why no jewelry, etc. was taken.

Tile and lumber disappeared from our lumber storage in the rear of property.  I filed another police report.

So I have notified the insurance housing company that we can no longer keep those tenants.  What sort of breach of contract is this?

No one saw the burglaries.  The rent is being paid.  The property is being maintained except for our tile and stuff lying in the yard.  Tenant:  "Who put that stuff there?"

The insurance company won't cancel the lease agreement without a court order.

How would you all handle this?  Oh yeah, all 3 tenants have criminal records--forgery, fraud, evading arrest, etc.  I'm betting their next plan to get money is to burglarize the adjoining units.

Furnishedowner

 

[jmd_forest]

I assume you have a rental application that has a place for prospective tenants to note any prior convictions and that your lease states any falsehoods in the application and  any criminal activity in the property (assuming the staged burglary is verified by the police)  are grounds for eviction. If so, evict for cause. if not, you might want to consider something along these lines.

jmd_forest

[torojd]

 

[furnishedowner]

The tenant is the home owner whose house burned down and "immediate family".  Tenant is nice enough nurse.  Immediate family we never met until after they moved in.  That was the mistake and we should have run them on the state crime conviction list.

The entity paying is the temporary housing company contracting with Farmer's Insurance.  They are the ones whose legal department said we couldn't get out of the lease.

The large $3,000 deposit is going to be eaten up by their pilfering.  Any thing missing on the inventory list will be charged to the deposit.

Another lesson is that we will need applications from any "Immediate Family" in these insurance-type tenancies.

The police officer said he couldn't absolutely state that it was staged.  I like the idea of "any criminal activity on the property is ground for termination of lease".  I wonder if that would hold up if it can't be proven to be criminal activity of tenant, however.

Only the second time we have had theft.  Previous time a drug-addicted nurse sold off the bedroom TV.  Her agency paid right up.

I don't like the idea of getting ripped off and letting them get away with it.

Furnishedowner

[motivatedceo]

They need to breach a clause in your lease, to be subject to eviction. Personally, I would analyze your lease thoroughly and look for a specific clause or clauses that they violated...then run it across your lawyer for clarification / confiration if needed...and then proceed with the eviction. You are from Arizona or New Mexico, right? I imagine those states are more like Texas than California or New York when it comes to tenants, so I bet you should be able to evict them rather easily & quickly (that is 100% a guess based on what I know of those states) ... as long as you have just cause.

Good luck buddy!

[justin0419]

Our lease has a clause like "tenant shall not lease, sublet, or otherwise give anyone else access to the property without the express written consent of the Landlord."  That right there would get rid of them if the daughter and son-in-law came in after the fact.  If they were there on day one, I'm sure they'd argue that point in court. 
The other thing you may have to watch out for there is you may have different timelines for a breach of the lease vs. unpaid rent.
Here in MS, I can evict off a 3 day notice for non-payment of rent.  It turns into a 30 day ordeal for a breach of the lease and I have to notify the tenant in writing that they're in violation of the lease.

[davewindsor]

They had 9 vicious Chihuahuas

I saw that one coming.  Why is it that the biggest troublemakers and costliest tenants have dogs in my experience?  9x times the dogs = 9x the trouble.  Every single time I let someone in with a dog I've gotten burned in my pocketbook.  I wonder if sometimes the dogs are just a red herring for much deeper issues on some other level with the tenants.  Then again, it could be a total coincidence and I could be completely wrong about this.  But, I'm still sticking to my no dogs policy. 

Good luck.  I've been on that boat before.  All you can do is just bombard them with eviction notices for breaches of this clause and that clause and wait until they go away.