Inconsiderate Tenant

My current tenant is nightmare. She is so bad temper that the last straw came when she threatened to punch my mother who is in her seventies. I told her to move out by end of the month.

She has been with us for only 6 months and it has been worrying time for my family. She is a walking safety and security hazard. When she bathes or does any washing in the toilet, the kitchen floor is also wet. There are times it is literally 'flooded' with water and we could not figure out how it could happen. This is because we have place mats and rags outside the bathroom to 'trap' water. Slippery wet floor is a hazard for my elderly mum. We try explaining to her to mop up if she wet the floor and this started her unhappiness as she seems to take feedback personally.

She will leave electric appliances such as heater, fan....still switch on when she leaves for work for the day. Domestic appliances, unlike industrial equipment are not meant for continuous heavy usage. It can overheat and start a fire. If one is unlucky, the electrical switch breaker may not activate and we know fire is merciless.

Then main door is left openned - not sure if it is intentional or forgetfulness. Now we are so worry we make sure someone is at home if not we will have house break-in with such a tenant.

There has never been any issue with my previous tenants who are considerate. They were with us much longer and moved out to be nearer to their work place or share a room with their friends/relative. This is the first time I have asked a tenant to leave.

My previous tenants and my mum got along fine. Mum enjoyed pampering them with her home brew soup and food. I suppose it basically boils down to common sense and consideration when living under the same roof. Simple thing like if you mess up, you clean up. She can leave toothpaste and shampoo stains all over the bath room. They are not only unsightly strains but also slippery hazard.

Initially we give her the benefit of doubt that it could be unintentional forgetfulness. But when her messy and unsafe acts keep up its flow, it is the act of an inconsiderate person who could not understand the impact of her actions on others.

At first my mum would quietly 'pick up' after her. But there is a limit to all these and she began to feedback to her what she has done, hoping things could improve for the better.

Sigh ..this only started her door slamming session. And then this morning, she wanted to punch my mum when mum told her she has left the heater switch on again. Sigh....A woman in her late twenties, still so immature and lack of self control.

Unlike my previous tenants who are normally in after work and during the weekends, this aggressive one is seldom in. But her water usage is consistently exceptionally high, our monthly water consumption has ballooned to 4 times after she moved in. It has not happened before with previous tenants and we thought there is something wrong with the water meter. Then we realize it is due to her habit of turning the surrounding into swimming pool whenever she does her chores. This solves the mystery of the 'flooded' kitchen and high water usage.

It will be a relief when she moves out. I would need to do careful screening of potential tenant in the future. There are personality questionnaires for job application candidates. Wonder if anyone has designed one for tenant selection. It would be useful to sieve out walking time bomb before they move in and become a nightmare.