Chapter 13 Bankruptcy and tenant not paying

[Edwin Brown]

So my tenant is 3 months behind in rent. She files chapter 13. 30 days later a new month rolls around and she is still not paying rent. Now, i'm pretty sure i can't pursue her for the back rent, but can i evict or do i have to go through the court system?

[Don Konipol]

You have to go thru bankruptcy court and get the "stay" lifted. This will probably entail an attorney licensed to practice in Federal Court.

Realalistically, the tenant will have to come up with a plan that includes paying your rent or the stay will be lifted and you will be able to evict.

Some tenant are practiced at using the legal system to their unfair advantage. I have a tenant that has challenged our eviction, lost, appealed it to county court, lost, appealed it to appeals court, lost, tryed appealing to Texas Supreme Court, rejected appeal. All without an attorney! He was required to post bonds equal to the rent. He posted pledged real estate owned by other people who signed affadavids allowing their property to be pledged.

Now the fun begins. We have filed lis pedens against the properties, and are asking court to allow us to lien said properties. We fully expect that these 2 property owners will claim that their notarized signatures were forged.

Whenyou have dealt in a large number of properties, you experience some crazy things!