Rehabbing & House Flipping
Market News & Data
General Info
Real Estate Strategies
Landlording & Rental Properties
Real Estate Professionals
Financial, Tax, & Legal
Real Estate Classifieds
Reviews & Feedback
Updated over 5 years ago, 04/16/2019
The Occupants from Hell!
I am currently dealing with some occupants (who are no more than squatters) and getting them out so I can get in and start the rehab has been a daunting process. Typically, I get them out with cash for keys and it is never easy, but usually effective.
In this case, I purchased the property (practically stole it on price and terms)Feb 28th of this year and am still working on getting these morons out. I offered them $6k! for keys and they did not take it. I started eviction and they have used every tactic in the book to cause delays and extend the process. On the final hour before the summary judgement hearing, one of the two occupants filed for BK causing another 45 day or so delay. Unfortunately in CA, the laws, for some stupid reason, reside with occupants and not the legal owners. (I wont even get started on politics here!)
The good news is that I was able to have summary judgement against one of the occupants and already filed for the Sherriff to remove her from the premises. Should be within the next week or so for that. The kicker is that once it happens, her boyfriend still has rights to be there (until he is finally evicted) so I am quite sure she will just come right back. When that happens, I will make damn sure I make their lives as miserable as possible for the problems they have caused me. How can I do that legally you might ask? I will have periodic visits to the property and when I see she is there, I will call the Sherriff and inform them that she is illegally trespassing on my property and I want her removed/arrested. I will do this as many times as it takes until they get the point or until summary judgement against him occurs. Either way, screw them both!!! :roll:
What comes around goes around and theirs is coming.
***Update as of today 1-31-16: 5 years and 32 thread pages later, this is still ongoing. The following link was created by a BP Member in support of my situation found on page 32 of this thread. https://www.gofundme.com/OccupantsfromHell
This was approved by the heads of BP to be live in this thread. ***
I got the videos to work. That is a lot of crap they left behind.
I seem to remember that since their stuff is (arguably) over $300 you have to store it giving them an opportunity to retrieve, if they don't you must hold an auction and give them the money or you might be back in court? Isn't the law is something like that, I can't remember exactly.
Congratulations @Will Barnard I was kind of hopping they would give the sheriff an excuse to use the billy clubs.
Holy hoarders, @Will Barnard... I haven't figured out where they sleep! i can't wait to see what you do to the place...
First of all, congrats on finally taking possession! Other than the piles of crap, it's in better shape than I thought it would be. I see they left you some rent money on the bathroom floor. And my, weren't they the voracious art collectors! You better make sure there's nothing valuable in there. :)
A couple of 40 yard containers should do it! The quicker the better so that they don't have any reason to return.
Make sure you post some before and after pictures after you finish the rehab!
wow, thanks for sharing. Keep us postes
Trash and treasure. Some of the stuff is certainly saleable. There are some estate companies, or perhaps charity organizations, that would be glad to glean anything of value. It doesn't all need to go to a landfill. Sooner the better. In our area the Habitat for Humanity Restore has a team that will go in and retrieve cabinets, doors, fixtures and even household goods. Could be a win-win for you and the charity. Something to consider.
I had envisioned a shack. It was a nice house in it's heyday, wasn't it? Were you planning to bulldoze it to clear the land for your development?
@Will Barnard, way to stay the course. I am glad you finally got it done. This of course means their attorney will not be getting any big payoff. Good luck on your rehab, and I hope you are able to recoup most of your money spent. If you don't stand up for your rights you won't have them for long. Glad you went the route and didn't let them profit from wrong doing.
I hope you have people sleeping in that house! If those guys are just around the corner, they can just come right back in. Who knows how long they'd stay for Round #2!!
@Will Barnard it weird that I am new to BP in the last few months and read your story for the first time last week. I read it end to end and your five years became one hour of my life. It is a story of determination for sure. I am happy it ended well. I would probably call the city and report them for living on the street. In my city it would be illegal to just camp on the street like that. Plus I would be worried about my safety with them stalking you a block away. They are clearly unstable. It appeared in the video they were trying to argue with the sheriff. What the hell is wrong with them? Did they not see this day coming after five years?
Insane. Looks like decent hood, is that Granada Hills? Arv $625kish? You still make money I assume.
This is one of my biggest worries ...if I buy a property renovate it and rent it out..will the tennants stop paying and squat. I imagine for first time investors this can put a huge strain on there finances with the very possibility it could go into foreclosure because they cannot make payments on there own home and the rental. BTW head over to amazon.com and type in "synthetic skunk oil" its powerful and it forces vagrants out of a home. I was thinking of making a automatic dispenser so if anyone did break into the house, it will dispense the smell all though the house. It should go away in 24 hours though.
@Will Barnard I have an inexplicable desire to treat every single possession in that house as a voodoo doll still attached to the former occupants.
Congrats on your ultimate victory. I hate you had to go through this process. Though not nearly as extreme I am currently dealing with the frustrations of constant delays and issues at every corner of a 6-month tutned 18-month house remodel, it has been a nightmare. Reading through this thread I felt the same frustration and anger I've had many times comeback, I can sympathize with you. It also reminds me that there will be light at the end of the tunnel, which was needed as I just hit another delay. Thanks for sharing, all the best.
I read the entire thread and watched the videos, what scumbags those people are, and certainly old enough to know better. So happy for you, what a long drawn out mess. As others said, you were much more patient than I think most would have been. Congratulations, please update on the house reno as it goes along, would love to see how it turns out!
Originally posted by @Account Closed:
I seem to remember that since their stuff is (arguably) over $300 you have to store it giving them an opportunity to retrieve, if they don't you must hold an auction and give them the money or you might be back in court? Isn't the law is something like that, I can't remember exactly.
It's probably dependent on the state,but in Florida, once you have the eviction judgement in hand, and once the cops have thrown them out, everything goes straight to landfill. You have no duty to any of their property once you have that bit of paper.
As for CA, who knows.
I think it's actually by county and not state. In Cuyahoga County (OH) we have to hire court approved movers to remove all of the tenants belongings and place them curbside. Once there they become free for the taking. It's up to the evicted tenant to reclaim them before the hoards of scavengers do.
Hopefully you can save yourself some cleanup costs and find a charitable organization that will come in and remove most of the usable items.
Congratulations! Finally!
From the 2nd video, it looks as if there had been absolutely no attempt made to pack, but they must have been in complete denial, that this day would ever come. You're probably lucky in that regards. While you'll have to deal with much more stuff, it could have been worse, if they had realized that this would really be happening, as they might have done more damage otherwise.
But I also don't think they'd just walk away from their stuff and will look for legal ways to get back at you, so, I'm sure you'll take all the necessary legal steps to dispose of their stuff correctly, so that they can't use that against you.
@Will Barnard what an absolute cluster !@#$ and disaster! congrats on your big day! These squatter laws or whatever they are...over 5 years?? completely ridiculous! Give me a break...
with that being said...check that random art they had in there, you never know if some famous artist painted it and they picked it up from someones garbage can who didn't know any better!
Wow! Congrats! I guess the next thing to be worried about is them coming back and getting back into the house!
I'm not sure what the storage laws are in CA but if/when you no longer are required to store anything, put an ad on Craigslist in the FREE section saying "FREE, all you can take, estate disposal!" and you'll get the vultures out who will pick the place clean. (At least, that's how it works by me.) It will save you dumpster cost and labor cost.
Will, thanks for posting the videos. 5 years, 2 months, wow!! It's a ton of junk in there but it doesn't appear that they tried to physically destroy the property. I guess they didn't pack since they had no new place to move their stuff too. So curious what they were telling the sheriff! I am hoping that you can just fill up dumpsters with their stuff and that you don't have to store it or anything.
Holy cow. When is bulk trash day?!?
Yes, it is quite the mess. Regarding many of the questions and concerns, the previous occupants can not re enter the property or claim possession again. If they enter, I can contact LAPD (Los Angekes Police Department) and they would be arrested immediately and hauled off to jail for trespassing. There is a notice of eviction posted in the window that also states this.
Regarding the personal belongings (aka junk, crap, garbage, trash), I am not sure if it is state wide or county specific but in Los Angeles, they have up to 15 days to pick one day during normal business hours to remove their belongings. After that, it is considered abandoned property and I may do what I choose with it. The morons asked the Sheriffs if they could do it that day and have until 5 pm. I agreed and they hardly removed anything after that. In fact, the one dirtbag was actually sitting in the yard in a chair under a tree smoking a cigarette and listening to music as if he had not one care in the world. I now have 2 Sheriff witnesses who can testify that they chose that day and failed to complete. The junk is currently considered abandoned however, I did tell the lady to have her attorney contact my attorney to arrange one more day by next week (which is this week) to remove it. I did this in hopes they would get rid of at least some of it making my job a tad easier. That said, they have a ton of crap siting in my front yard and they have not taken anything. Probably because they have nowhere to stre it now that they are homeless.
I echo the Craigslist post. In my area you would not have much left in a day or two.
I would set up a date and time when you can put everything outside. Then put an ad into craigslist with that date. But I'd also put a notice onto the guy's car/RV with that time, so that he'd at least have 1st choice to grab things from outside the house.
It'll give him time to rent a storage space and find a way to transport it. And it might give him closure in a way and make him move on, hopefully.