Do you think it's in poor taste to send a notice to residents asking why they mistreat the community they live so poorly?

About 2 years ago I took over a property with a new ownership group. We all know acquisitions with with new mgmt and ownership is generally difficult in the beginning. This property was severely mismanaged, the previous maintenance supervisor admitted to myself and the owner that he allowed homeless people to live in the decommissioned pool house and various storage locations to give an idea of prior mgmt.
Since takeover we've poured ovar a million in renovations; gutted units, fixing pipe lines, window replacements, 2 major pest control metigation projects, windows, roofs, exterior paint, new flooring in common areas, new interior painting, brand new fitness center, pool, control access etc and I still have 6 other major projects pending.

We worked on inviting folks who can't get with the program to vacant but with the COVID moratorium that's slowed tremendously and the delinquency has doubled.
At this point we still have residents punching holes in the walls, breaking controlled access doors, pulling fire extinguisher and light fixtures of the walls of common areas, dog poop/human poop in the hallways vandalism is constant. Problem is, when we can catch a good view of the culprit(s) on camera we can't identify them because more than likely their unauthorized. It's so bad, we completed $4k in repairs to the brand new controlled access doors, 2 doors were broken hours later.
Do you think it's in poor taste to send a notice to residents asking why they mistreat the community they live so poorly. And ask for comments with a guarantee that you'll respond to all received. Ive hit a brick wall and I want to stongly convey to the other residents that we care as we always get calls and poor reviews that we don't care. I've been doing this for 15 years, take overs being the majority, I've never experienced anything close to this.

I'm open to all dialogue.

Thank you for you input and reading all this.

Managing in Colorado

That's so sad and defeating. I don't know how you find the strength to keep going, but bless you for doing so.
Do you have cameras or security?
Luckily the evictions can resume soon.
I really hope it gets better, it looks beautiful.
It's a shame when the residents mistreat their own property.
Maybe have contests for nicest patios and front doors to inspire them to keep area clean.
Send a letter saying you need their help to keep their community a place we can all be proud of and inspire them to report those causing the damage etc
For the poo- get poo prints, all dogs registered in system, make sure when you roll it out you have some kind of party or give away for everyone who enrolls their dog. Then any poo found can be fined to the owner.
Best of luck to you.
Stay strong.
There are some residents who see what your doing and appreciate it even if they don't say anything.

Had a similar situation in Austin TX, some people don't care. It was always one step forward, two steps backward. Good luck, the homeless population was definitely an issue.

I ask myself many days why so many (not all) of my residents don’t respect and appreciate the beautiful community they live in. It’s not perfect but we work hard physically and administratively to keep the communities clean and desirable. I think it’s perfectly acceptable to send out a letter thanking those that help keep the community beautiful and encourage them to anonymously come forward to let management know who is destroying their area and causing their rents to possibly increase due to continuous repairs

You won’t gain anything from asking the question you proposed. You either need more cameras to see if the offenders are even related in any way to some residents or you just start by evicting large swaths of the residents to see what solves it. Many times we’ve seen sleepers, where the resident themselves is a really nice person but lack boundaries so they invite over trash people they can’t say no to.

I might send a letter, but - when you tell people you'll respond, most of them think that means if they snitch on someone, that the party doing it will immediately be evicted. But you can't evict without proof, so just be careful with the wording.
The property looks beautiful and you're doing a great job! Maybe ask your maint who the people are on camera, most times they at least know which apt they visit.

I think the people doing this would feel accomplished seeing a letter like this. I would get more cameras and be extremely thorough in assessing renewals and who "needs to go." I couldn't imagine this. My community was the opposite, like "the caretaker isn't vacuuming the right way" and "there's a kleenex in the stairwell" kinda folk. I'd personally even go as far as checking social media. Kinda creepy maybe but people post the worst things to brag. Maybe property destruction is one. Also. Get PooPrints. And fine up the Wazoo.

It may pay for itself to hire security - at least until you can turn out the bad actors.

Hire a armed guard company. It seems like you might need to make all guests sign in, have one entry/exit point for vehicle traffic, all vehicles sign in and LP logged. You would probably need 3 to 4 officers, which will be an expense but just temporarily. One officer at the vehicle entrance, at least 2 doing random foot patrol in the hallways, possibly 3 depending on size of community. I have done both leasing and worked as a armed officer doing foot patrol of midrise communities. Run it 24/7 until it calms down and then you can try adjusting hours.

The moratorium covers unpaid rent, not destruction of property or other lease violations. At least, that's the way it is in VA. You can still file for eviction against residents that break the rules or violate the lease in any other way except non-payment of rent. In addition and depending on your state and local authorities/political agendas, etc, I would strongly recommend that you try to work with your local law enforcement officers to try to increase patrol through your property and get the residents who care on board with a neighborhood watch program. Let the would be vandals know they are being watch and will be reported to the police. If you have consistent patrol, hopefully the police could catch non-residents, and then you could potentially ban them from the property. Again, in VA you can issue a ban notice to keep would be trouble makers off site (if they have committed a violation or broken the law). Hopefully, you're not in a state that is trying to defund the police as they would be most helpful in this type of environment. We always try to work with our local law enforcement officers, and we have a good working relationship with them. If we have issues, we can talk to them and they will try to help us resolve issues that could lead to property damage, or worse, safety issues for other residents. In addition, I might try to hire security for 24/7 until you can see improvement in this behavior. Then re-evaluate the need and expense of that. I've been doing this for over 20 years, and this is the best advice I can give you.

If I can't determine who the person is or who invited them, I can't issue a notice. Unfortunately, in CO most judges aren't hearing ANY eviction case unless it's something like... IDK he pulled a gun on the manager. And even then court dates are a month or so out.

We have community advocacy officers who do monitor the area and have a presence in the community. However, we have interior hallways so the damage isn't necessarily in plain sight.
we have security some dedicated hours. We have about 500 units 12 building with common areas and garages. We would like to increase security as soon as the courtesy patrol company can accommodate. But believe it or not I think a lot of the issues happen during the day. We're also 2 maintenance folks short right now.

I also wanted to add, something I did after a take over and had a lot of crime was joined a program with the police department. I don't know if your community has something similar. For Houston, HPD has a apartment enforcement unit. I worked with those officers to help bring our community up to their strict standards.... Mgrs take a 8 hour class, HPD shows you where to make improvements. The benefits we got after certification was the bragging rights to be called a "Blue Star Certified" property. At the time, there was only 90 communities in Houston with the certification out of 3000 rental properties. We got a cool sign to put out in front of the building, plus certificates in the office and a resident event with the officers. So when a prospect would ask about crime and homeless, I would spin it and tell them how we are Bkue Star Certified how we have taken the extra steps to prevent crime. Part of the program is that we would get emailed a weekly report from HPD for ANY police call that came from our address. So if there was a domestic dispute in unit #123 and they never told the office, we still knew about it. Try reaching out to your local law enforcement and ask if they have any crime prevention programs that you can partner with. Some departments also have community outreach officers to deal with homeless. I'm sure they would like your property cleaned up as much as you do.

We have several properties. Ive been in business 30 plus years. May be im tainted but for some reason in past 10 years or so, ive noticed more damages, to units. Residents not always truthful. More damages to common areas and playgrounds. And trash. Trash in parking lots and grounds. In one property we had to hire a maint guy to live on site and pick up trash morning and night. Cameras were not allowed on this property. Finally after enough years. The PM begged us to sell the property. And we just did.

Please start issuing non renewal to those who are mistreating their own HOME! Also lease violations and start evicting by the 3rd written one. You will hit a bit of a drop in occupancy first but in the long haul it will give you a peace of mind!

Kudos for sticking with this. You obviously care about the community & the job you do. Hang in there. I know your efforts will pay off sooner than later. The are just stressful times that no one has ever dealt with or read a manual on. Don’t give up! The place needs you. It also may take you figuring out who is song the damage and holding residents responsible for their guests. It just takes a couple of people being asked to move for destruction & other will hear about it. Also file people reports and if you know who is doing it maybe press criminal charges against a few for the destruction.

Non renewals. We had two residents refuse to leave after Non renewals had been issued. Took them to eviction court for holdover and won (we’re in Texas) . The process took about a month and a half but we’ve been able to take over the units. Also had really good cameras installed which has deterred a lot of the no gooders and crime. Especially when word got out that not only are they real, but they are real good too! As for the homeless, we put up official police issued no trespassing signs all over the property. We had to get with the police dept and register for them. Basically, they give police permission to arrest anyone on property that isn’t supposed to be there. The local homeless people, drug addicts and anyone else not authorized to be on property know exactly what those signs mean & after we called police on several homeless peeps and questionable “visitors”, they seem to have disappeared. Communicate with the police that work your neighborhood. Tell them your trying to make their jobs easier by getting rid of the riff raft but you need their help. Also issue lease violations every time you see police on the property for a disturbance. Good luck, the cleanup is the hardest part!

I heard some industry veterans this week say they were paying “Cash for keys” basically giving them $500 to move. And its working!

I think it’s appropriate not to ask, but to tell people they are violating their lease by treating the property poorly and start moving them out however you need to.

have you thought of instituting a more robust parking management system as a way to catch unauthorized visitors? I work for Parking Boss by Luminous, and we have found that parking management software is a great way to find and eradicate issues like this. Here is a case study of a 750 unit property in WA state that we helped with similar issues. They cleaned up their property and just sold for a hefty sum. www.luminousresidential.com/.../customer-success ...

Been here. I resolved it with an ultra heavy hand. all below is subject to "If legal in your city/state" first make sure and test to see that your walk from your car to your office is fully covered via video camera, all egresses have clear shot of faces. It get's hairy sometimes. Get your 80/20 list ready. 80 percent of the problems are from 20% of the folk. Place them on month to month and then mass eviction all in 1 time. Easier to get it done in 1 round because lawyer has to show up anyway and will bill you. same with covid non payers, file it and take the money then place them on the list of not to be renewed. Tenant touches you, file charges, and get rid of them. Tenant raises there voice to you, shit list them. rescreen your tenants for past evictions and lower credit scores. past evictions they go into the maybe not renew. Low credit scores, remove the bottom 10%. YES your vacancy rate will hit 20%, yes some extra violence will happen. Then like a storm when it's over, the birds will chirp and the place will grow to something worthwhile. ... now the hard part, fix 3 units, rent 3 units to the best qualified tenants possible, do that till you are at 92% full, then back to the cleaning out, slowly and safely find the 80/20 group and remove them. Also, as mentioned somewhere else, parking, once you start removing peoples cars, the violence will hit, I would advise that you have a set policy of steps done on a checklist before your fist tow. IE: call + text + email + decal issue + place decal on car + written policy to tenant that they have to sign a copy of. COVER you butt on this, make sure they know that it will start to be enforced.

Security officers for a while to help with identification/witness to vandelism? Sometimes people will try to get away with stuff like this because they think no one is watching/ they won't get caught. They are also cowards. Filing charges against the perps will send a strong message to the rest. The eviction moratorium covers unpaid rent but in most states you can still evict for lease violations.

Maybe offer reduced rent or give half off rent to one or more of your county's police officers (courtesy officers). Sometimes seeing a police car in the parking lot & knowing a police officer lives in the building/ community helps.