Really? Did that just happen? #2

About a year ago a rather peculiar older lady contacted our office about renting a studio apartment.  This lady gave us a story about how hard she was struggling to make it while attending night classes at a local junior college.  She stated that this was the perfect rent amount and that she needed it right away.

After careful examination of her application we decided that we would let her move into the property.  Like most residents, she came into our office to sign the lease.  I went in to sign with her and I noticed that there were lipstick marks ALL OVER the office window.  I also happened to notice that it seemed to be the same color she was wearing. I could not prove anything and in fact I asked her if she had been the culprit, which she denied.  She just seemed like the sweet older lady that could have been anyone's grandmother.  It was just something about her that had me on edge.  Little did I know that this lady would be my worst NIGHTMARE! 

I informed my staff to be careful at that point because something about this person was "off".  It only took about 5 days for this lady to start showing her true colors.  She called our office repeatedly during than day (over 20 calls) and asked "who we worshiped".  Obviously this was a questions that had most of my staff scared to answer one way or the other.
Finally my staff transferred one of these call to me and  and explained to her that she needed to stop with the harassing phone calls.  At that point she screamed a few obscenities at me an hung up.  I was mortified. 

It seemed I was not the only person that she was yelling it either.  We started to get calls by the masses from residents in her community saying that she was asking the same questions to them.  In fact, she sprayed one tenant down with Windex and claimed that she was cleansing him in the name of the Lord.  This ended with her going to jail overnight.

I would like to say that things got better after the assault scare, but it didn't.  Things got even more weird when she called and stated that she was having electrical issues.  I asked her to explain the issues, and she said that aliens were living in the attic and controlling her power.  She also said that these aliens were breaking into her apartment at night and opening all her water bottles and filling them with flavoring.  My guess was that she bought flavored water, but either way it was clear that this tenant needed help.

We tried to help her find that help over the next few weeks, but she refused.  She also refused to pay rent and her utilities due to the fact that "aliens" were controlling her utilities.  We even went so far as to send an electrician over to the unit with her home and show her that no one was controlling her power, cable, etc.  Despite seeing this she still refused to pay rent! 

Obviously if you don't pay rent, you can't stay in our properties...so she was eventually evicted.  She actually went to the court and tried to fight with the judge over the alien issue, and the judge simply said that aliens were not an excuse for not paying rent! 

Let this be a lesson for anyone out there....even if aliens have invaded your house, you still need to pay the bills!  In hindsight, this tenant may have been better off trying to get the aliens to split the bills with her.

Just another day in the life of a residential property manager!!!