“We just discovered that our relatively new basement rental tenants are growing weed in their bedroom”

Photo by PoPville flickr user Brett Bowers

“Dear PoPville,

We just discovered that our relatively new basement rental tenants are growing weed in their bedroom. We’ve been getting headaches from a smell from the basement since the day they moved in and when we asked what the heck the smell was they’ve claimed it was incense (which technically it was). They are using it it seems to cover up some type of smell from the weed but we are not sure exactly what. The smell occurs often during the day so we think it may be something that they are doing to the weed.

Needless to say – discovering the presence of the weed growing during an inspection of the unit (which we did alert them to) has us really pissed and we are wondering what we can do between now and when the lease expires? The lease they signed with a rental company prohibits smoking of any kind in the unit as well as conduct of any illegal activities. It also prohibits use of the unit for anything other than residential purposes (e.g. no business activities). We have a small kid and don’t want any of this on our property (legal or not). Would appreciate any advice of what we can do/request until such time as we can cancel the lease.”