When you find out that one of your residents is a hoarder, it is hard to know how to deal with it, especially if they are an otherwise good tenant that pays the rent and doesn’t cause any other highly visible problems. Many Houston property managers and property management companies face the problem of hoarders regularly. Some tenants are just messier than others, and many people collect mementos of particular times in their lives.
How to Identify Problematic Cases of Hoarding
You, as a landlord, have a legal responsibility to provide a safe, habitable environment for your tenants. This duty is known as the “warranty of habitability,” and the code requires landlords to take action when hoarding threatens cleanliness, blocks building entrances and exits, triggers pest infestations, generates foul odors, provides a significant fire hazard, or produces mold.
According to mayoclinic.org, hoarding is a legitimate mental disorder where the individual experiences “persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions because of a perceived need to save them. A person with hoarding disorder experiences distress at the thought of getting rid of the items.”
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hoarding-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20356056
Hoarders can develop mild to extreme cases of the disorder, and the most severe cases can result in cramped living conditions where there are only narrow paths through stacks of clutter. Counters, tables, desks, and all available surfaces are stacked with stuff, and hoarders often spread out their collections to garages, communal storage spaces, yards, and vehicles.
People who suffer from the disorder often don’t consider their “collections” as a problem, which makes the property manager’s job extremely difficult. Anyone can be a hoarder. The person might be highly intelligent and functional at work and in social situations. You will face the dual problems of convincing hoarders that a problem exists and dealing with the problem of cleaning up the mess.
However, there are ways to treat hoarding disorder and manage the process of cleaning up the mess. When intensive treatment is necessary, tenants must be made to understand how their behaviors can be changed to live happier, clutter-free lives. When treatment is not an option, property managers have no choice but to pursue aggressive eviction procedures.
How to Handle Suspected Cases of Hoarding
There are many root causes of hoarding disorder, including mental depression, empty-nest syndrome, chronic fear, dementia, brain injuries, and genetic predisposition. People might hoard items for hundreds of different reasons, but managing the problem is usually a straightforward process. The results of hoarding can cause public health hazards, such as infestations of rodents and roaches, emergency exit blockages, mold and mildew, offensive odors, and the spread of disease-causing pathogens.
How to Identify a Suspected Hoarder
Ignoring a possible hoarder isn’t an option for professional property managers, and the best companies establish clear guidelines for identifying hoarders proactively to protect all the tenants. Hoarding isn’t a victim-free pastime but a disorder that can cause sickness and even death. Fire departments across the country have a slang terms for homes that are filled with junk and debris from hoarding, one of these being “Collyer’s Mansion.” This term originates from two brothers living in New York City that secluded themselves in their childhood home and filled it with towers of books, newspapers, and furniture, which eventually caused both of their deaths in 1947.
The telltale signs of hoarding are often difficult to detect because the external signs point to tenants who mind their own business and desire nothing more than privacy. However, you can spot a hoarder by his or her actions, such as keeping the drapes tightly closed at all times, failing to discard as much trash as their peers, and never entertaining other people.
More convincing signs of hoarding include the suspected hoarder going through the neighbors’ trash, ordering bulk products while living alone, or making the home a safe haven for stray pets. Other signs of hoarding include:
• Offensive odors that arise from the property
• Tenant that enters and exits the property quickly to prevent casual inspections
• Increase in pest infestations
• Visible evidence of buying bulk items beyond what’s necessary or practical
• Evidence of the tenant collecting trash from neighbors
• Large number of pets or strays around the property
• Striking views of what appears to be trash through open doors and windows
• Inability of tenant to locate critical documents when needed
• Yard that’s covered in old bicycles, discarded toilets, tires, etc.
How to Handle a Suspected Hoarder
It’s important to document the reasons why you suspect that a tenant is a hoarder. You have the right as a property manager to inspect the premises, and you should exercise that right as soon as you’re convinced. You can issue a formal notice to clear the premises within a reasonable amount of time.
If the tenant shows signs of mental confusion or physical impairment, the tenant might be able to contact a state or city agency for assistance in cleaning the space. You might enlist a property management company in your efforts to deal with cleanup. Hoarding tends to be one of the most difficult issues to manage.
The safety issues generated by hoarding can’t be ignored, but showing compassion and empathy during the cleanup process can make things go more smoothly. By connecting with the tenant emotionally, you will be able to talk realistically about the hoarding issues and why you can’t neglect them. Strategies for dealing with an emotional hoarder include:
• Remind the tenant that the problem won’t go away or get brushed aside.
• Emphasize the safety aspect of clearing away years of clutter.
• Explain that you’ll keep the matter as confidential as possible.
• Empathize over the hoarder’s need to keep the most important items in their collection.
• Explain why donating the items to charity can result in renewed life for treasured mementos.
• Seek help from family members and mental health professionals.
• Enlist assistance from adult protective services, the health department, and local police and fire departments if necessary.
Getting Rid of a Hoarder’s Treasure
You should remember that hoarders consider their collections as treasure and not junk, so don’t get impatient and say, “Let’s get rid of this mess.” The hoarder is emotionally attached to the items, so you should demonstrate patience and offer the tenant a reasonable amount of time to correct the problem.
Hoarding itself doesn’t comprise legal grounds for eviction, but the problems hoarding creates can result in non-economic grounds for eviction. That is why it’s important to document all your efforts to warn the tenant about breaches of policy. You must give the tenant enough time to correct the problems. An inspection of the property might reveal these reasons for eviction:
• The hoarded items pose risks of damaging the property.
• The items block emergency exits.
• The tenant is storing highly flammable or explosive materials.
• The tenant is keeping perishable goods in a way that could attract rodents, mold, and insects.
• The collection blocks the ventilating or sprinkler system.
• Pets are housed in ways that break the lease.
• Odors from the property offend other tenants.
• The hoarding activity creates hazards for other tenants.
When Evicting a Hoarder Tenant Becomes Necessary
Sometimes, there’s no other option but to evict a hoarder. Hoarders can be as intelligent and litigious as any other tenant, but some simply refuse to correct a problem that they view as an optional housekeeping issue. In these cases, property managers should take the following steps:
• Document everything, including before-and-after pictures of the property, notes on your interactions with the tenant, and supportive videos.
• Offer the tenant help for physically managing the cleanup and professional mental counseling.
• Put the tenant on formal notice to clean the property within a reasonable period of time, based on size of the property and difficulty level of the cleanup.
• Consult the firm’s attorney if conditions don’t change sufficiently to remedy your concerns.
• Proceed with the eviction process through the courts.
Try to Maintain a Steady Approach When Dealing with a Hoarder
Maintaining an empathetic and compassionate attitude is the best way of dealing with a hoarder. Try to keep things in perspective because although you want the place to be clean, it does not have to be perfect. All you really want to do is to ensure that the tenant lives in a safe environment that’s free of hidden dangers, such as pest infestations, towers of unstable items, and blocked access to fire escapes.
Do your best to empathize with the tenant, arrange suitable remediation of the hoarding issues, create a livable environment, and monitor the situation during reasonable business hours. Addressing the problem is mandatory, but there is no reason not to make every effort to get a win-win result.
In Houston, Texas, choosing the right property management team can make all the difference in tough cases like hoarding. The professionals at Specialized Property Management specialize in shielding owners from the everyday stress of managing rental property. Our team carefully screens tenants and maintains cordial relations to detect the signs of hoarding and other tenant issues to deal with problems proactively. Contact Us Online, or Call 817.886.9220
