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My daughter lives in a house a block from campus that is handed down semester by semester to students in her department. Four bedrooms, four leases. Last week she signed a new lease as did 3 of her classmates. One is an alcoholic. She knew that and mentioned to the other two that they might want to re-think the arrangement, but they declined. Two days after they signed the lease he came home drunk and broke a window on the front door and a shelf in the fridge. The next night he woke her up at 3:30 to 'discuss' the situation. He blamed her for trying to get him kicked out, she told him to leave, he went downstairs and proceeded to yell, play loud music and talk (with himself?) for two hours about how awful she was. Needless to say she should not put up with this crap! She was afraid to go back to sleep and is now afraid to go back to the house.
I have told her she needs to discuss this frankly with the landlord and tell him that either she goes or the drunk goes, but her dad and I will not allow her to live there anymore with him (she is 21 but it's nice to know mom and dad have your back). I suspect the landlord will tell the drunk he has to move out, since he did the damage and she has been a good tenant for the past year.
She says there is nothing in the lease that supports that and she is stuck. (Her father and I will not accept that...we are willing to pay whatever rent or penalty to keep her safe)
My daughter lives in a house a block from campus that is handed down semester by semester to students in her department. Four bedrooms, four leases. Last week she signed a new lease as did 3 of her classmates. One is an alcoholic. She knew that and mentioned to the other two that they might want to re-think the arrangement, but they declined. Two days after they signed the lease he came home drunk and broke a window on the front door and a shelf in the fridge. The next night he woke her up at 3:30 to 'discuss' the situation. He blamed her for trying to get him kicked out, she told him to leave, he went downstairs and proceeded to yell, play loud music and talk (with himself?) for two hours about how awful she was. Needless to say she should not put up with this crap! She was afraid to go back to sleep and is now afraid to go back to the house.
I have told her she needs to discuss this frankly with the landlord and tell him that either she goes or the drunk goes, but her dad and I will not allow her to live there anymore with him (she is 21 but it's nice to know mom and dad have your back). I suspect the landlord will tell the drunk he has to move out, since he did the damage and she has been a good tenant for the past year.
She says there is nothing in the lease that supports that and she is stuck. (Her father and I will not accept that...we are willing to pay whatever rent or penalty to keep her safe)
WWYD if you were her landlord?
I'd ignore your call, unless you were a co-signer on the lease and allow two adults to work the issue out. If more than one other tenant came to me with the same concerns, I'd evict the problem tenant.
If I heard this complaint from one tenant, I would speak with the supposedly offending tenant and hear what his side of it is. I would also speak with the other tenants to see if they confirm the story. The problem is that if the LL kicks out the alcoholic, the LL loses his rent. I suggest that your daughter start working on getting a replacement tenant lined up to replace the alcoholic.
Also, the next time the drunk acts up, she should call the police. As a LL, I hate hearing about this stuff after the fact, when what the tenant should have done about the acting up tenant was to call the cops at the time of the offending behavior.
And just to confirm here. The daughter went behind the guy's back and tried to sandbag him with the other roommates. They didn't agree with her assessment.
Roommate got pissed when he heard about that and confronted her - and left when she told him to get out of her space.
So he sat there grumbling and being a baby about it. I'd hardly call that something she should be terrified of going back to the house over. If she is, maybe it's a good life lesson in what happens when you try to hamstring someone and don't approach things face to face.
My daughter lives in a house a block from campus that is handed down semester by semester to students in her department. Four bedrooms, four leases. Last week she signed a new lease as did 3 of her classmates. One is an alcoholic. She knew that and mentioned to the other two that they might want to re-think the arrangement, but they declined. Two days after they signed the lease he came home drunk and broke a window on the front door and a shelf in the fridge. The next night he woke her up at 3:30 to 'discuss' the situation. He blamed her for trying to get him kicked out, she told him to leave, he went downstairs and proceeded to yell, play loud music and talk (with himself?) for two hours about how awful she was. Needless to say she should not put up with this crap! She was afraid to go back to sleep and is now afraid to go back to the house.
I have told her she needs to discuss this frankly with the landlord and tell him that either she goes or the drunk goes, but her dad and I will not allow her to live there anymore with him (she is 21 but it's nice to know mom and dad have your back). I suspect the landlord will tell the drunk he has to move out, since he did the damage and she has been a good tenant for the past year.
She says there is nothing in the lease that supports that and she is stuck. (Her father and I will not accept that...we are willing to pay whatever rent or penalty to keep her safe)
WWYD if you were her landlord?
If I was her landlord, and she came to me with a complaint about a tenant with a separate lease - that I had the power to terminate, as opposed to just a roommate - I would give the offending tenant a verbal warning with the promise that if it happens again, they'll get a notice to remedy the situation or move. And then, I would follow up with that. Or, I may just go ahead with a written warning, since there was actual damage.
But, she can certainly go to the police and even pursue a restraining order, in my opinion. If he's harassing her, police take that very seriously.
As far as her argument that there is nothing in the lease regarding her having any rights against an abusive tenant - she's wrong about that. Landlords have the responsibility to provide safe, habitable housing. Even if that's not in a lease, that is normally included in state laws. If a landlord knows of a dangerous situation, etc., the landlord normally must fix it.
And, even if a landlord puts something in a contract, that doesn't necessarily make it legal. Often, they'll put stuff in contracts that sound legal, using legal language, but is not actually legal. The example I like to give is, what if your landlord put into your lease that you had to chop off your left foot if you ever pay the rent late? Would you believe that was legal? Just because it's in a contract, doesn't mean it's legal. It just means some sketchy landlord tried to pull the wool over your eyes.
And, what I learned when I was studying law from a professor, was that if a situation seems like it should be illegal or against some rule - it probably is. You might not know what law is being broken, but if you have a sense that there must be a law against whatever is happening - there most likely is. If it seems unreasonable, it's probably against some law.
So, is it reasonable for a landlord to expect a tenant to put up with another tenant who is harassing them and scaring them from being able to use common areas or live in their unit? Of course not.
What would I do? I ignore helicopter parents, so I would ignore you. In fact I have a written policy of not renting to tenants with helicopter parents, so I wouldn't have signed a lease with your daughter in the first place.
What would I do if it was your daughter who complained to me? Herself and not through her parents? I'd tell her to call the police next time because I can't evict the drunk on he said /she said. I would need official police reports in order to have a judge order the tenant drunk out.
My rentals always have sturdy lock systems but I would go over and double check the lock on her door to make sure it was fully functioning.
I do have to point out that your daughter knew that the drunk was a problem before she signed the lease and she signed it anyway. That does limit my sympathy a bit.
I'd speak to the drunk about his beavior and offer to let him out of his lease, but if he doesn't want to go, I'd have to evict him and now we are back to needing police reports in order to evict.
By the way, that broken window and broken refrigerator would have to be paid for, right now, and all four tenants ae financially responsible to pay for it. If the drunk refuses, your dauger and the others get stuck with bill.
Aren't roommate situations fun? Which is why I never rent to roommates and I try to avoid renting to college students.
Your daughter's landlord is not a referee, nor is he a social worker. If you expect him to take on that job, you will be disappointed.
Last edited by oregonwoodsmoke; 08-11-2018 at 01:12 PM..
Incidentily, your daughter complained to the other roommates about the drunk before the lease signing. But did she inform the landlord that the drunk was a violent destructive drunk before the landlord signed leases with anyone?
Myself, if I knew one of the roommates was dangerous, I would have gone elsewhere to live and not signed a lease to live in the same house with him.
The daughter is attending college to learn stuff. It could be argued that what she learns while attending college may serve as more useful in her life, than what she learns in college.
If she takes on 'fear', she may focus on the path of fear, or she may decide to stop that stupid behavior and learn to become assertive. The decision is up to her. Helicopters living in another city have little input in the matter.
After the first incident that you have with a drunk, if you try to become his/her friend, then future incidents with that drunk will see you as his/her friend. The same can be said for being his/her enemy.
Only a fool decides to be the enemy of a drunk, because the next time they are drunk, they will act out on their primal motives.
My daughter lives in a house a block from campus that is handed down semester by semester to students in her department. Four bedrooms, four leases. Last week she signed a new lease as did 3 of her classmates. One is an alcoholic. She knew that and mentioned to the other two that they might want to re-think the arrangement, but they declined. Two days after they signed the lease he came home drunk and broke a window on the front door and a shelf in the fridge. The next night he woke her up at 3:30 to 'discuss' the situation. He blamed her for trying to get him kicked out, she told him to leave, he went downstairs and proceeded to yell, play loud music and talk (with himself?) for two hours about how awful she was. Needless to say she should not put up with this crap! She was afraid to go back to sleep and is now afraid to go back to the house.
I have told her she needs to discuss this frankly with the landlord and tell him that either she goes or the drunk goes, but her dad and I will not allow her to live there anymore with him (she is 21 but it's nice to know mom and dad have your back). I suspect the landlord will tell the drunk he has to move out, since he did the damage and she has been a good tenant for the past year.
She says there is nothing in the lease that supports that and she is stuck. (Her father and I will not accept that...we are willing to pay whatever rent or penalty to keep her safe)
WWYD if you were her landlord?
Your screenname seems appropriate! Your daughter is an adult. The end.
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