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Can You Spell E-V-I-C-T-I-O-N?

Can You Spell E-V-I-C-T-I-O-N?

I am going into my thirteenth year in property management. Applause! Just kidding - no applause is necessary. : )  Over the years, the most difficult tasks for me have been conducting move out inspections and discerning any charges to be applied to the account and handling evictions. Both are necessary actions to be sure. I will tell you, I get a kick out of evictions a whole lot more than I do conducting move outs.

 

With evictions, it seems so cut-and-dried, even though to the Resident it may not seem that way. Obviously, I’m not an attorney so I can’t dispense legal advice, but somehow marching into the courtroom to face a Resident head-on is kind of exhilarating to me and gets the adrenaline rushing through the veins. I liken it almost to being a soldier going into battle, except I arm myself with a very experienced attorney instead of a gun.

 

In any event, my most recent eviction is being conducted, as I am now waiting on the Judge’s ruling. It got me thinking very seriously about how it had come to this anyway? The case seems simple. Did the Resident pay his rent? Um, not really. He submitted a check for the rent; however it did not clear the bank. So, no, he didn’t successfully fulfill his financial obligation. I thought I had completed my “due diligence” by leaving the actual rental decision based on information from a third party who screens the credit and criminal history. I thought the couple met the Rental Criteria. So what went wrong?

 

Loopholes! I hate them tremendously! This couple had a lease with another apartment community who did not renew the lease at its end because, my attorney told me, the couple had also written a bad check, then covered it with a credit card payment, which he canceled when he was notified his lease was not being renewed. Did their former apartment community tell me this? No. In fact, when the couple canceled the credit card payment, this apartment community attempted to evict the couple. The case was dismissed because of insufficient evidence regarding the alleged fraudulent payment(s). Therefore, the eviction filing also did not show up during the background check. Another loophole. Apparently the other apartment community did not seek damages or refer their account to a collection agency. That may not have mattered anyway, as it usually takes 65 days for collection accounts to show up on the person’s credit report. Still another loophole.

 

Even with all the proper checks and verifications, this couple was still able to qualify to live at my community. The one thing I will say is, at least I keep excellent records and documentation so I believe the eviction will be approved and I can go on to the Damages side of the eviction process. Once that occurs, this record will be on their permanent rental history and they should no longer be able to rent another apartment here in this city.

 

Generally, evicting someone for non-payment of rent is the easiest method of producing grounds for a court issued eviction. The next easiest way to get through the legal mumbo jumbo is when there is evidence of a violent or antisocial criminal act or a drug related offense that merits a felony conviction. The most subjective (at least for a court, in my opinion) is the eviction predicated on Lease Violations. If you are not familiar with these types of evictions, please understand you are best protected by having adequate, experience counsel. I know there are some management companies that think the Manager should tackle these filings in small claims court on his/her own, but I disagree. I can tell you from experience that it is always best to have legal representation.


I do know that in this current case, that one issue that I was able to prove in Court was that these Residents had lied on their initial Rental Application. I was also able to get them to admit their lies. This made me immensely happy, if only for a moment. In the end, it is not inexpensive to have to sue a Resident and attend an actual trial to gain possession of the leased premises. By the time it is all said and done, I will be out over $3000 and this is not a proud fact at all. It makes me feel like I failed the community by allowing this type of person(s) to move into the community. I do hope that you learn something from my experience though, and it is that sometimes people “look good on paper” but may still turn out to be less than great citizens. I am really happy that this is the first eviction I have had to do in years, so I don’t have a history of making imperfect leasing decisions overall.

 

You want to hear something kind of funny though? Both of them were “Fans” of our property’s Facebook Page and were even joining in on our conversations. I noticed today they had “Un-friended” us. Am I sad about that? Absolutely not!

 
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site

While reading your blog, it came to me that requesting a copy of the applicant's last bank statement might have prevented this. If they lie and say they don't have a bank account, then you can expect money orders for their rent payment. A bank statement would show any returned checks and most people can get a copy online. I might add this to my requirements.

  Sandy Martin
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Good tip, Sandy! Thanks!

  Mindy Sharp
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So Mindy did the former community lie on the rental verification? That happened to me once, and the person that moved in turned out to be the worst resident in history. She moved into my community on a 2 month free special and didn't pay rent the next 2 months; so 4 months rent free. I evicted her and she moved into my sister community using her baby daughters social, was evicted from there after 2 months and moved into yet another of our communities where she got another rent special and spent 4 months free there!!!! All because the 1st communinity gave me a good rental!!! I called the corp. office and made them aware of the manager’s deceit. I usually would never do a thing like that but she cost my company thousands of dollars in damages and lost rent.

  Stephani Fowler
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Wow, Stephani! That's awful! The other community did not even show up on the credit report ans since the resident conveniently did not disclose the issue ... well, when I found out about the other prior history from my attorney, I called the other community. The Leasing person laughed when I told her the names of the residents and then put me on hold for about 15 minutes. When she came back on the phone, she told me they "chose not to renew the Lease due to poor payment history." I am in the process of working with the rental screening company as to why they weren't better at catching this. They may be partially liable for our legal bills.

  Mindy Sharp
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Prior to my retirement I was a huge fan of doing evictions. We had many properties who were only staffed by a manager (male and female) and these were usually newbies anyway. I was able to evict at four different properties. I liked reading the files and documentations prior to going to the unit to bring the "notice to quit".
Additionally, I had the "unlimited" services of one certain Deputy Sheriff who had happened to have been my driver during Desert Shield/Desert Storm. Having friends in the right place can make quite a difference. We would park his cruiser in sight of the front door, and I would knock or ring and serve the notice to quit. The Deputy would be leaning on the cruiser with his arms folded.
Glory Be! I never had a problem.

  Spencer, HB
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Hahaha - that's funny! I can just see you and the Deputy sitting there in the parking lot. You would be an asset to an inexperienced Manager, HB!

  Mindy Sharp
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Stephani & Mindy...
What I have found is that some managers of other communities can and do lie to GET THE BAD APPLE OUT. So what I do is go back to the previous apt community / landlord and get the reference there.
The other issue is folks just getting a job and they can not keep it. That has bitten me a time or 2. I suggest calling previous employers for a reference.
In either case most will not give you much information. I found the telling question " Would you rent to them again?" Or "Would you employ them again"
gets you what you need.

  Lin Mayr
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The subject of using an attorney or not may also depend on how the court is run. I've faced tenants without an attorney for almost 2 years with no real problems, but the small claims here isn't that difficult. I have never had a problem getting an eviction approved by the judge at the initial hearing, occassionally if the tenant likes to argue they hold the issues of money to a later hearing with a longer time slot though. Those are the only times the judge doesn't make a ruling right then for me, I think just because that way they can't argue about it. Luckily I am in a state and county where, if the dates fall on the right days, I can file and have the tenant out 17 days from that day for nonpayment.

  AJ
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You should not blame the previous community.You must get better company to do a credit and background check and going to your 2 sister property? Who is to blame? Not the previous community. The bottom line is you must prequalify this prospect and conduct better checks. Did your sister property not get a rental history from you? Did they get to call your corporate office on you, since this worst resident moved into 2 other sister properties of yours. WOW!!!!

  Joy B
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I have noticed that many apartment rental varifications aren't worth much. How many times have you received a reference back where the answer to the question, "Would you rent to this person again?" is answered: "If qualified"? To me, this is code for "Hell NO!" but when you call the other community they don't tell you anything because their written answer is "corporate policy." The one point I would like everyone to recognize is we are all in this together and there are professional scammers out there who go from one community to another and can play havoc on your property's bottom line. It happens to everyone eventually. However, maybe, by benefit of others' misfortunes and stories, we can learn to beat them at their own game. I agree with you, Joy, sometimes we may have to re-evaluate our screening companies and our criteria and procedures for approving applicants. What other stories can you share? I like Lin's response about the Bad Apple! Thanks for the comments - keep 'em coming!

  Mindy Sharp
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