On 2/1/2011 9:14 AM, Robert Green wrote:
We've been thinking of renting our current home rather than selling in this
down market while we rent in some of the places we're thinking of retiring
to. Unfortunately, movies like "Pacific Heights" where a bad tenant who
knows all the tricks of staying in a place without paying rent, haunt us.


Sure, and you can turn on the evening entertainment and news program and
see houses burned to the ground.


Yesterday I saw a 'People's Court' episode where a deadbeat had managed to
stay, rent-free, in a Section 8 rental for three years by using a loophole
that says a tenant can't be evicted from Section 8 housing if there are code
violations. Every time he was about to get evicted, he just broke something
to forestall the eviction process, eventually plugging all the sinks with
rags and flooding the place.

Don't rent to section 8 tenants.


How can you drive a bad tenant out from a rental in such situations? How do
you prevent them from completely trashing the place on their way out? I
know that tenants should be checked out thoroughly beforehand, but even so,
people can have no record of evil behavior but still turn evil. While I'd
probably NOT rent to any Section 8 tenants, I could easily see someone
losing their job or some other such tragedy and so decide they wanted to
live in my house rent-free for as long as they could get away with it.


I would say you are overthinking this. Millions of folks rent properties
without issues. Use common sense and rent to folks you can check out.


I'll entertain all solutions, even extra-legal ones (as long as I can
implement them without getting caught!).

--
Bobby G.