Hello all,
If anyone could share their thoughts/experiences with evicting tenants for non payment of rent, I would be most grateful. I file for an eviction hearing which I will need to attend in 2 weeks and I am having a lot of anxiety. Just to give some back ground information, I tried my best to do the right thing as a landlord, but I’m sure I have been mistakes during the process. This one if truly a drama story, so read on and hopefully you won’t be so upset at my decisions :
We signed the lease on 12/27/2010 for one year. After a credit check was done, etcetera, on the day we met to sign the lease, I was soo STUPID to agree to allow them to give the security deposit in January (when income tax was received – which of course I never got). We bartered and since they needed to move, we agreed that they would pay ½ of the first months rent and in return they would complete the rest of the painting that needed to be done in the home and a few other minor things that needed to be taken care of. ALL of the above was documented on the lease however. They had the option to pay the rent via a check, money order or to deposit directly into my account and they chose to deposit directly into my account because we have the same bank. I would send them a receipt and I have my bank statements to prove exactly what they deposited and on which date. They have never disputed my receipts. On the second month after they moved in (February 2010), they were short $190 on the rent. Not to mention that I wasn’t even renting the home to make money, they rent is JUST for me to be able to pay the mortgage!!! So I am always in the negative with repairs, etc. Anyway, we got passed that, but they still have not paid that. Then they call me in April telling me that they will be $110 short, we get past that (of course I still have not been paid for that). They call me in May to say the same thing and that his unemployment check finished and that he didn’t even have $ to make it to football practice. I told him that I just can not accept that any more. The tenant also had the nerve to tell me that he knows that the reason why I have bad credit is because I can’t pay my mortgage on time, so he would help me get my mortgage rate reduced (mind you doesn’t know how much mortgage I pay and it’s none of his business)! I told him my credit is none of his business and it has nothing to do with the rent and that the reason why I can’t pay my mortgage is because THEY are not paying their full rent!!! (my credit was perfect at the point, who does he think he is??? Unbelievable, he’s not worried about getting a roof over his head for his fiancés, 2 kids and future baby because I find out she is pregnant), he’s worried about $ for football practice!!! Despite his nonsense, during that conversation I offered for them to purchase the home and even offered to help them find a lesser expensive rent (the rent they are paying is only $890 and that money goes directly to pay the mortgage!!!). I told them that I’ve seen places that had more rooms for lesser money and that I would even pay for a rental truck AND put up the security for them to move IF they come up with the rent to move in some place more affordable. They made it seem as if I was trying to hustle them, I’m like listen, if you can’t pay the rent, then something has to give, I can’t accept this any more, I was working on getting some repairs done in the home and they were sucking me dry with this rent business, so they paid the rent in full that month. In May I hire a contractor to do the following repairs in the home: fix a window that would not stay up, fix some missing soffit on side of house above their bedroom window, install a new bathroom sink, replace the bathroom shower head and re-tile, installed missing pieces of the backyard fencing, and I even threw in a new front door (because I knew it would make them feel more secure than the wood door that was there). They had requested a new front door after they moved in but I told them that it would not something I could promise them. I got a decent deal so I was able to do it. Then they call me telling me that they are getting bit by “spidersâ€. I’m calling all around town to shop around for exterminators and all who I spoke to said its bedbugs!!! I told the tenants about what I found out and they insisted that it was “spidersâ€. So I told them that it was going to be costly to get rid of “bed bugs†and that I would need the past due amounts of back rent to help me pay for this, so to date this has never been cleared out. After the repairs were done, they contractor called me to tell me what exactly he did and the tenants confirmed the work that was done and said they liked the work, the only problem was that the contractor needed a longer ladder for the soffit and certain pieces for the window that needed to be ordered, so he said he would go back to finish that off. Of course I paid him in full (because he was rather affordable) and did everything in 1 day, but to date he never went back to finish those two items. After trying to get in contact with him numerous times, I realized that I would just need to move on, what ever… so now I get a call from tenants indicating that they will be short $390 on the rent for August and it’s just enough for me. So at this point, the fiancé is taking an early leave due to complications with her pregnancy & supposedly he is still not working, but he DOES attend football practice and they are coming at me from the following angle: they can’t pay the rent, however there are things I still haven’t fixed and they add on a new issue: the central air unit does not work all of a sudden at all! So it’s August, they have not paid their $365 water bill (which is under my name BUT it there responsibility to pay according to the lease agreement), they are short on rent and they still have bedbugs, window that hasn’t been repaired, soffit not fixed and the new central air issue. I told her/them to sue the two AC units I had left in the attic and that I would look into it, but HOW can I do that if YOU don’t pay rent??? I need that money you owe to help me with these repairs. Now they call me in September indicating that they will not be able to pay the rent at all and that they were planning on moving with the help of a friend. So we agreed that they would move at the end of September and I followed that conversation up with a certified letter to convey what we discussed. The next thing you know she sends me an email stating that she has an appointment with emergency assistance and she can’t find her copy of the lease so that she may be able to apply. I’m thinking, ok so now AFTER we agreed that you were moving out, now you are trying to stay??? You just switched up on the agreement, so I reply to tell her that I will send the lease, however if that does not work out for them, I will need them to move. Two weeks pass (almost end of September now) and she gets back to me to tell me that they could not assist her because she did not get the lease on time… Sooo, I tell her that I could extend the move out date to 10/15/2010 (her appointment was for 10/7/2010). At this point all I believe that I am doing is extending an agreement she created. If she had just told me in September “we don’t have the rentâ€, I could have gone to court right away, instead she said they would be moving, so I didn’t begin proceedings. Now I feel as though I am just extending it, but it turns out that after 10/7 she doesn’t get back to me, so I
send a certified letter stating “as previously agreed…†they would need to move out by 10/15 (they NEVER disputing the extension on the agreement), they never get back to me when they should, they try to avoid me, so now things have dragged out wayyy tooo long and I go over the home on 10/15 (as previously agreed) to change the locks (of course I KNOW I can’t lock them out), but if they haven’t gotten back to me, am I to assume they didn’t move out? So I go over and of course they are not moving, so we have a discussion and he does the talking, and states the following things (not in this exactly order, but long story short): “I’ve been doing research on the internet and you can’t kick us out, you need to take us to court, we’re going to get an inspector in here and we’re going to stay here for six months rent free, you haven’t done repairs you were suppose to do, we were suppose to pay you by check or money order, not cash into your account, when the contractor did repairs, it is the LANDLORD that is suppose to take care of getting rid of the debris they left behind not the TENANTS, why are you sending us all of these certified letters & I’ve been talking to people and they say that the last tenants you had did what ever they wanted to!â€. I was like what???!!! These were my responses: “I’m not kicking you folks out, your fiancés stated you folks were moving and I followed it up with a certified letter, if you feel you need to get an inspector in the home, please do so, in order for me to take care of repairs, you need to come up to speed with the rent you owe, where do you think the money is going to come from??? (although I understand that when the contractor did not finish his work – soffit and window) that would just be my lost and I would need to take care of that again), I didn’t force anyone to pay in cash, your fiancé decided that it was more convenient for her to deposit into my account, when the contractor did repairs, I spoke with you on the phone and not once did you mention that there was debris in the back yard, all you had to do was SAY SOMETHING (I’m not a mind reader) and I didn’t debris was there, I’m sending you certified letters to ensure we are all on the same page about what was agreed, not to mention that the letter outlines what you have paid in rent since you moved in, and lastly this discussion is about US HERE NOW, NOT about a previous tenant!!! (my previous tenant paid rent on time and passed my home inspection! But that’s none of his business!!!). Sooo folks, I had to go down to civil court and file for an eviction, court date in November. And I feel like I’m the worst landlord in the world! Why??? Any thoughts? I obviously made some MAJOR mistakes in dealing with so much and allowing to drag out, but dang… Did I really mistreat them??? Thanks for reading my drama unit series… I look forward to ANY responses, it doesn’t matter, tell me off if you want to… but I’m more concerned about the ruling… I don’t know what to expect Many thanks…
