T-12 hours and 45 minutes...

The great 2013 move-out is in progress. I saw 2 out of 3 apartments last night and what I found was far from unexpected.

Last week I sent out an email detailing everything that needed to be done prior to the move-out. In the email was a section about scheduling a walk through, if the tenants wished to be present for it. It was not mandatory, just an offer that I would be available on the 30th, but not the 31st, due to my work schedule. Two out of three tenants scheduled a walk through for that evening.

Yesterday morning, I received a call from the tenant that I was supposed to see right after work; they were having trouble locating a carpet scrubbing machine and were hoping to push their walk through back a few hours. We arranged to meet after the other walk through scheduled for last night.

My first appointment was scheduled for 7:30pm. As I approached the house, it appeared that nothing had changed  on the outside - trash and random furniture was strewn around the yard. I knocked on the door and was let into the kitchen, which may or may not have had a floor. I don't know simply because I couldn't see it for the crap that was everywhere I looked. The tenant was standing in the middle of the kitchen and I'm sure the look on my face said that something wasn't right. After a moment, she said she wasn't sure what I needed to see that night. This particular tenant is old enough to be my mother. SHE contacted ME to schedule an optional walk through for the return of HER security deposit. What would I like to see? The walls and floors would be a start. I told her I was unable to do anything that evening, given the amount of moving that still needed to be done. 

I left there, having been no farther inside than the doormat, and went to the next apartment (the ones that were having trouble finding the carpet machine). From the moment the door opened, it smelled clean (the living room carpet was still wet). Everything had been moved out of the house. I was able to look through every closet and cabinet. There was a small amount of trash, in bags and boxes outside the back door, waiting to be picked up today. THIS is what an apartment should look like on a move-out. I could move another tenant in without any hesitation or hassle. 

It's also only the second time I've ever seen that happen in seven years.

Crabby Evictions... and 125 page views!

Wow! We've hit 125 page views! Thanks for reading - the next few weeks should get interesting, so stay tuned!

I filed for eviction on Thursday; it seems the file-by rules have changed and I'll be heading to court next Monday (instead of the following Friday). The tenant got notice from me before I filed and sent me a few messages when I was on my way to the court house to fill out the paperwork. She wanted to know why I only waited X number of days to file this time when I waited longer the last time. I told her that her lease says that I may file as early as the Xth of the month (even though the law says I can file the day after it was due, regardless of grace periods in the lease) and that if I had not waived her past due rent from June, she would actually be WAY more overdue than she was the last time.

She stopped questioning me and actually apologized for sounding like a jerk. Twice.

Saturday, I was laying in bed reading when she sent me another text. She asked if I would like some crabs, they had more than they could eat.

You can't pay your rent, but you have more crabs than you can eat? We live in a state where you can catch crabs live, like fish, but we're not remotely close to an area that hasn't be crabbed-out. You have to drive somewhere, pay for bait, etc.

I declined.

I should have told her to sell the crabs to help pay her rent.

Fool Me Once

This time last month, one of my best tenants told me they were moving. Another tenant was causing trouble with the neighbors and eventually told me they were also moving. That left me with just tenant #3 as of August 1st. They've been here almost a year, and in that time they may have paid their rent on time twice. We've been to rent court once with a judgment in my favor (they paid the day after it went before the judge). Technically, I should have asked them to move by now; however, these particular tenants live in my house (the other half of the duplex I live in). Aside from the rent woes, I like them. Given my recent issues, I also feel safe with them living in my house, which is a big deal to me.

However, business is business and when July 1st came around, they still owed me money from June. I knew a bit about their situation - I knew he was changing jobs and there would be a lapse in pay, that they've been working on trimming and cutting down the trees around the property, and that they were screwed over by someone that was staying with them briefly (with my permission). So I decided to waive the amount that was owed (it was relatively small) as a thank you for the work they had done on the trees, in the hope that it would help them get back on track faster.

Yeah, right.

It's now July 18 and not one dime has been paid for their July rent. He's not actually getting his first check until after the 1st of August. Oh, but I was told that they would be getting money from a friend last night to pay a large portion of their rent (no, I didn't believe it either). When this started snowballing at the beginning of the month, I told one of them that I would hold on the court proceedings until July 19. It seems like a nice-guy gesture, but it's actually a complete jerk move. Filing in district court on July 19 means that it will go before the judge on August 2nd. In our county and state, that means that I can claim the rent for August is also due when I file (since it will become due while we are waiting to go to court). That means they will only have until August 9th to finish paying for July and August before I file for the sheriff. Yes, it's still late and it will still accrue fees, but since I'm losing two other tenants on July 31, I'm stuck with them for at least another month - late rent is still rent and they know they can't go anywhere else.

I'm going to court this afternoon, instead of tomorrow (I plan to be on the beach tomorrow and their lack of timeliness is not going to interfere with that); as long I file after 4pm today, we still go to court two weeks from tomorrow, so there's no real difference on their end. I fully expect to get a text message that says "we have your money" which means "we have part of your money and a variety of excuses" at some point tonight or tomorrow. After all, the constant smell of cigarette smoke is a sign of money coming from somewhere.

Fool me once... but not twice.

You can't just 'throw them out'

http://foxbaltimore.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/prior-owners-refuse-leave-auctioned-owings-mills-home-20836.shtml#.UdeQScu9KSM

I was sitting in a Walmart parking lot this morning, scrolling through my Facebook feed while finishing my coffee, when I came across this little gem. Apparently, the family purchased a foreclosed home in January, only to have to file with the court in June to get the current residents to move. The comments (especially on the Facebook post, not just here) are hilarious. They come in all forms of "you're the owner, just throw them out!"

The same thing happens day after day in the rental world- tenants refuse to pay rent or don't move out when they say they will, and we have to go through the court system to rightfully regain 'ownership' of property that we already own. Just like the home owner in this story, we are losing money due to rent (income that's not being paid by the tenant) and in some cases, are also trying to pay the mortgage, taxes and repairs without a source of income. You can't withhold repairs on a property if the tenant doesn't pay, even if their refusal to pay means you can't afford to pay for the repairs. You have to forego repairs on your own home, and sometimes food on the table or gas in your car, to pay for the well pump that went up in a house where no money has been paid for rent. But you can't 'just throw them out.'

People fail to recognize these things when they think about landlords and tenants. The landlord evicting a tenant is the bad guy. They are 'putting someone on the street' or 'leaving people with no where to go', and little to no attention is given to the fact that the landlord will NEVER recover their court costs or the lost rent. Too many times I simply go to court to get a judgment - just an order for possession of the property to be returned to me. The thing is, from the time I file with the court until we go before the judge, two weeks has passed. Sometimes, the tenant will pay what they owe during that time. Most of the time, they don't. It goes to court, the judge rules in your favor if the tenant doesn't show up (when they owe money, they typically do not show up) and then you wait. You can't just run home, change the locks and say 'see ya sucker!!' to the tenant. You have to wait an entire week before filing the next piece of paper ($40 in my county). During that time, the tenant can still pay their rent and stop the eviction process- and yes, that happens more often than not. Yup, even though the judge ruled in my favor, the tenant can still stay. In fact, even after filing the next paper, speaking with the sheriff and setting up the actual, physical eviction, the tenant can still pay their rent and stay in the property - as long as it happens before the sheriff shows up for the eviction. By that time, an entire month has elapsed and their next months rent is due or past due already... and it just starts over.

Sure, there are provisions in the law that allow the landlord to secure a judgment and immediately file for restitution, thereby limiting the tenant to either moving out or being evicted, but those only exist after you've received FOUR judgments for possession in a twelve-month period.

...but we're the bad guy. No, you can't just throw them out. It doesn't matter who owns the property. The only thing that matters is the law.

The Guest Who Wouldn't Leave, Part Three

Continued from The Guest Who Wouldn't Leave, Parts 1 & 2

 It's just after 6:40 AM Monday morning. My phone has been quiet for a couple hours, but the last several messages have asked me to contact him to give him more time to move, in between the constant begging, apologizing, promising to stay in the house at all times and complaining about the neighbors. I send a two sentence reply, "I'm not interested. Please make other arrangements immediately," which sets him off again. Finally, I send him a text that tells him to stop harassing me or I will have him removed immediately. That's when the other shoe drops. He texts me and says that he has spoken to the sheriff and since he's lived there for a month and receives his mail there, he has 30 days to move.

I've heard this before, but it's never been an issue that I've had to correct. Apparently, if a person who is not on the lease stays in the residence for an extended length of time (there seems to be no specified length of time) and they change their address through the post office, they now have residence in the property. Once they have established residence, they have to be treated as a tenant and given 30 days to get out. In any normal situation, it's a problem tenant that has extra people living in the house, so you hit the tenant for breaching their lease and they either correct the problem in 30 days or everyone in the house (including the tenant) has to be out in 30 days. If the tenant wants to stay, they'll get rid of their 'friends' rather than go to court, which is what happens if they don't leave. With this situation, I'm dealing with a good tenant, one that I'd like to keep for a while (and in this situation, this wasn't an intentional breach - she told me upfront what was going on and, initially, I agreed). That means action has to be taken specifically against the guest.

I had to wait a couple hours to call the sheriff's office again. The evictions Sargent keeps relatively normal hours, but that also means he's in the field for most of his day, handling situations like mine or standard court-ordered evictions. I can't reach him at his desk and they tell me to call back after 2:30 PM. One thing leads to another and it's 9:30 PM, I haven't called the sheriff back and the guest sends me another text. He claims that he'll be leaving the next day (Tuesday, he was told to be out by Tuesday evening), he doesn't understand why I'm treating him like crap, our apartments are unlivable and he was going to be doing me a favor by moving in next to the trashy neighbors.

Obviously, I don't respond. This guy is a manipulative (fill in the blank with your own four letter word).

Tuesday morning, I'm sitting at my desk at my 'real job' and it dawns on my that I never ran a public record search on him. When he applied for the first house, he took the information he had filled in with him, therefore I had no way of knowing his last name. However, when he called back about the second house, he left his full name on my voice mail... and you don't need a signed waiver for a PUBLIC search. Naturally, there was a page and a half of charges and court cases. Assault, theft, breaking and entering, more assault... my cell phone rings and it's the tenant. She's having more and more issues with him. In the conversation, she says he can't go back to his family's home because he and his brother beat up his step-father. I didn't bother to comment on everything I had just read. She asks about changing the locks on the house, whether or not it's okay to do that before he leaves.

I don't have an issue with her changing the locks for own safety, but the law does have provisions for 'lock-outs' (changing locks on tenants instead of going through proper eviction procedures). One misstep at this point could land us in court or require us to give him 30 days to get out.

I get off the phone with her and leave a message for the evictions Sargent, who calls me back about 2 hours later. According to him, she can change the locks if I give her permission.  Also, I was able to find out that the guest has only been there 3 weeks, which according to the Sargent is too short of a time to establish residency, no matter how much mail he receives.

After work, I head to her house and we change the locks. She gets a message from the guest (after telling him the locks have been changed) claiming what we did was illegal. She tells him that I had spoken to the sheriff and he says he will bring a sheriff with him when he comes to get his stuff. Several hours go by and he does return with a sheriff, but he only picks up some clothes. After some discussion, it's made clear that he is not to return to the property (to collect the rest of his belongings) unless he has made arrangements with the tenant and is accompanied by a sheriff.

The end? Let's hope so, but I'm not going to hold my breath. 

The Guest Who Wouldn't Leave, Part Two

Continued from "The Guest Who Wouldn't Leave, Part One"

It's Sunday morning and in the 'real world' that means I'm working as a church musician (with my phone on silent, in my purse). It's been three days of this guy texting me. He goes from hitting on me, to apologizing, to begging for an apartment, to hitting on me again. Far from wanting to rent him an apartment, I'm now at the point of contacting the tenant he's living with to ask her when he will be leaving (and knowing that he won't be leaving until he gets an apartment). Yes, I probably should have handled the situation already and been more forceful than I had, but my 'real life' actually had more pressing issues at the time... and sometimes you don't see your mistakes until you look back... while writing a blog :)

By now, I'm also starting to get concerned about being at my house alone, sign or no sign on the door, that he may just start showing up if he sees my car in the driveway. I parked my car at a family member's house and walked back to mine, so I could eat lunch and rest for a bit, without anyone really knowing I was home. Avoiding things? You know it. After a couple hours passed, I went back to the church to rehearse some of the music we were playing the following week. That's when all hell broke loose.

While I'm in the church rehearsing, my phone rings - it's my current tenant, the one that's going to be moving out in a few weeks (the apartment this guy is begging to rent). When I answer, it's not the woman that lives there that's on the phone, but her boyfriend. He's always been polite to me, but he's very, very angry. He tells me that 'this punk kid that's living at the end of the street' has been hanging around their house (yes, he's talking about 'the guest'). The boyfriend continues to say that the guest showed up while his girlfriend was out in the yard talking to the neighbor. The guest proceeds to open the door to the house, and look around, under the premise of 'trying to let their cat out'.

Yes, that's what he said. He was going to let the cat out of a house he didn't live in and where he did not know the tenants. The guest then goes over to the yard of the apartment next door (also one of my tenants) and settles himself into one of their lawn chairs, as if he lives there.

My tenants boyfriend also tells me that he's had occurrences in the past week of the gas cap being off of his vehicle. He's a professional truck driver, so the chances of him personally leaving the cap off the truck is possible, but highly unlikely. He concludes by telling me that his girlfriend is highly freaked out by the behavior of this guy and that if the guest sets foot on their property again, he's going to shoot first and ask questions later.

After a formal complaint from a tenant, it was time for real action. I've never had a situation with someone that was not an actual tenant, so I decided I needed advice on how to handle things. I called the state police and spoke to the officer on duty, who told me that what he heard from me was bordering on criminal behavior. However, it was out of their jurisdiction, so he put me on hold and transferred me to the county sheriff's office. The sheriff's office took my call, but had to put out a call to a sheriff in my area, who would then call me back. In my redneck county, that meant everyone with a scanner knew I'd called the police.

Ten minutes later, the sheriff called. He was great, listened to what had been going on and then proceeded to tell me exactly how to handle the situation. Since this guy was a guest and had not established residence, he could be told to leave the property within a day or two. If he resisted and did not leave by the time he was given, I was to call the sheriff's office and speak to the Sargent that handles evictions, who would know exactly how to proceed or tell another sheriff how to handle things, if he couldn't be there personally. I've dealt with the evictions sheriff before and know that he's someone that can get really bad situations turned around, so that gave me a little bit of hope.

After speaking with the police, it's time to call the tenant where the guest is staying. I'm worried about her safety as well, so I sent her a text asking her to call me at her earliest convenience. She calls within ten minutes and before I start, I ask her if she is alone. She says yes, and I explain that there have been issues with the guest and other tenants, and that I know that the police have been contacted. I tell her that he must leave and that he must be gone by Tuesday evening (48 hours later). She says she will handle it, but I do assure her that if she has any issues that I will back her up.

After careful consideration, I find myself spending the night at a family members house; within 20 minutes of my arrival, the guest starts texting me. Pages upon pages of text messages, individual messages longer than the screen on my iPhone. I read them, but do not respond. I cannot turn my phone off, because of my job, but I put it on vibrate and lay it aside as it continues to light up with pleas to rent the apartment to him and accusations of my other tenants being trashy jerks and falsely accusing him...and apologizing for hitting on me.

...but won't I please hold the apartment for him?

The Guest Who Wouldn't Leave, Part One

We all have that friend - the one that can't take a hint that it's time to go home? Or maybe you are that friend, the last one to leave the party, after sitting in an awkward silence for an extended period of time with a host that's too polite to tell you to get out.

Then... there's this guy.

About three weeks ago, I got a call from one of my parents tenants. She's been with us for a while now, great tenant, no issues, pays on time, lets me know quickly when there is something that needs a repair. She called to let me know that her friend's son was staying with her, due to an emergency. I told her it was no problem, as long as it was only for a week or two. If it was any longer than that, we would have to talk about modifying her lease. She also told me that he was searching for an apartment; the one next to hers had just become available that day, so I told her to give him my info and we could talk about it.

He calls me about an hour later and says that he wants to look at the apartment with his brother, who is going through a divorce. I agreed to meet with them later that afternoon, to show the property and have them fill out an application. Both guys are in their mid-to-late twenties (just a few years younger than me) and almost immediately the brother says the apartment not big enough for his needs and he leaves. The guest decides to fill out an application, after trying to haggle with me about the price (which he was told was non-negotiable - it was the first day I was showing the property and there was no reason for me to drop the price and take the first person that came along). He starts to fill out the application, which is lengthy and after about ten minutes, he turns the first page (which had only asked for his name, phone# and SS#). After glancing at the second and third pages (employment history and financial/legal information), he got a bit antsy, and told me he changed his mind. He takes the first page (the one he filled out) with him and handed me the rest before he leaves. I thought he might have been dyslexic or maybe couldn't read or write well in general, based on the amount of time it took him to fill out the first page, his unwillingness to continue when he saw the rest of the application and the way he seemed embarrassed as he was leaving. Boy, was I wrong.

About two and a half weeks later, I get a call while I'm at work (yes, I have a 'real' job...or four...); I didn't recognize the number and let it go to voice mail. It was the guest, asking about the other property I have that's going to be available in a few weeks. He leaves a hurried message, asking me to hold that property for him, that he might be able to get the money together in time (for the security deposit/ first month's rent). I had not mentioned the property to him when we met, because at that time I didn't know it was about to become available - the tenant that will be moving talked to me several days later.

I was distracted and before I realized it, it was 24 hours later and I hadn't called him back. I decided just to send him a text message (most, if not all, of my tenants text) to let him know I received his message and that I would agree to set up a time to talk to him about the property in question. Looking back, I should have just ignored his message altogether. However, there were now pressing situations with other tenants and I was hoping to make a quick turnaround on this specific apartment, even if it meant having to work with him a bit on payments.

He starts texting me back, first about the apartment, but then about how bored he is. He asks if I'm married and how old I am, commenting that I'm both young and beautiful, and that he can't believe that I don't have guys all over me. I decided to ignore him. Before it got to this point, I had already agreed to meet with him several days later, and I'm now deciding how to get out of it. He seems to realize that I'm ignoring him, so he tries to apologize for seeming like he was 'trying to get with me.' What he doesn't know is that I know his girlfriend vaguely, but I know her family and step-family very well...well enough that her step-brother cut my lawn earlier that same day, as he has for several years.

The next morning, my phone starts blowing up with texts from him again, apologizing for his actions the day before... and then asking me to hang out later that day. Hello??? Are you serious? You want to rent an apartment from me, but insist on hitting on me before even looking at it? I tell him that I do not 'hang out' with  tenants or potential tenants. He tells me that's fine, we can forget the apartment, he'll figure out something else, but he wants to hang out. I do not respond.

The next day, he once again apologizes for his actions, tells me that he and his girlfriend are possibly 'getting back together' (gee, I wonder who he 'hung out' with the night before...) and that he is really, very interested in the apartment and still wants to meet with me.

*facepalm*

In the words of the great Paul Harvey, stay tuned for "the rest of the story."