All Forum Posts by: David To

Nat, question to you.

What happens if the tenant has like 50K - 100K or more in their checking / savings / retirement accounts? Problem is that they are not at liberty to disclose any of this information to landlord or property management. There's no accountability on tenant (simply fill out a bogus covid hardship form saying they cannot pay anything).

Is it possible for me or some professional to do a credit report and dig up information on what their net worth is and go after their assets in the courts and the judge would force them to pay out of their checking / savings / retirement accounts?

Because I'm paying out of my checking accounts for property management, property tax, home insurance, repairs, etc.

So why shouldn't it be the same for the tenant?

Nat,

Tenant has been unemployed since March and has been receiving unemployment insurance. I don't know how much money tenant has in checking / savings / 401K, etc. But yes, the payment plan I will be proposing will have a conditional clause that states she can miss two payments in a year and if more, I can proceed to take her to small claims court (and put back in attorney fees, 10% interest on remaining balance, property damages incurred, etc.).

I don't have to worry about any eviction moratorium extension. The judge orders tenant out of property end of January. 

So myself, my attorney and the tenant's attorney have come to an agreement. Tenant will move out of my property end of January 2021. I've agreed to this since I would have to pay more attorney fee if I continue my case of trying to get them out before eviction moratorium ends.

Question on this board.

a) I can pursue small claims court or civil lawsuit in February (for all unpaid rents, damages to property, attorney eviction fees, 10% interest on remaining balance and accumulation if not paid fully within one year)

or

b) Put forward a payment plan to tenant / tenant's attorney to agree to (say $200 to $500 / month) until all missed rent is paid off with no interest accumulation (I'm willing to waiver the attorney fees, damages to property, and 10% interest); tenant must agree to this until rent balance is all paid off (and does not file for bankruptcy in the future pertaining to this case)

If I go with option "a", there's a chance the tenant can file for bankruptcy and not pay anything. However, tenant's credit history will take a dive and be on record and since I'm the property manager (me / owner), I will not vouch for tenant when seeking for a place to rent in the future.

If I go with option "b" and the tenant / tenant attorney agrees and signs an agreement to make it official , at least I can get back my money within 10-15 years. I can wait that long to get the rent back; better than nothing. 

I'd like to move forward with option "b". If tenant doesn't agree with "b", then I will move forward with option "a".

What do members on this board think?

David

HI James Gleeson, I would expect this during normal times (late payment means 3 days pay or quit), but right now, due to eviction moratorium the tenant has all the rights. Tenant can simply sign a bogus covid hard-ship letter without providing proof at all and legally, no one can do anything about it. Tenant is immune till end of Jan. 2021 (and longer if Governor Newson extends the moratorium). Eviction due to a violation of lease agreement still has to go through the courts and it just opened up again in October and will take several months or longer to evict if it favors the owner. So PM really doesn't have to do anything at the moment because they cannot hassle the tenant. If they do, the tenant can file a lawsuit and claim harassment. 

What needs to be done is have the law be changed in favor of the owner. Tenant has to show proof that they cannot pay by:

1) showing their bank account statements (how much money do they have in their savings and checking and retirement accounts?); if they have 50K for example, they should be paying out of their pockets.

2) are they receiving unemployment insurance (with the extra $300 / month or $600 / month in federal money); all at taxpayers expense; if so they have to pay 25%-50% towards rent or mortgage

3) are they getting PPE (payment protection through their work place?); if so, they have to pay 25%-50% towards rent or mortgage

4) can they provide evidence that if evicted, they will become homeless? Don't they have family members (parents, brothers, sisters, relatives) that they can move into? If so, they should move into family members.

If they can provide proof / evidence that they are not getting all 4 above options, then they have a moral right to stay and come up with a payment schedule in the future or I take them to small claims court.

Even the stupid CARES act that provides tenant immunity (September 2020 - January 2021) states tenant has to pay 25% of rent but tenant can wait till end of January 2021 to pay lump sum. But this is totally ridiculous, because the eviction moratorium is supposed to end Jan 2021 so afterward, you can evict for non-payment and tenant can simply not pay anything and leave in February 2021, which means you can only proceed with small claims court in March 2021 if you want to get anything back. But again, the owner has to do all the work and good luck with trying to get anything back.

Again, the laws totally favor the tenant and the landlord pretty much has no rights.

If the case doesn't turn in my favor in December, I'm screwed and will have to go through small claims court in March 2021. That's $2850 * 10 months + any damages + nearly $2000 in legal fees, etc. So we're looking at 30K - 35K in losses that I'm going to try get back in small claims court.

Hello everyone, status update.

I have sent an email to my Property Manager (female) yesterday and also left voice mail requesting a refund of $75.00 per month on the property that is not getting any rent; I said I'm willing to pay her $50.00 per month as courtesy. She replied in email stating she agrees with this and will check her accounting on Monday and refund me the difference. If she doesn't follow up next week, then I will consider termination.

Now back to the re-keying issue, which is a difference case entirely. Yes, this violated the lease agreement (it specifically states in the lease agreement tenant cannot rekey without written permission from owner and constitutes a violation by which I can cancel the lease). The tenant didn't notify the PM or owner (me) at all. PM found out when I told the PM I would like to schedule a visit to view the property and that was when tenant told her house was rekeyed. Tenant rekeyed because of divorce and had legal rights to prevent ex-husband from visitation, etc. When I insisted I go view the property, tenant replied that she has covid and cannot let us in and told us to speak to her attorney.

I talked with PM and did some research talking to people at (https://socalrha.org/) which I'm a member of as owner and the one issue with rekeying is that you have to notify tenant that you need the key within 1-3 days and tenant has to deliver. So if tenant delivers key to PM within 1-3 days when you request it, it might clear them from any lawsuit (depending on how the Judge views it). SO this is a backup strategy.

I had PM file a 60 notice of termination of tenancy (meaning I will move back into the property) and remove it from the rental market. This 60 day notice ($250 cost) was filed (proof of delivery) to tenant and her attorney back on 07/28/2020. It states tenant needs to move out starting in October. This is a better option to take and can carry more weight in court than re-keying.

October comes and tenant states she doesn't have the financial means to move and cannot pay anything. She provided proof of covid hardship PDF signed statement, etc.

So on October 5, I had eviction attorney file the paperwork ($1600 cost in retainer fees). Here's the reply so far back from the attorney copy / pasted from my email.

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We have submitted an Order to Post for the judge’s signature on 10/16/2020. This is due to the fact we have been unable to serve the tenant personally. The server has received no answer on their attempts. In order to complete service of the lawsuit, the judge must sign an order allowing us to post and mail the lawsuit. Once signed, we will complete service and the tenant will have 15 days to file an answer. I expect the order to be signed any day now but everything is taking longer than normal at this time.

Service was completed by post/mail on 11/4/2020. Unless we hear something sooner, she will have until 12/1/2020 to file an answer. I will provide further status then.

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So it's a big mess right now. Remember this is through San Diego Superior Court and it didn't start opening / hearing cases again until the start of October. And there's a huge back-log of cases that they have to handle prior to March when covid started.

I hope to get the tenant out by the end of this year. Otherwise, it will be useless since tenant has to end of Jan. 2021 before the eviction moratorium is lifted.

I meant $600 / week and now $300 / week in extra benefits in California unemployment insurance.

I'm not overly concerned about paying money to the property manager. I'm angry not because of the lost of money, but the principal / fairness of how a business is run. Basically,

1) covid squatter has been receiving unemployment insurance (including the extra $600 / month from the feds for 4 months, but now reduced to $300 / month from feds ) but still refused to pay a single penny

2) and Property manager hasn't had to do much at all since covid strike (what can anybody do when the tenant rekeyed the property and refused entry due to covid and nothing needs to be done on the property or has been reported since)

Yet Property Manager is still collecting management fees which I wasn't aware of until now (my bad since I didn't carefully pay attention to the monthly automatic deposit) going into my checking account by deducting from Property 1 money that is still coming in

I don't agree to the business principle of taking money from one property and paying yourself for the other property. At the very least, give the owner a discount.

Well, I'm just trying to get feedback / opinions of other people and so far it seems to be.

TO Brianna Reynolds, property manager ain't exactly doing much right now since the covid squatter has rekeyed the property and the only communication has been through email when she provided us her official covid hardship. Other than that, nothing has been to the property so really, the property manager hasn't had to do much since covid hit since the tenant has refused to answer emails / phones. So it's like a vacant property at the moment. 

2 people in favor of the Property Management Company still getting paid

4 people in favor of me

I'm going to see which is the majority by the end of this weekend, and if it favors me, I will start researching on how to manage my own properties and will do it myself starting next year and get rid of the property manager.

David To