State Specific Question About: COLORADO (CO)

This is a bad situation. The one thing landlords fear most, being accused of sexual harassment or asking for sexual favors. I've been accused or threatened by tenants they will make accusations unless I give them "Special Treatment" like reduced rent or "extras" with the tenancy for free.

This is where you need to seek the aid of your attorney to document this for your own protection. I myself had a micro voice activated audio recorder and a pocket pen that has a pin hole with a HD video/audio recorder too.

Then all further communication is done with text'ed messages such as scheduled repairs or permission to enter their unit.

What should you do? Keep your mouth shut and let it pass.

can't beat um-- join um!!!

"They sent me graphic pictures... they asked me to graphic things... "I'm flattered, but I can't...""

Duh. That's not how you deal with stuff like that. #1, you don't regretfully decline, you squelch. Or you ignore.

#2, you understand immediately that it's not your personal charm and attraction; a trail is being laid, and you are being set up. The way to counteract that kind of trap is to loudly set your own counter-trail of events. You say you're a property management employee--- that's where you talk to your boss (and anyone else within earshot) --"Hey, the new tenants at [address] are sending me obscene photos. I want to be professional, but this is really inappropriate. What do you advise?"

#3, it's cool that you were a nice person and helped them move from their car into a place, and you got them furniture. No good deed goes unpunished. We understand that-- and we do good deeds anyways. But at some point, you have to realize that their actions indicated they had zero respect for you, and that you wanted them to succeed more than they wanted to succeed.

#4, the best way to make blackmail go away is to shine light on it. If your boss is "continuing to meet with them to investigate", give them a copy of your text and email records. If they're continuing to threaten you, make sure they get a copy of that, too. If you've got an app on your phone that records conversations, burn a CD. If your biggest crime is being naive and not knowing when you're being conned-- well, that's okay.

I was recently reading a book about con artists in the 1900's-1940's. There was a bit where one of the con artists interviewed said, "You can't cheat an honest man." I had never understood that phrase, because it seems like honest men get preyed upon all the time! :) But the explanation was that a lot of these con games are played by using the victim's vices against him--- usually his greed, but lust works, too -- and then using that to put him in a bad position, so that when the con is pulled off, he's reluctant to go to the police, because it would involve him having to expose his own wrongdoing. So in that case, an honest man isn't going to be susceptible to the big scams these guys were working, because even though he might be tempted by money in theory, he wouldn't be tempted to do x to get it, and thereby is safe from falling into the con men's trap.

Deanna, what's the name of the book? Sounds interesting.

Mike/CO, document everything, as recommended above. Everything. If you get fired you will need an attorney.

Bummer.

I'm hoping you saved copies of the pictures and messages they sent you? If so, it should be easy to prove they harrassed you, not the other way around.

If not, it becomes more challenging.

We live in a MeToo world... the accused is often guilty until proven innocent, and even then some will insist you're guilty. To avoid that you must be above reproach.

I recommend talking with your employer and making a statement on record. It sounds to me like they did not properly train you with how to deal with tenants. Giving them furniture and helping them move-in crosses a boundary line that no "professional" property manager should cross.

Now I'm going to ask a personal question...you REALLY didn't know these guys AT ALL before they moved in? This story just sounds little too contrived. I've been in this business since 2005 and have never been tempted even on time to help tenants move somewhere after they were living in a car, nor would I have entertained the idea for one second of giving them free stuff. And then they were allowed to live in the place without paying rent for 3 MONTHS?

WMH, "The Big Con", by David W. Maurer. It was written in 1940. His thing was linguistics--- but it was pretty much the definitive work on confidence games for much of the 20th century.

His first premise is-- "A confidence man only prospers because of the fundamental dishonesty of his victims."

But another passage that struck home was--

"Most marks come from the upper strata of society, which, in America, means that they have made, married, or inherited money. Because of this, they acquire status which in time they come to attribute to some inherent superiority, especially as regards matters of sound judgment in finance and investment. Friends and associates, themselves social climbers and sycophants, helped to maintain the solution of superiority. Eventually, the mark comes to regard himself as a person of vision and even of genius. Thus a Babbitt who has cleared half a million in a real estate development easily forgets the part which luck and chicanery have played in his financial rise; he accepts his mantle of respectability without question; he naïvely attributes his success to sound business judgment. And any confidence man will testify that a real-estate man is the fattest and juiciest of suckers."

What sort of property management company allows a tenant to not pay for three months before evicting?

You didn't save those emails?

OREGON WOODSMOKE -- hey let's not jump the gun until we see the pic's????

In the context that you are a bonafied poster (teni moving from car living is suspicious),

After the first improper contact you should have notified your company and they should have assigned someone else to the unit.

I myself received dck pics from a prospect, not much legally that can be done about it but I saved them to the hidden file storage on my phone, in case it ever happens again and then I can establish a pattern of harassment. People are ugly and you have to be on your guard.

Had a tenant accuse me of discrimination for them being gay and filed a complaint w/ NYS human rights commission.

It was no joke and took a significant amount of time to defend against. There was a full investigation which I was cleared of charges because I have other protected class tenants who vouched for me. I also had email and phone records to back me up (texting wasn't a big thing back then).

And BTW if you are flattered by their attention why can't you play with them? What you do on your personal time and with whom is your prerogative. So don't say you are flattered if you are not.

Mike: You need to talk to a specialist in employment law.

Can customers sexually harass employees? Yep. Had you notified your employer at the time the incidents occurred, they would have had a duty to investigate.

Since the deadbeats filed a complaint, the employer has a duty to investigate now.

You claim to have a mountain of evidence showing they harassed you. Copy it, and distribute it. Give a copy to your lawyer, and to your boss. Since they are wrongfully accusing you of harassment, have your lawyer sue them for anything related to harassment, slander, etc. Then sue them for sexual harassment.

Once you build a case against them, your boss will have no choice but to believe you. If not, the day they fire you, you collect the evidence, the court cases, and sue your boss and the company for wrongful termination.

Make them all pay then they'll go away. Don't get stressed about it, get rich off of it. Once you lawyer up and start collecting a body count, that momentum will either help you look innocent to your boss and company, or further your case against them.

Yes, you were naive and got taken advantage of. You were working with con artists. They think you're nice so they can take advantage of you, assuming you're not gay, they are also banking on the fact that the threat of a homosexual affair will make either you or your boss uneasy and just want it to go away quietly. Why they were stupid enough to send you pictures and suggestive emails is beyond me so they can't be too good at a con. Maybe they're just social justice warriors. That to me makes more sense given the details.

Ok, Let me clarify the organization I work for...Its the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless...hence the from the car and yes I did a background screening, but our selection criteria gives preference to the homeless. We accept felons with convictions that are only 2 years old...its almost impossible to not get approved.

This also explains the furniture. We get furniture and items donated to give the residents and that is where the furniture came from. Until they came in to fill out their application, I had never met them. I have been very direct with them about being their manager and not their friend.

You need to talk to an employment law attorney who represents employees.

I suggest you begin by googling "NELA Attorney", and go from there.

Most successful attorneys will charge you for a consultation. An hour of their time can save you a great deal of pain.

My advice:

Stay on the organization to complete this investigation and absolve you. Get it in writing and keep that with you for the rest of your life. Make sure there's no black mark in your employment file. Sue the Coalition if there is. Pray you never get into another situation like this because it will cause this incident to resurface.

Thank you for the advice and support.Tomorrow, late afternoon, I have been summoned by HR to discuss the "resident situation"...

The extorters have been evicted but they have escalated their accusations.

Both the meeting tomorrow and that they haven't backed off makes me beyond nervous.

While I was taking pix of the damage they left behind I found a broken glass pipe with white a residue in it. I assume it's meth and they were smoking it in the unit. Adding insult to injury now, if I don't get fired tomorrow, or quit and find another job per the suggestions here, I'll have a meth unit to remediate...

At the end of their stay I noticed different guys coming and going into the building using codes to get in thru the security doors. We use Fobs and I only give access codes to my staff. But these guys were coming and going using codes and going to these guys apartment. I used the codes and the video footage to determine the guys were using 3 or 4 different codes that were assigned to different people... So I disabled them all and assigned a couple new codes to myself, my maintenance, and a phony account. I didn't give the code to the maintenance and they have no access to them. Within 2 days, the guys were coming and going again using codes... The extorters had been hacking into the door security system dialing in thru the number that calls up when they buzz people in.

Meth head hackers accusing anyone of anything, let alone sex harassment,makes me squirm with worry and makes my imagination run rampant. I've seen people get ruined by tweakers stealing their identities.

I agree. Don't say a friggin word, you'll bury yourself because your emotional.

Update:

These guys were evicted. They went to every office and property they could to report the sexual harassment claim.

HR for my company investigated the claims and exonerated me for the sexual harassment claim. They found no evidence that I had acted inappropriately. However, they wrote me up for other violations mostly having to do with possible preferential treatment perception because I text messaged them one morning to remind them of the food bank that we host opening up...I didn't text all my residents and they felt that was not treating them the same. However, I often call my other residents to remind some of them...

Was thinking about you the other day ago. Glad to hear there wasn't any permanent damage... but hopefully it was an education.

One time I was having a telephone conversation with a tenant that was just served with an Unlawful Detainer for eviction, non payment of rent.

The tenant began to threaten me. I had my speaker phone on and a tape recorder taking down the conversation.

After the phone call I played back the recording and made a transcript of the conversation, from the time the threat started.

I then filed a police report and this case went to the City Attorney and ended up at a hearing.

The tenant said they never threatened me. I had give the police a transcript of the conversation. The judge asked me how come I had such a good memory of the conversation. I told the judge that once the tenant started to threaten me and my family, I turned on my tape recorder -- the conversation at my end was on my speaker phone and others in my house could her the conversation, it wasn't private.

Then the judge listed to the tape recording. Nothing illegal about it. So long as other could over hear the conversation and I wasn't trying to entrap my tenant, my transcript was in and the tape recording proved the accuracy of it.

The tenant and his attorney agreed to move within a month, if not, I would press charges....He was given 1 warning.

In my buildings I have signs that people entering the property and building are being recorded. So just because I'm using my portable recording device instead of the fixed camera's with microphones, should be no surprise to anyone.

Robert J: Your story doesn't make much sense. Either of them.

For the first one, CA is a two-party state. It would be illegal for you to record that conversation without their consent -- even if you put it on speakphone. (Heck, the law says that even listening to a phone call without everyone's consent is likely illegal -- so putting them on speakerphone without their knowledge so that your friends/family could listen in might be technically against that code too).

I don't see why a judge would have accepted that in court. It was obtained through illegal wiretapping by CA law.

As for your story about recording a public space. Can you tell me what law in CA makes it illegal for you to capture footage of PUBLIC property? I did some quick research and it seems clear that it is perfectly legal to record video of a public sidewalk and anyone on it. It makes no sense that this was "through own" because it "showed the public sidewalk."

Again, please tell me the CA law that says that you are "not allow to capture footage of any area off my property for the purposes of court use." (Again, this is video -- if you record audio and it captures someone's private conversation on a public area, then that would be illegal for the same reason that your first story doesn't make sense.)

- John...