All Forum Posts by: Kate K.

Hi Julieann, 

do you know what is the process and the timeframe for eviction process in Lake County (if you know or maybe someone you know who does - lawyer/investor/landlord, etc. and perhaps can help with an advice?). 

Our neighbors owner has terrible tenants for the past 2 years (we, obviously, have terrible neighbors that we are forced to live by, too). I am wondering on our neighbors' owner's behalf. They are the nicest older couple, which these tenants are taking advantage of - not paying rent for a year already, they trashed the property, not opening the door when the owner comes over, ran the property down to unsanitary condition where packs of green flies accumulated and are flying around theirs and neighbors properties (we never used to have those before!), turned our backyard and their own in to their "dogs' toilet" and we were forced to call police on multiple occasions to have them to clean up which didn't really work, until we just had to put up temporary fence and hope they will move out. But now we are not sure they will! Seems as though they have no intention to move out. The next time police will be coming, they are looking at criminal offense after 3 citations issued: for violating village ordinance and letting their dogs on to other people's property and not cleaning after their dogs. After that they started threatening us by calling the police on us now and they actually had an audacity to follow through with their threat already! Twice! Just to seek revenge.. We can't feel safe, peaceful or even comfortable on our own property that we actually own, their landlord is struggling with them and don't know what to do..

Today I finally met the owner, who came to remind his tenants that their lease has expired. He flipped over the pack of hay which was stacked against the house since last Halloween, and was attacked by millions of wasps! Those tenants hid in the house and didn't even open the door to the owner today.. They didn't allow the landlord to inspect the property earlier either when the tree fall on to the house during one of the storms, which is weird (not opening to the owner?). Police mentioned that the house inside in a complete disarray. They kept the dumpster on regular basis in front of the house by the street which is not allowed by our village, they are destroying the house.. Moved in with 2 kids and 2 large dogs. Now, in less than a year, there are 5 kids (the 5th baby arrived just few weeks ago) and 3 dogs, doing "dodos" everywhere, attacking us on our own property, tenants don't seem to work and it's hard to imagine how they make living (neither one of them seem to work), causing noise disturbance by loud inappropriate music every time we are in our back yard, etc... 

Could you please give us a good advice where to start? Tough attorney might be needed ASAP, who will know exactly what to do, act immediately, work quickly and will be able to get them out of the premises in a shortest period of time, because according to the law pertaining eviction (I already researched it before we purchased our own investment properties), landlord cannot evict tenants in winter. With that being said, they might have a "free ride" for another year! These tenants promised to police that they are moving out every time police was coming (now I am getting it - they are lying just to "buy" themselves more time for "free housing" opportunity, thinking people will continue to feel sorry for them just like landlords did and let them rent the house 2 years ago and now this is what landlords get back for their compassion :((.. ). These tenants said the same lies to the owner for the past year and they even took the sign off this week that landlord put up "for rent". They call the property "their own", when I came at the beginning of them renting, to ask to clean up in our backyard after their dogs. Another strange one - they are renting so it's not "their property" :-/.. 

I'd like to help this nice couple (landlords) to evict irresponsible rude tenants before this upcoming winter, because if they will not move out now, they will most likely end up staying over the winter, which they already seem to have planned on doing - to keep taking advantage of this older couple and not pay them rent!!! It is outrageous and unimaginable losses for the owner - no rent payment AND destroyed property on top of that... Within Coronavirus circumstance, is there anything that we should consider and any delays will be happening in eviction process?

Thank you in advance for any suggestions! Any advice is appreciated!

Do you have it in your initial lease contract (that you require a refundable deposit for a pet) which you sign with the renter or you ask for a deposit when they decide to bring a pet in? Our tenants already paid us as per our agreement refundable amount worth of 1 month rent. Should there any damages occur, it will be deducted from there. Do you collect separate deposit for a pet? We didn't charge our other renters for a pet (they have a small dog), but they keep a house in a decent condition.

We live and have rentals in northwest suburbs of IL. Our tenants have lived in one of our rental houses for 1 year and 3 months. They are responsible tenants, always are paying their rent on time and keeping up the property in a neat and clean condition. The house we rented out to them has been totally gutted and renovated before we bought it, so our tenants moved in to everything brand new in the house. They had a dog for a short period of time, but house was ok after that. Then they didn't have pets for a while. Today they asked if we would allow them to adopt a kitten. While we do have in our contract that 1 pet under 25 lbs is allowed, we are concerned about cats on our property, as when they urinate in hidden corners, it may not be visible right away but could stink up the house later, requiring extensive restorations. 

So I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on how to handle this request from our tenants (which is pretty common, a lot of tenants have pets), what to allow them, what limits we should set, and what to be on a look out for, while allowing tenants to have a kitten, and at the same time making sure that our property remains safe and damage free. I thought of putting my response in writing in e-mail and request of them to declaw the kitten, and make sure it uses the litter box, and if there are any damages, they will make sure to pay for the repairs. Anything else we should be aware of?

Thank you in advance for any suggestions!

Kate
  

Hi, all! It's been over a year since I posted my question, I learned to advertise our property, interview, screen and choose the right tenants for our property. So I now wanted to share our experience, that thanks to all your suggestions and to BiggerPockets I've screened of an overwhelming amount of interested perspective tenants, I've interviewed them all, screened and chosen the best ones that are renting from us since last May (for a year and 3 month at this time). Thank you, thank you, all for helpful tips and suggestions! Ask away if you yourself would have any questions to us :) 

THANK YOU, WESLEY, FOR SHARING YOUR FORM THAT YOU ARE USING AND FINDING IT TO BE EFFECTIVE. 

KATE

Hi everyone,

We have 2 rental houses in the State of IL (suburbs). In 2 months will be the time to renew the lease, so I need to send our 2nd tenants a letter of intent for their rental lease renewal, and I was wondering what kind of forms do other landlords use to write a nice letter to nice tenants (which our tenants are)? This couple is renting a single family house that we own and we had a 1 year lease agreement.

Thank you for any suggestions.

Kate

So I used SmartMove. Seems like it works good. I don't have anything to compare it with, but it gives some information on potential tenant's payment history and if there isn'y any criminal records, it just shows "0". I am not sure why it shows in income insights that applicant may make 5k or more less than they claimed. I will find out today when I will look through the W-2s and paystubs that they have sent me today. Thank you for your advice!

Thank you everybody for your input and for sharing your thoughts and opinions!

Thank you, Alex!! It's so exciting! Our 1st tenants turned out to be very good, we collect direct deposit from them which works excellent for us. Thank you for your suggestions. Sounds like mysmartmove.com may be the way to go. When you choose a tenant, how do you usually word it for all other interested and qualified applicants that you chose 1 tenant and you go with them? It's not necessarily that others do not qualify, we have a lot of qualified perspective tenants, it's that we only have 1 property (1 house) to rent to them. What do you say to the rest of the qualified applicants that you won't run their credit and background check because you already chose another tenant?

Hi everbody,

my husband and I are just starting in Real Estate business. Our 1st tenants we have inherited as we purchased our 1st investment property over a year ago. In 2 days we are closing on our 2nd investment property and I did all due diligence in listing and marketing the property, communicating with all interested people and selecting potential tenants. I've scheduled individual showings of the property the next day after the closing to 7 different prospective tenants that we've selected. 

This is our first experience having to find new tenants. My husband has a full-time job, so I am managing all this process by myself and since I am not familiar with the protocol on how to screen tenants properly and what steps I should take and in which order, I'd like to ask if anyone can help. Should I first find 1 tenant that we would consider to rent our property to and run their credit and background check, previously collecting the application fee (also, what's the right amount?) or to do things in a different order? Our lawyer advised that once we collected the application fee from them and their background and credit check came back good, then we have to rent the property to them by law. 

Anyone can give any advise? I read a lot of forums on here where it is advised tenants to go to different websites to do their background and credit check because of the fact that only they can answer those security questions. Is that right? Or there is a way where I can run a background and credit check on them myself?

All your advice is most welcome :)

Kate and Jeff