My Eviction Story (Long)

[Daniel H.]

Tenant, moved in, paid first month rent, paid second month, paid some of third, then stopped paying for two months. At the time I was still using a property manager and he kept saying he was going to work it out and get the money so I delayed sending out notices.

Finally sent the 14 day notice, then the summons. Tenant did not show up and I won by default. Tenant filed a motion to overturn the default. Had to go back to court for 3 hours, listening to everyone's sad stories and then her motion was denied. Judge said we could talk in hall and maybe work something out.

I told tenant that I would accept one months rent and she could stay until end of the month. This was on the 8th. We had an arbitrator draw up an agreement that said she had to pay the rent by the 11th and she could stay.

Sure enough the 11th came and went and no rent. I called the court to see what my next step was and they said since we had an agreement, I had to file a new motion for the next week and would have to corme in again. The clerksaid I could also wait until the 31st and just file for the execution then. That is what I am going to do since I work and live an hour away and it is not that much more time.

I felt like a real fool for setting up the agreement and delaying the whole process when it was a done deal. I got greedy and didn't want to pay $300 to evict plus storage costs and thought I could get some money and let them leave on their own. The tenant definitely knew what they were doing by accepting the agreement.

Lessons learned:
Serve papers right away.
If you already won, do not file an agreement w court.
If you want to do an agreement, let them pay you and then decide if you want to keep your word or not.
Tenants may be stupid but when it comes to screwing landlords, they know how to play the game.

[Daniel H.]

I have learned my lesson and I would never have waited so long if it weren't for the PM constantly telling me he would work it out. I still did not lose the case just delayed it. I am 2/2 in court w tenants so far. Will be much more selective in the future and am planning on managing the property myself from now on. Things are already much improved. A little more work but well worth it. Plus an extra $3000 a year in my pocket.