Would You Go Ahead With The Eviction?
We had kept in contact with this certain tenant for the entire first two weeks of this month and her saying she would have the rent. She sent partial rent, then sent another partial rent later on during the month. The first check bounced. About the third week we tried and tried every day to contact her and telling her it was urgent she get back to us which she never did as we were going to tell her to pay up, move out or we would have to go through eviction. She never did call so we filed the eviction papers along with small claims for late fees, NSF fees, and the rent for the rest of the lease term. We ran into her at a store about a week later and she said she heard we had an eviction sent out to her and she meant to call us and that instead of going to court, she will just move out. My feelings are that the only reason she told us she was going to get a hold of us and was going to move out was because she happened to run into us at a store, which of course is after we filed the papers. I told my partner we should go ahead with the eviction and small claims who knows if she will be out when she says she will be and what is the point of having a lease, if we or the tenants do not abide by it? What are any of your opinions? Would you continue to go ahead with the eviction and small claims since we have already spent the money on filing it and having it served? First eviction here. Thanks.[ Edited by reneeschultz on Date 04/27/2005 ]
If this had happened BEFORE you filed the eviction, I would say that you should not bother with the eviction. However, you have already started the process so I would suggesst that you see it through.
The only caveat is that if she is a vindictive person, she might do some damage to your property before moving if you continue with the eviction. Not a good scenario. Make sure that you have her security deposit and you let her know that you will report her.
How far along are you in the eviction process? Can you get her out quickly with eviction?
Best of Luck.
JS.
Why would I need an attorney for something that is clearly stated in the lease and she has not paid her rent? Why would I need an attorney? It seems pretty cut and dry to me.
I would proceed with the eviction proceedings. You can always stop it in early May if they have vacted the property.
If you stop it now you will loose additional time if they do not move out as they agreed to. By the way a by chance meeting in the store I would not consider a valid or reliable notification from the tenant.
Robert
do a google for landlord tenant law in your state, specifically evictions & damages. Print it out and read over it.
[addsig]
reneeschultz:
The reason you want to atleast consultan atty is there are slot of nasty thing tenants can do:
BK
Partial payment
"excess wear" or is it Vandelism (do you have before pictures)
etc.
I think this will be a learning experience for me since this is my first time. I may have missed some answers that were asked in the post but I do have answers for all of them. I am going to go ahead with trying to do this on my own this time and I will learn from any mistakes I make on the first one. Since every state is different, its hard to say if I will definitely need a lawyer or not. So if there is a next time, I will know better how to go about it by learning by my first experience. Has anyone else out there done an eviction by themselves without an attorney? Just curious to know how it all went.
Yes, I will update after the court date.
Proceed with the eviction!!! All the way up until you call the Sheriff in to evict. Here in PA, if they are not out by their Drop Dead Date & Time, then you have to pay the final $75.00 fee for the Sheriff deputy to appear. I usually check to see if they moved. If they have, then no need to pay for a Sheriff. Change the locks. You save $75.00
We just checked yesterday and all her stuff is still in there along with her milk in the refridgerator that is about ready to explode due to the electric company shutting off the electricity about three weeks ago.
Thank you, I will definitely do that.
Just wanted to update that the eviction process went very smoothly. Was in court for about 3 minutes and it was over. One the eviction and one the judgment totaling almost 1800.00 and this was without a lawyer.
I agree with you. I did not feel either that I needed a lawyer for something so cut and dry. There was a previous post in here though that they thought I would definitely need a lawyer and I disagreed; so just wanted to prove my point that it can be done wihtout a lawyer. Thanks.