My tenant has vanished – leaving behind all his furniture, clothing, computer, bike…
I think he bolted back to his X & kids in Indiana, but he doesn’t answer his phone or email. (Think he probably owes some people money, too – he’s a contractor with very poor business skills.)
What’s my obligation in regard to his stuff? I need to find another tenant!
If I send him a registered letter, it will just come here – he has not changed his address – or paid the elec. & gas bills…
Replies
Kate
Every state has different laws regarding this. It would be best to check with your local authority. I know in some states if they are in jail you cannot put their stuff out on the street but if they are there then you can forcibly put them out for non payment.
When I asked my atty (Google, Yahoo, & Wikipedia, Attorneys at Law) ) about this, they replied with:
• Utah: A landlord can assume abandonment if...http://www.utcourts.gov/howto/landlord/#10
• Connecticut: http://www.thelpa.com/lpa/what/bronchick-abandon.html (Be careful on this, written by a guy from LegalWiz.com...LegalWiz?!)
• Missouri: http://stlouis.missouri.org/501c/hcf/abandonm.htm
They all seem to have different # of days of non-payment to constitute abandonment, so check locally.
I managed to track down his aunt - this is really kind of a small town in spite of being called a city - & she is going to ask around & get back to me.He is a good guy with a complicated private life, full of ex-wives & girlfriends, etc. - Thanks to you, too, Steve. I'll keep you posted as I find out anything...
with a complicated private life, full of ex-wives & girlfriends, etc. -
Well its no wonder he's in hiding!
Check your local laws regarding this issue as they very from place to place.
Doug
Yes, I'm doing that - but BT will give me some hints NOW, one of its many appealing features!
Kate
As an example here if someone does not pay rent, which I assume he hasn't since he's gone AWOL then you serve a three day notice(does not matter if he's there to receive it, post it on the door), if he still hasn't paid you file papers with the court(if I remember right its a small claims court) and you'll have a court date within a few days. At that time you the tenant(doesn't matter if the tenant doesn't show) and a judge will decide on the fate of said tenant, usually for unpaid rent the judge will order him/her to vacate the premiss with in a week.
All tolled if you did all the paper work in the proper sequence the tenant can only get about 17 days worth of free rent out of you. If you had a deposit close to or equal to a months rent then you can often times have a new tenant in before the new rent cycle and not miss a beat on that regard.
If the tenant didn't vacate by the day the court ordered then you had a sheriffs deputy come out and witness you and your helpers put all of his stuff out on the curb. The deputy was just there to make sure of what the tenant actually had in terms of goods and to make sure you or your help didn't take any of it. Now of course once it was on the curb it was a free for all and usually there wasn't much to haul away after the buzards picked through it!
It used to be around here, and all the deadbeat tenants knew this, you could easily get a whole months rent out of a landlord so that's the way most of them gave notice that they were leaving! That all changed with the new eviction rules that I mentioned previously.
I had a piece of property in TX and I had a renter problem and was sort of surprised by the rules there for eviction.
Now I know that Tim Mooney says that the rules in AR are more ambiguous for dealing with tenants so it really is a "city by city" deal.
Doug
Edited 7/29/2007 10:09 am ET by DougU
Thanks for all your advice. I have a call in to my lawyer, & to the city's housing office. I'll keep you posted when any more developments develop...
Here's the latest on the case of the missing tenant - so seldom do we have good news in a thread like this!
I had followed the legal steps for CT, & repossessed the apartment, & was in the process of packing his stuff for storage.
He reappeared - with his brother & his chain saw -
took down my dead tree -
We had a chat about the apartment. He's been staying with his girlfriend, who wants him to move in, & was embarrassed to tell me because of having the gas & electric cut off...
Upshot is that he will leave his stuff here & finish the work he was doing for me by Christmas, & then move, leaving my sparkling clean, rehabbed apartment ready to rent.
Sounds good to me, as I was trading him work for rent, & he does nice work.
The rest of the deal is that he won't disappear without letting me know, & now I have his mother's phone number, and his girlfriend's, too.
Thank you all for your advice & support!
Glad it worked out and thanks for coming back and filling us in, seams that doesnt happen enough!
Doug
Yeah - I was relieved to see him! He's a really nice guy, but a tad disorganized. I really didn't want to have to deal with his stuff, not to mention the work on the apt.
Your local laws apply, but in a lot of places, you need to allow 30 days for them to reclaim their possessions. Some places want you to place an ad in the paper. If there's a local housing authority, they can tell you. If there was a formal lease, it should be in there, too. Sounds like there wasn't.
Sounds like you prefer to keep everything as informal as possible but IMO, you need to protect yourself better, as a rental property owner, from now on. Go to http://www.rhol.org/rental/default.asp to get some good info.
be careful. place all of his stuff in storage. treble damages if he comes back at you...
i had 2 tenents leave and left cars, Boy what a legal mess that was cause i asked, next time im pushing the cars down the road at night and playing dumb, O thats a joke
park the cars in a tow away zone and let the city take care of it
Edited 7/29/2007 7:53 pm by brownbagg
you hit the nail on the head with the cars,must of slipped out of park and rolled into the street.now it's the citys problem. larryhand me the chainsaw, i need to trim the casing just a hair.
i got burned twice cause i asked, Next time i knew nothing and there cars were loaded down with all that paint and chemicals i need to get rid off, just jokeing again
i'll have to remember that joke,never heard that version,but i like it.kinda like the idea of killing two birds with one stone.larryhand me the chainsaw, i need to trim the casing just a hair.
Anyone managing rental property who has to ask a question like this ought to be ashamed of themselves!
Look at it this way: would you buy a $250,000 machine, and not read the instruction manual?
There have been landlords, and tenants, for over a century know. Even when they first invented apartments, there was some existing law that defined the relationship.
Most every situation you can imagine has already happened countless times, so there is already a settled solution for it. A tenant moving away without notice, and leaving property behind, is one of the most common situations.
First, look at your lease. Nearly every lease, especially form leases, will specifically address this situation.
Next, your city / county is likely to have some sort of 'legal aid' group that published a 'tenant's handbook.' This, while written from the tenants' point of view, will address the situation.
Finally, you ought to look at the specific local and State laws that address the situation. You will almost certainly be able to find them on the internet.
In general, you can assume the following principles will apply:
1) There is a defined set of conditions that determine if the property is 'vacant.'
2) It is still your responsibility to secure the possessions for future recovery. Local laws will say how long, and what (if anything) you may charge for this.
3) You generally are not allowed to hold property for ransom against money owed you.
4) After the required storage period, the laws may define how you may dispose of them. A common requirement is that you auction them off, and apply the proceeds to any debts owed by the tenant. Excess monies (Ha!) still go to the tenant.
Even if the written law is on your side you still have to deal with local law enforcement.
Our rental agreement and state law clearly state you can enter property if the tenant is absent if you believe there is a safety to the property riskIt doesn't work that way. We were explicitly told that we would be in jail if we let ourselves in to inspect the property.
The back door was unlocked, the rent had not been paid and the tenants had split.
"A man's home is his castle" is the way it was explained to me and that's the reason the advance warning of property owner entry is required. There are ways to get in legally, but I haven't needed to, although I have the regs in a packet in my files. A posted "Quit or pay rent" is one way, IIRC. That way, it's usually only 5 days till entry can occur.
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
like has been said, need to find out what story is locally.
have friend take 3+ months to get some junk out of an abandoned apartment, but this is Ma. where landlords have almost no rights.
bobl Volo, non valeo
Baloney detecter WFR
"But when you're a kibbutzer and have no responsibility to decide the facts and apply the law, you can reach any conclusion you want because it doesn't matter." SHG
Further info - I found out that, according to CT law, I have to send him a certified letter, return receipt, AND a letter including a self-addressed, stamped envelope, warning him that I am going to re-occupy.
If I don't get a response within 10 days, I can then do anything I want with his stuff after holding it for 30 days.
But I really just wish he would come get it!
Have you checked the local hospitals or Obits in the Paper?
Yes - I'm talking with his relatives. I'm hoping that his brothers will come get it all.
Edited 7/30/2007 7:07 pm ET by kate
Luck be with you, getting it ironed out.
Thanks!