New Landlord, Trying to evict an unidentifiable tenant

[Adam Peacock]

tldr; Need thoughts re evicting someone when I don't know their name.

I purchased a Cleveland duplex with two tenants ~2 months ago. Since this was the first of a series of purchases I've made, I failed to ask for the tenant's information during the purchase process -- that's on me. Since we closed, the upper unit tenant refuses to communicate or respond to my new PM wrt their name, lease status or any other detail we've requested to make for a smooth transition. We're now trying to evict them since they don't pay rent but my PM is struggling since there is no names for whoever is living there so we don't know WHO we're evicting.

I requested whatever information is available from the former seller's agent but they don't reply. I requested the information from the agent who represented me and they refused to help unless I switch PM services to them.

How do you evict someone you don't know who they are? Just trying to recover from a misstep of not asking for this information up front.

Advice/suggestions?

//adam

[Nathan Gesner]

I agree with the others. Find an attorney that has a lot of experience with evictions. Pay the money now and get this done right.

Start looking for a new PM. You shouldn't expect your PM to know everything, but you can certainly expect them to make an effort to find the answer instead of forcing you to ask a bunch of strangers on the interwebs.