Subpoena received - city of st louis

[Mian Rizwan]

Have a small multifamily in North county St Louis which is "managed" by a property management firm. Received a letter from city today summoning me to present to court online given

- change of occupancy has occurred without first securing a certificate 

- Missing carbon monoxide detector outside 1 unit

To be honest, I have never been to court before - do I need to get a lawyer ? what to expect during such hearing 

When I read city ordinance # 67914 there is even mention of heavy fine and Imprisonment  !!

[Account Closed]

Usually, you can contact the agency that filed with the court and work with them. I would not get an attorney for something like what you have.

I never heard of getting a certificate for a change of your tenant. What is that all about?

You are not facing some sort of murder trial and should not need an attorney to argue your case. You probably violated some sort of city ordinance where you will be faced with a fine and told to make a correction. Most-often, the judge will reduce the penalty amount just like judges do for many other things e.g. a few months ago my son got a ticket for riding through a red light on his bicycle. When at the court, the bailiff told everyone that if they pleaded guilty the judge would give everyone a penalty of about 10 cents on the dollar. My son's fine was $50 and the judge did not fine my son one penny.

Try to contact the agency that filed with the court and try to work out the problem before you have to go to court and don't lose any sleep because this sounds like a small bump in the road and the cost for doing business. Then, get every book you can find for the real estate laws in your area and contact the local city halls for every area you own a property and ask them about their special ordinances and requirements.

Example. I owned a 24-unit apartment building in Gardena California and  I went to an attorney to evict a tenant. I had already owner the building for 10 years. The attorney asked me if I gave the tenant an Arbitration pamphlet provided by the city. I had never heard about this pamphlet nor did I know that I had to provide this pamphlet to my tenants every time I raised the rent.

So, the attorney tells me that since I raised this tenant's rent two years prior to wanting to evict this tenant that he wanted me to give all my tenants the money they paid since my last rent increase before he would file the eviction with the court. I can't remember how much I increased the rent, but lets guess it was $50 per month.

$50 x 24 tenants x 2 years is $50 x 24 x 24 = $28,800 + $800 for my attorney's fees to evict the tenant = $29,600 plus for some strange reason I can never grasp is when we evict a tenant we are not allowed to collect any more rent. So, suppose we evict a tenant because they are two months behind on their rent and their rent is $1800 per month (and that is super low in California) then the tenant is already into my pocket for $3600. Then, it takes about 8 weeks to have the court get the sheriff to lock-out a tenant. Then, the tenant has lived in the unit for two more month for free. So, add the $7200 to the total cost and now I was out $29,600 plus $72,00 = $36,800 because I never checked with the city hall to find out about their b.s. arbitration program.

The city of Gardena California's arbitration program states that when I raise rents the tenants have the right to ask for arbitration and I have to prove some b.s. crap like I am not making some super profits and the city can ask me about my expenses and profits. So far, since about 2002, 2 tenants filed for arbitration and it seems like the city blew them off and probably knew that any arbitration was a waste of their time and the city called my on the phone askes a few questions and I never heard back from the city.

Regardless! Pay attention to all the laws, get landlord books for your area and constantly read apartment owner magazines that will give you updates on all the b.s. laws in your state and laws in the areas the magazines cover. I love to sit at my desk and read all the apartment magazines from the front cover to the back.

I did not pay the $36,800 like me attorney wanted me to do. I think I went to another attorney, told him about the city's ordinance and he filed the case with the court and the tenant's attorney never brought up the city's arbitration program. I guess neither attorneys were educated about the arbitration, but if my tenant's attorney was educated about the arbitration I was in serious trouble!