Lease, Camera, Action

My husband and I own a house that we rent out for below market value for people trying to get back on their feet. In the lease, it states that there are Ring cameras outside the property, and they are not to be turned off or altered. 

I also give the tenant two options: they can use the basic WiFi that I provide, and I pay for it outright, or they can use the WiFi provider of their choice, and I will pay for ¼ of the bill. My latest tenant (a single woman in her 40s) said she wanted to use my WiFi, so I got her set up on the Ring account. 

A few weeks later, I realized I hadn’t had any notifications from the app for a few days. I went to the app and saw that both cameras were disconnected, so I called her.

Me: “Hi, [Tenant]. Is something going on with the Ring cameras?”

Tenant: “Why?”

Me: “Well, they’ve been disconnected for a few days.”

Tenant: “Oh, yeah, I got my own WiFi.”

Me: “Oh, okay. So we need to get the cameras set up—” 

Tenant: “—No, I’m not comfortable being watched.”

Me: “Okay, well. I’m not watching you, I’m watching the outside of my property. It’s in our lease, which you signed.” 

Tenant: “Yeah, I don’t like that. I talked with my mom, and she said it’s illegal to watch people like that.”

Me: “I understand that you might not like being watched, but again, I’m not watching you, I am keeping an eye on my property.”

Tenant: “I’m not going to give you my WiFi to spy on me. That’s the end of it.”

Me: “Okay, well—”

She hung up. I talked with my husband, debating whether we wanted to evict her for violation of the lease or reinstate our own basic WiFi for the house. We decided to give her another chance and got our own WiFi set up.

I sent her a text saying that we would be putting our WiFi back in the house and that she was not to mess with it. She “liked” the message but didn’t say anything else.

My husband went over and got it all set up, and the cameras were back online. A few days later, I checked the app and saw that they were disconnected again, so I called her back.

Tenant: “Yeah?”

Me: “Hi, I’m having trouble with the cameras again. Did something happen with the WiFi?” 

Tenant: “Yeah, I took it back to [Supplier].”

Me: “Excuse me?”

Tenant: “You think just because you’re the owner, you can do whatever you want, but I will not live like “big brother” is watching me.”

Me: “So… okay, you tampered with the cameras, which is a violation of the lease. We gave you another chance, and you did it again. We will be moving forward with eviction.”

Tenant: “You can’t do that! I have nowhere to go!”

Me: “I will be over in a few days to serve your paperwork.” 

Tenant: “B****!”

She hung up on me again.

I went ahead and processed the eviction. Surprisingly, she took the eviction notice and closed the door without a word.

Three days later, when she was supposed to be out of the house, my husband and I went over to do our walkthrough. She had damaged several of the walls, leaving gaping holes and damaging some of the framework, set fire to the brand-new carpet we just installed for her, and left a pile of excrement just inside the front door.

We used her entire security deposit and then some to get everything back to normal, and sent her an itemized list of the repairs made and noted that she would not be getting any money back. She tried to take us to court for an illegal eviction and said we lied about the state of the house, but I had a copy of the lease and timestamped photos of everything. She lost.