New one for us. We own rental properties. Most tenants have been awesome. One cost us more than 15K after he got hooked on pain meds, kept promising payments when he won his workman’s comp case, we were too nice and let him stay, and then he trashed our house as he left (after winning his case but giving us nothing) even smashing shelves inside the fridge and breaking ceiling fans, etc. Last we knew - probably 2-3 years ago - the local sheriff was looking for him. Good riddance.
This morning we get a call from the awesome tenant who now rents that place and has for the couple of years since he left. The dude is getting packages sent there (2 right now). “Do we know where he is?” No. He claims they are “asthma meds for his daughter,” but I have my doubts. Granted, I could be biased, but I know other drugs occasionally get sent via the mail too.
I suggested H call the sheriff (non-emergency line) for advise, but they are closed until Monday due to the virus. We suggested the tenant return the packages letting them know the dude no longer lives there (and it has been at least a couple of YEARS since he did), but the post office is also closed until Monday. Chances are the dude will come looking for the packages this weekend.
I DO NOT want him using our house as a drop box. Why is he suddenly using it? I can’t think of any reasonable reason.
Have your tenant put them outside, away from the front door (as far away as possible) - let loser tenant come get them, and if more arrive contact non-emergency sheriff at that time to collect them.
He may do this anyway when the dude comes around (give them to him). I’m not sure. We had suggested taking them to the PO to return them, but with it being closed I don’t know if he’ll hold on to them until Monday or just hand them over. This whole thing is new and unexpected.
If it happens to be one time, then it will have to slide I guess. If he thinks he can just use our address - uh, no! Esp if what he’s getting happens to be illegal.
I spoke to my younger brother who is a detective on the Rhode Island State Police. He suggests you wait and call the sheriff on Monday. He said they (his team) would certainly have you arrange a specific time for the former tenant to pick them up. He will be surprised who’s holding the package when he gets there, if indeed he is wanted.
Do not open the mail. You do not want to have knowledge of the contents, it could ruin the chain of custody and potential evidence. This was his advice. Just put it aside.
If the sheriff doesn’t want to get involved. Just let the guy pick it up and then let him know all other packages will be returned to sender and you will not let him know. Period.
Thank you for checking for me! I’m not positive the sheriff is looking for him now. I know he was when he left our place because the sheriff came by while we were cleaning/fixing up what he trashed. At that time H knew where he went and happily supplied the info. Since then we’ve never heard a thing - until this morning when our tenant called us.
We definitely don’t plan to open the mail. I don’t want to know what’s inside and I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to open someone else’s mail anyway.
H and I just discussed it and he called the current tenant. We’re going to pick up the packages and the tenant is just going to tell the dude he doesn’t have them. Hopefully that will keep him (current tenant) from being in the middle - and keep us from being in the middle too as I don’t want him breaking into our place searching for them. H will call the police on Monday to see how they want to proceed.
We looked up the records. He left our house in July of 2015! Something is really not right about this.
It could be something as innocuous as buying from a site he hasn’t used in years and not noticing that the delivery address is the old one. I definitely agree with the advice @privatebanker gave you but I wouldn’t panic.
No. He only knows two packages came in for him yesterday and neighbors told him the guy came around asking for them. The current tenant called us to see if we had his phone number to get in contact now that he had the packages.
The neighbors said he told them it’s his daughter’s asthma medication, but we find that suspicious because his kids would be grown by now and we don’t recall any of them having asthma. It’s theoretically possible, but if so, wouldn’t she have needed the meds during the last five years too?
We’re not really panicked. Furious is a better term. Considering how nice we were to him (allowing him to pay reduced rent, then no rent during his workman’s comp time - about a year) and then to have him totally trash our place upon leaving (as mentioned before, they even broke fridge shelves, ceiling fans, miniblinds, etc) we don’t have any warm fuzzies for him. Oh, and he got his workman’s comp “win,” but paid us nothing telling us it all went to his lawyers and doctors. The most we got out of it was about $18 in loose change we picked up while cleaning. (I recall going out for an almost free dinner with it - hardly compensation, but we used what we could.)
Just to update, the current tenant gave the packages to the idiot last night when he came looking for them even though we asked him not to. I wanted to pick them up yesterday, but the soonest he said he was available was noon today - guess that was a lie. (sigh)
The previous tenant told him he’s had to move around a lot and needed an address to get things delivered to (happens when you never pay rent or keep a job, but there are parcel post places that will keep packages…).
We asked the current tenant to immediately let us know if he gets more packages in. He says he will, but has already shown he can’t be trusted.
I previously really liked the guy (as a tenant), but am now seriously considering not renewing his lease. Current virus issues aside, it’s never been an issue renting our properties quickly - often less than a day from advertising them. That’s a few months off so we’ll see what happens between now and then. Best case scenario is the idiot goes back to wherever he came from and this just becomes a WTH blip in history.
@Creekland I think that may be unkind. He’s the one living there who had to deal with the previous guy (no doubt a terrible person) showing up for his packages.
Respectfully, @oldmom4896 i think @creekland asked a very reasonable request of her tenant. What the tenant should have done is called @creekland when they knew the former resident was going to show up.
The former tenant could have been violent or dangerous and the current tenant should have been more wary. And respectful of their landlord, who knows more than them.
They absolutely have the right not to rent to a tenant who couldn’t follow a small request.
Also @Creekland offered to pick up the packages but was told that the tenant wasn’t available (maybe because they knew the former tenant was going to show up before they could retrieve them)