Posted on 09/29/2002 3:48:46 PM PDT by Sweet_Sunflower29
I'm so furious, I can't see straight, forgive me if this is scrambled. I need your help. Mr. S_S and I own the home directly adjacent to us, which we rent out. We have sucessfully managed three previous tennants with no problems; two whom we knew, and one acquired via a rental agency. This spring, we used the same rental agency to find the current rentors.
After the company approved them, we found out that-
They flat *lied* on their lease agreement about their jobs, income, previous addresses and reason for leaving, and about how many people were going to occupy this house.
The 'credit check' area of the lease was left blank by the rental company, leading me to think none was performed; and when the problems began and I called this company to complain, I was basically told that it wasn't their problem anymore, and 'tough sh*t'. I went to the county clerks office, filled out a 72-hour eviction notice 4 months ago and stuck it on their door, for failure to pay rent in a timely fashon. The rent was paid within 12 hours, and rather then involve the law, we [dumbly] decided to overlook it.
The first month, and with every additional month, the rent was late. By late, I mean typically 4-6 weeks overdue-This group has the bad luck to have some type of calamity befall them the first week of each month which prevents the $$ being available. Someone hurting themselves, a birthday, a sister in the hospital, etc, etc.
They are a family of...uh... "_______-American" decent, loudly drinking/yelling/partying/fighting 3-5 nights/week [many past midnight], while waking my children and keeping me up many of these nights. The property looks awful with the beer cans, ciggy butts and trash strewn all over, they've broken the gate leading into the yard beyond reasonable repair, and I am not even planning on going INside the home without Mr. S_S with me.
I should mention that 95% of these problems with noise and drunken behavior happens when Mr. S_S is out of town.
Last night, he was home. 2am, they were outside my bedroom window, music thumping, loud yelling, etc. He stuck his head over the fence, told them to shut up. They didn't. He called the cops, within 2 minutes of that call, they quieted down. I was glad they were out for the night. He was wondering at the chances of them shutting up right after the call was made. About thirty minutes later, two of them were fighting over the beer, again, right outside my bedroom window. We were afraid that they were going to try to drive the truck, and being 'drunk', may end up plowing it through the bedroom instead. Mr. S_S stuck his head out again, told them to 'shut-the-****-up' this time, came to me, brought me my Taurus .357, holstered his Rueger .45, handed me the phone, and told me to call the police; these guys that were fighting were pissed now, and he was ready to fire if it looked like there was going to be trouble.
I called LEO, and while I was on the phone, the ***** next door yelled outside, "shut up, they're calling the cops right now".
They are monitoring our phone calls with some sort of a ******* scanner. My engineer brother-in-law came over and told us that our phone was at a frequency to high for a normal 'bought at RadioShack' scanner to pick up, so it may be a police scanner.
WTF am I going to do NOW??
These rentors are minorities, on welfare, and seem to think that as such, they are entitled to ignore the rules. Mr. S_S wants to evict them, using *ahem* unspecified "methods" that won't point back to him. These people are pissed at us, and honestly, I'm scared, mainly because of my little ones being here with me, and because Mr. S_S is gone so much of the time. People have told me basically that I'm screwed, because they are minorities, on welfare, blah, frickin' blah blah blah...
I am scared to death. I really, really, really need some advice, help, anything to point me to where I can find if I have any rights in this.
The snoring is so loud I can't sleep. I can't talk to my wife without their presence. They disregard both my subtle and direct comments like "when are you leaving?".
Every time one of my friends comes by to visit the mother in law has to be the center of attention and will not let me have a private conversation with MY guests. She hasn't left the house for a week... not even for ten minutes. My desk has been gone through, all my private papers read, my computer messed with.
They are driving me MAD. And my wife won't do a damn thing about it and won't let me "rudely" kick their asteriks out of the house.
I don't know where you live but in Washington State first you have to give notice to cease and desist whatever the problem is that they are causing. If they don't then you give however many days it is to vacate. If they don't do that then you give so many hours or the sheriff will be called to remove them. Also you do not put these notices in their door. You send them registered return receipt.
That is why sometimes it is much better to have a Month to Month rental agreement. You don't have to show cause like you do in a year to year lease.
Are you sure they are all legals? Tell them you are going to call the INS.
Look up on the internet for you state the RCW codes for the Landlord/Tenant Act. This will tell you the exact steps you need to take in evicting someone.
We had one fellow who was selling/doing drugs on our property. My husband suggested to this guy that he (husband) knows he (tenant) wouldn't want the police to pay him a visit and that if he leaves within 24 hours we would return the scumbag's security deposit. The tenant left a mess including cigarette burns in our wall-to-wall capreting, but we were free of the louse.
The second tenant was evicted after we hired a good lawyer... piece of cake.
capreting = carpeting
I know someone they call Pelon because he shaved his head bald.
Naive me thought it was spanish for bald, but a translation check came up with nothing. It is apparently a slang word for something. Now if I only knew what.
Then, just as brazenly, she placed the licked plates back in the cabinet, remarking loudly how good a job the dog had done with them.
Her 'guests' left the next morning- BEFORE breakfast!
1. Failure to pay rent when due and the default continued for more than 3 days. (I refused to take their money when they tried to pay their rent).
2. Failure to keep premises clean and sanitary
3. Permitting unauthorized guests to reside in dwelling.
I also gave them a seperate 10-day notice that I was not responsible for any personal property left in premises, and that anything left was mine to dispose of or store as I saw fit. Of couse, they would have to pay a storage fee to recover anything they wanted.
Luckily, for me, they left and I'm only out $470 for September's rent....which I might go after via small claims court. Otherwise, I would have filed for an eviction which would have been granted and them the sheriff would have forcably evicted them. That would have taken about a month and cost me about $300 in fees.
Here's a link to some NM tenant landlord info... http://www.nmbar.org/public/publicresources/lawtopics/landlord.htm
Good luck!
Just a thought.
(The previous comment was produced for entertainment value only and does not reflect the values of this poster.....or Jim Rob)
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