When The Landlord Must Say, "Everybody OUT!"

When an investor owns and manages apartments he or she often hasto make tough decisions. Here's an example of one:Barry and Terri, husband and wife, are tenants in a four unitapartment building. They have a stormy relationship that oneevening erupts into a violent domestic dispute. Terri callspolice. The incident isn't quite exciting enough to be includedin an episode of "Cops", but Barry is arrested and charged withdomestic violence assault. Directly after the arrest the couple separate and Barry liveselsewhere.The next day the landlord serves Terri with an eviction noticefor violating the quiet occupancy clause in the lease. Thislandlord gets more grey hair...

..., because Barry, hoping to win hisway back into Terri's heart makes a return. He comes screaminginto the landlord's office demanding the eviction be cancelled.He says it was his entire fault, he was that one who wasarrested and Terri shouldn't be punished for his bad behavior.What would you do in this situation?The landlord's best action is to calmly explain to Barry thatowner/manager had nothing to do with the disturbance. When thelease was signed Barry and Terri had a joint responsibility toabide by the rules and the law. Either party is responsible forthe other party.This is true as a joint and several liability and inrelationship to community property law...

...w.As landlord you could not evict Terri if she still qualifies forthe apartment based on her own income. You can determine thatfrom the information on their rental application.Since the landlord knows that Barry and Terri have a volatilerelationship there is a good possibility Barry could return in arage and, in trying to reach Terri, attack another tenant. Insuch a circumstance if someone other than Terri were to be hurt,the landlord would be liable, since he or she knew about thecontinuing problem. In situations such as this managementtypically will evict the entire household when domestic violenceoccurs. As I have written before, "Nobody Loves a Landlord!"