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Old 06-12-2008, 05:37 PM
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Wink Homeless Tenants???!!!!

Does anyone have any ideas on how to get rid of my homeless loittering tenants? I have had numerous complaints, and they are scaring the customers and staff. For instance we have some that talk to themselves and curse. We have one that vomits all over the place, and the others use the halls as a bathroom!!!! We continually have to keep kicking them off the property. This takes a lot of time when you have 1191 other units to take care of..... Please if anyone has any ideas please let me know!!!!

Thanks and take care!!
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Old 06-12-2008, 06:38 PM
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Wink Is one of your units being rented...

...by one of these transients? In a similar situation that I am familiar with, a transient individual rented a unit, then offered the passcode to various others who used it as a base for all sorts of activities- everything from a changing room to ???? In order to fix your problem, I would suggest searching for the source of a possible "community" space, and promptly evict that tenant (following your local statutes, of course). Place signage which cites local loitering ordinance, and ask for police co-operation in the form of routine evening patrols. If your facility is near a local homeless shelter, pay a visit to the administrator and ask his/her cooperation in your communication efforts...

Good Luck with this one...
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Old 06-12-2008, 06:58 PM
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Wink Another thought just came to mind...

Careless use of "Free 24 Hour Access" can lead to or contribute to this very problem! For this reason, we strictly limit 24 hour access to bonafied commercial concerns and to residential customers who can prove a legitimate need. Most tenants never use it anyway, and can be easily convinced to accept your normal access hours...

John Roser
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Old 06-13-2008, 05:16 PM
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I learned quickly that my homeless prospects use the address of the Salvation Army shelter as their "home address" when trying to rent a unit.

I haven't had a problem in the last 6 months, since I memorized the address and can now spot it quickly when someone tries to use it to rent a unit.

The other thing we do, since we live on site, is at least once a week, my husband and I take a leisurely stroll around the facility, say about 11:00 pm. It's good exercise, and you can tell real quickly which rented units don't have a lock on them.......meaning someone is inside in the dark with the door shut after hours.
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Old 06-16-2008, 07:53 AM
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We have had this problems, however they were sleeping in vacate units. So we went and put those cheap blue locks thru Chatau on all our vacate a/c units. They tend to leave the non a/c units alone here in Florida, just a little to hot. We have 2 tenants we know that are homeless and we have been very nice to them and have that little talk to them ever once in awhile as well as let them know we do random checks on our property through out the night. We also get home late from our Karate school that we own and check the buildings then as well as our gate activity. We have earned there respect and they have not done us wrong in almost a year now. They are just looking for a place to store what little they do have as in the shelters it will get stolen. One of our homeless was betting in the shelter and was in the hospital and called us to let us know he would be late on his rent by 1 day. We try to give them respect as they are good guys just down on there luck.
However we do have a clause for this and if we catch them sleeping in any unit we have the right to cancel there contract within 24 hrs. Therefor they will have to vacate the next day. We also do not have 24 hr access to residental!
One suggestion if you are checking your site nightly you will need to change the time you go every now and then as they will watch you and get a good idea to when you do your walk thrus and will avoid this time of night to be onsite. They hae become good at this game due to the police activity they go thru daily. I hope this helps someone.
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Old 06-16-2008, 11:24 AM
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Good reason why a site should ALWAYS have an exit keypad, too. The activity log within an access control system lets you know if someone is staying the night, or staying for what seem like exceedingly long hours for a storage facility. It also gives you a clue regarding a tenant giving his/her code to numerous others.
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Old 06-17-2008, 06:05 AM
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We do have the exit key pad and it makes the tenants mad. They want to drive up and just have it open for them. We love the exit key pad for the reason of tracking when ppl are over staying. We as live onsite managers love it to see if our 16 yo is sneeking out, plus it is on camera

And people will give there code out to others. We just asked someone to vacate due to about 6 strange people coming and going at weird hours. We beleve they were doing drugs in the unit as we found needles when they left.
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Old 06-27-2008, 02:54 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by discountmini View Post
However we do have a clause for this and if we catch them sleeping in any unit we have the right to cancel there contract within 24 hrs. Therefor they will have to vacate the next day.

We want to add something to the same effect to our lease. Would you mind sharing how yours is worded so we have something to go off of?

Much appreciated!
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Old 07-02-2008, 11:19 AM
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Default Homeless Loitering

I literally had someone using a non-climate controlled unit as a home - came out and caught them after our allowed posted hours - asked them to leave twice without police, then the third time had the police remove them. Then gave them a letter that they had until the end of the month to remove their items or if the items were left we would remove the property and dispose of ourselves. They were both deaf so hearing the other units opening and closing never disturbed them. I also told them that they would not be allowed to make a new month's payment as they were being removed from the computer.

Contact your company's lawyer and check out your lease - it SHOULD state in there that living in the unit is not allowed. Tell them you are going change their access hours and then do so! You should be allowed to do this as a necessity with your contract as well. Their disregard for your property and other tenants is enough to evict them from the unit.

Good Luck!
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