Tenant Defaults on Rent, Wrecks Rental Unit in First 10 Weeks

It only takes one bad tenant to drain a landlord’s profits. 

 

That’s a lesson one landlord learned this week when he discovered his tenant was running an illegal business out of the rental property.  Fortunately the tenant moved out voluntarily, but the landlord is left with the clean up bill.

 

The landlord asked the tenant to leave after the man stopped paying rent.  But when the landlord drove by to check on his property, he found the place in shambles. The trash scattered around the yard included several two-liter bottles with a suspicious white residue.  Police called to the scene then discovered tubing, dissected batteries and lantern fuel, and identified the trash as the remains of a meth lab.

 

According to a local news report, the police captain investigating the scene said the tenant made little effort to hide anything, bringing into focus the need for periodic property inspections.  However, in this case the tenant had been on the property for only two and a half months.

 

A special task force had to be alerted to remove volatile ingredients and prevent further safety risks. Police found evidence linking the tenant’s name to the illegal operation, so an arrest is imminent.  But police told a reporter that it likely will be the landlord who will pay the cost of the clean up.

 

Bad tenants come from all walks of life and in all shapes and sizes.  The only way to weed them out is to conduct tenant background checks each and every time you lease a property.  Follow that up by speaking with the previous landlord.

 

This one certainly would have something to say!

 

  

 

 

This post is provided by Tenant Verification Service, Inc., helping landlords reduce the risks of renting with fraud prevention tools that include Tenant Screening, Tenant Background Checks, (U.S. and Canada), as well as Criminal Background Checks, and Eviction Reports (U.S. only).

Click Here to Receive Landlord Credit Reports.

Disclaimer: The information provided in this post in not intended to be construed as legal advice, nor should it be considered a substitute for obtaining individual legal counsel or consulting your local, state, federal or provincial tenancy laws.