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Updated almost 8 years ago, 02/20/2017
My first Rental, turned into my first eviction :(
I've heard it a million times, "never rent to family." Being the naive person that I was -- possibly still is -- I didn't listen.
I rented my condo out to a family member in 2013. By early 2014, I noticed their rent payments were becoming more and more sporadic. This concerned me. By August 2014, I told them it was time they find else where to live. After a heated reaction, they agreed. Fast forward to January 2016, they were still there and somehow amassed an incredible $15,800 of back rent. The only course of action I saw by that point, was to evict. It was the hardest decision that I made that day -- it was probably a Sunday, Sundays are slow days for decision making needs.
I called my realtor friend to get his thoughts, and I'm not sure if he was trying to be funny or not but he said, "that's why I always tell people never rent to family" -- part of me thinks he wanted to rub a little salt on the wound.
After months of going back between the lawyer and the courts, I received a Summary of Judgement today, and the tenants in my rental will be removed by law enforcement if they do not voluntarily vacate in 2 weeks.
I'm pretty bummed that it came this far. I am not sure if I have questions for anyone or if I am subconsciously searching for some comfort.
In any case, I had to let it out.
Seth Macomber
I do agree, business and family can get sticky. I chose to opt out of doing any business with family, for the simple fact of avoid any potential problems. It's never worth it... Regardless, you had to do what needed to be done. Your building your future, why let someone get in the way of that, family or not. Bitter moment but business is business. Lesson learned.! Don't feel bad
What was their relation to you if you don't mind me asking?
If I am not disowned, I would have been the son.
Seth Macomber so the question is are you still naive or did you learn your lesson? Sounds like you still feel bad and haven't really thought about how you would avoid being taken advantage of in the future.
Why did it take so long to evict where someone (family or not) could rack up $15k in unpaid rent? Not trying to pile on, but learning from our mistakes and failures is important to being successful. Dust yourself off, put processes and criteria in place to ensure this doesn't happen again and move on. Best of luck!
@John Casmon Great question. I would say I am always still learning. Will I ever make this mistake again? Nope.
To comment on your other question:
"Why did it take so long to evict where someone (family or not) could rack up $15k in unpaid rent? "
I don't have an answer. I believe that it falls under one of the infinite reasons of why someone should "never rent to family."
And I don't see it as piling it on. I appreciate the boldness of confrontation in constructive mannerism.
Originally posted by @Seth Macomber:
If I am not disowned, I would have been the son.
Sure is a crazy world we live to think that your parents would disown you for their horrible inactions. I doubt they are agonizing of this near as much as you are. Sorry you are having to go through this
Always view real estate investments as a business. It is not a charity. Hence why I am against renting to relatives.
Unfortunately, this will make for a very awkward holiday season. So sorry you had to learn the hard way. But shame on your parent(s) for putting you through this!
Thank God you posted this. I was planning to buy a four unit apartment and rent them all to family haha what I thinking. I'm always trying to help people. I feel like that would be me struggling to make the decision to evict family.
Ouch...another painful lesson in mixing family and business. I've been there before, to the tune of a $10,000 "loan" to an in law for a small business that ended up turning into a gift after just four payments. But with this being your parents...talk about a rock and a hard place. Sorry you had to experience this...
well, unfortunately you have discovered the reason as to why so many people have said it.
If your parents did this to you....you should disown them !
It is one thing if they came to you and said "son, we are in a jam and need a place to live for 2 or 3 months and will try our best to pay you back when we can" Then its your parents and as some might say, you are obligated, but $15K over a couple of years. No way.
OMG your parents did this to you? Only piece of advice that I will add to "don't rent to family" is "or friends". Good luck and I hope your venting helped you. Your friends at the BP nation are with you!
get a property manager and see how they do it
As a 30 year plus landlord i generally agree that renting to relatives is not recommended, My brother in law is over 6 years behind in rent to his father and has no intention of ever paying rent or anything else he owes... However my step-daughter is a wonderful responsible person, I rented my high value California home to her about 10 years ago, 4 years ago she and her husband purchased the home at appraised value; rent was always on time,l best tenants ever, not surprised since I raised her.
Originally posted by @Seth Macomber:
I've heard it a million times, "never rent to family." Being the naive person that I was -- possibly still is -- I didn't listen.
I rented my condo out to a family member in 2013. By early 2014, I noticed their rent payments were becoming more and more sporadic. This concerned me. By August 2014, I told them it was time they find else where to live. After a heated reaction, they agreed. Fast forward to January 2016, they were still there and somehow amassed an incredible $15,800 of back rent. The only course of action I saw by that point, was to evict. It was the hardest decision that I made that day -- it was probably a Sunday, Sundays are slow days for decision making needs.
I called my realtor friend to get his thoughts, and I'm not sure if he was trying to be funny or not but he said, "that's why I always tell people never rent to family" -- part of me thinks he wanted to rub a little salt on the wound.
After months of going back between the lawyer and the courts, I received a Summary of Judgement today, and the tenants in my rental will be removed by law enforcement if they do not voluntarily vacate in 2 weeks.
I'm pretty bummed that it came this far. I am not sure if I have questions for anyone or if I am subconsciously searching for some comfort.
In any case, I had to let it out.
Sorry to hear about having to evict a family member. It sounds like you gave them plenty of extra time to try to get their act together. I hope they leave peacefully with your house in tact and that you get great tenants in the future.
I feel very sorry for your parents to have son like you. How are going to sleep at night after evicting your own parents??? Do you have children? If you do, then wait and see how they are going to treat you when you will be old…Remember my prediction for the rest of your life!
PS. It is so unfortunate that there is not a single person here is blaming/shaming you for such horrible act
I'm sorry to hear about your incident. You shouldn't feel bad at all. Family shouldn't be taking advantage of someone's generosity just because they think they can. Just my opinion.
People don't become pillars of society just because they give birth to someone. I wouldn't loan a nickel to my father, if I could find him that is.
That must have been a very tough decision for you to make Seth. I'll bet this has weighed heavily on your heart for the past two years. It's probably safe to say also, that there are other, unmentioned factors you had to consider before finally coming to your decision. Hopefully, time and grace will heal your relationships and all of you will be able to move on to a bigger and brighter future.
#2 General Landlording & Rental Properties Contributor
Your parents owe you $15,000. So here is a test question to see if you have learned anything and are now able to separate personal from business.
Are you taking them to court to get the money they still owe you ??
@Thomas S. I am weighing my options. I am considering selling my debt to a collection agency. I have considered creating a collection agency of my own and petitioning for wage garnishes, but, I am unsure.
@Chris Medeiros Thank you. It was the absolute last resort. I practically begged my parent to not let it get to this point -- for 2 years. But I have a family of my own, and I needed to make this decision for my family.
@Abraham Sosa Thank you.
@David Gold I do have children. My wife and child are the reason I made this decision. I have lost sleep every night for the last 2 years because of this. My heart isn't broken, it's shattered. But, thank you for your opinion.
@Rhondalette W. Thank you. I gave them lots of time, lots of notices, I begged and begged and begged. There was no other option unfortunately.
@Dan White Absolutely fabulous regarding your step daughter. Please do me a favor and clone her, then send her clone my way. Thanks in advance.
@Jay Grabbe Most definitely.
@Jim Shepard Thank you!
@Rich N. Thanks. Yeah, I was more than gracious with them.
@Jade S. Thanks man.
Originally posted by @David Gold:
I feel very sorry for your parents to have son like you. How are going to sleep at night after evicting your own parents??? Do you have children? If you do, then wait and see how they are going to treat you when you will be old…Remember my prediction for the rest of your life!
PS. It is so unfortunate that there is not a single person here is blaming/shaming you for such horrible act
David,
I'm with you 100%. I'd rather cut off my arm than to evict my parents.
To the original poster,
$15,800 over a period close to 3 years is about $500/mo. Have you thought for a moment how much had your parents spent and invested on you? Evicting your parents over some chump change? If I had to make up the shortfall of $500/mo for the rest of my parents' lives 30-40 years if god is willing, that's $180k-$240k. I would rather lose everything I own than to lose my parents. Money lost can be re-earned. How do you get your parents back when they're gone? HOW?
You let money blind-sided you. How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours. Your action reminded me of this saying "Unsuccessful people make decisions based on their current situation; successful people make decisions based on where they want to be." This is not only applicable to financial, but also to your life and your happiness. This is one of those decisions that you will live to regret IMO.
After discovering that the OP had to evict his parents... It started to make me think about my first post, I "assumed" it couldn't have been his parents but a cousin or even brother or sister at worst. Apparently we ALL don't know the situation and who are WE to judge someone for making such a decision. Questioning how the OP can sleep at night is down right wrong. Do we know the family dynamics? Sadly, this day and age parents and kids can have some very "non-traditional" dynamics. Let's switch the scenarios around and suppose the OP is the one who got evicted by his parents....I've heard this happen SEVERAL times...Minh Le David Gold ... Does that make them bad parents?
I think this post carries too much sensitivity & this is a post where validation has to be justified only by the OP. Again, who are we to judge not knowing the scenario/situation of the relationship. Clearly, there are some dynamics we aren't aware of..I'm signing off on this one.
Seth Macomber - don't let anyone tell you that your going to "regret" this for the rest of your life. You'll be fine in your life and this too shall pass.. Obviously your heart has been kind enough and sometimes you have to do what you have to do... You made a decision, you followed through and nothing you can do now except to live & learn. I do hope that both you & your parents come together and put this situation in the past very soon....
@Seth Macomber Not that it should matter what I think, but you did what was right and I am in your corner. As for @David Gold and @Account Closed, I understand your points of it being his parents, but disagree with you two. You do not know the whole story and are basing this on "perfect" parents.
I had perfect parents and I would not have done it, BUT they never would of done this to me !
Unfortunately, I have friends that did not have the perfect family and are more dysfunctional and forget about this scenario.....they won't even acknowledge each other forever.
Lets not make it personal/family and see it from a business point and replace "family" with "tenant". If your tenant did not pay you for 2 years and $15K, would you evict them ?
Don't worry about it. Learn from it and just be sure to try keep your emotions out of it if it happens again. I would also file as soon as the lease allows so the amount doesn't pile up. It is part of the business.
- Ian Walsh
Originally posted by @David Gold:
I feel very sorry for your parents to have son like you. How are going to sleep at night after evicting your own parents??? Do you have children? If you do, then wait and see how they are going to treat you when you will be old…Remember my prediction for the rest of your life!
PS. It is so unfortunate that there is not a single person here is blaming/shaming you for such horrible act
I think you are looking at this wrong. Shame on his parents for so willingly taking advantage of him. If you read the post they did not move into his unit out of desperation, they did it as a rental. Then they took advantage of him, do you expect him to support his parents lack or responsibility for the rest of his life? Possibly to the detriment of his own family?
Idk about any of you but even with having ample reserves I would be hard pressed to support one of my rentals mortgages forever as well as the maintenance and upkeep.
OP, don't let this beat you down, you did the right thing and learned a hard lesson. Time will pass and eventually this will a forgotten memory.