All Forum Posts by: Charles Huang

Hi @Adam Brugman, I am an attorney in Falls Church, Virginia. 

Who is this third party that you contacted the tenant? 

Virginia evictions for non payment can be started by a 5-day pay or quit. If they do not pay within 5 days, then you can file a lawsuit for unlawful detainer. Hiring a local attorney or property management company could do help you with these steps. 

In your operating agreement you can list each officers/directors responsibilities. 

I imagine that the three of you had some vision of what each of you were planning on doing individually in the venture - write down what those were. You can also ask your partners to write down what they thought their responsibilities were.

As an example, a group I consulted recently had someone whose task was marketing leads, another was doing the flipping, and another was selling. Their duties stated that they would be performing their specific tasks, but they also did whatever else needed to be done. 

Ultimately though, barring litigation, an operating agreement cannot ensure that your partners are going to cooperate with you. That's the nature of a business where everyone is a partner and owns shares. So make sure you pick the right partners. I would also consider getting your own lawyer too as your current real estate lawyer, if he continues representing the venture, is ethically committed to representing the venture and not to you personally. 

I worked with Larry Simpao and I thought he did a great job and he wasn't a crook. Also a rental property, the tenant was also there when he was working and I think he handled it really well. Send me a message and I can give you his number.

I recently had to help a client find a local attorney to purchase property out of state and settled on cold calling a handful of attorneys. 

To avoid having to do that again, I am looking to put together a reference sheet of attorneys in all parts of the US that have been referred by members of BP. Feel free to put their contact info down and I'd be happy to add them to this public google drive excel sheet that I'll start adding to as the names come in. If you really like your lawyer, please add them! 

Also, If you could also specify if you had them help you with either TRANSACTION or LITIGATION, that would be helpful too. I consider anything that isn't litigating to be transaction.

I agree with @Mindy Jensen that you should give them a notice of non-renewal. You have to have a reason to terminate the lease, such as a breach of some part of the lease. In most states, if not all, you cannot terminate the lease without some basis in the lease. Just in my personal opinion it doesn't look like they've given you a reason to evict if they have paid their rent and you've agreed to letting the daughter stay there. If you try to evict them before the lease expires, I don't think a court will rule in your favor.

If they don't leave when the lease expires, I looked up the Sheriff's office for your area. Here is a link from their website that describes the process. 

As an attorney I wrote a synopsis of a bill that is being considered by the state assembly this session making AirBnB rentals legal across the whole state. As RE investors, I thought it would be relevant. Contact your local representatives if you're interested in seeing this pass.

The bill and its full text can be found at here.

The Virginia State Assembly has the proposed Limited Residential Lodging Act (the Act) for consideration in 2017 which would have an impact on short term rentals and bed and breakfasts across the state. The Act, if passed in its current form, would supersede any local regulations and permit residents in residential zoned areas to rent out parts of their home on hosting platforms such as Homeaway and AirBnB. This could provide Virginia residents the opportunity to rent out parts of their home as a matter of right, as opposed to having to undergo a permitting process with county or municipal zoning authorities.

The Act allows Virginia homeowners to qualify as a “limited residential lodging operator” if the homeowner occupies the property as his or her principal place of residence and is entitled to a homestead exception. The Act also allows Virginia tenants to be operators if the tenant treats the dwelling unit as tenant’s principal place of residence. If the Virginia resident qualifies as an operator, then the Act permits the homeowner to rent out the unit or a portion of the unit for a period of less than 30 consecutive days. Furthermore, if the operator only rents out their property for fewer than 45 days a year, the operator would not be required to register for a business license.

However, the Act would impose a handful of requirements on the operator and hosting platforms while also permitting local authorities to impose any set of additional requirements. The Acts mandatory requirements consist of recordkeeping requirements. An operator must keep records spanning four years demonstrating the primary residence of the operator and must keep a record of the dates of guests lodging at the property and the number of lodgers. Additionally, the operator, if not informed otherwise by a hosting platform the operator chooses to use, is required to register with the Virginia Department of Taxation for a tax identification number and furthermore, to collect and remit any applicable taxes. A hosting platform may elect to collect and remit taxes on the operators behalf, but must inform the operator.

In addition to these recordkeeping requirements, the Act permits local municipalities the option to mandate additional requirements. Of particular note, municipalities may elect to require operators to carry insurance coverage of at least $500,000 either personally or through their hosting platforms. Another electable requirement includes requiring operators to provide their contact information, a list of emergency numbers, and locations of fire extinguishers. Finally, another requirement would include limiting the maximum number of lodgers to twice the number of sleeping rooms plus four.

The corporate veil or maintaining the corporate formalities is a key part of maintaining the limited liability through your LLC. An attorney looking to pierce the corporate veil will look for evidence that what you are doing as corporate behavior is actually just an extension of your own personal conduct and not independent corporate behavior.

Have the paperwork to demonstrate that you have corporate meetings to make decisions, even if its with yourself. Try to correspond with an email with your LLC for work related matter and use your LLC title or position when making deals or talking with people. Don't buy personal things out of the LLC account.

If you want LLCs for each property and you have someone familiar with Delaware corporations, Series LLC's are a new possibility of not creating a new LLC every time, but rather a series every time within the same LLC, with each series being limited to liability from the others. IIRC Oklahoma and DC are also states with Series LLCs.