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What does a landlord do with a nightmare tenant?
Many unsuspecting landlords have done just what owner and landlord, Barbara Wilt did when tenant Gwen Smith applied for a garage apartment Wilt rented back in 2008. Barbara Wilt says she identified with Smith, who she describes as articulate, bright and a single mom. “I liked her because she was raising a son on her own.”
She asked for references which Smith provided in the form of her attorney and an architect. According to Wilt, she regretted renting to Smith almost immediately after Smith moved in. Not only did Smith stop paying rent the very next month, but she also changed the locks and caused disturbances for other tenants.
Wilt’s attorney, Lisa Gygax, later learned that Smith has a history of duping landlords, especially female landlords who she apparently viewed as vulnerable and kind. By the time of the judge’s rendering on Wilt’s case, it was revealed Smith had another case with her next landlord. Attorney Gygax stated in a brief filed with the Sonoma County Superior Court, “She seeks a kind landlord, moves in and never intends to pay anything but the first month’s rent.”
A tenant’s failure to pay rent is bad enough, but causing disturbances and interfering with other tenant’s enjoyment is unacceptable. Perhaps most egregious of all is filing civil lawsuit complaints against their landlords.
In this case, almost immediately after receiving an eviction notice for non-payment of rent, Smith filed a countersuit against Wilt, complaining that Wilt’s home had several code violations (technical code violations are extremely common in older homes, and easy for tenants to use as pretexts to stall evictions). According to Wilt, the violations were acknowledged and remedied immediately. Unfortunately, Smith still refused to pay rent and was able to lawfully remain in the home for months until finally losing the battle in a Sonoma County Superior Court where she was ordered to pay $42,500 in damages.
Not surprisingly, shortly thereafter, Smith became involved in a battle with a subsequent landlord, Connie Cook. Cook lost everything including the home she was renting to Smith ultimately due to Smith’s refusal to move and repeated appeals. After four long years, Cook finally won a judgment for $49,635, $33,090 of which was awarded in punitive damages. Cook may have won the battle, but ultimately lost the war.
Sadly, Wilt and Cook are not alone in their experiences with a nightmare tenant. Rent rosters across the US and Canada are filled with them.
So how can landlords win the war against scammers like Smith? The best way is to not engage these types of tenants in the first place. “Prevention has to be the name of the game,” says James Wright, a veteran landlord from upstate NY.
According to Wright, Wilt made a cardinal mistake in relying solely only references for a tenant. “There is no such thing as a good reference in a landlord-tenant situation. The only reference that matters is that of a previous, and in most cases, current landlord.” (Even current landlords’ word must be taken with a grain of salt, as they have a vested interest in escaping or keeping the tenant.) He also says landlords should be aware that really shrewd tenants may have someone posing as a previous landlord who can provide a stellar history. He warns landlords to be prepared to do some “real digging.”
Credit reports and criminal background checks are a good place to start. Landlords and managers should also verify employment, income and workplace attitude, through both phone calls with supervisors and pay stubs.
Veteran property manager, Sonya De’Amaro of Silver Spring, MD advises landlords to always “treat landlording as the business it is.” She says, “A walk through inspection signed by the tenant can prevent most of these situations.”
Nevertheless, when a landlord is up against an experienced scam artist like Smith who is willing to go the way of the appellate courts as she did with Cook and perhaps others, the situation becomes a little more difficult and costly.
There is still some hope even in those situations according to Loebsack & Brownlee Associate Attorney Jared Schmidt who says, “In limited situations an appeal can be dismissed by filing a motion with the court. Likewise, if a tenant doesn’t pay the appeal fee on time the clerk will dismiss the appeal on their own. Last, if a tenant appeals but doesn’t pay his or her rent bond on time as required by the court, you can proceed with the writ process despite the pending appeal. This doesn’t end the appeal process, but in a lot of cases it significantly lessens the likelihood that the tenant will follow through at trial, as they will have already been removed from the premises.”
Of course, when all else fails, landlords can simply offer to pay the tenant to quietly walk away as one Pennsylvania landlord decided to do. “I ended up handling it by negotiating this woman out of the apartment. It saved us money in the long-run to give her a ‘payment’ to leave,” says former landlord Denise Supplee.
Tell us about your experience(s) with a nightmare tenant(s). How did you handle it? What preventive measures do you now have in place, if any?
