5 months ago, I rented a house to single male in his early thirties. 2 weeks ago, he gave notice that he was moving out on Sept. 10th and he did leaving the house remarkable clean. He always paid rent on the 1st and I never had any problem with this tenant.

Yesterday morning I go over to check on things and the neighbor across the street came over and wanted to give me an earful of what my homosexual tenant had been 'doing' during the 5 months that he was there. I told the neighbor I did not have time to listen to him yesterday but I would come back today and listen to what he has to say. That conversation is going to happen in 2 hours.

When a neighbor approaches you and wants to give you an earful of information of what your previous tenant was doing,....how do you deal with this? Do you welcome this or do you ignore it as something that is not any of your business? The few times I have rented to gays, there is always a neighbor that has an opinion about it.

Train the neighbor in fair housing - let them know that you may understand their concern, the law is incredibly clear on the matter.

I would then use this as an opportunity to have them provide me referrals of future residents. Strangely, those who have the most to complain about - are the ones that rarely provide referrals to me. So you allow them to get the last word in - a referral and then you move on after listening five minutes. There is value in keeping the peace, but not listening to what anyone person's opinion of what is moral behavior.

As the rentals turnover,

so do the days of life.

Tenant is gone. Ridiculous to even engage in a conversation about their sex life or any part of their life.

Even if they were still there, ridiculous to talk about your tenant's private life with a random neighbor.

I do not entertain such conversations from anyone. Tell Mr. Nosy Neighbor your tenant's bedroom activity is none of your business and none of theirs either.

You could note to that neighbor that you thank the person for their time but that you have issues to address with the house. Then leave to do your work as you smile.

Okay, I now have an earful and both ears are filled too. I can not post here what was told to me but I can say this. It appears that my tenant was bi-sexual and may have been a person who was addicted to sex. According to my neighbor, both male and female prostitutes were visiting my tenant on a regular basis. Most of the sex acts happened at night, inside the house, however, some did happen right in the front yard! On 3 separate occasions, the police were called to the house. My neighbor told me he witnessed (across the street using binoculars) 2 men having anal intercourse on the front porch one night while a wild party was going on inside the house.

Plenty,

At move-in, he claimed to have no pets. However, the man I hired to mow his lawn took pictures of a dog in the backyard. I will dock him $30.00/month and a registration fee for that unauthorized pet.

This house has Allure planks in every room and that will need to be mopped but other than that, the house looks fine. I have yet to find any damages that would normally occur from wild sex parties going on.

I would listen to what he has to say and then ask "so what would you do if you were in my shoes" and then when he states he wouldn't rent to men or gay men, I would interrupt and simply say "that's not legal" every time he mentions something that isn't legal to do.

This way, you're not ignoring him, you're just educating them as to what the law is and enforcing that you're not planning to break the law. You might also ask him if he would like to buy the property and then he can run it the way he wants.

Would I return the deposit? Of course I would, minus any legitimate repairs. He left the house in good condition and it is none of your business who he was having sex with.

You might suggest to the neighbor that he call you when the police are at the house and not wait and tell you after the tenant moved out. Although, probably it was him calling the police after he watched your tenant with binoculars.

I don't want to know the neighbors in the C neighborhoods, way too much drama. I use two different statements, its' against the fair housing laws, and I have way less authority than the police so call them, sometimes they get both statements as I walk off.

Definitely hear them out, then as others said, train them in fair housing laws. Why not, the problem is already solved by their moving.

Never miss an opportunity to develop and cultivate a snitch. Let the neighbors know you care about the neighborhood and has its best interests at heart.

On March 29, 2022, I made a post titled 'Sight Unseen' in which I had been contacted by a Zillow applicant that lived in Florida. He came here from FL on a job transfer. I did not meet him or even show him the house until the day he arrived in which he paid the move-in monies and signed the lease. I thought I had screened this applicant pretty good and his credentials online looked great.

ROFL!!

Mayb you would have been better off not listening to the neighbor as now you are hung up on the subject matter.

You should be friendly with the neighbors but have selective hearing.

If the house is clean, no damages, and ready to rent, then yes, I would give him the deposit back. Isn't that ultimately what you are supposed to go by?

Why didn't you address the animal at the time you found out about it?

Don't you wish you had an ELT in your lease? This guy might have paid it.

6x6,

This ex-tenant is typical of most of my tenants in that he will not give me a forwarding address to send a final accounting statement to. I have asked him twice (in text) for a forwarding address and he ignores me on it. However, this does not stop him from continuing to text me about when his $700 deposit will be returned. I think wants me to do a direct deposit into his account which I will not do. This is the reason 90% of my ex-tenants do not get any deposit returned,..there is no place to mail it to.

Also, I did not know about the dog until after he gave me a 2 week notice to move.

“This house has Allure planks in every room and that will need to be mopped…”

Yea you’re definitely gonna want to mop that floor. Hahahahaha

“I have yet to find any damages that would normally occur from wild sex parties going on.”

I feel like this sentence is hiding some crazy story that a few bud lights would bring out.

Jason,

I only gave the R-rated version of what the neighbor across the street told me this morning. Yes, there is more to this story than what I have posted here.

Another thing, the neighbor here is being truthful and he is not some type of creep or peeping tom. He only did what came natural to most people. I mean really, if you saw two naked men on the front porch across the street humping each other,..you would look too,.. because this is something you don't see everyday!

Ken - My lease is clear here - LL has 45 days to return any unused security deposit and a U.S. Postal Mail forwarding address must be provided by tenant.

Roy, HOW WILL YOU KNOW if someone is gay? Yes, some people are more "flamboyant" and obvious than some - some lesbians too - but for the most part, being gay or lesbians is not a badge you were on your arm like a yellow star or a MAGA hat.

WMH,

Your question is good but I do not have a good answer for it.

IBTL - LOL - OMG! I can't leave you kids alone for even two weeks without wild sex parties exploding!

I'd hazard a guess that the Alabama outback is maybe not the best place for a gay/bi/whatever fellow from Florida to expect acceptence from the locals. Though it sounds like he had plenty of company for a newcomer. LOL

Most of you know my background, but you probably don't realize we live in the heart of Maga country, I mean Paul Gosar (gawd help us) is our Rep in congress. But in ten years here full-time and 30 years part-time I never had anyone say anything untoward or felt discriminated against for my relationship or who we are. Maybe the fact that we don't throw wild late night parties and we try to be good neighbors has something to do with it. Or that we are in a "class A" neighborhood.

Our county is also home to the Warren Jeffs group of FLDS polygamist mormons. I used to train security in their area, and other than a few of the "minor attracted" men who went to jail for "marrying" 13 year olds, I find mormons to be nice, hard working folks. While we aren't exactly invited to church, I've never had a mormon say an ugly word to me. Something I can't say for supposedly "woke" California.

My point is there are good and bad people of all kinds. We don't judge all mormons because of a few old perves who caused great harm to others. We don't say, "I'll never rent to a mormon," because of one dude.

Roy, you know me, I hope this one guy won't sour you on all lgbt folks. My suggestion is just keep on doing what you've always done screening wise. Tell the neighbor you understand his concerns and you try your best to find good tenants who will be good neighbors.

And finally, it doesn't seem like he tore up the place. I don't think you can decuct for eye bleach. So I'd refund his deposit, add another crazy story to your landlording memoirs and move on to the next tennant, and their drama.

At least you have a good spy to keep you informed of any goings on. :D

-

I'm also thinking the neighbor was irritated he wasn't invited to the parties. LOL

I DON'T CARE who my tenants sleep with. In an ideal world, I don't even know.

We have rented to all kinds. Some of the alternate lifestyle people have been some of our best tenants.

And Roy, you know me too... I'm a conservative Christian and believe what the Bible says.

While it does condemn specific actions, it also says to love our neighbors, love our brothers and sisters, and love our enemies. Pretty much everyone falls into one class or another.

My last lady couple left us just a few months ago. At our final meeting I was hot, sweaty, and stinky from working an outdoor job, but they both insisted on hugging me before they left.

LTD,

Good to hear from you on this unpleasant topic.

I first need to apologize and say I need to be more careful about what I post here in that some of the comments I have made here have been taken out context here. For example, when I asked the question "Should I return his deposit?",..I was just joking (being sarcastic) when I made that off-the-cuff comment. In addition, when made the comment "I will not rent to gays anymore' that was a knee-jerk reaction to being shell-shocked by what the neighbors had told me about my tenant who was a sex maniac. So, to set the record straight here, I will rent to gays again,..so please don't rat me out to the HUD fair housing authorities,..LOL.

Every body understands that we can lose your head and something said can be taken out of context.

Also everybody understands accountability.

So I'll tell you what - pay the $10,000 legal fees to fight a federal law suite and the $15,000 fair housing fine to the Fair Housing Enforcement team and I am sure they will be happy to call it even.

These are real numbers folks. I hope they are eye opening.

The issue isn't "gay", Roy. I had a married couple who sounded good at the first encounter, but they had a really odd email address. I googled on the email address and they were running a commercial swingers club out of their home. Not a group of friends, it was spay to play.

Oregon,

^^^^ Absolutely, and I'd be the first one to call the cops if it was in my neighborhood. Hope I didn't come across as sticking up for his debauchery.

Then there's our town. Apparently the new trend for crazy folks is taking their clothes off and walking down the center of the highway! Men and women. Three times this summer. I know it's hot, but really? I don't get out enough I guess so I've missed that eyefull. LOL

Oh and in todays paper, we had a DUI motor vehicle accident IN the car wash! A drunk apparently drove into the "tunnel" and rear ended the car in front, jamming up the whole thing.

Can't make this stuff up. :D

LTD,

Back in the 70's it was called 'streaking' where naked college students would run naked in public. Maybe it was a Fraternity /Sorority initiation thing? I remember being at a college football game and somebody ran naked down the field and I think the referee tackled him at the goal line,...LOL.