Disruptive tenants are thorns in a landlord’s side. If they are not handled promptly and properly, situations can escalate to a point that puts you, your tenants, and your rental property business at risk. But what can you do when your tenant starts screaming and shouting, harassing you, your staff, or other residents? You should document each incident in writing, give them a warning, hand them a lease violation notice (or notice to vacate, if applicable), and then potentially even go through the eviction process.
To help you navigate such situations, here’s a guide and some tips on how to deal with verbally abusive tenants. Read below to learn more!
Key Takeaways
1: Stay Calm, Never Engage Emotionally
Whenever you’re facing a verbally abusive tenant, the very first thing that you need to do is to take a step back and maintain a calm and professional demeanor. Take our word as the property managers San Antonio landlords trust; it’s never a good idea to come face-to-face with a verbally aggressive tenant who is throwing insults, threats, or even derogatory language at you or others.
When things start to heat up, it’s your role as the landlord to try to de-escalate, and you can do this by not engaging with their attempt to rile you up. Instead of getting into a heated argument with a verbally abusive tenant in the moment, it is best for you to pause and think hard before responding.
Gather your thoughts and keep your replies calm and professional. Use neutral, clear, and concise language to avoid misunderstandings or misinterpretations. Also, urge the tenant not to use harsh language and to avoid raising their voice. If they won’t, then don’t be afraid to set your boundary and completely remove yourself from the potentially dangerous situation.
2: Document Everything Immediately
These days, documentation plays a huge role in proving what happened and the proper series of events. Now, in case of a legal dispute, you need to be able to prove your tenant’s bad behavior.
If your tenant is being disruptive face-to-face or through calls, take videos of the interaction. You can also keep a written record indicating the time, date, and a brief account of the event. Aside from this, make sure to save all written communications that show your tenant’s verbal harassment and hostile behavior.
3: Switch to Written Communication Only
In any case, your safety should always be the top priority. Considering that in-person interactions pose the risk of physical altercations, we suggest keeping all interactions through professional channels. For example, use email for quick correspondence and use certified mail to send legal documents and other paperwork. Keeping a reasonable distance from a verbally abusive tenant can prevent further incidents.
4: Give a Warning or Lease Violation Notice
If the incident(s) weren’t earth-shattering, you could give your tenant just a warning and the time to address the problem. Let’s say that the verbal altercation happened only because your tenant was having a bad day or is dealing with something heavy. You can give your tenant the benefit of the doubt and give them an informal warning to let them know that they will get a lease violation notice (if they did make a violation) for further incidents.
If their behavior continues or escalates, then it’s likely time to serve the verbally abusive tenant with a lease violation notice. Again, you should make sure your lease gives you justification to give this notice. For instance, if your lease states that harassment is grounds to consider the tenant as violating their lease, you can use that clause to give them a lease violation notice. Or, if their behavior impacts their neighbors’ right to quiet enjoyment of their unit, that also may constitute a lease violation. So, be sure to comb through your lease carefully to see what you can work with.
That said, there are exceptions to this: if the tenant is conducting criminal activities or putting you in imminent danger, you likely can skip ahead to giving them a notice to vacate. That said, you need to document the problem and report it to the police.
5: Give a Notice to Vacate
Assuming you gave the tenant a lease violation notice for less-severe behavior and they didn’t correct the violation within the cure period, now is your time to give them a notice to vacate. Typically, this gives the tenant 3 days to move out, unless your lease gives a different notice period. Then, if the tenant refuses to move out in their designated timeframe, you can start the legal eviction process.
As an aside, you should proactively prove that your moves aren’t based in retaliation or discrimination. Landlords can get sued if tenants perceive that they used the notices in reaction to tenants exercising their rights. For example, this could include tenants who raised the alarm for uninhabitable living conditions or those who requested emergency property repairs. Similarly, Fair Housing Laws prohibit landlords from discriminating against someone’s protected class, such as race, gender, religion, disability, and more. This is why documentation is crucial, as it is your way to prove that your decision is justified.
6: Start the Eviction Process (If Necessary)
If you want your verbally abusive tenant to vacate your property completely, filing for eviction is only the first step. And in some cases, some tenants will be more difficult and may even refuse to leave. In such cases, you (unfortunately) will need to go through the tedious legal process to have the court force your tenant to leave. Here’s how it goes:
- Serve a 3-day (minimum) notice to vacate in writing, delivered via certified mail, personally, or posted on the front door.
- If they refuse to leave by the given deadline, file a forcible detainer, which is an eviction lawsuit.
- Go through the court hearings and present the evidence for the eviction, leveraging the different records and documentation of their rude behavior and verbal abuse.
- If the court rules in your favor, your verbally abusive tenant has 5 days to appeal. If they still don’t move out of your rental property, you can have a constable or sheriff carry the court’s motion for removal.
That said, we cannot give you legal advice, and nothing in this article should constitute it. We can only give you educational information. Instead, you should turn to a legal professional for their final word on this topic.
Partner with BMG For Your Property Management Needs
However, some things are just easier said than done. If you don’t want to deal with verbally abusive tenants, then it’s time to look into companies that offer property services of San Antonio, like us at BMG. As experts in the rental market and property management, we are well-equipped to deal with tenants on your behalf–so you can rest a little easier. Contact us today to find out more.