I have a 4 unit apartment building that I also live in. Recently we’ve been having a lot of vandalism (broken windows, spray paint, and etc.) because of the daughter of one of my tenants. There have been at least 6 incidents in the last month (that I know of). Several before that. The girl I guess got in trouble with some other kids at school and is being targeted. They are good at concealing themselves or getting away fast.
It’s a lot to have to deal with fixing all these issues and the cost of it. I can of course also make claims to my insurance, but I don’t want to have to constantly make claims because that will probably make my rates skyrocket. Also to be honest it makes me nervous having such destructive people targeting the place I live and I know my other tenants also feel unsafe.
I felt the best solution was to get rid of these tenants. So I gave them 30 days notice. They’re especially upset about it because I’m putting more stress on them on top of the stress they have dealing with the harassment their daughter is getting. The dad of the family actually said I am fucking evil. But at this point I feel like maybe it would be in everyone’s best interest for them to move. Even them.
edit. The tenants have confirmed the vandalism is because of them. Also there are already cameras and the police have been involved.
Comments
NTA..you are not in charge of their family problems.
NTA
Original comment – How do you know for certain this is why the building has been vandalized? – answered: family informed OP about this.
Edit – updating with judgment
This is a crappy situation and I feel for the family. I think OP should do all they can to keep the family in their home (like what they already are – sharing camera footage, working with the cops, etc).
But at some point OP needs to think about the other tenants that live there and their quality of life, as well as the constant repairs needed.
YTA.
Blaming a random teenager for other people being vandals doesn’t really make any sense.
It’s not like after she moves all the bullies get an alert and know to stop vandalizing your property
Yep. Fuckin evil is right.
Punishing a kid for being targeted by taking away her family’s housing is next level evil.
Use your insurance, that’s what it’s for.
Got to love you profiting off them then tossing them to the wolves when shocked Pikachu face there ends up being additional costs associated with being a landlord.
Hope karma gets ya.
it’s definitely coldhearted but i get both sides. i’ve been in this situation as the sibling of a troubled child and it’s so traumatic but i also get not wanting your place to be damaged so frequently. i personally think yes YTA bc they are getting the shorter end of the stick by possibly becoming homeless and either way if they stay or they leave, you’ll be totally fine. i still think it’s understandable on your end but there are more compassionate ways to solve this problem.
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They aren’t causing the property damage. Can you even legally kick them out?
Why is this even a question? YTA.
Wow real true evil made a post, that’s cool I guess. But yeah you’re a real piece of garbage for this. Idk even know how to explain it because I can’t fathom the thought process that brought you here.
Oh surprise, another evil landlord.
So a CHILD is being targeted and victimized, so your answer is to kick them out.
YTA and are just another person victimizing a kid.
Did you put up cameras to catch them? Are you certain that all the incidents are because of this girl?
I’m going to say you’re not the asshole, but you need to be sure it’s them. People like to crap on landlords but it’s your business. There fault or no, if your business is being targeted due to their presence it’s a financial issue for you.
Have you tried actually solving the problem?
Have you talked to the family to find out who the vandals are? Do you have security cameras? Have you or the family contacted the other kids’ parents to inform them they’ll press charges if for every single incident their kids cause going forward?
To clarify: One of your minor tenants is being harassed and threatened via vandalism and your answer is to evict the family rather than take any other efforts? A cheap camera and support reporting to the local authorities just a bit too much for you I guess?
YTA. What’s wrong with you? She’s getting tormented at school and now she’s going to be homeless.
well, at bare minimum you’re a cold hearted bastard
YTA
So a family renting from you is getting harassed and rather than improving security you’re going to kick them out? Good God landlords are parasites. YTA.
They’re month to month, with no lease, they admitted they knew why this was happening. NTA.
Further victimise the victim? Major arse hole
Nta you live there. I’m not keeping someone in the same building as me that is the target of this behavior. Your other tenants are also feeling unsafe, I would too.
All the people saying yta are liars because they would do the same if their house was being targeted due to a roomate, sublease etc.
Yes YTA. Why not put up security for ALL YOUR TENANTS….
NTA, their daughter’s actions is indirectly causing damage to your property. You’re under no obligation to continue renting your property to them, especially if there is no lease.
YTA
This kid is getting violently bullied and you’re punishing the family. Why don’t you have cameras up? Why don’t you ask the family who the bullies are? Why don’t you report it to the police?
I don’t disagree with the dad.
I wonder what the kid did to get those people so mad?
YTA
Way to blame and punish the victim(s).
YTA
Getting security cameras and involving the police is better than evicting an innocent family during these horrible times for housing.
YTA. You are blatantly punishing a minor and her family due to circumstances out of their control, all over money. They’ve done nothing wrong. Her bullies will probably have a field day with this and it may not even stop the vandalism if they are evicted. Buy some alarms and better cameras. Hire someone to watch them. Anything. This is like blaming a domestic violence victim for screaming while getting beaten up and evicting her due to noise complaints.
legally you are within your right. Morally YTA and you are letting the bullies win. This girl is being bullied and now while fighting with a school they have to look for a place to live in a month and uproot their family? Do you have cameras to help catch the window breakers so you can sue them for damages? you could help solve the problem vs moving it off your doorstep.
YTA
So glad this kind of eviction is illegal where I live. You are kind of evil. YTA
Yea a giant ah
NTA
I know I will be downvoted, but being only a 4-unit building, you are probably not some deep pocket multi-national with full time maintenance teams, but someone who still has a mortgage, taxes, utilities, and insurance to pay with hopes to eek out some kind of passive income after all is paid, quite often being thankful to break even.
You also have three other families that if they feel you are not protecting them will look elsewhere. No one wants to live in a building where vandalism keeps occurring, even if not directed at them.
I feel bad for the tenants, but MTM tenants that are causing additional costs to the property owner cannot really expect you to continue to pay the price of whatever is going on in their kid’s life.
You are following the law, and in the long run, moving might serve them better as the culprits will not know where she is to torment.
This is business, not personal. Harsh and not the best timing for the tenants, but why o they expect you to pay the price?
Do you not have security cameras? Would a better approach not be to get the police involved? These are obviously people who are bullying this girl. I get that you don’t want to get involved, but it seems like it’s not right to punish the family further for somebody else’s criminal acts. It seems like you should partner with the family to capture the guilty parties on camera and make a police report for every incident. The girl likely knows who these people are. Perhaps the school needs to get involved and call the parents in of the bullies.
I just feel that OP is taking the easy way out. If it was the daughter doing the vandalism, I would understand. But the tenants are not the ones causing the problems. Soft YTA because I understand the logic, but feel like OP needs to take extra steps to protect the property because things like this can happen when you are a landlord rather than kicking out good, paying tenants who just are going through a tough time with their kid.
Yta. What have you done besides cops and cameras? There are 4 other tenants, have you looked into someone to do a light patrol? Gating? Making the property less accessible to the people harassing this poor family. The dad is right 🤷♀️
Aside from cameras that you have up, are there other security measures you can install? Motion activated flood lights? Security gate with key access, subscription security service? Have you tried going to the school to discuss the hoodie behavior of their students?
NTA. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.
YTA. Security cameras are a thing, hiring a security guard is a thing, putting the police on notice is a thing, there is a literal housing crisis so the chances that these people literally end up on the streets is nonzero. You tried nothing and you’re all out of ideas. The fact that her being bullied leaves her family homeless is the kind of thing that will traumatize this girl FOR LIFE.
You will also destroy your own sense of morality if you try to convince yourself that you did the right thing.
This was your chance to determine whether you give a shit about people or if you see these human beings as nothing more than an income source and you have failed.
This should be on am I the Devil.
This poor girl is being targeted by her class mates, and you are just kicking out her whole family? You could get cameras. They are a good idea in general. And try to stop the vandals instead of making a bad situation worse.
Soft YTA I was a reluctant landlord during the 2008 economic downturn, and I’m sure you don’t have deep enough pockets to continually deal with this vandalism. However, I would’ve given them more than 30 days to find a new home. Maybe give them 60-90 days?
You won’t get many sympathy from comments. You lost that chance when you wrote down you are the landlord. A huge chunk of people on Reddit hate landlords, regardless of how the landlord actually behaves. I guess they are frustrated that there are people who can buy a house. 🤷♀️
But NTA, you are doing the right thing for the majority of the people living there. Even if they are not the vandals themselves, their presence in the building is causing issues, both for you and for the other people paying to live there. Of course you will protect your property, rightfully so. And of course people feel unsafe, I wouldn’t want to live somewhere that constantly gets vandalised and even pay to be scared at home or risk my stuff getting damaged too. And of course you will prioritise making the house safe for yourself and for the other tenants. And after a point eviction is your only way to do it, considering the cameras and the police are no help so far. People expecting you to put up with damages’ costs and with fucking up your insurance are insane, you are not a charity organisation. It sucks what the family is going through, but it shouldn’t be yours and the other tenants’ problem and unfortunately it has become yours and the others problem too.
Moving away will be good for them too. Now the vandals know where they live, but with moving away if they are careful then they won’t know their new address and they can at least feel safe at home.
Edit: And you know for sure that they are the ones being targeted, didn’t just assumed and picked a random tenant to evict. OP’s comment: “It’s generally localized to their doors and windows. So I talked to them about it and they told me what was going on.”,”Just giving them notice to vacate. They’re month to month.”, “There is already a camera, but the police have not been able to identify the vandals.”
NTA. their personal issues are interfereing with you business and putting other families at risk. Boot em
NTA – Their issues are not your responsibility, they are causing problems for you and your other tenants.
I gotta lean NTA.
Looking at it if I was a tenant and this situation had been going on for the 3+ months you said it was, I’d feel pushed to leave. Yeah, the family are victims, but why do the tenants not involved have to accept months of feeling unsafe? You’ve given them time to try resolving it. You’ve provided footage to law enforcement. Letting them stay without them finding a resolution is a disservice to the other parties being impacted. Let alone that you’d be demonized for expecting THEM to foot the bill for damages.
Yeah. YTA kid is being targeted at their home, you know they aren’t the one doing it. Your solution is to evict them.
Before I can pass judgement, is this in the USA and if so which State?
I would also like to know if you have asked the police to reach out to the school to help identify the vandals. Perhaps their faces are obstructed, but there are other ways of identifying individuals such as by their clothing or if someone recognizes their walk, body language, if a certain individual is known to always be with a certain group of people (Ex. There’s a group of well known 4 friends and there are 4 vandals on the footage, etc)
Do these vandals always arrive on foot or by car? In either case are there also cameras facing towards point of entry and parking areas?
2 things can be true at once unfortunately. youre definitely evil af but if it came down to it I dont think anyone constantly replacing windows would be happy about it. still horrible of you to put them through that though because they’ve literally done nothing to you but now they’re receiving consequences for someone else’s actions. sucks all around.
This is probably the first genuine AITA post in a really really long time.
I get it, you cannot keep paying to repair your building because of one tenant but on the other hand you also probably feel like you’re punishing someone for being a victim.
NTA
PS did anyone read the response from the idiot who thinks this girl might be vandalized for a speech impediment? That’s reddit for ya.
Have you considered having them paying for all repairs (not doing it themselves) in exchange for staying?
NTA their daughters issues are not yours to deal with. They’re lucky you don’t sue for damages. Edited for a spelling mistake
Im surprised at the YTA responses.
Landlord is not obligated to save family. His job is to have a safe home but the home is being targeted due to a family, not random people.
What can he do to improve safety and reduce damage?
Bars on windows? Great secure but he needs to replace broken windows.
Gated fence around entire property? Ok but if it get damaged or people can still climb over and then what?
Imagine if the bullies start damaging people’s cars. Now what?
Safety is one thing. Damages and costs is another.
If the bullies conceal and cannot be identified, what else can landlord do?
I guess if he doesn’t kick them out he can charge family to pay for damages.
nta. it’s just vandalism now, but what happens when the daughter does something else to these kids? are the lives of the occupants of 4 units about to go up in flames because someone didn’t raise their kid right?
YTA. Call the cops and have cameras. Don’t be a dick
NTA-Since it is a month to month lease then you are perfectly in your right to do so. The teens actions are likely to bleed over and potentially do worse damage.
This relationship sounds like you walk on eggshells around her. Oof. Good luck op
I’m going to go against the grain, NAH. You have cameras and you have tried to work with the tenants and the police to resolve this. It’s all well and good calling you heartless, but no one is offering you any solutions. What are you supposed to do? Claim repeatedly on your insurance until you can no longer afford the premiums, deplete all your savings fixing the damage, have all your other tenants move out? Only thing that makes you harsh is only giving them 30 days instead of working with them to give them time to find somewhere.
Where’s Chairman Mao when you need him? YTA.
You’re evicting them for being the victim of a crime?
What?
YTA
Nta I don’t really get why they would want to stay there anyways though it’s a safety hazard for them to.
The bully knows where they live, so they should move and make sure to not give out the address or be followed home. Maybe even switch school districts if possible, it sucks but unless they can identify them it’s not going to stop.
If they don’t want to leave tell them they’re going to start having to pay out of pocket for damages.
As someone who has been a landlord- YTA.
YOU WOULD PREFER TO FURTHER TORMENT A FAMILY rather than be proactive. You do not blame the victim and you do not punish the victim for actions of others.
1- get BETTER cameras and motion light systems. You can put cameras at the edge of the property to get people coming in- so then you also get license plates and maybe even faces before they cover up. You could temporarily hire a security guard. The family may also be willing to help pay, but you couldn’t legally force them to pay for this. But like you said, it’s YOUR property being damaged.
2- this is why you have insurance. You’re wasting money by NOT using it. Your insurance rates won’t go up immediately or unless you have a large claim. Either way, you’re making money off your tenants and that money is SUPPOSED to be going into a separate account- their deposit should be accruing interest while it sits there and the profits should be saved for repairs.
3- you do NOT have proof that the school bullying is bubbling over to home life. Just because there are issues at school doesn’t mean those KIDS are willing to commit crimes they can actually face consequences for just to continue to torment this kid. They’d have to know where she lives and at a large HS that’s unlikely. The girl doesn’t recognize anyone on camera- she would likely recognize features or even the way someone walks or their voice if it was someone bullying her directly. Especially the voice! Which leads to the people committing these crimes aren’t her classmates and may know one of them, or these incidents just happen to occur at the same time and YOU are the target or something else completely unrelated. Kids do a lot at school because they know they can get away with it. They are far less likely to commit crime when outsiders are involved or the risks are a lot higher.
4- maybe the daughter ISNT the target here and it’s the whole family! Maybe there’s some racist/homophobic/bigoted people in your neighborhood who just don’t like how your tenants look or their religion or their beliefs. In that case, you’d always face retaliation from your own neighbors for renting to people they don’t think belong there!
In ANY of these cases, your tenants are not causing the crime. Even if they moved out, the vandalism would continue. The family aren’t going to advertise they left so IF the family is being targeted, you would still face vandalism because they won’t check to verify the family still lives there! If this is anything other than the daughter, you’ll face issues because your own neighbors suck. And you’ll be left with the guilt AND continued damages.
Filing multiple insurance claims means multiple deductibles + increases in premium. Rental property rates are already high due to unknown factors in residents
That family is going through a hard time, their kid is being bullied, and you decide to kick the boot in by evicting them for her being bullied.
YTA. Legally you might be able to do it, but it’s definitely not morally right. I really hope karma comes back at ya for this.
NTA: You have them on a month to month lease. They chose to rent with that in mind. You could choose to cancel it because you wanted to fill the unit with confetti and crackers for all anyone cares. You don’t owe them for following through on the risks of short-term rentals.
There may be more assholery if you had them on yearly and went through eviction processes for something that is allegedly out of their control (it’s not clear why they’re being targeted).
Yeah, are you “technically” punishing the victims, sure, but again, short-term rental means exactly that. You can also opt to charge them a higher rent to account for vandalism. Plenty of places allowing monthly leases have stipulations that say you can raise the rent every new lease.
You’ve been dealing with additional issues for more than a month. You don’t have the bandwidth to keep managing the vandalism, and they’d honestly be better off finding a place on a higher floor, with many more units, that ideally has some sort of lock on the main door. They’d be less of a target, and the landlord would likely have better funds to manage things.
If they want to stay then they should have gotten the police involved to stop it. If it’s kids from school they know who it is.
How do you even need to ask….Yes, YTA. This poor family is being terrorized, their daughter doesn’t get a moment of peace, and you’re going to make them homeless for something beyond their control?!?! And what if you’re both wrong? What if the family only thinks it’s her bullies and it’s just a case of assholes fucking around? If it continues after they leave are you going to be able to sleep at night knowing you hurt this family for no reason? You’re the reason people say landlords have no soul, they trusted you enough to confide in you what’s been happening to their daughter and instead of showing an ounce of empathy you took that as an opportunity to throw them out on the street….Not to mention you’re only giving them 2 WEEKS?!?! Are you so disconnected from your renters you don’t know it’s damn near impossible to find housing, come up with the money, pack up their lives, and move within 2 weeks time?!?! Maybe you do and just don’t GAF. And before you cry that you’ve done all you can answer this….did you install flood lights with motion sensors where they keep vandalizing? Did you look at what direction they’re coming from and add cameras to the path they travel to see if you could get their faces or even better a license plate? Have you hired security for a week to freak them out enough to not come back? Have you filed a police report and asked them to drive by the property more? Also, I hope you also realize that if it is that poor girl’s bullies she isn’t going to tell them she’s moving and they’ll just keep vandalizing the building thinking she’s there. If a new family moves in and the neighbors tell them you knew that unit has been the target of vandals and anything happens to them they can sue you, and quite frankly you’d deserve it.