In anger and frustration it's easy to take that little step that goes over the line between legal and illegal. Know ahead of time what you can't do because if you threaten, intimidate, or retaliate against a difficult tenant, you might find yourself in court with a very unsympathetic judge. State laws prohibit trespass, assault, battery, slander, libel, inflicting emotional distress, and wrongful eviction, and many states permit costly monetary judgments when a landlord is found guilty of these things. Landlords cannot:
Shut down utilities
Change locks to keep tenants out
Toss tenants' belongings out on the curb
Deliberately let the sewer back up
Take anything from the tenant
Harm tenants' pets
Threaten or intimidate tenants
Deliberately make excessive noise
As frustrating as it is to have a difficult tenant, the last thing you want to do is make things worse by losing your temper, inciting retaliatory reactions, or breaking the law. There are more subtle ways to encourage a tenant to move, preferably before you have to pay money for the eviction proceedings, and it might be worthwhile to try them.
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