Always a drama-filled day at The______ Company. We just found out one of the homes we manage was raided by the police twice last week for drug activity. The department didn’t notify us or the home owner; it was the The Neighborhood Association that called today to tell us that all the doors are [obviously] wide open and the property is not secured. We just sent our Property manager and a male employee over to check it out. I don’t relish her job of having to contact the owner. I anticipate the question “Did you run a criminal background check on the tenant?” and our lame response of, “No, we don’t do them.” (Having worked for seven years in resident screening, I was shocked!) I hope this incident pushes us to do so in the future.
I wonder, too, what sort of liability we may have on our hands. We inspect our properties twice a year. At this house, we noted the tenant had a closet piled full of cell phones, large plasma screen televisions mounted in each room, always seemed to be “out of town” and late on his rent, sending a different person to bring in money orders for him each month. Those persons always wreaked of marijuana. Recently, one particular man started coming to pay us on the renters behalf, driving a different car each time and said he was a different relation every time- from cousin, nephew, brother and friend. He too smelled like weed, had the eyes to match and looked pretty thugged out with his gold teef and pants around his ass cheeks, but he was always nice to me, so… *shrug*
I look forward to seeing the photos of the house with a sort of morbid curiousity. I almost expect to see the tenant on the news; I’m not sure if he was apprehended at the home or if he is MIA. (The neighborhood is snooty and upscale and this type of thing would probably be sensational enough to warrant air time.) I have a feeling we’re going to be dealing with this siutation for a long time to come… at least it is interesing though. Oh, and am I the only one who finds it comical that the Security Alarm was set when our staffer arrived there?