Employee vs Tenant

tfevergrn

We are in the property management business (Apartment Complexes nationwide). We have employees that are also tenants. A portion of our criteria to hire an applicant is whether or not this applicant had ever been evicted or has judgements/liens for back rent. As hiring an individual with this background would be in conflict of our expectation of our tenants.

We have an employee/tenant who we had to evict for none payment of rent. A substantial amount. This person is still an employee, but to date has not made any effort to pay us our back rent. This situation is in Tennessee. Can we terminate this employee, deeming it a conflict of interest?

Brad Forrister

Inasmuch as you can dismiss an employee in Tennessee for no reason, you should be able to dismiss an employee for non-payment of rent.

bsa

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 03-21-02 AT 04:51PM (CST)[/font][p]Can you relate the termination to performance or gross misconduct? What do your policies say about reasons for termination? Do they include anything about timely payment of rent or eviction? Either of those could be gross misconduct if your policy says that.

tfevergrn

Would you not consider not paying what you owe to the company you work for, who provided you a service, "GROSS MISCONDUCT"? We are talking the tune of over 10,000.

Although our work rules and conduct policy does not specifically mention not paying rent and/or eviction, it does say the following:

To ensure orderly operations and provide the best possible work environment, we expect employees to follow rules of conduct that will protect the interests and safety of all employees and the company. It is not possible to list all forms of behavior that are considered unacceptable im the workplace, the following are examples of infractions of rules of conduct that may result in disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment.

By saying this, leaves it open for "other" infractions, not listed in our policy, that we feel are unacceptable and if I had to pick one or two of the infractions we have listed in our policy, it would be the following:

Misuse or unauthorized use of Company property and Unsatisfactory conduct.

bsa

Misuse or unauthorized use of Company property and Unsatisfactory conduct.

So what are you waiting for?

tfevergrn

Just wasn't sure if there were any federal/state laws out there stipulating that the tenant vs employee relationship had to be dealt with in a totally seperate manner, as they typically are if one does not live where they work.

Mike Maslanka

Interesting issue.You may want to look at why the rent got up to$10,000...this may be an opportunity to reveiw your policy,make sure everyone understands it,and figure out if it got to $10,000 because of some misunderstanding of what is required of employees/tenants...the only claim I can see is if this particular employee had make some complaint about discrimination,and claims that the eviction was done in retailiation for that...good luck,and regards from texas,mike maslanka,214-659-4668...email:michaelmaslanka@akllp.com