In article ,
"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.

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.

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

--
Bobby G.

Some random feedback, without having read the other responses: I am both
a tenant and a landlord, and the idea that the tenant/landlord
relationship must be adversarial is nonsense. Bad tenants are easy to
find, so are good ones. I'm a fantastic tenant, and I've got great
tenants. Nothing is on paper. Gentlemen don't need paper.

You here the nightmare stories, because those are the ones that are
supposedly noteworthy.

What is your financial situation? (a question for you to ponder, not
publicly answer) Around here, housesitting is common. Property owner
gets a hyper-responsible person living in and watching over the house,
and the sitter gets to pay his rent with something other than cash
money. If you don't need the money, it's better than letting the house
sit empty for extended periods.

Another option, if you live in a city that attracts tourists or
traveling businessmen, is the "vacation rental." Your place must be
immaculate, but you'll get motel suite rates for it, making a "month's
worth" of rent if you rent it out two weekends per month. You can
sub-contract the management, cleaning, etc. to people or agencies that
specialize in vacation rentals.