Ready for Self-Help Eviction, but I accepted a rifle as deposit!!

[Jason V.]

Definitely many legal issues at play here, but I'll give my side of the story before starting this process to see what you guys think (besides the fact that I'm incredibly stupid & naive for breaking numerous rules against renting to friends, co-workers, etc.)....

- A new [at that time] co-worker heard about an unoccupied house I was essentially using for storage purposes only, then tells me he'll pay me to rent it out.  I did NOT want to do it, but he gave me a sob story that his landlord was kicking him out in a couple days (for shooting fireworks on July 4th, which was against the terms of his lease), and he really didn't have my choice as to anywhere else to go.  Plus he JUST started working here, making relatively decent money compared to most other jobs in the area.

- I considered the net gain was rather significant, since I was still paying for running water and power (for alarm system) at this house that I wasn't even occupying.  So even if he were to screw me over, it couldn't be any worse than I had been doing to myself for the past couple of years.

- Guy's giving me plenty of red flags... but whatever, I'm a nice guy, right?  He can't afford to pay the deposit, so I tell him I'll work with him, even writing in special verbage that he won't have any rights of a tenant until he pays the deposit in full (Legal?!?)  17 months later, it's still not paid in full!!  But he has given me $650 of the $800 deposit so far ($100 of that $650 was actually me paying him first installing a dishwasher that wasn't there when he first signed the lease!).  The only thing he was able to provide me on Day 1 of the Lease was a rifle that I valued at around $400.  He quickly gave another $400 cash, so I *somewhat* considered the deposit paid in full to the point I wasn't going to nag him about it... but he has been unable to pay the remaining $150 to get the damn rifle back!!!

-He was unable to cover the deposit for utilities, as well, so I told him for an extra $50/wk (as he pays weekly), that should cover water & power.  This never got written into the lease, but he did paid this full, weekly amount on time until a few months back.

- Fast forward to around Thanksgiving of last year, and his mother passes away. He had to take a LITTLE time off work and was at first unable to pay, but then decided he's gonna take a loan against his 401K to pay me everything but 1 week's rent. We had some "big" bonuses ($1400 after taxes) from our work coming at end of 2021 and the last bonus was received today this week.

- About a month ago, he tells me he's depressed since his mom passed, his therapist has upped his meds, and now he can't function properly.  So because of these bonuses that I know are coming, I tell him I'll work with him missing A SINGLE WEEK of work.   I just find out a few weeks ago that he's missed THREE weeks of work.

- I'm waiting for this bonus check so that I can start the eviction process, right?  Well he calls me today and tells me that he expected the bonus to be a lot more, but now he can only send me $700 today (while he STILL owes me about $1,000!).  Not only that, but he tells me that his therapist has given him a one month long work excuse, which will allow him to claim short term disability, which is like *maybe* $20/wk over what the rent + utilities are.

- Needless to say, I have to evict the guy.  He was smoking in the house before ("only in the bathroom with window opened") and yet again even more recently ("only with the front door cracked while it was freezing outside").  And to top that off, I've told him numerous times that he can't have pets.  Last time I saw him in person, tho, he showed me a pic of this dog that "his girlfriend" just bought.  Picture was of the dog taken at MY house!! I give him the benefit of the doubt... maybe the pup really was only over there for a couple hours or so. . . .  HOWEVER, upon replacing the air filter maybe 2 weeks ago, I see there's A TON of dog hair on the old filter.  STRIKE SEVENTEEN!!!

- I live in a state where self-help eviction is permissable, so long as it's written and agreed to in the signed lease.  Luckily, it is INDEED in the signed lease.  (Definitely Legal, but is it recommended?!? Why or why not?) Should I just pay some movers to toss his **** out 3 days after receiving his Notice to Pay / Cure (unfortunately he won't be leaving for work anytime soon, however... so that could be an isssue)?... Or should I go the formal eviction route, waiting for a judge's orders?

- My last question pertains to the rifle that I accepted as deposit.  (Legal?!?) The lease identifies that a rifle was accepted in lieu of deposit and would be returned as soon as actual cash deposit was paid in full, but he still hasn't paid the cash deposit in full!  The lease does not mention exact make, model, serial # of rifle... nor does it mention any detailed steps toward "officially" changing hands of ownership if the cash deposit is NEVER received in full.  Is this something I can expect to keep?  It's in the lease, just certainly not as detailed verbage as I'd like to see after knowing how the future actually played out.

- Long story short, I was on the fence as to whether I should continue renting or just selling the house, but this whole experience is definitely swaying me toward selling, even tho I will get hit with a good bit of capital gains tax now that my wife just started working at the beginning of this year (pushing us to the next tax bracket, & also causing those extra gains to likely cut into the child tax credits for our 3 niños). Wish I could've forseen the future, but still... I just don't want to deal with the headaches & drama anymore.  Regardless, there's still LOTS more headaches I'll have to work / fight thru whether I sell or not.  I feel like it'll only be financially sound to do a "Deferred" Section 1031 Exchange, not a traditional sale.  But that also sounds risky if I can't find a replacement property within 45 days.

Sooo... any suggestions to help minimize my headaches would be most appreciated.  Thank you! 🙏  I don't think Landlording is for me, but I would certainly appreciate  graceful exit.