Shared studio blues
I have been renting a studio by myself for several years until several months ago. The first couple of years I shared it with a fellow photographer/painter, he left after a couple of years to pursue his art dreams in Europe. Great studio relationship with him btw, no issues whatsoever. So far in total I've been nearly 10 years in this place, great relationship with neighbors and landlord. Early this year I had a long stint out of country and decided to sublet a portion of my studio space (to help with the studio payment. I would return periodically and use the studio for a couple of weeks, my stuff is still there). Several people were interested, but I decided to go with a young woman painter (she's in her late 20s 30s) (I am a man, 40s). She is young and upcoming, good social media presence, and has done shows abroad and locally, met her through a mutual friend several years and I thought we were friendly colleagues. Pretty solid curriculum. The studio rules were simple. You can use this area, this other area is mine, don't touch anything without permission, pay on time, that's it.
All seemed ok the first couple of months, got payment in time and everything. Then I started getting noise complaints from neighbors. I look into it, it seems she decided to renovate the space without my permission. First red flag I ignored. My landlord was not pleased but since our relationship was positive throughout the years nothing happened with my lease. I noticed in her social media presence that she was using my equipment (easels, furniture, projector, etc). I confronted her about this, she apologized and said she wouldn't do it again. After this things went downhill, she insisted on making her be part of the lease (never part of our agreement). I denied this every single time (she pressured me almost weekly). Then a couple of weeks ago she invited the landlord over to visit the studio (I do not know how she got his number, I assume she asked one of the neighbors), and there told the landlord that I don't live in the country anymore and that she wants to be exclusively on the lease. This also coincided that she hasn't been able to pay the last two months of the rent in time. She's not been there for even 5 months, and what should've been a stress free situation has been hell for me being abroad. Her contacting the landlord and trying to kick me out was the final straw.
I made a pause in my travels and returned to my country and I'm finally kicking her out. I lawyered up, told her she has until a certain date to leave. As you can guess it's not easy getting her out of the studio. I've been doing an inventory of the studio these last couple of days and to my dismay after checking my things that I had in storage, a huge amount of my oil paints are missing, of course she's denying any responsibility (I have messages from her just before I left telling me she went through my storage space to help me "organize it" so she can store her stuff too). I'm so fucking angry. I want to cancel her so bad! But she still hasn't left. What would you guys do in my situation?