Your rights if you suspect yr rental is being used as a Whore House

[QueenBee]

What kind of rights do you have as a landlord if you suspect your rental property is being used as a whore house?

And should you be worried?

QB

[SuperDad]

Are these the same tenants that are using too much power and hanging their fish out to dry? Or have you managed to select another bunch of interesting tenants?

Is there any subletting of rooms going on?
What are the local council bylaws on the activity - can it be carried out in that area?

Paul.

[QueenBee]

haha, no not the same tenants. I just seemed to have one of those weeks last week.

Long story but one of the tenants in another rental (out of town) didn't pay her rent on Tuesday. Tried ringing her and texting her numerous times but to no avail.

Anyway suspected that maybe she had done a runner, so my partner drove up there with his friend on Sunday morning to see if he could see if it looked like she was still living there.

Anyway her friend was there (who was living there until about 3 weeks ago but moved back to Auckland) and said she was looking after the house while the tenant was in Tauranga.

But it was a freezing cold day, and she walks out in hot pants, to the delight of my partner and his mate and tells my partner that her friend didn't tell her she hadn't paid the rent, and gives my partner $200 cash. (The rent is only $150 and she knows that). And gives him her phone number and the tenants cell number (which my partners mate pockets, haha for future reference)

And then my partner is driving down the driveway and the neighbour from two doors down asks my partner "can I help you". My partner - "no - who are you" The guys tells him he's a neighbour, well haven't seen the girls here lately, but lots of cars drive up and down the driveway and there was someone taking pictures of the house last week.

So my partner arrives home and says I think those girls are running a whore house there. Either that, or they are drug dealers. Because how many young 20 yr old girls have $200 cash on them on a Sunday, they are either whores or drug dealers.

And all of a sudden, they think they are experts on telling whether someone is a hooker or not. I said why did you think that. They said, "we could just tell from a mile away!" Well they are guys, and who better to know I spose. Except they really have no reason to suspect this, except that they KNOW!

So I said, well I don't care if it's a whore house, as long as we get our rent. But he had a good point. It's not that it maybe a whore house, it's the things that are associated with it, like the drugs. He didn't want to go into the house because he knew that you are suppose to give them notice of you coming. And we didn't notify her, because she wasn't answering her phone.

Anyway, I said if it was the cops taking the pictures, (for a drug bust or something) it wasn't very good surveillance, because the neighbour saw them and it sounds like he's telling everyone he sees.

So I don't know how I'm suppose to find out all this information, it's not as if she's gonna tell me if I ask her, so I'm not sure what my next move should be.

QB

[The_Dog]

It's a small point, however if the premises are being used for a whore house, then this thread should be moved to the commercial section... :-)

Have you considered popping them onto a commercial lease? Get them to pay the insurance and rates.

The Dog

[LondonKiwi]

Hmmmm....what are those (dummy) shoppers that are sent in by companies to see how good their staff are servicing their clients called?

Maybe you need one of them!

LK

[SuperDad]

So I don't know how I'm suppose to find out all this information, it's not as if she's gonna tell me if I ask her, so I'm not sure what my next move should be.

You could go to the local police station and ask if the premises are known to them.

Paul.

[MJU]

I had this problem in a place once.

A real estate agent thought he had a great deal for me down the street, couldn't remember my name, but knew I owned this other place in the street.

When he finanlly rang me he said he had had difficulty getting out the door with his trousers on.

I had to go around there for another matter and found events interesting. I was offered similar treatment.

I scrathced my head about what to do. I asked a ex vice cop what he thought, and he said I had come close to collecting my last cash rent!

Beofre I knew decided what to do I got notice, by the sounds of things they moved every three months. We talked on the cellphone a few times arranging the exit, and then right beside the public notices, which I read every day, I see the same cell number offering asian relief.

They moved out, rent and bond all square, and I thought that was the end of it.

I found out later that the local car dealers kept turning up at all hours of the day and night asking the new tenants, one of whom at least was an attractive unit if "they were working". They asked me about this because they had no idea what it was about. In my defence I will say I didn't work it out until later.

As landlording experiences go this one at least had rent and bond, even if there was nothing savoury about the rest of it.

[QueenBee]

Hmmmm....what are those (dummy) shoppers that are sent in by companies to see how good their staff are servicing their clients called?

Maybe you need one of them!

LK

haha. I'm sure I'd have no shortage of volunteers for that one!

I've managed get the phone number of another neighbour who said he would keep an eye out for anything strange happening. I'm ringing him tonight to see if he's noticed anything.

[revdev]

Queenbee,

Have you thought about writing a guest chapter in Glenn Morris' long awaited book???

G

[QueenBee]

haha, no I haven't. Who is he?? I should I know.

I'd have some good ones though. We had this friend who went camping last Christmas with his family up north for a couple of weeks. He left his house in the hands of a hyperactive housesitter, who got bored and decided to renovate the house.

Get this.... He removed the chimney and fireplace, replaced a window with a bi-fold door, dug the guys garden up and landscaped it. When the owners returned there were all these people in their house, doing major renovations, and their driveway had been dug up, there were diggers and trucks in the front yard, they were building a new retaining wall... This is a true story.

The wife burst into tears and went to her mothers and told her husband to "sort it".

We could not believe it when they told us, so we actually went up and had a look, and it was true!!

[Stevegoodey]

At least they will take good care of the house if it's their place of business.

I've encountered a couple of these in Wellington over the years, one is on the market at the moment for $1.6m.

Cash flow seems good and it is the oldest proffession.

Steve

[QueenBee]

That's what my initial reaction was, but then my partner pointed out that it's the other things that go with it that he was worried about, like drugs.

But I spose at least the rent will get paid, and as look as nothing other than food is getting cooked in the house then it will be OK.

I better organise for a property inspection in the next couple of weeks, to check for signs on the elements, and any holes in the ceiling.

QB

[David_W]

Oh my goodness - 'housesitters from hell'. I wonder how expensive sorting it will be.

[SuperDad]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the "landlord's rights of entry" yet.

[Monid]

It had to go there didn't it...

how about (and this is groan-worthily bad, but it is late at night where I am)

to graze a whores on the commons...

Sorry
David