All Forum Posts by: Monica Morff

Hello,

I am writing because of a situation that we are in. We sold our personal property in September of last year and have been living with family ever since. In June of this year, we received a large packet in the mail from our buyer's lawyer stating that they had major water issues in the basement, the drain tile system wasn't working, we "should have known" about it, and they demanded $24,000. We had disclosed that we had water in the basement, but cleaned and extended the gutters (they were dumping the rain water right next to the house) and hadn't had any issues since. Also, water was going from the drain tile system into the basin and we did not have water issues when living there so we checked on the disclosures that it was working. We also had disclosed that we did not pull permits for work we did in the basement because we had planned to live there for a long time, but things don't always work out. I think it is relevant for me to mention also that we only owned the property for 14 months. 

Anyway, we were able to discredit all of their "proof" that we "should have known" about it but they chose to not even respond to any of that information. We had also offered $2500, then $7500 (in payments) when the first amount was rejected to avoid court because frankly, I do not think we can afford to go to court over this. They lowered their demand to $15,000 but then must have spent a substantial amount of time looking at us online and wrote over two pages about our investing history and profits on properties sold as evidence of why we should be able to pay the whole amount upfront. I would like to note that they have just taken the amount we sold the house for and subtracted what we bought it for and are calling it "profit" without realizing all the buying, selling, and remodeling expenses. It all feels very strange because they are no longer focused on the actual subject, but that they think we have money (we honestly do not, I would even show them our bank account/credit cards to prove it), but shouldn't this be irrelevant anyway? 
This tells me that they do not really care if we actually did something wrong, they just want someone else to pay for the issue.

I am not sure if we should continue trying to settle to avoid court fees or if we should just be done with this and let them sue since it seems like that is what they want to do anyhow. I just feel very weird about them digging into our personal history. I just want to ask for what others would do in this situation and if there is anything we can do about them looking at our personal history and making crazy assumptions.

Thank you if you made it this far and I look forward to your responses!

TL;DR We sold a house that we lived in for a year that we had finished the basement of, disclosed the small amount of water we had in the basement before finishing it and how we remedied it, disclosed that we did not pull permits, and the buyer is now trying to sue us for $15,000-$24,000 to replace their drain tile system and redo the basement finishing that they tore out when they experienced water.

@Patricia Moore Thank you for the advice! I will look into checking with an attorney and adding that to our lease. 

@Bob B. Thank you for your comment. I think I will look into that, it sounds like a good method to get rid of excuses for not using online payments. Also, I don’t like having checks sent because you never know if they are fibbing about having sent rent or if they are being honest. 

@Brad Schaeppi Thank you for the advice! I wish I had thought about payment method before the trial. At least if the judge ruled that we should try to settle again, I know to talk about payment method. Unfortunately, I think the motion to quash was in bad faith in this case because they have told us they don’t have the money and are broke for two more weeks. Even then, I don’t expect to be paid and April rent will be due by then. Am I allowed to say that we don’t want to try to settle again, or does that look bad?

@John Defreitas What sort of payment plan? And would you offer that during a second hearing after we have already tried settling once, or would you just try to get them out?

@Patricia Moore that sounds like a good idea! My only question would be- how do you prevent partial payments? I’m not sure about other states, but in Minnesota, a partial payment indicates an agreement between landlord and tenant for a payment plan or different rent amount if the partial payment happens for x number of months in a row. 

@Tim Swierczek Thank you for the response! We use cozy.co also for the majority of our tenants, but when we offered to set it up for these tenants, they told us they didn't have a bank account (although when the judge asked if they had the rent money due, they told him they had an account that the money was in). Regardless, I think that is a great way to run your business- require them to pay online and state that in the lease. 

In our lease, it does state that the tenant must get the rent money to us, we just didn't want to seem uncooperative to the judge, but I've learned now from you and our attorney that we did not need to offer that.

I really appreciate the tips!!

@Nanci Janes I have to agree with you, I don’t see any other reason they would do this aside from trying to buy time. 

@Felicia Elliott thank you for your input! I hope that you are right, we did not have an attorney at the time we refused rent after the writ was issued so I am glad to hear that it is within our rights to do so. We were hoping to not need an attorney, but figure it will save us money in the long run to have this over quickly.

@Nanci Janes No, the tenants have been there for 4 months. They stalled through the first month saying  the check was in the mail, and other excuses, etc. which we shouldn’t have let happen, then they got assistance from the state for months 1 and 2 and have not paid for months 3 and 4. They have claimed that they have no money to their name after paying rent and could not afford to deliver or mail it to us. 

@Kathryn Daniel thank you, that was pretty much what we plan to do. We have record that we offered to pick it up within the time frame given, but the tenant only had partial rent so we did not. 

@Patricia Steiner I agree! I feel like they are trying to draw this out as long as possible. I hope that the case will be the same in Minnesota and that the judge will see that they didn’t actually try to pay. Fortunately, all of our communication has been through text or email so we have proof of everything. Trial is Thursday, 03/28/19 so I will respond with how it turns out when we know.

@John Underwood I am hoping that is the case here as well as we have tried to work with these tenants for too long already. 

Hi everyone! 

I had recently asked a question to get opinions on whether we should evict a certain tenant. 

We ended up moving forward with eviction, judge ordered a settlement because the tenant claimed they had the rent money but the deadline came and went without the tenant paying as we expected. We then filed for and we’re granted a writ of recovery of premises, but now the tenant has filed a motion to quash the writ and another trial has been scheduled because they claimed we would not pick up the rent from them. 

Anyone have any experience with this and what to expect at the next trial? We have hired an attorney now, but just wondering if anyone else has been through this. 

Thank you!

@James Wise

Thank you for your input. Honestly, I am embarrassed that it has even gotten to this point, and after reading all of the input, we will be moving forward with eviction.

@Joe Splitrock

Thank you so much! It is easy to see that we are fine to move forward with eviction when having it all spelled out like that. This has been a big learning experience and we will be sending notice immediately from now on and not allowing excuses to cloud our judgement.

@Caleb Heimsoth

Thank you for your response. The check fraud happened after they moved in. And yes, being lied to was frustrating, but we didnt technically have any proof and they ended u paying (with assistance). I agree that we need to not get involved in tenants lives anymore and ignore any excuses.

Thank you all for all of the help!!

@Bob B.

I sort of feel the same way... it’s been really draining. 

So we are allowed to not accept rent now and proceed with the eviction? Or do we have to accept rent if they are offering?