All Forum Posts by: Ariel Jeidel

@Adriana Arnold 

So sorry to hear you are going through this. I am going through something similar though clearly not as bad:

I bought a house to live in end of 2019 (Nassau County NY). Couldn’t start work for about 15 months so I figured I would rent it out in the meantime. I got hit with a crazy dry spell of no one in the area looking to rent and couldn’t rent this house (or a few others) for months. I ended up taking a rent that was well below market rent that didn’t even cover my mortgage but was better than nothing (or so I thought). Tenant paid rent for a few months, every month late with another excuse (eventually I think they ran out of family “deaths”) and then stopped in November, the rent is 5k a month so their balance now is quite substantial. In current market conditions I could easily get 7k, though more importantly I need them out to start work, however I’m not ready to do the work because they wont let my architect and contractor into house (they are scared of Covid, strange how every time I come check out the house, no home is home, guess they go for family drives and don’t leave the car) so I’m struggling to finish the plans but should manage to finish in 3-5 months despite this.

Tenant says they aren’t paying rent because my wife told them before they signed the lease they could stay for many years (my wife denies this but I cant confirm one way or the other). Lease signed is a one year lease and we talked multiple times after they moved in about how we want to start work about March 2021 and they still paid rent, just late every month, so I don’t know what triggered them to stop paying based off this excuse. They told me because we lied to them they cant pay rent till they save up enough money for moving costs which they tell me is 20k (1st months rent, last months rent and security deposit plus actual moving costs). They are well past saving that money and still refuse to pay on the basis that we lied to them about how long they can stay. They keep promising me they are honest working people and will pay me back every dollar, wishful thinking

To top it off, they have 2 sub tenants that are paying about $1,800 total a month (it’s a large house, we were ok with this up front), so they are making money off of this! They have a dog which is lease does not allow, wonder if that can help me, neighbors complain it barks all night. Was really hoping NY would end the eviction moratorium, but they just extended to end of August and I really have no hope of them getting out any time soon.

I’m struggling with what to do, on one hand I can aggressively offer them money to leave (which is very difficult for me), on the other they owe me over 30k now and growing and I’m not ready to do work anyhow, so is it worth getting them out now when house will just sit vacant on slim chance that I can get some money from them one day? Getting them out a few months ago and re renting at 7k a month for a year was appealing, but what’s the point now?

I thought I have it bad, its been consuming me for months but your situation seems is way worse, I feel petty writing out my story after reading yours. They say misery loves company, but I did not enjoy at all reading your story, it just makes me boil inside how tenants think this is ok and the government lets them get away with it.

@Michael Gansberg@Matt O'Rourke

@Matt O'Rourke

@Chris Platis Thanks and good luck to you as well

@chris 

@Chris Platis I Hired a lawyer, which hasn't been cheap and so far I feel I'm going in circles. 

First they told me to send a default/ demand letter. Then they told me they can't evict etc... Then they told me to send 30 day non renewal letter, but they botched up timing and ended up having to do a 60-day letter as it became more than a one-year lease due to layer not responding to my desire to get out 30 day letter for a few days. 

Tenant claims they stopped paying rent because we allegedly told them upfront they could stay for a few years, and now we want them out after one year. Such great logic. Before they stopped paying, they were late like 5 months in a row. So they said they need to save 20k to cover moving costs!. At this point they owe me more than 20k and just ignoring all my attempts to talk to them.

I really have no idea what to do but hope and pray that I can get them out one day and maybe just maybe collect the money owed to me over many years as their balance is quite large.

Very frustrating and has me petrified of my few other tenants in terms of trying to get them out and or get a rent raise to just cover the recent massive hike in real estate taxes the county put in place to cover their supposed deficit, never mind getting to market rent which has skyrocketed last few months (im in valley stream) for large single family homes.

I am in similar situation and have no ideas how to solve. Just praying :(.

My tenant hasn't paid since November, rent is 5k a month and that doesn't even cover expenses. Market rent right now would be much higher. To add insult to injury, this is a house I want to live in and only rented out to help defray costs while I worked on plans.

 Zillow etc..

@Josh Stamper the one lease I did with them was $4,000 for a few months and if they wanted to stay longer (they ended up staying many more months), it went to $4,200, not lower...

@Ian Curiel. Was wondering if there are other companies like ALE to do this for back then. At this point in time I got them all rented last year in a tough market so took questionable tenants at below market rents:(. Now I could get much higher rents, but instead have non-paying tenants that I can't get out.

@Wala Habiby

We own multiple strip centers or malls where we are on a ground lease. We are always trying to buy the ground from the owners, for the most part we have not been successful.

I would be very interested in finding opportunities to buy the ground like you are describing depending how much time is left on the lease, the closer you get to that time, the more desperate the owner of the building will be to buy the ground off of you to not lose the building.

The ground lease always spells out how much rent is paid. Ultimately what you can get at a later date when you want to sell the ground will depend on the viability of the use of the building at that time. If it’s a retail shopping center in an area where land is easy to come buy and retail continues to go downhill, it may be worth less than you paid