Civil Problems

Civil problems were frustrating for people. Frustrated people are frustrating for dispatchers. I found that by being understanding and referring folks to someone to help them, I could help minimize the emotional scars on those tangled in civil issues. It could be a protective order issue, or stalking injunction, or child visitation that was messy, but the one that seemed to cause frustration more often than the others was the relationship between landlord and tenant.

The law sometimes seems funny to me. The oppressor is almost victimized by the law, because he’s, well, the oppressor. The victim is empowered by the law because, you know, he’s the victim. That role reversal makes the oppresor-victim more than a little crazy.

Landlord/tenant laws are messy for the foolish landlord. I think everyone who decides that purchasing rental properties is a great way to make some easy money should have his head examined. When a renter stops paying the rent, there is significant cost and time involved in removing that person from the property During that time, the renter changes roles to that of a non-paying occupant. Oftentimes it is easier to try to buffalo the renter into just leaving. I heard of a guy who shut the water off to the property for two weeks before the person left. He was trying to find time to "fix the pipes."  It’s also kind of fun (illegal) to hold property ransom for past rent.

I got a call one night from a gentleman who was upset that his renter hadn’t paid rent for a few months and was fixing to get out of Dodge in the middle of the night. I told him that this was a civil issue, and there wasn’t a whole lot that law enforcement could do. The appropriate venue for resolution of civil issues was the court system.

That just wasn’t fast enough, so as soon as the caller got off the phone with me, he ran right over to the Home Depot, purchased new locks, and changed all the locks on the property.

He called back informing me of what he had done. His voice oozed with defiance.

“Let me make sure I understand,” I said. “You changed the locks on the property before properly evicting the tenant and are now holding his possessions as collateral.”

“Well it’s MY property!” the gentleman said. He tried to keep the bravado in his voice, but I could detect a waiver of uncertainty.

I told him that I would have a desk officer call him to discuss the situation, and he sheepishly asked what I thought about his actions.

“I’m not an attorney,” I said. “And I don’t dispense legal advice. But if it were me, I’d make very nice with the tenant right now.”

“But what if he leaves without paying rent?” he asked.

“That’s why you have a healthy deposit,” I responded. “You did get a deposit didn’t you?”

“Well, we were kind of working with them on that,” he said in a voice now betraying defeat.

I let that statement linger for several moments.

In a very quiet and sincerely sympathetic voice I replied, “It sounds like this is going to be very expensive lesson for you.”

“Yeah – I guess it is.”