>I'm trying to find what the North Carolina law is regarding forfeiture of property by an owner due to criminal activity by a tenent. It's not as easy as I thought it would be. Any ideas of where to look?

I'm not sure these cover what you need:

http://www.abanet.org/legalservices/lamp/cle/1105_Rowe_LandlordHandout.pdf
http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/enactedlegislation/statutes/html/bychapter/chapter_42.html
http://www.drugpolicy.org/docUploads/Asset_Forfeiture_Briefing.pdf

Many communities have created laws that allow the jurisdiction to take civil
action against a property owner if the owner does not reduce problems
associated with drugs, prostitution, and other types of illegal activity on the
property. Such laws typically allow for substantial fines, property closure for a
defined period of time, or complete forfeiture of property. Other communities
combine the force of local housing maintenance codes with other civil and
criminal enforcement strategies to force a reluctant owner to act

http://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles1/bja/148656.txt

There's this too, but doesn't mention rental properties:

http://law.jrank.org/pages/6972/Forfeiture.html


Perhaps this:

Property of third parties cannot be forfeited in a criminal case
In Nava, the Ninth Circuit also reiterated the general proposition that
property belonging to third parties cannot be forfeited in a criminal case. In that
case, the Government was seeking the forfeiture of property used to facilitate the
distribution of methamphetamine. Because the defendant’s daughter was the
real owner of the property, the court said, the property could not be forfeited as
part of the defendant’s sentence. In such cases, if the Government wants to
forfeit the property, it must commence a parallel civil forfeiture case in which the
daughter would have to establish an “innocent owner” defense under 18 U.S.C.
§ 983(d).18

There seems to be contradiction between the sources...

http://law.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5219&context=expresso

and this:

http://criminal-law.freeadvice.com/criminal-law/asset-forfeiture.htm

In the case of a civil proceeding, the innocence of the property owner is typically not a defense.

A lot of contradictions and it appears that the war on drugs and the Homeland Defense Act have given the government a new means revenue...

I remember reading something not long ago where property was seized after gang members fired upon police officers from inside a rental home. If over 27 million worth of property was seized due to gang activity last year alone, a large portion of that must be real property. I don't think many gang members actually own their own property... I can't find it now though...