Disclaimer: This article details a time when I was glad I was armed when visiting my rentals. I believe landlords should be armed whenever they visit their rentals, mainly when strangers occupy them. “Armed” can be whatever individuals deem necessary to protect themselves from enraged or potentially violent tenants.
Whether landlords should be armed when visiting their rentals is complex and subjective. While some individuals might argue that carrying a firearm provides personal security and protection, several factors need to be considered, but safety is the chief reason. Here are a few times I was happy I was armed.
I rented my property to two younger females. They paid regularly for a few months, and then the rent stopped coming in. Meanwhile, a resident on the street alerted me to wild parties occurring, lots of drinking, drug use, and loud car stereos. He told me another of the residents confronted a group of teens and got beat up! I sent notice to the tenants to pay rent or quit. They chose to quit the property. The day after their last tenancy, I took a call from someone I did not know or recognize. The guy said he was recently released from jail and gave his parole officer the address to my rental as his point of contact. He asked if he could stay in the home as the actual tenants allowed him to stay there. I told him in no way was that going to happen, and when we arrived at the unit the next day, he had better not be there as he was never on the lease. Later his mother called, pleading that I allow him to stay on the property! “No way,” was my response.
The next day my wife and I, armed up, went to the home. I had a shotgun and a handgun on my side. The first thing we noticed was the front door had been kicked in. We swept the property, and it was empty. The attic access hatch, however, was askew. I commanded this guy to come down from the attic and waited. We heard nothing, so I climbed up and concluded no one was in the attic. Meanwhile, we were checking the damage to the property when I noticed one room was heavily damaged with graffiti. I set the shotgun to the side and checked the damage in the living room. The screen door was slightly open, and the front door as well. As I was looking around, I saw a shadow of a person quickly advancing up the sidewalk. Suddenly the screen door jerked open, and I came to the door and partially opened it, keeping half my body covered by the inside wall.
A very irate man was about to walk into the house, but I intercepted him from doing so. He asked if I was the owner (calling me by name), and I replied, “Who wants to know?” The man was fully amped up and told me he lived down the street and was sick of the drama the tenants caused. He said he approached a group of teens weeks ago about playing their car music loudly and got jumped. “They kicked my ass in the street!” he yelled. Calmly, I told him the tenants were gone, and it was a mistake on my part to put them into the home, and it certainly would not happen again. That did not de-escalate the situation, and he got angrier and louder. I tried to calm him down, but he kept barking and suddenly pulled the screen door wider and tried to step in. I stepped further to my left, exposing my holstered sidearm. He glanced down and saw it. He immediately backed down and took several steps back. He went from sixty to zero pretty quickly. I told him I would definitely do better with my tenant screening, and he left.
I have little doubt had I not been armed, he would have attempted to force his way into the home. If my wife was in the front room, who knows how he would have reacted? We did not arm ourselves for him in particular but the possibility of a recent convict illegally staying in the home.
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