How NOT to Handle a Tenant Dispute
Martin is a landlord who’s in way over his head. It happened so quickly, he didn’t see it coming—and now he’s committed to meeting with three of his tenants to try and sort out an escalating game of finger pointing.
Here’s the background: When Betsy, a new tenant, moved into the downstairs unit of his building, she immediately began complaining. First, it was the dishwasher; then, the refrigerator. After appeasing her and replacing both appliances, Martin found himself fielding phone calls at all hours to report her latest grievance: the tenant upstairs, Charlie.
According to Betsy, Charlie is too loud. “He stomps on the floor and plays his music at the highest possible volume.” Martin had a talk with Charlie, who insisted he never wore his shoes in the house and that his music is at a perfectly reasonable volume.
Martin reported this back to Betsy, who insisted he “do something” about Charlie. What Martin did was to ask a third tenant, Abby, about the other two. Abby is a long-term tenant who causes no problems to Martin. Abby said that Charlie's music might be a little loud from time to time, but that Betsy is overreacting.
Betsy’s next move was to call the police when Charlie had friends over for dinner. “His dishwasher is too loud, too,” she said. Martin didn’t know how next to proceed, so he asked all three tenants to meet with him in order to “straighten the whole mess out.”
Why is this a bad idea?
- It demonstrates to tenants that if they complain enough, they will get what they want—attention. It could be that Betsy is just a complainer and likes to push people around and get her way.
- The meeting could spiral out of control. Martin is not a trained mediator, and has no experience in de-escalation tactics. He is not well-equipped to handle a three-way complaint session.
- It’s not Martin’s role to play peacemaker. He is the landlord and his responsibility is limited to making sure tenants uphold the lease agreement.
Most everyone who’s ever lived in multi-family housing knows that you can hear your neighbors, and vice versa. But that’s not the landlord’s problem. If you have tenants like Betsy and Charlie, resist the urge to help them get along; they need to work out their own issues.