I apologize for the length of this but I think you need the background---
I rent out a 3-bedroom house with a pool. My current tenants (boyfriend/girlfriend w/baby - 17 & 19 yrs old) moved in in November 2010, but have not paid their rent since January. Both names are on the 18-month lease (which THEY requested). (She had received a large inheritance and that was how she intended to pay the rent had she not immediately gone out and purchased a Mercedes with CASH, took two expensive vacations, etc.) [After about the second week they moved in, their cell phone "broke" and I have had no contact with them except by email to HER. Sometimes she responds, sometimes she takes two weeks. Very aggravating.]
Shortly after they moved in, after I paid someone to trim the bushes and generally clean up the yard which they were aware of, they hired someone to totally take out all our trees, bushes, generally all the landscaping in the backyard and some of the front without permission. She has acknowledged hiring someone to do that and I expressed my extreme displeasure about it. They also scalped the lawn and didn't water it and now we have no green grass - looks like hay (and they blew that into the pool as well). Until we can revamp the yard, we won't be able to rent the house and we can't afford it, especially since we're out $6000 in rent.
So............then she quits paying the rent and gives me sob stories. I have given them e-mail notice to vacate now 4 times, and each time she has talked me into letting them stay by telling me she intends to pay, always sounding somewhat believable. (I am the original SUCKER.) (Although notice was not given by certified mail, receipt of these notices WAS acknowledged by return emails.) A month ago, my neighbor called and said the front door was wide open as was the garage door and gate. We called the police and they went out there and said it didn't look like anyone was living there, although there was a little furniture and clothes and stuff all over the floor but there was no electricity or water and no frig or washer/dryer (and she had a 3-month-old baby). This same neighbor said they apparently split and the guy had moved out a month ago (we didn't know this). When I asked her about all of this, she totally shrugged it off, didn't know what had happened (but did say he moved out).
After more and more lies and false promises, two weeks ago I told her that this is it, they obviously don't intend to pay up and they have to remove everything from the house, clean the house, the yard, and that I am changing the locks on Friday. She said "if I pay up can I stay or will you then throw me out on the street?" I said "if you pay 100%, you will go on a month-to-month (the lease is breached) and if you are late one day the next month you have to leave." I told her to sell her $%^& Mercedes and pay me in full and then blow the rest. She actually did sell the car (so she says) but she said she found a house to lease for $5K a month (but she had to sign a 6-month lease and pay in full in cash up front). So why does she still want me tolet her live here? She said she'd still be able to pay me in full. Haven't heard from her since.
This time I followed through, changed the locks, put all of their stuff that was all over the closet floors, garage full of stuff on the floor (new clothes, old clothes, books, shoes, baby stuff, etc.) into laundry baskets they had there, trash bags, whatever I could find. I put everything into a portable building we have out back (filled it up). They had dishes in the sink, and something in every drawer, few things in the pantry.....
She had cut off the electricity and water because she couldn't afford it. She knew the utilities must be on in order for the pool equipment to function yet cut them off anyway, causing the pool to turn green, etc. They never removed their living room furniture, one bedroom of furniture, a microwave and 4 small dining chairs. I have had no correspondence with them for 2 weeks.
My question is ... do I still have to give them another time frame in which to pick up their stuff "or it will become our property to sell" or can we just consider it our property now with no further correspondence since we have repeatedly told them to get their stuff out. We put everything except furniture in the shed so that they could have access to it without access to the house, but we would have to be there to allow them to pick up the rest (furniture) IN the house (we live 100 miles away from the house). Do we have the right now to just sell the furniture since they owe us $6,000 for rent (not to mention $1,000s for the grass and trees)? And can we sell all the other stuff as well or do we have to give them additional notice to pick it up. Seems as though tenants have all the rights. What rights do we actually have?
If we sue them, we won't collect a penny because they supposedly have nothing - we previously got a judgment against a deadbeat couple because they TOLD us they could stay there without paying rent "because we know our rights" and we never collected a penny and never will.
Sure wish this market would pick up so we could get out of this "business." Two mortgages, taxes, insurance, etc. is killing us, even if the tenants don't.
Please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I rent out a 3-bedroom house with a pool. My current tenants (boyfriend/girlfriend w/baby - 17 & 19 yrs old) moved in in November 2010, but have not paid their rent since January. Both names are on the 18-month lease (which THEY requested). (She had received a large inheritance and that was how she intended to pay the rent had she not immediately gone out and purchased a Mercedes with CASH, took two expensive vacations, etc.) [After about the second week they moved in, their cell phone "broke" and I have had no contact with them except by email to HER. Sometimes she responds, sometimes she takes two weeks. Very aggravating.]
Shortly after they moved in, after I paid someone to trim the bushes and generally clean up the yard which they were aware of, they hired someone to totally take out all our trees, bushes, generally all the landscaping in the backyard and some of the front without permission. She has acknowledged hiring someone to do that and I expressed my extreme displeasure about it. They also scalped the lawn and didn't water it and now we have no green grass - looks like hay (and they blew that into the pool as well). Until we can revamp the yard, we won't be able to rent the house and we can't afford it, especially since we're out $6000 in rent.
So............then she quits paying the rent and gives me sob stories. I have given them e-mail notice to vacate now 4 times, and each time she has talked me into letting them stay by telling me she intends to pay, always sounding somewhat believable. (I am the original SUCKER.) (Although notice was not given by certified mail, receipt of these notices WAS acknowledged by return emails.) A month ago, my neighbor called and said the front door was wide open as was the garage door and gate. We called the police and they went out there and said it didn't look like anyone was living there, although there was a little furniture and clothes and stuff all over the floor but there was no electricity or water and no frig or washer/dryer (and she had a 3-month-old baby). This same neighbor said they apparently split and the guy had moved out a month ago (we didn't know this). When I asked her about all of this, she totally shrugged it off, didn't know what had happened (but did say he moved out).
After more and more lies and false promises, two weeks ago I told her that this is it, they obviously don't intend to pay up and they have to remove everything from the house, clean the house, the yard, and that I am changing the locks on Friday. She said "if I pay up can I stay or will you then throw me out on the street?" I said "if you pay 100%, you will go on a month-to-month (the lease is breached) and if you are late one day the next month you have to leave." I told her to sell her $%^& Mercedes and pay me in full and then blow the rest. She actually did sell the car (so she says) but she said she found a house to lease for $5K a month (but she had to sign a 6-month lease and pay in full in cash up front). So why does she still want me tolet her live here? She said she'd still be able to pay me in full. Haven't heard from her since.
This time I followed through, changed the locks, put all of their stuff that was all over the closet floors, garage full of stuff on the floor (new clothes, old clothes, books, shoes, baby stuff, etc.) into laundry baskets they had there, trash bags, whatever I could find. I put everything into a portable building we have out back (filled it up). They had dishes in the sink, and something in every drawer, few things in the pantry.....
She had cut off the electricity and water because she couldn't afford it. She knew the utilities must be on in order for the pool equipment to function yet cut them off anyway, causing the pool to turn green, etc. They never removed their living room furniture, one bedroom of furniture, a microwave and 4 small dining chairs. I have had no correspondence with them for 2 weeks.
My question is ... do I still have to give them another time frame in which to pick up their stuff "or it will become our property to sell" or can we just consider it our property now with no further correspondence since we have repeatedly told them to get their stuff out. We put everything except furniture in the shed so that they could have access to it without access to the house, but we would have to be there to allow them to pick up the rest (furniture) IN the house (we live 100 miles away from the house). Do we have the right now to just sell the furniture since they owe us $6,000 for rent (not to mention $1,000s for the grass and trees)? And can we sell all the other stuff as well or do we have to give them additional notice to pick it up. Seems as though tenants have all the rights. What rights do we actually have?
If we sue them, we won't collect a penny because they supposedly have nothing - we previously got a judgment against a deadbeat couple because they TOLD us they could stay there without paying rent "because we know our rights" and we never collected a penny and never will.
Sure wish this market would pick up so we could get out of this "business." Two mortgages, taxes, insurance, etc. is killing us, even if the tenants don't.
Please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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