Creative eviction tactics & adventures in house hunting

[Sylvia B.]

We had an "interesting" experience looking at properties today. There are two small houses for sale right next to each other with a commercial property right next to them, also for sale, so we made an appointment to see all three. We knew before going in that they'd need lots of work, but that's how you find bargains, right?

The first house was as we expected, rather run down, but with a tenant who had been there a year, was quite happy, and said he never wanted to leave. As we were leaving, the agent said, "I need to warn you about this second house." Uh oh.

He said that the tenant hadn't paid rent in 3 months and the owner couldn't get him out, so he told him he'd be doing some remodeling and took both exterior doors off. Okay . . .

So the agent went up to the door and the tenant yelled at him to go away, threatening to call the cops. The agent said he was there to show the house and needed to come in, but the tenant wasn't budging. He had put sheets over the doorways and then barricaded them with furniture. So the agent called the owner and we went to look at the other building while waiting on him.

I casually said, "I hope Dan doesn't get himself in trouble taking the doors off." and the agent assured me that as long as you are "remodeling" you can do anything you want to the house. "Yeah, right." is what I thought, but I just asked him why he didn't get a court order and have the sheriff throw the guy out. He said that the sheriff won't evict anyone in this county, no matter what the court says. At that point I just dropped it. We were ready to see the commercial building, and as soon as the agent unlocked the door the alarm went off!

Ten minutes of blaring sirens while the agent called first the police, then the owner to get the alarm code. Once we finally get inside, we discover that the building isn't worth half of what they're asking, and was totally unsuitable for our use.

Back to the house with the surly tenant. The owner was there and had the doorway cleared and the tenant subdued. Wow. Most of the light and plumbing fixtures were ripped off the walls, doors off the cabinets, holes in the sheet rock, junk stacked everywhere, and of course everything was filthy. I was actually quite surprised that it didn't stink.

At the end of it all, I'm not really sure where my sympathies lie. Normally I'd feel for the landlord with a deadbeat tenant, but somehow I think that in this case maybe they deserve each other.