remote evictions

[Rod Lloyd]

I am a Mobile Home Park owner in Kelseyville CA. My manager has recently quit due to a terminal illness and I find myself managing my park from 650 miles away.

I have an onsite manager with limited abilities and I have no problem traveling once per month to the property. The tenants are use to paying rent by mail so I now handle all the rents remotely with monthly billing. [no different than the phone company or power company billing].

Unfortunately I have tenants that have in the past been allowed to pay rent late, carrying balances with not late charge.

Since taking over I have given all the tenants 30 days notice that the late charge stated on the rental agreement will start being enforced and payment must be made on time.

My question to you is how do I evict a tenant from 650 miles away. I approached several attorneys in the area and the only one with time to do an eviction indicated it would cost $850 and up.

I have done many apartment eviction myself successfully and know the procedure but I am not sure how feasible it is from 650 miles away. What are my options?

[John Vashon]

I own a park in Lakeport and a few others in N. California. Are your tenants in RVs or MHs? Are you familiar with the 3/60 Day Notice process in California? Evictions for non-payment of rent are pretty straight forward but you want to resolve these cases without going to court because of the costs. $850 is just the starting point (attorney and filing fees.) If the homeowner files a reply and appears, you can spend $2,500 + the lost rent. I'm not sure I answered your question but let me know if I can help!