Honest Realestate Agent

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Self help eviction is when you take your own actions to kick out a tenant without going through the courts. There are procedures you have to go through with the court and that is the only legal way you can evict a tenant.

A self help eviction is any one of the following actions to remove a non-paying tenant from your home: changing the locks to prevent the tenant from entering your property, threatening the tenant, turning off vital utility services, and remove a tenant’s personal property.

You must not threaten self help eviction on your tenant like threatening to change the locks or to shut off the power. In most States there are clear statutes that prohibit threats of self help eviction.

If you are dragged into court for a self help eviction, the judge won’t care that the tenants were behind on the rent. If the tenant is in possession of the premises, and you want him out, and he won’t leave, you have to go through the correct procedures with the court.

Do not even think about engaging in a self help eviction. There have been many cases where a landlord removed a tenant’s personal property and put it on the sidewalk or even in the trash. A judge could easily award your non-paying tenant with a 20,000 dollars damages award. Most judges will not require the tenant to produce receipts for his belongings because such proof of purchase could have been disposed of in the lock out.

There is also a law you can be sued under called the common law intentional torts of conversion. This is simply fancy legal wording that means the exercise of control over an item in a manner inconsistent with the rights of its owner which permanently deprives the owner of its value. You can also be sued for trespass to chattels which means which is the same as the law above but which temporarily deprives the owner of its value. And of course you can be sued for trespass which is the unlawful entry upon the property of another enjoying right to possession. Because these claims for relief are intentional torts, if court can award not only nominal damages, but punitive damages plus attorney fees as well.

Take a look at WILLIAM SPANO v. HANNA ABDALLA South Carolina Superior Court (October 3, 2002) Hanna Abdulla engaged in the act of self help eviction by changing the locks and removing William Spano’s personal property from the premise to the sidewalk. Hanna Abdulla’s defense was that she thought the tenant had abandoned the premises (she should have posted an abandonment notice but she did not). The court was not convinced that she was telling the truth and awarded Spano 1,800 dollars for the three months of rent expense he incurred to live elsewhere. The court further awarded 1,200 dollars in punitive damages and attorneys fees.

In the case of Gordon v. Morris, 2001 Ohio App. (February 2, 2001) the landlord changed the locks just before the end of the month upon learning that the tenants had shut off the utilities and removed most of their belongings. The trial court awarded the tenants only 96 dollars in actual damages (they had paid rent through the end of the month but were deprived of the use of the apartment, and this was the prorated amount). But the trial court further awarded 1,000 dollars in punitive damages and 1,462 dollars in attorneys fees.

I often hear owners complain that the courts are siding with the tenant and not owners. This is simply not true. The courts are not siding with non-paying tenants. What the courts are doing is trying to prevent violence in our society that frequently occurs over the struggle for the possession of land. Think about this. If it was legal for a landlord to turn off the electricity or to change the locks, that same tenant could turn violent and club you to death. While on the surface it might seem like the courts are on the side of the tenant, they are actually protecting you. Just follow the court approved procedure for evicting a tenant and you’ll be fine. If you don’t know the legal way to evict a tenant, then hire the surfaces of a professional property management company.

I hope this article helps you with renting your house out. If you desire additional assistance and own a house in Fresno and Clovis, California, see Fresno property management

If you are running ads that contain these words, you will likely be fined 100,000 dollars or more and lose your rental home.

Now is the time to take action if you think your ads are violating Fair Housing law.

Fair Housing regulations must be followed by all owners. Fair Housing regulations apply to apartments and homes.

Do not post any discriminatory concepts within your ads. Section 804-c of the Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. 3604-c reads, “…it is unlawful to make, print, or publish, or cause to be made, printed, or published, any notice, statement, or advertisement, with respect to the sale or rental of a dwelling, that indicates any preference, limitation, or discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin, or an intention to make any such preference, limitation, or discrimination.”

Whether you run ads on a website, Craigslist, or in printed magazines or classifieds in a newspaper, you must stay away from using discriminatory wording.

Some owners have been fined 12,000 dollars for every discriminatory ad they ran plus damages awarded by the court.

Do not refer to a persons skin color and do not use the words, “white”, “black”, “Hispanic”, “colored home”, and “no Hispanics”. Don’t even try to work race into the advertising of your home.

Religion should never be used in your ads. It is not legal to use words like “Christians only” or “no Jews”.

If you want to advertise the fact that your rental home is in an upscale neighborhood on the North side of town, you would be wise to use a phrase like “desirable neighborhood”. Desirable is subjective and relies on interpretation by the individual as to what their definition of desirable is. It is a matter of taste. Much like crayon colors. It is useless arguing what color is the best because such a topic is subjective.

You should not discriminate against people who have a disability of some kind. It is not legal to use the wording “no wheelchairs” or “handicap people need not apply”. It is legal to mention accessibility features for people with handicaps such as “wheelchair ramp included”. You can also discriminate against certain types of behavior or conduct like saying “no smoking” is legal.

Do not discriminate against children or parents. It is NOT ok to use the phrase “adult building”, “adults only”, or “no children”. In December of 2007, the Southern California Housing Rights Center brought charges against Robert Krug, a Monrovia landlord, alleging that he engaged in housing discrimination by not allowing children into his apartment complex. The suit, filed in March 2007, stated that the center had people pose as renters with families and approached the manager of Krug’s 28-unit apartment building in 2004. They were told the owner didn’t allow children. As part of a settlement reached, a federal court has fined Robert Krug nearly 140,000 dollars for the federal offense.

Familial status should never be used in the advertisements for your rental home. You can not say things like “3 children or less only” or state a preference for couples, singles, or adults.

Fair Housing regulations do not just govern your ads. They also govern how you screen tenants, your rental application, and how you treat your tenant the entire time they stay in your rental home.

I hope you find this article useful for renting your home out and should you find yourself in need of additional help in renting out your home in Fresno, California, visit the first and largest Fresno property management company.

Should you need to hire a professional property management company then the profitability of your property boils down to whether you hire a good or bad company.

Hire the right management company and you will have a lucrative rental. The wrong property management company could cost you thousands of dollars a year in rental income and repairs from a bad tenant.

A big mistake owners make is that they just randomly pick a property management company from the phone book without doing research on the company first. With a little research, you can avoid hiring a bad management company.

Watch out for those big “we do it all” real estate firms that span across the country. They do property management because they want to be the first company you think of when you want to sell your property. Many of these corporations use property management as simply a tool to get their foot in the door with you so that they can try and convince you that you need to sell your home. It’s never a good idea to go with a property management company that is trying to get you to sell your home because that’s where they make the big money. You want a management company that specializes exclusively in property management and not something else. You don’t want a big corporation either. You want a property management company that specializes exclusively in property management in your local markets. You want a property management company that specializes in your local market only.

Try and get three references from the property management company. You want to talk with other owners who are satisfied with the property management company. You should not sign any contract with the property management company before knowing their track record. Ask for several references that you can contact. Call the references and make sure to ask if they know someone who works for the management firm. Ask them what they dislike about the company.

Use the Internet to make sure the property management company and its employees have the necessary licenses and that they are in good standing. Most states require property managers to have a real estate license and/or a property manager’s license. Most states require a property manager to also have a real estate license if they are dealing with single family homes.

Make sure that the property management company is insured. The company should have general liability insurance, professional liability insurance, and workers’ compensation. The management firm will be dealing with your renters and collecting their deposits and rents so make sure they have employee theft insurance.

The second biggest goof that owners is make is that they don’t ask the property management company the right questions before signing a management agreement.

Here is a list of questions you need to ask when interviewing a management company:

1 – Can you provide a list of exactly what management services are provided?

2 – Do you sell homes or make money on referring me to a real estate agent?

3 – Can you provide a list of exactly when I will receive income checks and reports?

4 – Where will you advertise my home and how much will it cost me to advertise there?

5 – How do you handle maintenance requests from tenants?

6 – Who will manage my property? What are his qualifications? Is he licensed? How many houses does she currently manage?

7 – Can you give me three references that I can call? I would like the references to be from people who have homes that are managed by the same person who will be managing my home?

8 – Do you have a maintenance division and if so, do you only charge the actual cost of labor and materials without any markups? Can I opt out of your in-house maintenance division and have repairs done by external companies only?

9 – Do you get volume discounts with your vendors and do you pass on that savings to clients without any markups?

10 – How do you handle late charges? If I keep the late charges, are you charging me a higher monthly management fee?

11 – Do you have insurance on employee errors and theft and specifically do you have an Errors and Omissions policy that covers at least 500,000 and on your general liability policy does it cover at least 2,000,000?

12 – Do you have a 500,000 Fidelity bond and a Forgery and Alterations policy of at least 25,000 for all employees?

Do you co-mingle different owners’ funds into one account and did you know this is illegal in most states because of pyramid type schemes that property management companies have run in the past?

I hope this article helps you should you choose to look for a professional property management company to manage your home rental. If you have property in Fresno California and are searching for a professional property management service, see Fresno property management