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swaretocod, great suggestions.....Yes, also are you set up so that you will know when they are served? Usually the sheriff can call your attorney, or fax the affidavit of service and the attorney, or sheriff if you ask can also let you know. You can try to coordinate locksmith etc. Do you have a trusted friend or neighbor there in the town where your rental is to help w/ these
I emailed him earlier today to give him a heads up and was going to call tomorrow ~ he actually emailed me back at about 10pm tonite ~ pretty awesome considering it is a Sun and News Years Day!
Anyway...he told me that if they pay in full it will restart the lease So we inquired what "in full" meant as we have a judgement for November's rent and they haven't paid anything for December.
So...now my issue is that they paid us every month by depositing money into our bank account...so of course they have access to our account...does anyone know if you can tell a bank to NOT accept money coming into an account?
Oh and for the person who asked...we live in another state so we have a lawyer representing us ~ we were not in the courtroom the day of the hearing....our lawyer and our tenant were. According to our lawyer the judge ordered the eviction and stated to our tenant that they had until December 31st to vacate. At the same time he also issued a judgement for November's rent. We have done everything legal and "by the book"
JanND ~ yeah, we cut them a break as we knew them...BAD CHOICE Worst part is that we tried so many things to try and help, but there just comes a point where you get fed up!
We have no intention of contacting them at all...we are done!
You can mail a check back with on it "rent deposit refused and returned"
Than you have proof for a judge...and btw even a partial payment accepted before they move out will start a new contract if you don't mail it back...it sounds so good to accept it but you start it all over!
Fool me ones shame on you...
Fool me twice, shame on me!!!
Thanks so much everyone ~ I truly appreciate all the help & suggestions!
*ALL their calls are PRIVATE NUMBER ~ they switched their phone numbers about 2 months into their lease and refuse to give us a working telephone number ~ they claim that they do not have a phone, but we know for a fact that they do! So no issues in not answering the phone. We do not plan on contacting them in any way...she can talk to my lawyer if she needs anything.
*We already have someone who will be meeting the day with the sheriff and already have a crew to move whatever we need to out of the house.
*We have someone who will be redoing the locks already.
bentlebee ~ according to our attorney if she pays the judgement we are fine...if she pays the judgement + the additional months that she owes is when there could be a possible issue...
Thanks so much everyone ~ I truly appreciate all the help & suggestions!
*ALL their calls are PRIVATE NUMBER ~ they switched their phone numbers about 2 months into their lease and refuse to give us a working telephone number ~ they claim that they do not have a phone, but we know for a fact that they do! So no issues in not answering the phone. We do not plan on contacting them in any way...she can talk to my lawyer if she needs anything.
*We already have someone who will be meeting the day with the sheriff and already have a crew to move whatever we need to out of the house.
*We have someone who will be redoing the locks already.
bentlebee ~ according to our attorney if she pays the judgement we are fine...if she pays the judgement + the additional months that she owes is when there could be a possible issue...
Well, don't you have the right to not renew their lease, based on their past performance and non-compliance re: paying rent. I'll bet your attorney would know. I would really think worse about them if they had put you all through so much and had the money to pay the whole time. "if she pays the judgement + the additional months that she owes is when there could be a possible issue...[/quote]Gees Still don't see how paying what she owes gets them anything but even, if they owed it already. Rent is paid for the month prior technically, right? Pay on Jan1, for Jan. So, your attorney will know, but I think no matter what the judgment is the letter of the law right now, I would think that they would have to sue you for anything beyond the current issues discussed in the judgment.
Last edited by JanND; 01-03-2012 at 05:43 AM..
Reason: added sentence
You always want to be available to your tenants to work things out. If they have taken good care of your house and are just behind in payments why not let them pay all monies owed to date and continue the lease or write a new one? You make money by having long term tenants, you lose money by having high turnover. If they are trashing the inside of the house , not maintaining the yard, etc. which is probably a violation of other lease terms as well as not paying, then getting rid of them makes sense because not only are you not getting rent, but you will have major expenses to fix up the place. Do not talk to your tenants with any type of attitude or condescention, but simply state the facts as they relate to your lease and the judgement. If you are still under contract and represented by your attorney check with the attorney first, but just ignoring your tenant is not professional property management!
In some states like Ga the first time there is a dispossessory due to non payment of rent you have to accept monies bringing the lease current and terms of the judgement, but if within 12 months a second dispo is filed then you don't.
The other thing you should do is read your state code regarding landlord tenant relationships and evictions. It will probably only take an hour to read and then you will know and not have to be guessing about the laws. Don't be surprised if some of the judges and attorneys misquote or misinterpret the law since they may not remember all the fine points of the law!
Thank you for your response. Our tenants have had issues with paying since day 1 of the lease and we HAVE tried to work out many agreements with them regarding payments and they have all been broken. We even asked twice to let them walk away and all debts would be forgiven, but they decided to stay in the lease.
Our tenants decided to seperate right before the lease started, but after it had been signed. Apparantly he sent a statement to her (not us) stating that he would pay all monies each month. She does live there and expects him to pay each month which he doesn't do as there is alot of animosity between the two. She is under the assumption that since she has this statement from him that that absolves her from having to pay if he doesn't. She also does not work outside of the home and this is her constant excuse of why she can't pay...
Our last straw was in November when she basically stated that well he hasn't paid, I can't ~ so contact him. We attempted to and could not get a hold of him, decided we were tired of chasing our payments down each month and chose to start eviction. She had until the 20th (the court date) to pay the rent and chose not to...her reasoning "that he said he would pay".
With respect to corresponding with our tenant ~ we always responded to any issues immediately ~ we last spoke to our tenant on November 30th. If there was a problem with the house we would have replied immediately...
Our next contact with her was on December 30th @ 5pm ~ however her issue was that she thought she had until 12/31 to pay not move out...we did want to get into a he said/she said with her and at that point it was just better that she talked to our attorney.
As of today they owe Nov, Dec and will owe Jan in a couple days...if they could pay it all we would renegotiate a new lease with them. In fact we just offered that to them, unfortunately if HE won't pay and she CAN'T pay because she doesn't work there really is no point.
OP, You have been being used as a Social Service agency. To see all that you wrote originally in starting the thread, and then to have to offer your explanation to yet another poster breaks my heart for you. It is truly unfair that you have been put into this position by people that were your friends. I think you have done so much more out of kindness than most LL would ever do. Be at peace w/ what you had to do, you did not choose this path, the renters did. They will eventually regret that they have involved such kind people in their family drama, and most probably that they have chosen to abuse a worthy friendship. Hopefully this gets resolved for you today. Take a deep breath, and know that you did try.
I find it fascinating that you can't receive money or it restarts the whole process. That definitely isn't how it works in my state. Here, if you get a judgment, you have the right to collect on that judgment, and that is totally separate from the eviction process. But you also don't get the judgment at the eviction hearing, it is a separate court date. One to get them out and one to get them to pay, but then if they do pay, it doesn't void the eviction. Of course, the judgment would include all past rent due, which it sounds like yours does not.
Different states, different rules, I just find it interesting.
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So we inquired what "in full" meant as we have a judgement for November's rent and they haven't paid anything for December.
