Help I think I have a drug house?

[invst4profit]

Cass at this point you have all the info we can give you. You should be talking with
the landlord tenant board, the police and a company that does evictions if you are
not going to do it yourself.
There are easier ways I would use to get rid of this type of scum bag but I would
never advise someone else to use my methods.
Get help, you are in over your head as a new landlord.
Learn what you can from this experience and move forward,

Don`t let my comments discourage you, you are in the right place, we know this is not easy for you,
we know you are inexperienced that is why every new landlord must educate themselves on the rules
before they start.
We were all in your shoes at one time. For you this is trial by fire. Hang in and you will be a
seasoned vet before you know it.

Good Luck

 

[cassj]

Greg,
I guess you are knowingly taking drug money for rent also! I resent that comment. I am trying to take action and get rid of them. I am asking HOW? I have been trying to take the advice that I have been given. I have learnt a lot over the last 9 months and will to continue to increase my knowledge. I am proud of my accomplishmests thus far in Real Estate. Just for the record, I get most of the rent from a government subsidized program, but they isssue them the check and then I get a check from the tenant. I had this changed last month and it will now be deposited in my rental account by the housing agency.

Rebecca,
I truely appreciate the advice and info that you offered me yesterday. I think it is wonderful that you offered me your phone number to call and explain a little further. Giving of your personal time to someone you don`t even know. This is what I thought REIN was teaching and I see it all the time on these boards and in the meetings. Congatulations. I guess maybe I`m not a hardened landlord yet, I just don`t want to wrongly convict someone of something. And yes you know the whole story and so the situation makes a little more sense to you. I am taking action and trying to learn how to do it right. And yes I do have 3 kids, I also have a full time job that I do at home and I am able to stay home with my one child while my other 2 are in school. I take great pride in being a stay at home mom while still contributing to our family home. I got started in RE to build towards mine and their future, as well as my father who is my partner. I want to try and help provide for my father`s retirement as he is well into his 60`s and still working. He has provided and sacrificed so much for all of us kids that I would like to try and help him out.

We have 3 properties (with 11 units total) that I have bought through endless hours of research and hard work all within 3 months of each other. They are 100% financed and ALL cash flowing well. We have done extensive renovations all on our own. From cosmetic work to full demo down to the concrete walls and replacing the studded walls and re-pouring the basement concrete floor after jack hammering it out. We are not afraid of working hard. We did all the work ourselves working into the late wee hours of the night.

 

[invst4profit]

Cass it is difficult to give advise without all the info. As this story evolves it is much easier to understand.
I did not mean to insult you about the drug money comment I was trying to give a wakeup call to someone that appeared to be having problems with there first tenant in there first property.
Apparently that does not apply to you so I am at a loss as to where you stand.

Yes I probably am taking drug money for rent but in my case I have no problem with that concept (for the time being) as long as she pays on time and dosn`t upset the rest of the tenants.

 

[HeatherBrandt]

A few years ago, we had a tenants who were smoking pot in their suite. Their rent was always on time but they were very mean people. They were had more experience in these matters than we did, but they still made a few mistakes. We had access to a common area which we could smell the pot and used that as our evidence. It was basically our word against theirs. We decided we didn`t want to learn the eviction process on the fly and hired a lawyer and a bailiff. They tried all sorts of things: pot was for medicinal use, we were mean and unreasonable, they threatened another tenant-phoned his place of work and claimed he was a drug dealer (yay for call display), claimed we were discriminationg against them because they were gay, phoning us at home at 5 am. Our young kids were exposed to some extremely irritated and short tempered parents!

Having the lawyer and bailiff was expensive but it removed much of emotion for us, and scared them a bit. Of course they ended up moving out the day it was to go to court and actually cleaned up the place enough to get their deposit back. We were happy to see them go and changed the locks immediately.

The $1200 legal fee was a blow (our magical cash flow disappeared), but looking back I realized it was the best possible outcome. Once we made the decision to act (and to pay someone to act on our behalf) even though we could have lost had they chose to fight made me feel less the victim. I cannot describe the weight off our shoulders when these people were gone. I am happy to report this was our most expensive eviction and the story below was the last incident that required court intervention.

Last year I went to court with our property manager to evict another tenant (much cheaper with knowledge and not the lawyer) and I personally observed how many tenants do not show up at these hearings!

It took me a while to realize the money was lost before we started. My goal was to minimize the financial, time, and emotional loss.

What`s the worst that can happen? If you act and lose you`ll know what to do differently next time. Hopefully you can (legally) irritate these tenants enough to move on to greener pastures.

Good luck,

Heather

 

[invst4profit]

The thing to remember about this type of tenant is they will kick, scraem and claim all variation of discrimination possible but like cockroaches avoid the spotlight..
They inevitably disappear at the last minute hopefully without destroying your place.

 

[Nir]

Hello Cass,

I wish you luck resolving the issues and learning from this great (yes Great) experience.

Thank you for sharing with others so everyone can learn from this difficult situation.

I wanted to add everyone in this AMAZING forum is here to help each other and we should not take anything personally. Remember Don`s GREAT advice not to invest/act based on emotions when it comes to investing in real estate.

If you read Greg`s comments (Invst4profit), he actually provided EXCELLENT advice from an experienced and successful landlord who is clearly trying to help you, he just sees things from a different angle/perspective.

Good luck(!) and keep us updated..

Regards,
Neil