Really, Really, Really Bad Tenants
April 30, 2007
I’ve been lucky so far with my tenants but my in-laws have not. They just moved out tenants they’ve had for a couple of years and it isn’t pretty. If you want to be a landlord, look at these photos. While I can’t share with you the before pictures, I can tell you that the house was built in 1974 and was mostly remodeled 4-5 years ago, before these tenants moved in.
Luckily for all of you, the Internet is not capable of bringing you the full experience of all the senses. On the cat urine smell-o-meter scale, this house was a 10 on a scale of 1-10. (Remarkable, since the tenants were not allowed to own cats!)
Ta da! Here’s the stunning entry into the house. What you can’t see is me holding my nose - this was the cats toilet room. Cat pee and plywood - not a good combo. All of the plywood and sheet-rock will have to be removed because it is swollen with liquid.
At least they tried to fix the hole in the wall with some Spackle or is that toothpaste? This is one of many holes.
The tenants really had a thing for punching and kicking holes into the walls and doors. Every single door has to be replaced.
This was one of many closets filled with garbage. Under and among all of it and on all the carpeting were little petrified kitty poo packages. The yard was also littered with trash and the basement was full of more garbage, and you guessed it, petrified kitty poo.
Proof that the tenants owned a vacuum cleaner (it’s the little yellow thing on the floor) but just decided to never actually use it.
Amazingly enough, the tenants were very sure they were going to get their security deposit back. I don’t think so - the repair, cleaning and trash removal expenses for this house will cost thousands of dollars.
PS- They also left 9 cats behind. The neighbors are feeding them until I can trap them, bring them to a vet, spay/neuter them and find them homes. Anybody want a cat?
Entry Filed under: Buying a House, Landlord, Real Estate, Tenants. .
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1. Sock Puppet | April 30, 2007 at 9:45 pm
Seems like straight out vandalism. Any recourse here?
-Athol
2. berealct | April 30, 2007 at 9:53 pm
I think they are talking about taking the tenants to court.
There was a lot more damage than I could include on this post - and there is really no way to reproduce the smell. You could smell the house from the outside - that’s how bad it was.
But, ask landlords and many of them will have one story like this. Crazy people are out there and some can’t buy houses so they rent.
And by the way, these people had a kid living there.
3. deansguide | May 1, 2007 at 12:45 am
Jessica,
Forgive me for laughing but your writing is funny and I had to laugh or I would have cried. Here’s my story. My father and I owned a rental condo in a beautiful wine country enclave some 20 yrs ago before the internet.
We placed an ad and began the filtering process. My father, feeling he was the tougher judge of character, decided to make the choice of tenant. My dad chose a guy who looked like a very clean cut citizen, he wore a suit and tie to the meeting, and he brought cash!
My dad rented to “Dan” and there began our nightmare. Dan stopped paying the rent out right after the 2nd month. He stopped returning phone calls the following week. My embarrassed father hired a private eye: here is what he found.
Dan was known in Sonoma County as “Hamburger Dan” one of the biggest cocaine dealers in the area in the mid 1980’s. Dan rented all of his furniture and appliances-he hadn’t paid those creditors either. Dan had his electricity shut off so he ran an extension cord to the unit next door–a model unit that was used by the sales staff. . . and finally Dan left in the middle of the night at the end of 4 rentless months never to be seen again!
Inside the unit was filthy, smelly, invested, and we felt violated. Suffice it to say–I interviewed the next tenant. . .
Dean
4. Rich Shea | May 1, 2007 at 1:05 am
One bright spot is I guess they didn’t leave any booby traps that could have injured someone. I was speaking with a friend that’s handled a bunch of foreclosure sales and he commented on running into a few traps left by departing residents - including cutting a hole in the floor and putting a rug over it along with some electrical wiring traps.
5. Andrew Chirico | May 1, 2007 at 3:03 am
That is just horrible. The same thing happened to my father and but it wasnt as bad. In his case the tenents werent smart enough to ruin anything expensive. They pretty much marked up all the walls with grape juice and markers and did the same to the carpets. So we threw up some new paint and installed new carpets. End of story. He accually made a website about it.
6. berealct | May 1, 2007 at 11:53 am
Thanks for your stories. I think my post and your comments will give some new investors pause.
I never heard about booby traps- that’s scary.
And Dean, you’re fortunate that all Dan did was ruin the apartment and not pay rent. The outcome could have been much worse.
7. RE Agent in CT » Re&hellip | May 4, 2007 at 12:02 am
[...] Go have a look at the hellish photos on Jessica Beganski’s website. [...]
8. Toby | May 4, 2007 at 6:34 am
Our property manager has had that happen to some of her client’s properties. It is a shame, complete shame.
9. Wanna Be a Landlord | Pho&hellip | May 9, 2007 at 5:32 pm
[...] Good idea in theory. In reality … check out Jessica Beganski’s blog. [...]
10. Jessica Hickok | October 7, 2007 at 5:58 pm
I totally feel your pain. I am so furious with destructive, immature tenants. We have a subdivision of 28 new houses that is located within 1 mile of Missouri State University so these houses are rented to college students who party ALL OF THE TIME. Enough is enough. After a big party last Friday night, they took red spray paint and grafitti’ed the siding of the houses, our signs and wrote some pretty nasty things about my Broker’s wife (who is family). These destructive Tenant’s are losers and will end up being future Darwin Award winners. Here is the link to the blog post we wrote about the whole story:
http://dizmangproperties.blogspot.com/2007/10/destructive-missouri-street-tenants-its.html
So yes, I feel your pain with obnoxious tenants. And I’m ready to get rid of all of them. Thanks for letting me vent. Thanks for your amusing post.
11. Richey | December 20, 2007 at 9:18 pm
Wow. That reminds me of Pacific Heights a little bit. Sometimes people really suck. Thankfully, I never had tenants that bad. I did have an older couple in their late 50’s steal the lawnmower, washer, dryer and the curtains. Apparently, they sold them at their yard sale.
12. Deadbeat Tenants Win the &hellip | March 19, 2008 at 8:47 pm
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13. Deadbeat Tenants Win the &hellip | April 7, 2008 at 6:45 pm
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14. Gabby Gomez | May 15, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Hey don’t forget to report them to http://www.bad-tenant.org. Let other people know - don’t rent to these folks.