Evicting tenant who is never at home! (lease, eviction, renter)
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My problem is my tenant is a truck driver who is not ever home. Occasionally I will see his big rig parked, but his personal vehicle is missing. I have put numerous past due notices in his door and made several attempts to call leaving message after nasty message. Sometimes that results in a partial payment or two.
The problem is that there is no lease involved. I'm very new at this and very trusting. He has had so many sad and believable excuses.....sick brother, can't afford fuel for big rig jobs, lost everything in stock market, etc.
He currently owes me a total of 4 months rent ($3200). How can I evict him when I can't find him? What if he sends another $400 payment?
You got yourself in a bit of a pickle by not having any sort of a rental agreement. Hopefully you kept copies of the past due notices. You should go to your local court immediately and file an eviction notice against him - and either the court will have him served or you can hire your own process server. If he owes you four months rent already, do you really think he's going to pay you? More likely he'll just scoot. You need professional help on this one via the court system. Good luck to you and hopefully this will be a lesson well learned. Cheers!
Get the court to serve him. Stop spinnng your wheels and get moving to the courts. It probably will be more profitable to spend the money to get him out and focus on getting in a renter who will pay. Don't focus on what he owes you, you will never see it. Just get rid of him and next time put it all in writing. Focus on getting in a tenant who will pay and put this experience in your bag of learned lessons.
And don't make the mistake of throwing out his stuff. Consult a property attorney on what you can legally do until the courts are involved. If you make a mistake now it could effect your court case later.
I know in a lot of the leases I looked at "stuff" was stored if property was abandoned and the renter would be charged (x) amt per month or day of storage. But try the trucking company first to find him if you dont want to deal with the courts just yet. They can find him.
Go to the court and have the Sheriff evict him. It will take about 6 months and he will stop paying rent altogether, but the Sheriff will have a crew put his stuff on the curb. You can then sue in small-claims court for past rent if you can prove he owes it without a signed lease.
OK, there is twist to this story. I was called by the sheriff's department a few months ago to verify his address. When I asked why, the deputy/probation officer informed me that he is a registered sex offender and he was just verifying that this is his correct address.
At the time, he was making an effort to pay and was very apologetic and I felt sorry for him. I did tell the officer that he was a truck driver and wasn't there half the time, but he was paying rent. The officer, at that time, asked me to call him if the status of his residence changed. I kept his phone number and decided to call him today to tell him that I was about to evict him and he would have no address to register with the national sex offenders registry. He informed me that a court date is coming up and when he sees him he would STRONGLY recommend that he make good on his debts. It's been a long day and I am very tired of this BS. BTW thanks to everyone who has responded. You guys have been a tremendous help!
OK, there is twist to this story. I was called by the sheriff's department a few months ago to verify his address. When I asked why, the deputy/probation officer informed me that he is a registered sex offender and he was just verifying that this is his correct address.
At the time, he was making an effort to pay and was very apologetic and I felt sorry for him. I did tell the officer that he was a truck driver and wasn't there half the time, but he was paying rent. The officer, at that time, asked me to call him if the status of his residence changed. I kept his phone number and decided to call him today to tell him that I was about to evict him and he would have no address to register with the national sex offenders registry. He informed me that a court date is coming up and when he sees him he would STRONGLY recommend that he make good on his debts. It's been a long day and I am very tired of this BS. BTW thanks to everyone who has responded. You guys have been a tremendous help!
Good Luck and trust me...lol, the more sad the stories are ...most of the time it is b.s., people who are really to feel sorry for, are most of the time not complaining since they are trying to avoid others for feeling sorry for them.
Similar to people with termianl illnesses, most time they don't complain, but people who don't really have something serious can complain and whine about it....
Even if you feel sorry for a person you don't want to end up feeling sorry for your self...so let this be a lesson....make a contract the next time with a security deposit.....who is feeling sorry for you....
NancyfromNC.....No excuses, what were you thinking. NO LEASE! Not in todays market. Feeling sorry for him (oldest story out there.) If you are going to be a landlord get your act together. Its a business not a dating opportunity. Get to the court house and file for an eviction notice . Cost will be around $85.00 . From there the Shriff will serve the papers on him. You will be notified when he has been served. Then a court date set. No big deal. No need for an attorny . If he does not show up for court date court rules in your favor. If he showes up you both tell your storys and judge rules. The only thing you would be out is the court cost $85.00 if you lost. He must be getting his mail at the rental address, gave the address to his probation officer also, so this shows he was living there. Do you have reciepts for rent received? Stop playing games. The probation officer is not looking out for you . You must look out for you. Take charge go get an eviction . This trying to hunt him down is silly not professional. Are you looking for a man or a tenant? Sounds like you are looking for a man.
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