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I have a home in upstate NY. My tenant showed me pay checks, proof of employment, etc. I felt that they were respectable people so I accepted a personal check.
They moved in. The check bounced. I have been trying to get my money for the past month -- unsuccessfully. I haven't received a single days rent or deposit and they live in my home. They just keep giving my excuses...ill health, chemotherapy, etc.
Can I say they're trespassers?
I never gave them keys because the house was unlocked and they just made new locks.
Location: When you take flak it means you are on target
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The house was unlocked and you let the tenant replace the locks and you don't have a key? NEVER, ever let a tenant install their own lock, and doing so is an evictable offense in my contract. One of the few controls you have is control of keys upon move-in.
Never accept personal checks from tenants moving in, unless you are required by law (like in CA). If you do accept a check - CASH it at their bank BEFORE you give them keys. Do not just deposit it to your account - banks take up to 3 weeks to bounce checks back to you, some will present them twice, charging you fees each time.
Next mistake, the day it bounced you should have started eviction. I am not interested in hearing why the rent is late, fix the condition or I will fix it with an eviction. Give them a 3 day notice tomorrow (or whatever your states proceedure is) along with a charge for the bounced check and appropriate late fees. If they don't pay be ready to file a court action on the 4th day - don't give them time to breathe.
*** Please hire an attorney to do this for you. I understand it can be complicated in NYDon't muck up the eviction too. Hire and attorney and learn how it's done. Maybe someone here can recommend a good one.
Third, the tenant showed you documents - but did you verify the employment? This is why I require bank statements. Their bank statement would have shown they didn't have any money. Actually they wouldn't have gotten that far when they saw you weren't an idiot.
Remember the only person who can take advantage of you is yourself by allowing it to happen.
Finally, learn from those of us who learned the hard way.
I have a home in upstate NY. My tenant showed me pay checks, proof of employment, etc. I felt that they were respectable people so I accepted a personal check.
They moved in. The check bounced. I have been trying to get my money for the past month -- unsuccessfully. I haven't received a single days rent or deposit and they live in my home. They just keep giving my excuses...ill health, chemotherapy, etc.
Can I say they're trespassers?
I never gave them keys because the house was unlocked and they just made new locks.
I would imagine that changing the locks would be an offense for which you could start eviction proceedings, unless you refused to give them a key. But more obviously, you should be able to give them a 3-day pay or quit notice, and start eviction procedures. Eviction varies by state, and I'm not familiar with NY law, but it sounds like you're not either, unfortunately it might be cheaper for you to get a lawyer to make sure you do everything by the book, than to risk not doing so and them getting some housing advocate to stall eviction on every technicality. I have rented at several places, and the deposit was usually a check cashed before I moved in, first months rent was a cashiers check, that is how apartment complexes do it, I don't think most private landlords are as rigorous, which allows some people to really take them for a ride and get up to 3 months rent free.
You cannot say they are trespassers if they signed a lease and moved in with your approval.
You need to start eviction proceedings immediatly...like yesterday. Don;t worry about what to call it, they did not pay the rent, therefore eviction immediatly with no excuses. The one and only way for them to get the eviction stopped is to come up with the money....NOW.
Last edited by ShaneSA; 02-21-2011 at 09:35 PM..
Reason: spelling
That is why people hire us....we are a property management company and we also just search for a tenant and have a LL do the rest themselves after we arrange the lease, etc...so from the 2nd month on the LL is on their own unless they need our help and we can take over, which has happened more than once.
People think that if a tenant drives a nice car and dresses up nice that is what they get.
They never think that people borrow or rent a car and start shopping for a rental. False soc. sec. #, false statements, etc...
We have seen it all and now you learned why we don't accept personal checks in the beginning and have it covered in our lease in case of a NSF.
We also don't deal with sob stories but start the process for eviction faster than most LL will do since they will keep listening to the sob stories and the promises of payment.
Btw check out a property management company upfront since not all do their work good as we have seen when we take over accounts.
I am pretty sure most would agree here but I would have requested the first months rent/deposits in cash. That way if they are a con artist, you have some money from them.
Thank you for your replies.
Now I need to give you more information because this is just getting stranger by the day.
This is a two-family house. The rent is for both apartments. The lease states - lease with option to buy, therefore they said they would be making repairs to the home because they claimed they have every intention of purchasing it. They said they plan on making necessary repairs/upgrades to the home ... living in one apt while renting the other.
After not picking up the phone for a number of days, I finally got ahold of the wife by calling from a number that was not mine. She once again pretended to be shocked that I had not received her new check. She told me that the next morning she was depositing CASH into an account I had created for the purpose of receiving rent for them. In the morning I found out she did make a deposit but it was a CHECK. I checked with her bank to see if the funds were available. It turns out she deposited a check from an account that was closed....so obviously no funds...no account. I decided to take a ride upstate to find out what's going on.
I found out they changed all the utilities into their name. I found no one was home...new locks on the doors...still I managed to get into the house . The second floor apartment is very obviously inhabited. The first floor is full of tools. They have started making renovations to both floors and made some repairs to the pipes and plumbing. There is considerable material in the house for the purpose of renovations and like I said a lot of tools for the upgrades that we agreed on them making.
Why would Scam artists make updates to a house they don't plan on paying for?
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