Understanding the eviction process and knowing what to avoid can help ensure a quick and relatively hassle-free eviction. i recently found out from the neighbor that the landlord wanted him to sign a paper stating that i was using illegal drugs in his house. [T]he father of Megan Thorsen's unborn child, also resided there. NEXT: Will Lawyers Be Punishable for Using the "Wrong" Pronouns to Refer to Transgender People in "Social" or "Bar Association" Activities? There’s obviously other factors involved, but any regulatory theory that depends on the altruism of landlords to pass savings on to tenants is doomed, at least in my view. I don’t really see what the property owner could have done to keep him from taking the drugs. Valid reasons for eviction may include illegal or criminal activity taking place within the rental premises. Landlords should note that in the vast majority of eviction cases raised on these grounds, the court will grant eviction if the criminal offences are of a serious nature. The dissent is plainly wrong because it asserts a duty far beyond the “ordinary care or skill in the management of the person’s property”. 12.9.2020 1:00 PM. Jacob Sullum We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. In order to evict a tenant for drug use, the landlord will need to call law enforcement. Bjerk had bought ketamine elsewhere and taken it to the house, where he consumed it, in the company of several people, including Nick Thorsen. Do Landlords Have a Duty to Evict Drug-Using Tenants (or Face Liability if Guests Die When Using Drugs with Them)? If the court sides with you that the squatter should be removed, you can use the court order to have them removed from your property by the authorities. The duty implied by the dissent would in fact be quite extraordinary. Comments do not represent the views of Reason.com or Reason Foundation. This involves properly serving the tenant with a summons and complaint for eviction. That’s what gentrification is all about. Also the regulation at issue isn’t, at least in the real world, a tenant-friendly rule. God willing; you’ll never (and I’ll never) be placed in such a terrible situation. We don’t yet have an officially reported case in California on whether a landlord has the right to get a court order declaring a lease terminated and evicting the tenant based solely on the tenant’s use of medical marijuana. Landlords may usually use a 30-Day or 60-Day Notice to Vacate to end a month-to-month tenancy when the tenant has not done anything wrong. The justices declined to intervene on behalf of Republicans who challenged absentee voting in Pennsylvania. To be sure, a duty to warn would be less onerous than a duty to exclude or control Nick and thereby protect Nick's friends and associates from harming themselves at the house. Charles Oliver The Order went into effect on September 4, 2020, and prohibits residential landlords nationwide from evicting certain tenants through December 31, 2020. “Hey, our kid died! We hope that if your tenant is smoking indoors, they’re at least using an ashtray. To impose the duty asserted by the Bjerks would place on those in possession or control of property a powerful incentive to refuse entry or occupancy to anyone with a history of drug use. How difficult will it be to evict a drug dealing tenant? Chief Justice Vandewalle seems to be trying to argue that the defendant is supposed to protect the deceased from actions taken by the deceased. Editor's Note: We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic. If you would like advice on how to evict a drug dealing tenant, please do not hesitate to get in touch with our court team. Since when is a non-participant responsible for another’s actions? Bjerk’s death was his own fault and [except for the seller of the dope] no other person shares any legal or even moral responsibility. Follow the proper eviction procedures, and do not attempt to evict the tenant yourself. Strange how the person that they tried to ascribe blame to conveniently happened to have the deepest pockets, rather than the people actually involved in the death. 1. I do NOT agree with their decision to sue, and I agree 100% with the majority opinion in this case. Thanks much. Here, there is no showing that Anderson personally facilitated drug use at the house or knowingly permitted the house's occupants to maintain the house for ongoing drug use. Also supporting that inference were Nick's prior drug charges and treatment history, and Anderson's own statement that he knew the Thorsen kids "were into drugs." Illicit drug use; Property damage; Breaking any contract terms or agreements ... you can file a suit for eviction. | Though most landlords I know have horror stories, so this is far from a costless decisions. Eviction of Tenant for Drug Use. Sigh. I recently rented a room in my home to a person that I thought I could trust. ), So, it looks like you really are claiming that the existing law never calls for liability for a non-participant. When there’s a conflict, the law is going to come down on the side of tenant or landlord. I think there’s a big chicken-egg problem because people look to a low-income slum and think how unfair it horrible it must be to live there, and surely we can solve the problem by just making the landlords treat the tenants better. If the tenant fights the eviction, it can take 3-6 months in most states. A tenant can be evicted for numerous reasons, but typically evictions take place where the tenant is in violation of one or more provisions of the lease agreement. …, Generally, negligence actions involve issues of fact and are inappropriate for summary judgment. Christian Britschgi Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent, Eugene Volokh Before we would impose such a duty of care, we would require a higher degree of foreseeability arising from specific knowledge and prior events. You wish to evict the tenant for your own reasons, and your state's laws entitle you to do so. If recognized, such duties would essentially make Anderson a mandatory reporter of all suspected dangerous illegal activity or convert him from a landowner into something akin to a police officer or probation officer with respect to those on his property…. The evidence of the use of the premises for unlawful drug purposes and the evidence of the owner's knowledge of those facts is sparse. | Indeed, for purposes of summary judgment, Anderson conceded that drugs had been consumed on the premises. They will give tenant eviction notices even when people are paying their rent on time and meeting terms of the rental agreement. As between tenants and landlords, who do you think pays for the cost? There is no written lease between them and rentals were not paid as a condition of its use…. Pretty slimy act by the deceased parents. Bjerk bought drugs elsewhere, consumed them, was told to leave, and died. Yes, personal use of a property is generally an accepted cause for eviction. | …. In addition, if the lease is well-written, you likely have a clause that allows you to evict if the tenant's guests are engaging in those activities. I am inclined to think that when a legislature passes a really, really open-ended statute, courts have to fill in the gaps somewhat. That should indicate that landlords don’t abound quite as much as we would like them to. The people who lease to the poor just move farther away. In my jurisdiction, under so-called drug forfeiture laws, owners can actually los 12.9.2020 1:16 PM, Scott Shackford But he never left his house. People in drug treatment and other stages of recovery need a place to live if they are to end the cycle of addiction. It’s not clear that regulations that increase the cost of providing housing, drive down the levels of affordable housing? In this case, the tenant and their household members could be evicted for their guest’s drug use even if they did not know the guest was using drugs. Julie Thorsen is Anderson's ex-girlfriend as of 2009, but she was and remains his employee. Each state has specific rules for evicting a tenant and if you fail to follow these rules correctly, you may be forced to start the eviction process all over again. How to Evict a Tenant for Renovations, Drug Use… Matt, the website you've posted is very useful and I will keep it for future reference in case I need to use it. And no judge who follows the law and obeys existing precedent is ever an idiot…even in cases where we think a different result should be reached. I am being evicted for "illegal drug use". One might infer that Anderson should have known there were drugs in the house on at least an occasional basis, because the paraphernalia found by police the day after Bjerk's death may have been indicative of how the house had been kept previously. He held that it was not reasonable to grant the order. For these when it comes to inspection time evict a tenant who had been convicted of cultivating cannabis within. 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