illegal trash and dumoing

Earlier this year some tenants of mine moved out of our rental. We began to do small jobs in the home after they moved out. Shortly after this, we tried selling the home and unfortunately were not able to. The home was vacant for 6 months until it was taken off of the market and I decided to have new tenants move in. They have been there for almost 2 months now. Yesterday I recieve a phone call from someone who works at the County Environmental Agency telling me that there is a criminal investigation going on because they had found some illegal trash (paint,oil,tires) that was dumped along with some mail which had my previous tenants names and the address of my rental home. The current tenants told me that the police dept. had spoken to them threatening them with a felony and interviewed some of the neighbors. I don't understand what's going on. Does this affect me in any way? We had done some work on the house 6 months ago but everything was disposed of PROPERLY.

[OHlandlord]

It sounds as if your former tenants had engaged in illegal dumping in a restricted area. Call the police department back and fully cooperate with them in any way. Chances are you will not be held liable for the actions of your ex-tenants (especially if you are cooperative and are concerned about violations of the law). Let the police know these people (whose name is on the mail) were your tenants & when they moved out. Give them the forwarding address they left you. Let them know that your new tenants didn't move in until many months after the old ones left, as the house had been empty and on the market for sale in between. They have no knowledge of the old tenants.

The paint is probably not latex interior paint (like you would have used) but some type of oil based or enamel paint (maybe from painting cars). Did these tenants work on vehicles a lot? Tires, oil, & paint sound like someone that was working on his car and dumped the bad tires and oil, along with any leftover paint from painting the car, alongside some road. Call the police and tell them all you know about the ex-tenants. Give them your number to call you with any further questions they have.