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.
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.
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