Inhereted Tenant Eviction help in Columbus, Ohio

[Catherine W.]

Hi All -

We have a problem.  We purchased a duplex on 6/30 and are currently living on one side.  There were previously two guys living on the other side; one moved out on time as notified by the prior owner (which was that the lease would be expiring at the end of June and they had to leave), the other did not and is still there, we think.

We do not have a lease with this guy, but right after we purchased the property, we told him he could stay until 7/5 and pay us prorated rent... after that we had renovations planned and he needed to be out.   Well two weeks later he hasn't paid us a dime and hasn't tried to contact us or work anything out despite our letters sent and notices posted on his door.  He did have the nerve to have friends visit him twice, though!  We filed an eviction last week and are waiting on that.

The odd thing now is that for the past few days, we're not sure if he's still there or not.  He has all of his crap still in the back yard, his dogs are still there, but we haven't seen or heard him.   My husband has been working on renovating our side of the duplex and had to go over there to do some plumbing (both sides of the duplex have one meter) earlier this week.  He noticed that the guy's dogs have been pooping and peeing all over the floor. We have no idea of what's going on and have no idea what to do.  I'd at least like to take the dogs out... but is that even allowed since they're not ours? 

This is probably something we need to get a lawyer involved in but if anyone has any guidance we would appreciate it!  We're kicking ourselves for not writing it into the contract to have the entire property vacant before closing.