Question for landlords

[74 Laguna]

I have a question for all landords out there. Have you ever had to evict a renter before and if so what procedure did you have to use? We have a renter that we are going to have to ask to leave. Here in Colorado we have to start with a 3 day eviction notice which I will post on the door in the morning. That gives them three days to either pay the rent or move out. If after the three days they do not pay the rent or move then I guess we file more papers with the court and have the Sheriff serve those papers.

After that if they do not move out I guess we all go to court. I am not looking forward to that mess. This is the first time in 12 years that we have ever had a problem.

Just wondering what your experiences have been.

 

[stockrex]

Pay em to move out

 

[LS2JSTS]

I'm not familiar with Colorado law but here in Michigan it can take up to 6 months to evict a renter who really knows how to work the system. Hopefully your dead beat is not a professional scammer who knows how to work the system.

If this is your first eviction in 12 years consider yourself lucky and make this a valuable learning experience for yourself.....and you are right it is a pain. The single worst part of owning rental properties!

Have you consulted an attorney familiar with Colorado law?

 

[74 Laguna]

We have not talked to an attorney yet. We did talk to their last landlord and he said the 3 day notice worked for him so I am hoping that they will just move on and if I lose $700.00 so be it. We have been very lucky with our rental, our last guy was there for 8 years but moved on when the company he worked for sold.

 

[LS2JSTS]

Very cool, sounds like he is not a professional scammer. Good luck!

An hour long consult with a good local attorney may be money well spent for you at this point. If for nothing other than to familiarize yourself with your rights and the tenants rights in your state.

 

[DieselTech]

Eviction here in AZ has alot to do with the contract you have, but generally 3 months of no pay get you out on your arse. Court order and served by sherriff buys them 3 days to exit or they the landlord retains everything inside and the property again

 

[74 Laguna]

Actually our renters are a couple of young girls.

 

[LS2JSTS]

Oooops, my dead beats have been mostly men....shouldn't assume though.

Is your rental in a college town?

 

[brianl703]

The only time I have ever had to evict a tenant, she didn't show up to court.

Apparently that happens a lot.

When it does happen, you get a default judgment in your favor.

In Virginia the court date is set when you file the paperwork with the court after the 3 days is up.

You should probably show up to court even if they move out before the court date, as I assume they owe you money and you will get a judgment against them.

 

[74 Laguna]

We do have the Otero Junior College here but neither are students. One is a CNA and the other works for the Sheriff's office.

 

[Win]

If you have any doubt about the proper procedure, consult a lawyer licensed to practice in your state.

My state has an unlawful detainer act that specifies the procedure and rights and responsiblities of each party in the eviction process. Do it wrong, and there can be unnecessary delay, and possible legal problems for the landlord.

Always follow through to taking a judgment against the defaulting renter. In my state, judgments constitute a lien on land, and I have had people contact me years later to clear a judgment lien so a bank could have an unimpaired first mortgage on a home a judgment debtor was trying to buy.

 

[Gary Allan]

I can assume that there's been sensible dialog between you and the tenants?

Here the laws evolved quicker than I got people to evict. The typical deal is that if you have a dead beat, you're out 3 months of rent. They usually run up the limit and then move before you have to execute the eviction.

Here (last time), you have to send a registered letter to the tenant. Then, in 30 days, you can go present the proof of the letter to the local magistrate and he/she will schedule the hearing (can be a few weeks "depending"). You then have the tenant NOT show up ..you get your judgment for possession with the monetary damages included ..but the tenant has 30 days to appeal the judgment ...after which you can then file for execution of the possession by the county sheriff. If they're still in there ..and had not appealed (they may not show up to the circuit court for that hearing either -but it extends the time base) and are still in the dwelling, the sheriff comes in a tags/inventories all of their possessions for sheriff's sale. Objections can be filed to stuff that is not owned by the defendant, but none of them can be sold or removed before being ruled exempt from sheriff's sale. They would be held in contempt of court if they did.


After 3 bouts of losing 3 months rent at each evolution (this is a long time ago) the last critter got moved out in violation of his tenant rights. I merely started moving his stuff out. I had nothing to really lose. I didn't prevent him from moving it back in ..and he just got a truck from a relative and moved out. The cops came and said I was wrong, but nothing criminal was going on.

About 6 months later he sued me for about the amount I would have lost. I brought pictures of how they messed up the place and whatnot. The magistrate saw how much the guy (girlfriend and sister) were worthless scum and found FOR THE PLAINTIFF for ZERO $$$. He won his case ..and had nothing to appeal.

 

[74 Laguna]

I wished we could talk to them. They both have cell phones and must have caller ID because every time we call we get voice mail and they never return our calls. I have gone over there and I know they are home but they do not answer the door. The one time they did call back was when we said if they did not we would talk to her at the Sheriff's office.

I just hope the 3 day eviction notice that I posted on the door earlier today does the trick.

 

[Cogito]

As alerady mentioned, each state has their own procedures for you to follow. I had a friend who was having trouble getting a [censored] tenant to move out, so when the guy was away from the apartment, he took the entry door off the hinges and took it away. The guy moved out shortly thereafter.

 

[brianl703]

In Virginia, the tenant has to put the rent into an escrow account with the court if they choose to dispute the eviction in court..but only if the property is under the VRLTA ( Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act) or if your rental contract incorporates that part of the VRLTA.

 

[74 Laguna]

I posted the eviction notice on the door a 5:15 AM this morning and then at 7:25 they called and said we have your money for this month and next month. We took the money and told them we expected it to on time for April. I do not know if we made a mistake by letting them stay or not but good renters are hard to find. They are taking care of the house any paying the utilities so that is something.

I hate having to be a hardnose about things but we have talked to other landlords and they say that is the way you have to be now.

 

[Bob Woods]

I hate having to be a hardnose about things but we have talked to other landlords and they say that is the way you have to be now. 74 Laguna

Its always been that way, I had rentals for years, sold them a few years ago. Never had to do an eviction, was very lucky in that I had good tenants for the most part. In the future don't wait to post the Pay or Quit letter, do it the first day they are late, don't be bashful about raising the rent. Go on line and find the State and local laws concerning Landlord/Tenant rights and responsibilities, read them and follow the rules. The last thing you want to do is break the law and end up paying a dirtbag tenant for your error.

 

[tonycarguy]

Tenants will push the boundaries to discover how far they can get. It doesn't matter who they are, you have to make it clear you won't tolerate their games. If you do, then you're a softy and aren't cut out for this business. If that's the case, hire a property manager or sell your properties

I kicked out many tenants in 6 years. Some were legal evictions, some pro-actively moved out before being served.

 

[JustinH]

I rent my properties out on month to month contracts.

This way if I have a problem, I can just raise the rent to whatever I want, and see if they want to pay that high rent. Usually not.

Stay firm, and keep everything in writing.

For late payments, my contract causes for 1 written warning, then the next time it is a 25 dollar fee, then termination of the contract.

Girls around the age of 20 and going to school are pigs! I currently rent to a couple of them. They didn't take bags of garbage out to the dumpster, I had to ask them what they were doing, and why the apartment smelled like garbage.

Then they broke the glass on my storm door "by accident".

 

[ksJoe]

Here in Kansas (at least as of 10 years ago), there was a law that basically said: if they were at least (30 days?) late on the rent, and had not informed you they were not moving, the landlord could move all their stuff to storage. Then they have some short period of time to pay up or the landlord could sell their stuff and put the $ towards the bill.

The intent was to streamline the process when they've moved out and left half their junk.

In practice it meant unless they happened to have informed the landlord they are not moving out, he can come in while they're at work and load everything up. Once the landlord is done moving them out, it doesn't matter if they intended to leave. He can hold the stuff until they pay.