News on the evening tv. Milwaukee. Landlord murdered by tenant over a $30 raise in rent. Tenant was sentenced today. Turns out tenant said he had "mental illness". Ya' think?

What gets me is I've read that about 20 percent of the general population is said to have a mental illness.( Don't remember where I read it or even if it's actually true. From experience with tenants, I'd suspect it's higher, but that's just counting C grade tenants and rejects, C grade tenants being most of my units) A and B tenants, maybe not so much.

Still, as far as I heard, this wasn't an eviction but just a rent increase.

Trusts. Land trusts. Offshore trusts.

Use lawyer for service.

Many use their own name. That's ok if you're ok with it. Some people are not concerned.

For me, I am concerned. Most of my places are C type properties. Blue collar, people on "disability". Heck, half of them are likely using phony id's, relatives names, alias names. You ever check good and see how many different names some of these people have? First and middle and last names transposed? Kids names used? Parents and grandparents names?

Had one recently with over 10 different alias's. Believe me, people living on the edge of poverty do this all the time.

Don't know if this was the same story, but I see obvious problems here with the LL's process. I don't bother hiding my name and claiming I'm the manager, however, I insist on being the manager. I'm not justifying the murderers actions, but from the excerpt below, here were the LL's management problems:

1) Collecting cash in person

2) A screening failure. The excerpt says right after killing the LL, the tenant left as he had to submit a urine sample because he as on federal probation.

Now, it could have occurred under other circumstances, but given these, the LL unfortunately increased his chances of something going wrong.

"When questioned by police, Tilley said he paid the landlord $560 in cash for rent and was told the rent was being increased by $30, which he said upset him. Tilley initially said he didn’t have an altercation with the landlord, but when asked if he shot him, he said “yep," according to the complaint.

In the complaint, Tilley said he had a handgun in his hoodie picket and while they were talking in the garage the landlord turned away from him and he shot him in the back of the head.

Following the shooting, Tilley said he took money out of the landlord’s pocket and his car keys. He later admitted to abandoning the car around 13th Street and Oklahoma Avenue, the complaint said. The man said he went to Walmart and bought new clothes, leaving his old ones there.

More on the tenant murderer confirming a complete screening failure. This guy should have never been rented to and it doesn't sound like he slipped in but was directly on the lease. There is no way I'm renting to someone with multiple felony convictions. Heck, I won't consider multiple misdemeanors either.

"WISN in Milwaukee reported that Tilley faces life in prison if convicted of murder and 10 years if convicted of the weapons charge. Wisconsin court records show an extensive criminal history for Tilley, who has previously faced charges including robbery, battery, burglary, cocaine possession and driving with a revoked license.

All those cases, stemming from 1998 to 2011, are listed as closed. Most of them ended with felony convictions.

Gkarl, that’s the story. I heard a bit of the sentencing on the news, but wasn’t really paying attention. I thought the sentencing was for the murder of the city inspector.

{{{{{{{{........I believe that Seattle has passed a law that LLs CANNOT use a tenants criminal record to prevent you from renting to them .......}}}}}}}}

And Oregon forbids using evictions unless they are very recent and forbids using criminal convictions unless they are very recent, and makes it illegal to reject Section 8, and there is high relocation money that must be paid in some parts of the state.

Notice to move out and notice of increased rent have been stretched out to 90 days in some areas.

Tenants get out of leases cheaply and easily, but, of course, the landlord is stuck for the duration.

"but must examine each case individually"

There are problems in society and in the criminal justice system, however, those issues are not for LL's to solve. Now if my business model was predicated on creating a special place for felons replete with counseling and whatever else they needed, that's one thing, but to be forced to take this on is quite another. The people who make these sorts of laws should be forced to live with them. Let them be LL's faced with vetting tenants and managing properties and let's see how they feel about it. Let them manage through the consequences of the law via direct experience.

Minneapolis passed a law that landlords must accept Section 8. Fortunately a judge struck it down last spring.

I keep reading articles about barriers to housing and barriers to affordability. Past eviction record and criminal records keep being mentioned as barriers.

Meanwhile Minneapolis is trying to pass a requirement that homes must be inspected for insulation and draftiness. This would require drilling a hole in the wall to check for insulation and to do a special test to report how air tight the home it. So they worry about ways to make housing more affordable and then they add regulations.

It doesn't matter if the house is in LLC or trust. Every landlord who shows up in person to meet an applicant or a tenant is at risk. All it takes is their brother in a truck parked down the street waiting for you to leave and follow you to your house.

Probably do not talk to them unless we know they are decent people. I am scared to answer the phone for people I do not know.

Richard,

Thanks for posting this story.

I use a nickname, not my own name when dealing with prospects or residents. What difference does MY name make to them? All helpers use nicknames for their own safety. Company policy.

Props are in business, LLC, trust names.

ALL mail and deliveries go to The UPS Store box, even magazines.

The box address is used for all rosters, directories, etc - like school, sports, church...

Have LLs figured out the internet is collecting all these addresses, phone numbers and matching them up? Remember all the websites we talk about that give out info on our skips?

Some LLs seem to brag about how everyone knows them, small town, gotta be "honest"...I say "Wanna be right or alive?" Gotta choose. Like the old seatbelt slogan "Don't be dead right."

Screening is only a START, not an end all to safety. We've had plenty of residents with high credit scores, great jobs, nice families...who were also bi-polar - great one day then a spawn from the underworld on the next day.

Residents have extended family, bad boyfriends, work acquaintances, drug dealers...who are not screened but are in and out of our properties.

PS

We rent to people on parole or ankle bracelet in our lower priced units. It's normal for that crowd.

Also, arrests and parole/work release can come AFTER screening and leasing.