Feature
by Chris M. Kelly
Collector. Pack rat. Scavenger. Junkaholic. Hoarder. Regardless of what moniker is used, many landlords and property managers in the Bay Area often confront the discovery of a tenant whose accumulations have become a health hazard, a fire risk, or both. After determining the dimensions of the problem, the next logical step is to work through the challenge of managing a property rented by such a tenant, so that both the tenant and his or her neighbors remain safe.
The costs of excessive hoarding and cluttering to landlords can prove tremendous. Joel Panzer, a 24-year rental property management veteran who runs Real Property Management, recalls one particular incident. A ground-floor commercial tenant in Noe Valley called him and complained about a water leak that appeared to come from one of the upstairs apartments. When he finally got permission to enter the apartment, he was unprepared for the sight inside. “I had to push the door open—there was a lot of resistance,” he said. “I looked down and then into the rest of the apartment,” he continued, “[and] there was a pile of trash twelve inches high covering every part of the floor. The trash had been compressed over a long period—it was thick and dense. I was overwhelmed.”
Panzer contacted staff at the San Francisco Health Department who performed an inspection. They required the owner to clean out the apartment and haul away the trash at a cost to the owner of over $4,000. The landlord had to replace the carpeting and fixtures as well as repaint due to the resulting damage from all the clutter, again at a cost to the landlord of $5,000. The tenant still resides in the property. Panzer also described another property in which animals and their waste had been kept inside for months. As a result, the owner was forced to completely replace the floors and walls (taking them down to the studs), costing tens of thousands of dollars. That tenant eventually moved out.
Frequently, people who exhibit this behavior are known in psychiatry and psychology circles as compulsive hoarders. There are many different reasons why a person is motivated to hoard. According to Dr. James Claiborn, an expert on obsessive-compulsive disorder and author of a recent article on the subject, people hoard for a number of perceived reasons. Some believe they are collecting something valuable, or they think they will forget the item or its information unless it is in plain view. Others feel that discarding the accumulated items is wasteful.
According to the Mental Health Association of San Francisco, a nonprofit organization that supports the mental health community here, there are a number of other reasons why tenants accumulate items. A tenant suffering from chronic depression loses the will to decide what to keep and what to throw away so that, for example, mail and subscriptions pile up. Or a tenant with diabetes becomes legally blind because of his or her condition and finds sorting through accumulating papers an impossible task. Others have suffered brain injuries and cannot remember where items are in their apartments. As a result, they keep buying the same items over and over again.
Hoarded items are usually paper, such as newspapers, brochures, advertisements, junk mail, magazines and shopping lists. Anecdotal and clinical evidence also shows that food, broken items in need of repair, clothes, books, and on rare occasions, animals are hoarded.
In late September, the Mental Health Association in San Francisco held a panel discussion, entitled “Treasure or Trash.” The keynote speaker was Dr. Michael Tompkins, a licensed clinical psychologist with five years of experience studying and writing specifically on the diagnosis and treatment of disorders that feature hoarding and cluttering as symptoms. Dr. Tompkins presented the audience with helpful information on how to determine the type of person most likely to engage in compulsive hoarding. A vivid picture was revealed of the daily limitations tenants confront as a result of hoarding. Most hoarders had at least moderate trouble simply moving around the house. Seventy percent were unable to use their furniture and almost half could not use their stovetops, ovens, refrigerator, tubs or sinks.
Different intervention strategies used with hoarders were also discussed. The results indicated that hoarders tend to be female, over the age of fifty and live alone, though the data also suggested some diversity as well. Less than half of those studied did not permanently change their behavior, but they did look for other ways to relocate their hoards. One in five saw their symptoms get worse. Approximately the same number improved over time, either with continuous intervention or by making independently determined personal changes.
Panzer, in running a property management company, has found that most of the hoarding situations centered around older, solitary tenants—an observation corroborated by the research conducted by Dr. Tompkins. “I’ve found that people with more connections to the outside world are less likely to gather so many things,” said Panzer. Interestingly, he adds that several properties, though stacked from floor to ceiling with items like unopened packages of toilet paper and dry goods, were otherwise clean and well-kept.
There are specific legal steps a landlord can take in order to manage this particular challenge. Jeffery Woo, an attorney with fifteen years experience representing landlords in San Francisco, has had cases that involved tenants who excessively hoarded items in their apartments. He explained the process of creating change as fairly straightforward. In one case, though there had been repeated requests for the tenant to clean up the apartment, the landlord now contacted the fire department to inspect the property. The department determined that the property was a fire hazard and provided a statement indicating this fact. Woo used this document as evidence to create a Notice to Cure or Quit, which indicated the tenant was using the property illegally. The tenant was ultimately evicted. Woo also stated that in other cases, an inspection and subsequent notice by the San Francisco Department of Environmental Health regarding the property also provided adequate weight as well.
“There’s cluttering with a capital “C” and cluttering in all caps,” according to Curtis Dowling with the law firm of Andrew Zacks, “and it’s in those latter cases that it’s clear how to proceed.” He explained how he deals with hoarding tenants and frustrated landlords. Usually, based on the testimony of the landlord, Dowling establishes that the cluttering or hoarding constitutes a nuisance under the San Francisco Rent Ordinance. Consequently, a Three-Day Notice to Cure or Quit is served to the tenant. In one case, family members of the tenant came to the apartment and cleaned it up to the satisfaction of the landlord.
Tenants and landlords have more than just legal proceedings at their
disposal. Under Federal law, through the Americans with Disabilities
Act (ADA) and the Fair Housing Amendments Act, and under California
law, a disability is a physical or mental impairment that substantially
limits one or more life activities, such as walking, seeing, hearing,
working, learning or caring for oneself. A tenant can ask the landlord
for a “reasonable accommodation.” Usually, the tenant
must prove she/he has a disability that justifies the accommodation.
This often buys the tenant some time to get the cluttered apartment
under control, haul away or donate hoarded items and, if necessary,
to get some psychological help confronting and perhaps reducing
the problem.
There is a network of over a dozen local agencies available to the
tenant for all of these services. Many of them either charge nominal
fees for their services or donate them, depending on the individual
circumstances of the tenant. Belinda Lyons of the Mental Health
Association of San Francisco maintains there must be some give and
take between the landlord and tenant. She observes that “it’s
a dance between the landlord and the tenant.” She notes that
tenants are certainly within their rights to ask for some time to
reduce the amount of clutter. However, she concludes that “it’s
their responsibility to make this happen within a reasonable period
of time.”
Dr. Tompkins’ prognosis of the issue was guardedly optimistic. “Only about one in five tenants are able to work with a landlord and work through the problem.” He added that there is growing awareness of this issue throughout the public and among public service agencies, but to date there has not yet been a pan-agency response to the problem. He believes seminars such as the recent one in San Francisco provide a good starting point to educate government agencies as well as the public. “Agencies need to know that the majority of these cases stem from a psychological or psychiatric problem.” Many involved in the housing industry, both private individuals and public officials at the San Francisco Public Health and Fire Departments, indicate that while the issue certainly comes up regularly, it remains relatively rare. An official at the San Francisco Health Department estimates that 10 percent of inspections each year are hoarding related.
Tim Carrico of TCO Realty, who has dealt with several hoarding and cluttering situations, was circumspect. He finds that “it comes down to a judgment call on the part of the landlord.” Carrico observes that if the landlord or manager thinks it’s within the power of the tenant to solve the problem alone, then that is fine. However, “If not, they need to be forced to make a change in their life—in the long term, it could be something good for them.” He explained that the most recent hoarding issue he dealt with ended amicably. The tenant agreed to clean the apartment to the satisfaction of the landlord and successfully did so within the period of time the landlord requested.
Just as a person surrounded by piles must eventually confront the mess, landlords need to be aware that the problem exists. Landlords should also recognize that there is more than one way to manage or solve the problem, either by working with the tenant or by using an action plan that has been successful for other landlords and property managers. Landlords can be more efficient and judicious in handling the issue of cluttering and hoarding by understanding the motivation and causes of this behavior, as well as knowing the options available for both tenants and landlords in dealing with this condition.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of the SFAA or the SF Apartment Magazine. Chris M. Kelly is a freelance writer living in San Francisco. Copyright © 2002.