Re: Problem tenant, worried I might lose house
Joe
I had a few criminal tenants over the years. I felt each time that I was being hijacked and brought into a nightmare with little legal prospect and disgusted that that was all the legal industry could offer with life savings at stake. Its a very lonely isolating experience, now imagine having that on a foreign property in a socialist country. Strangely the deal is rather the same. Generally, they buzz off at about month 6 provided you have taken some measures.
IN one case in Dublin, I applied enough pressure that the abusers buzzed off eventually. On the day of departure, having for 3 months believed the property was lost, I did a quick check and found they had left but a window left broken and I got in. Door locks had been changed. I called police, detective came round. I explained problems. He said he had property himself and that same had happened and he could not use force, like force the door by breaking it. However, he did say he got lock smiths in when they were out and put their stuff in boxes outside and had a bouncer outside to ´´explain' the situation to the tenant when they returned. The tenant cannot enter again if door is jammed. Anyway the tenant left in my case on strength of strong legal letters. Turned out they had falsified refs and were in fact social security cases. The agent who gave me these tenants then appears before a hearing of the Auctioneers Society, there was a que out the door of people complaining against the agent. The young agent just sat at the hearing and refused to say anything all the time that the most serious questions were put to him. he has been in a fraud fo some kind with getting in bogus tenants. So they risked loosing dole-drink money if they were caught taking the social security money without passing it over to Landlord as rent allowance. Check with Social security in the area and explain, they will talk.
OK that was one case. Second case, involved professional fraudster operating internationally. IN fact, she had several apartments and landlords in absolute agony over occupation of several apartments in the same building including mine all unknown to each other. She was in fact the daughter of a well known statesman on the continent and had the strongest lawyers represent her in her crime. She was taking apartments and subletting them in europe to americans as 'short term lets'. Here is what happened. After a few months I was able to establish names of other abused landlords. They were all very reluctant to give information. Frightened of their lives of being charges with something illegal. I offered the apartment for sale and got the agent in to take photos then posted it on the net when the tenant was still in occupation. I explained what was going on to the agent. He was a decent sort of type and here is what he advised...........he was a letting agent and he was extremely alarmed that he might be taken for a ride by an abuser tenant.............He said the "key factor here is to show that you are not acting alone, this is what they thrive on".........what you have to do is hit them from several angles..............get many letters coming at them from different directions from different people.............make social security enquirees, advertise prop for sale............make sure they understand things are happening, that many people are watching...........have some phone calls made from surveyors for acsess................establish what times they are in and out.......this worked in the end, get prespective buyers to phone tenant seeking access. Eventualy the tenant got frightened that she would be caught on criminal terms and sentenced. You are still enitled to inspections. Write to their solicitor (under guidance from yours) and suggest you are thinking of making a complaint to law society for facilitating the crime similar,, copying in a few people on the letter head , e..g. residence group leaders in the solicitors home area ...do some research on the solicitor opposing you by net. A lot of them have their details on their websites. But clear this with yr solr first. IN fact you dont have to send the letters on, only just to the perpetrator and then ´´forget about the rest´´ , I mean the various heads of state you have copied in. Its terrible but your property has been hijacked and the cops use these tactics all the time. Also the water supply probably has contamination. Remind them of this. Give a water sample to the councl and ask the to test it. Tell them it is contaminated and there is a good chance they will confirm it (even if it is completely sterile). All this is deeply cynical but you are dealing with criminals.
There is a lot of baloney in Ireland about ´´Illegal´´ when you are being trounced by an abuser.........there is very little enforcement in Ireland in favour of the abused and lots in favour of the abusers. Its not a level playing field, derelict one, so you must play it a bit. OK you cannot hire in the heavy gang but you can slowly build a fire under your abusers from several angles and it does work. I think that was the best advice I got from that letting agent on the continent and it worked. A key point is that once the situation gets legally heavy for your tenant, his friends, if they know there are many involved, they will buzz off from their friends quickly.
A word about physchotics. IN the physchotic mind of the criminal, they view the landlord as a person who is fair game if they the tenant have asked to give a favour, or leniency or cooperation. They tend to have an invisible deep roted hate of authority figures and an opportunity to punish probably stems from abuse during childhood. They tend to be concerned by all round exposure as opposed to a one on one confrontation which is hidden and sometimes what crime is about. Visibility and consensus of wrong doing is a great fear.
Finally, go to cop shop. bring a greyish looking person in a suit as a background witness. Sarg will meet you and all chances are that he will say fairly quickly, sorry no chance, civil territory. However, do this: Arrive to station : use following words: I want to report a criminal threat. Desk cop will generally do a bit of pussyfooting asking you to understand this is not a criminal case and paperwork is slow and all that. Be specific and very short on words. WHen he refuses, ask him if that particular station is not available to report crime, is it actually closed?, could he recommend one which does accept crime report? Be polite. Short on words. But take no prisoners. Make sure he understand you have a witness who could be your solicitor lurking in the background in the grey suit. This will liven things up a bit. All going well, you could get your tenant a visit from police and a trip to Garda station to give a nice statement. You will also give one just as you said, you have been threatened with menacing behaviour, threats make no doubth about it. Dont underplay it. This tends to help the tenant understand that things are just not so simple.
If there is one piece of advice I got for operating in hostile territories and that is as follows:"walk the walk, talk the talk and dont show that you can be negotiated" And that can mean not hanging around to negotiate. This is YOUR property not some drifter who is out to get the whole world.
Finally, if all this is not showing good returns on investment, contact a security company that specialises in property. The bank does this for example. Basically, they will send in a bouncer to get a leg in the door. he then refuses to leave and occupies the bathroom on the first few days and reads a few mags and then tenant has to go to shop and eventually they make themsleves at home plus some body smells in living room, all the time staying overnight. It will cost a few grand anyway. The type of security people who do this have a certain special rapport with abuser tenants and often an abuser tenant can come to understand how well he sleeps and entertains for his new visitor.
Now some might say that all this is not completely diplomatic but still to make an omlette you have to break a few eggs. Remember going to pussy foot tenants rights forums will give you advice on how to avoid confrontation with the legal system but nothing more. The faster you get yr tenant out, probably the lower is your overall cost. You dont have to get directly involved in this yourself, you can do it as a campaign at a distance. Perhaps indeeed it is better not to be seen by the tenant. A vital ingredient is social security who represent authorities. If the tenant is camming you, there is a good chance they are scamming others. A good piece of information is to have the date of birth and social security number of you tenant when you visit the local dole office and make sure you leave you phone number so they can get back to you.
When you get yr property back, go through it carefully and check if any special tricks have been left. IN my case, needles had been left concealed in places that could have result in serious injury. Check if bills have been closed, what address was left to ESB.
All this sounds awful but you cannot let it benignly unfold in front of you.
Good luck.
RB