Landlord/Neighbor Nightmare Situation

[Ladd Brunner]

I have debated posting something on this forum for some time regarding our situation, and finally decided to move forward.

My wife and I are in a horrific situation with a tenant, who we inherited when we bought our fourplex 18 months ago. We gave them a 60 day notice to vacate, when it was still legal in CA, on 12/10/19. We received a bizarre letter hand delivered to our door shortly afterwards, that greatly concerned us. Unfortunately, we live next door. Things escalated with an incident that I will not describe in detail here, as it would take too long and nobody would believe me. I will only say that tenant tried to pay rent beyond the 60 days, I politely declined, and he got violent.

We filed an unlawful detainer after they did not vacate. Of course tenants evaded and when they finally were served, they threw the docs on the driveway and left them there. They filed a response at the 11th hour of course. Was assigned a court date 21 days later (in CA it’s supposed to be within 20). We’ve had so many sleepless nights (they’ve sent people over to intimidate and threaten us by yelling at my wife and I from the street). We have it recorded. Yes, we bought a security system. Our day in court FINALLY came on 3/20. Of course we’ve been very concerned with the corona virus pandemic as most Americans have, and particularly how it might impact our own specific nightmare. We weren’t even sure if our court was going to be open as that was the time things were escalating with the virus here. Miraculously it was, and even though we were already hearing rumors of halting evictions, we were awarded a judgment of possession. I can’t describe the relief my wife and I felt. We took the paperwork directly to the sheriff to serve and paid our $145. Unfortunately sheriff only serves on Wednesdays, so we had to wait 5 long and excruciating days. Remember, these are our neighbors. Wednesday came, sheriff had to get approval from judge to serve (due to corona concerns, etc). Our judge green lighted it and as sheriffs were en route to post, the presiding judge where we live over ruled. I’m sure you know the rest.

Tenants are still there. We’re still not sleeping at night. They of course are not paying. They know they don’t have to go anywhere for who knows how long. We offered cash for keys before eviction and again yesterday. Tenants responded they need $6,500 for moving expenses and next deposit (rent is $1,100 in our area) and will not negotiate. Not an attorney but extortion and bribery come to mind.

The kicker. We refinanced and closed 3/2/20 with an owner occupancy loan. Yes, we had intentions of living in their unit. Lost a great renter for our current residence. Our loan docs are being mailed there of course. What a mess. Never thought I’d tell a story like this. I’m a school teacher and wife is a nurse and we live in a quaint little mountain town in the Sierra. We’re pretty simple people and knew we’d be getting into the mud a bit being a landlord. But this goes beyond imagination and such an unfortunate set of circumstances and coincidences at every turn. Many more details and if anyone is interested, message me.

Not a lot we can do at this point. Not even sure what our rights are since lease was cancelled and they were “evicted”. Tenants of course have brought in a dog, brother who was previously evicted is visiting, etc. Real nice people.

I know many of you reading this are having difficult times. Maybe this post will make you feel a littler better 👍.