So, I have this nightmare tenant and I would loooove to get rid of her, but she pays on time, so I can’t evict her on that. She doesn’t want to leave, but she knows how to work the system.
Here’s some background: I had a previous property manager, who let her move in and now I’ve been told that she supposedly can’t read and she claims that I’m taking advantage of an elderly person, who can’t read and that I knew that she can’t read and therefore has no idea what the lease says. (I didn’t know that).
Several days before she was supposed to move in, the then property manager called and said that he does not know what to do with her. She was picking apart everything, wanted everything perfect. I then called her and told her that I will give her back her money , since she obviously doesn’t like the house. It’s an old house and things will not be perfect. Yes, the outside paint is old, but I won’t paint the house for her or put in new carpet and touch up every little thing. That she’s free to find another 3/2.5 house for $ 600 that is more to her liking. She then started crying and said that she loves the house and that she’s happy to take it as is. So, I let her move in beg. of Sept.
Since I’ve taken over managing long-distance, with the help of a friend locally, she is constantly threatening me. Her stove broke down on Christmas Eve and she called my appliance repair guy, who was at a party. She told him that she heard a sizzling in the wall right before, so he suggested to me to get an electrician out first, to make sure that everything was fine. I then told her that I couldn’t get a hold of my electrician on Christmas eve and that I wasn’t going to buy her a new stove right then. My appliance guy said that he had one, but he’d have to find someone to deliver that night, since he was at an event. She then pitched a fit and called me every name in the book. I hung up and she left some more nasty messages, calling me fucking slumlord and motherfucker, threatening me with every media station etc. Then she called me back a little while later all sweet, saying that she had the police and fire dept there, because I let her live in a house with unsafe wiring. Supposedly the fire dept came and checked the wiring and the outlet worked fine, but she wouldn’t let me talk to them. I told her that the appliance guy promised that he would come by on Christmas morning and check it out. The said ‘oh, well, I don’t really have to cook today. That’s fine’
That’s just one example. She loses control over and over again and then apologizes after, saying that she knows she has a problem. I suspect that she’s bi-polar without medication.
In January I sent her a certified letter, telling her that I won’t renew her lease end of August and that I’d gladly let her out of her lease end of January and give her her deposit back. She then called and apologized and begged me to please let her stay. A week or 2 later she lost it again and left me a message, threatening me with an attorney and that she wants several thousand $ to move out.
She has been attacking everyone that has tried to work with her, being all sweet and suddenly cussing them out if they say something that doesn’t agree with her. I literally can’t find anyone to have any interaction with her, fixing something, collecting rent etc.
She’s trying to blackmail me constantly. Wanting brand new carpet and trying to make me do every little thing that she had initially accepted. Today she claims that she’s been to a doctor because she supposedly can’t breathe and he supposedly told her that she has to have her landlord paint the house to keep any mildew at bay. It’s total b.s. and I’m not going to do it.
She’s told me several times (in her nicer phases) that she loves the house and that she knows that she’ll never find another house like this for $ 600.
I’ve now asked a friend of mine to tell her that she doesn’t need to pay April rent, if she moves out end of April and that she will get her deposit back when she’s moved out. But I suspect she won’t accept it, because she really likes the house and knows that she won’t find anything else that’s even comparable. It’s a 100 year old house and it will never be perfect. It’s a low income neighborhood and she wants me to turn it into a mansion.
But I’m afraid that it’s just a matter of time until she finds an attorney who’ll take a lawsuit against some mean landlord, who’s taking advantage of an elderly person that supposedly can’t read and is on disability.
There’s nothing in my lease that allows me to evict her based on disrespecting me or cussing me out. Are there any other laws that give me some leverage? I have kept recordings in which she threatens and cussed me etc.