All Forum Posts by: Douglas Snook

frequently do Constable or Sheriff service as they are an independant third party

Just a few more items you may want - a COPY of their license, not just the info. Also a list of their vehicles and plate info (especially if you are providing parking)

If they won't give the info be sure to talk to a local attorney about the transition. You will need to give them info as to where to send the rent etc.. Once you own it you may want to give them notice that you are ending their tenancy and requiring them to re-apply with your application (that will require all the info noted above) at your rent rate and any deposites you are going to reuire)

Being an attorney here in MA that has done several of these, start looking for a landlord friendly attorney to confirm how best to proceed.

You may not want to evict them but you certainly want to find out exactly who is there (have them complete your rental application) and maybe have them sign your lease with your terms at your rate.

Either way an attorney can direct you the proper way to go forward.

Don't wait until you close to find one. Usually you can't give any notices to the tenant until you actually own it but you want to be ready to go on day one.

I am in housing court almost weekly and that sounds pretty standard. Yes you are losing the rent but getting her out fairly quickly.  If you have aeverything in order (and it sounds like you do) the system can work even though the system tends to be tenant friendly.

Once you have her served she may call the Board of Health, so be it, you may get tagged for some stuff the other lanlord never took care of, it will not stop your eviction action. Once you get her into court, you may have to wheel and deal with her in mediation or she may even lawyer up with a legal services attorney. She may delay it but you should be able to get use and occupancy out of her while she is there and if she doesn't pay it, get the execution to move her out

@Stephen 

@Stephen Neto Let's start at the beginning. At the moment they are current on rent and have no written lease or month to month agreement. I will also assume you have no written application from them (or any of your tenants)

You have two choices - give them a 30 day notice NOW (before November 1) You do not need a reason to terminate (don't say you have a familiy member if you do not). They probably will not pay rent NOV 1 (claiming they need they money to move to another place) If they are not out by Nov 31 then you go to court for the eviction and it will take its course there

You could wait until Nov 1 to see if rent is paid. If it is not you can give them a 14 day notice to quit. However if they pay it current you are stuck.

You might want to consider giving ALL the units a 30 day notice of termination. Then tell them if they want to stay you need them all to complete an application and qualify and to sign either  year long lease or month to month agreement that will list all occupants and state no smoking of any kind (what out if they try to claim pot is medically required) and also require security deposit and last month rent (if you want to go there)

Even if you self manage you need a good attorney to help with the eviction (at least the first one )

They should go to the local housing court (if there is one if not then the local court house) and ask the clerk or see if there is a lawyer of the day or legal services they can contact. They may have to bring their own eviction action against the no longer welcome guest.

@Nick C. is correct. Get the estoppel letters to protect yourself. Be sure to introduce yourself and let them know where to send the rent and who to call for maintenance. Not sure what the law is for MTM where the unit is but I would find out how much notice you need to give to terminate the tenancy and if you can terminate and then offer a new one provided they qualify etc.

In the end it may come donw to an eviction and could take up to a year or so to straighten it out the way you want

Just thinking out loud here. Another situation you might get lucky in is if you find someone that was trying to be an investor and bought several properties but couldn't juggle everything so has filed bankruptcy. They might want to get rid of properties that they are upside down on. 

I filed a Chapter 13 for a client that had five investment properties and their home. They couldn't manage the properties (collect rent and afford the repairs) and fell behind on the mortgages and filed bankruptcy. The kept their home but lost all five properties to foreclosure. This was several years ago and they were upside down on all the properties when they filed (the glory days of 80/20 loans and no doc liar liar loans, oh well)

I have seen a few times where the owner and buyer do have an agreement to sell, the owner files bankruptcy to stop a foreclosure and then as part of the bankruptcy plan the sale is presented to the court and approved. The debtor either then dismisses their bankruptcy case or converts from a Chapter 13 to a 7 to get rid of their other debts. It is almost like a forced short sale.

At the moment I can't remeber all the details that would need to be in palce for it to happen. I think it is harder to do now that the price of houses have gone up so much there can be too much equity in a property that the trustee does not wnat to just let it go (as they do receive a commission on all the money they can capture for the "estate")

You could try to reach out to the owner but it would still have to be presented to his attorney and approved by the court.

You might find someone that has been in Chapter 13 for a while but is now tired of it and does want to walk away from the property