my professional tenant nightmare...warning long

[Shelley F.]

I wrote a very detailed story that just went *poof* so this time I will write in installments. This is a story form my earlier , very nieve, years in landlording. There needs to be some background so the context can be understood.

In 1990 my husband and I bought my 'dream' property...an equestrian facility near an affluent town. This place had two indoor arenas, a lot of outdoor riding places and pastures, and also a 2/1 craftsman bungalow house as well. The house was occupied by the farm manager and his family.

It also had a mobile home that the farm worker lived in.

My family didnt intend to live there, we had a nice house in town. the plan was for me to work there in the daytime. 

As luck would have it the manager was offered a better job and moved out just a few months in and suddenly we had an empty house. I was in the house one day and startled by a woman who just dropped in. She wanted to know if the house was for rent. Not just yet, I told her, but soon.

We had purchased some new light fixtures and had planned to paint the place, then consult with my brother (an attorney) about how to rent it effectively.

The next day the same woman contacted me about boarding her two horses...sure! I even went with her to pick up her horses at the fancy place they were at and hauled them home for nothing. (she had said they 'didnt fit in') and that the owner of the other farm wasnt fair to her.

Horses get to my place, no problem

A few days later I come to work, notice curtains in the house windows...hmmmm...it was vacant, we were ready for painting!