Is there a surefire way to avoid having to evict bad tenants?

No, but there’s one way that’s pretty gnat hair close.

Here’s a case of a distressed homeowner in Australia dealing with something I hope none of us will ever have to face…

This distressed homeowner  managed to kick out a squatter who had squatted  in his house for 18 months.

He got to bring charges against the squatter but landlords generally are doing well just to get human beings like this out.

The homeowner who is elderly and had been ill, had left with his daughter in August, 2007 to recover.

After his recovery he returned to find the squatter named Kraig Jeffrey Young, his two children, two kittens and one dog living rent free in his home.

And the squatting Youngs had done quite a bit of damage.  They even took the senior citizen’s car and left it somewhere else.

Squatter lived free for 18 months

Okay.

How could something like this happen?

Folks, I’ve got a news bulletin here.  It happens to unwary landlords all the time.

I don’t know about you, but the thing that riles my blood pressure spiking up faster than summer lightning   is somebody moving into one of our  properties who is not supposed to be there, or a bad tenant not moving out  while not paying rent.

That’s my definition of a squatter

Yeah, I know.  But it can be prevented.

How?

In this homeowner’s case, he should have checked on the property periodically or at least had someone else do it for him.

That’s one reason why we work so hard to build social credit with our neighbors.  Okay, maybe some of us go overboard occasionally, much to our neighbors’ advantage…

And I’ll bet I get the award for that after babysitting my next door neighbor’s three dogs recently. I actually poured olive oil over their Gravy Train  and then sprinkled Kraft cheese on top just like they told me too. (Believe me, I’m not making this up. I’m not that creative.)

Preventing Bad Tenants and Squatters

But there is one sure way (I’ll give the quick and dirty version) to prevent squatters in our real estate properties.

That involves a system of  screening which is almost fool proof.

Get a credit report.  This is your prospective tenant’s financial  rap sheet.  It will tell just about everything, or most of what you need to know.

If you need to take it a step further you can also get a criminal background check.

But always check with your local governments to know exactly what is legal in your area and never discriminate.

But if somebody doesn’t pay his  bills  you don’t have to take that kind of problem on.

Now having said that, will it stop evictions totally?  No, but your record will most likely be a very good one.  (My Dad has only evicted two bad tenants in 50 years.)

We’ll talk more about this in future posts because it is critical we get this right.