Tenant abandoned a rental unit in Cleveland, now what?

[Brian Garlington]

The short story is I inherited a tenant at a property i bought in Ohio and they appear to have simply moved out of the property. 

What are the laws regarding this? I assume people like @James Wise and @Michael Swan have heard of something like this. 

A tenant at an adjacent property told my PM this past weekend he thought they had moved out because he saw moving trucks, etc last week. The PM has teached out ti them leaving voice mails and text but there is no answer and they dont respond to texts. My PM has also driven by there twice in the day and twice at night knocking on rhe door but there is no answer.

Yes i had a month to month lease with them that they were extremely reluctant to sign when i closed on the property March 6. They flat out refused to pay March rent, saying they were “moving out soon”, probably April but definitely by May. 

My Property Manager is an eye witness to this as he was standing in front of them and jad them on speakerphone when they said this on March 24th. 

We served them a 3 day notice....they ignored it, and when they got the court date sent to them they said they dont want an eviction on their record so if we pay for April will you forget about March and stop the eviction. We said yes and “miraculously” they paid the April rent. 

Of course the May rent is due and it apoears they have made good on what they verbally said about moving out, but tgey disnt put in writing. 

I certainly dont want to sit and wait 30 more days to make it official and leave the rental property abandoned as well as have more lost rent.

Does anyone know what the next steps should be? I dont want to be a comolete jerk and file a 3 day notice and then an eviction notice on them if they have in fact moved out but i also dont like the idea of lost money just having it sut bacant the next 1 to 2 months while they continue to ignore the texts and phone calls. 

Any suggestions?

[Rob Gillespie]

@Brian Garlington 

My advice is how I handle it, not looking for 1000 people to debate me on my method, it has worked for me for over 20 years, LOL

From the spot you are in right now with them not responding and you believing they have moved I would post a letter on the font door that says the following in BIG BOLD TEXT

______________

                                                                ATTENTION (TENANTS NAME)

Per our last conversation you  were moving out and would no longer be Occupying this property.

I have records of calling, and texting you several times with no response. You have not paid Rent and we have stopped by several times and no one answered.

This leaves us believe that you have relocated and have abandoned anything that is left inside.

This is a 48 Hour notice that on (insert date) at (insert time) we will be sending a crew through the home to clean it out and discard of whatever is inside. At that time we will also be changing the locks.

IN THE EVENT YOU ARE STILL OCCUPYING THE PROPERTY, PLEASE CONTACT US IMMEDIATELY VIA CALL OR TEXT

                                                                            (INSERT NUMBER)

We are taking this action to avoid putting an eviction on your record.

Thank you,

Management

(insert your number)

_____________________

I have never been challenged on this and have actually had tenants call me and pay for some extra time.

If you need a clean out crew, shoot me a PM. I have the best guy in Cleveland. He is Ex Amish and I have EVERYONE using him!

Good luck!!!

P.S. TAKE A PIC OF THE SIGN AND HOLD A NEWSPAPER NEXT TO IT TO SHOW THE DATE YOU PLACED IT. THEN TEXT THEM THE PIC