All floors in my rooming house have separate baths and kitchens and all are instructed to use the facilities on their floor as primary and to only use another floor if the bathroom on their floor is occupied. I had a tenant complain that the toilet on his floor was plugged up with what appeared to be dirt and plant material. He suspected the plant material was marijuana stems. He was unclear about how many stems it was. He used the snake I have on the premises to clear. I go back and watch my camera recordings for a few days to determine who was responsible for this and it turns out to be a long-term tenant who hasn't been much of a problem--so at least I thought. Although I couldn't see into the bathroom, I saw him exit his room with a covered pot and go upstairs and when he came back down, he left his door open and I could see his shadow on the wall waving a towel in front of the smoke detector so as to clear smoke from in front of it. About a couple of hours later I saw the other tenant come downstairs to grab the snake out of the second floor bathroom and take it upstairs. No one else went upstairs,so it was definitely him who plugged the toilet. This went down about 4:30 am.

While searching to isolate the responsible party, I saw on another day his door open and his silhouette waving a towel in front of the smoke detector. My rules say no smoking and definitely no drugs. I can't say for certain what he dumped down the toilet, but it's clear he took a covered pot up there.

I plan on confronting him. What should the sanction be? It can be anywhere from throwing him out to giving him a very stern warning. This same guy is always complaining about other folks not cleaning up after themselves and seems to have an attitude that pops out of nowhere on occasion, but has otherwise paid his rent and hasn't been the source of a bunch of problems. Notwithstanding all of that, I will not tolerate this. Should I throw up out? If not, what should the lesser sanction be?

One thing I may do is give his room a very thorough inspection before even confronting him. I may uncover what it is.

This guy has been with me nearly two years and has one of the nicer rooms also. A few weeks ago, I had an electrician install separate thermostats to control each room's electric baseboards separately. The electrician was there all day attempting to get this done while most of these guys were at work. This guy comes in and he's upset that they're in his room finishing up the work. It was really over a slight inconvenience and then after they're done, he asks me if I plan on raising the rent because if I am, he needs time to find another place. Mind you, no one said anything about raising the rent, just something he conjured up in his mind. This ticked me off as it came off like he's "all that" since he's been there so long--you know how some tenants can get with tenure where they're acting like they're doing you a favor and trying to give me a veiled threat to leave if I raise his rent. By the same token, he doesn't lift a finger to clean the common bathrooms but he does keep his room tidy and pays his rent like clockwork--but that's not special, everyone has to do that anyway as a condition of staying.

I'm almost of the mind to jack his rent, but that would mean allowing him to stay in violation of the rules--particularly with the suspected marijuana. It would probably not be a bad thing to make an example of him and throw him out.

Kick him out.

As the Rooming House Turns.

G,

I’m afraid I would sit and watch the live video feed all day, just out of curiosity!

Which is your concern, smoking or dispaoing of plants down the toilet?

Time for a chat about both.

I’m concerned about that plant material clogging your main line even tho the snake cleared the toilet.

You have to decide would you better off with or without him. You have options:

1. Divulge what you know and give him a warning.

2. Give him notice.

3. Raise rent & hope he'll leave. (I'd be reluctant to do this as it is not treating everyone the same.)

I went and checked his room today and noticed a bunch of unopened cigarette packs and a used ashtray. He's been smoking in the room in violation of the rules. Since I didn't see what went down the toilet, I can't accuse him of anything other than clogging it and potentially clogging the sewer lines. I've confirmed with other tenants that the smoke alarms have been going off on his floor which is why he was fanning the smoke detector---it was probably going off at the time. I have interconnected smokes, so everyone knows when one goes off because theirs will ring also. Here's what I'm going to do:

1) Jack his rent by $ 10 a week.

2) Give him a warning that the next incident of smoking in the building will result in immediate eviction.

3) Have my sewer lines inspected and charge him for the fees. I fully expect that he'll move. I'm holding a prepaid week and his SD, so I'll take it out of them.

His bi-weekly rent is due tomorrow. So, I'll collect that first and then hit him via a formal notice.

Linda: That's a problem which will be corrected. The alarms were only going off on one floor and they probably knew it was smoke that was setting them off hence no alarm.

Ray: There was a string here recently about someone having to do a cleanup in a SFH behind someone that was evicted. That probably occurred after a month or two of non-payment. I'm sure toilets get clogged and other abuse occurs as well. I think it's far more of a hassle to deal bad tenant who hasn't paid and as trashed an entire house after living there rent free for a month or two. I can get rid of a problem tenant in a room immediately. I will never have a situation where someone lives in a room a couple of months while I fight to remove them. I can turn over a room in a day at max. In most instances, it's an hour. The tenants in my rooming house are actually "C Class tenants" priced out of the apartment market as rents have risen sharply in my area. The issues I'm dealing with as far as tenants are concerned, aren't very different than what most others here complain about. I have the distinct benefit of nipping these issues in the bud with the ability to remove at will.

Linda: That's a problem which will be corrected. The alarms were only going off on one floor and they probably knew it was smoke that was setting them off hence no alarm.

Ray: There was a string here recently about someone having to do a cleanup in a SFH behind someone that was evicted. That probably occurred after a month or two of non-payment. I'm sure toilets get clogged and other abuse occurs as well. I think it's far more of a hassle to deal bad tenant who hasn't paid and as trashed an entire house after living there rent free for a month or two. I can get rid of a problem tenant in a room immediately. I will never have a situation where someone lives in a room a couple of months while I fight to remove them. I can turn over a room in a day at max. In most instances, it's an hour. The tenants in my rooming house are actually "C Class tenants" priced out of the apartment market as rents have risen sharply in my area. The issues I'm dealing with as far as tenants are concerned, aren't very different than what most others here complain about. I have the distinct benefit of nipping these issues in the bud with the ability to remove at will.

Linda: That's a problem which will be corrected. The alarms were only going off on one floor and they probably knew it was smoke that was setting them off hence no alarm.

Ray: There was a string here recently about someone having to do a cleanup in a SFH behind someone that was evicted. That probably occurred after a month or two of non-payment. I'm sure toilets get clogged and other abuse occurs as well. I think it's far more of a hassle to deal bad tenant who hasn't paid and as trashed an entire house after living there rent free for a month or two. I can get rid of a problem tenant in a room immediately. I will never have a situation where someone lives in a room a couple of months while I fight to remove them. I can turn over a room in a day at max. In most instances, it's an hour. The tenants in my rooming house are actually "C Class tenants" priced out of the apartment market as rents have risen sharply in my area. The issues I'm dealing with as far as tenants are concerned, aren't very different than what most others here complain about. I have the distinct benefit of nipping these issues in the bud with the ability to remove at will.