Rental income tax tips?

Hey everyone,

I’m dealing with a pretty wild situation right now. I’ve been renting a room from this guy for about a year, and everything was totally official—I was even registered with the local police department. Well, today was move-out day, and things went south fast. As soon as we handed over the keys, the landlord and his son turned on us physically. They actually pushed my girlfriend and me out of the bed! They were making all sorts of threats, so I ended up calling 911. In the end, the cops just told us to go our separate ways and head home. The crazy part is how ungrateful he’s being. He’s providing a much nicer place than what we were paying for, and everything was settled up, but he’s acting like a total jerk just because he lost his job. Since he’s being such a nightmare, I’m thinking about reporting him to the IRS for tax evasion. Is that even a viable move? Can I actually do something about this, or am I stuck? Just to be clear, we never signed any formal lease or anything like that. It was basically like showing up at Jim's place, handing over the cash, and registering with the authorities. That was the whole deal.

I honestly can't tell if you actually gave the guy any kind of notice period, or if you just sat there waiting for him to show up with his keys one morning and told him to get lost...

driftingorca96 said:I honestly can't tell if you actually gave the guy any kind of notice period, or if you just sat there waiting for him to show up with his keys one morning and told him to get lost...

I gave him a two-week notice period.

Would you really consider reporting him to the IRS without having a single shred of actual evidence? It seems like such a massive leap to take. Honestly, I think it’s best to just let this whole thing go and get on with your lives; why bother sinking down to his level?

Robert Lopez6 said:Would you really consider reporting him to the IRS without having a single shred of actual evidence? It seems like such a massive leap to take. Honestly, I think it’s best to just let this whole thing go and get on with your lives; why bother sinking down to his level?

I suppose his motivation for doing this is really up to him, though. Maybe he’s just trying to teach someone a lesson about basic decency and what happens when you treat people poorly, or maybe—and I don't know—maybe he just wants to be a bit of a jerk.

If a report was actually filed, there would have to be some kind of notarized statement from the landlord giving their consent for it all to happen.
And, well, you’d also need to be able to prove that you were actually paying rent in the first place.

Under the local rent control law, lease agreements are supposed to be in writing, BUT:

I’m not really sure what kind of trouble you could even get into personally, since you don't have anything to do with his specific income tax obligations (paying those taxes isn't exactly the tenant's responsibility, anyway).

First off, we have to consider that a tenant simply has no way of knowing whether their landlord has actually fulfilled their tax obligations or not.
Secondly, this specific scenario applies strictly to protected tenants, because under the current rent control law, a lease agreement serves as a legally binding substitute for a court judgment.
Therefore, I don't think this example can really be compared to the situation mentioned above.

goldenotter52 said:I gave him a two-week notice period.

Two weeks?
In my book, giving at least a full month would be way more professional.