Honest Realestate Agent

Posts Tagged ‘leasing’

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.

To evict a tenant you first must give them a Notice of Termination.

Tenants who are on a month to month lease can be evicted with a 30 days or 60 days written notice. In some states 60 days is required while in others only 30 days is required. You need to check your locality. The form you use is called either a 30 Day Notice or a 60 Day Notice.

First though, you need to check your local laws for what is an acceptable reason to serve a 30 Day Notice.

Subsidized housing programs often limit what you can evict a tenant for. They usually have forms where you have to list the reason for the eviction.

Some cities have rent controls in place that require “just cause” in order to evict and the landlord’s 30 Day Notice must specifically state the reason for which he is terminating tenancy.

An eviction can never be retaliatory or discriminatory in nature.

Forms very from state to state but there are basically three types of Notice of Termination forms you use, depending on your circumstance, to evict tenants.

Pay Rent Or Quit is a notice given to a tenant who has not paid the rent. This notice instructs the tenant to either pay the rent or pack up and move. Tenants are then given anywhere from 3 days to 30 days to pay the rent depending on your local laws.

Cure or Quit notices: This notice is given to tenants whove violated one of the conditions you listed in your rental contract. It tells your tenant to cure the violation in a limited number of days (determined by state law) and vacate the premises, or be subject to an eviction action.

Notice to Quit or Unconditional Quit notices: These forms are just basically kick out a tenant forms. They tell your tenant to vacate the premise without giving them a chance to fix a violation in the rental agreement, or even to pay. It basically just says GET OUT. Most states discourage the use of these notices unless tenants are conducting illegal activity, have repeatedly violated a significant term or condition of the rental contract, or have severely damaged the premises. Out of all the court cases I’ve seen where a tenant wins a significant judgement against a landlord (don’t worry, it’s very rare), it involved the use of this form. Don’t be lazy and use this form as a kind of “catch all” form.

If your resident chooses not to correct a violation of the rental agreement or to pay you rent, she is not instantly evicted.

You must go through the formal eviction process.

File the correct forms with the court and have the resident properly served with a summons and complaint. The complaint needs to only have unpaid rent on it. You must not put late charges or other fees on it. If you do, it is likely that the court will deny your complaint.

One of the biggest mistakes owners make is right here. Never just put this notice in the mail or slip it under the tenant’s door. You must have an authorized person physically deliver the legal notice to the tenant face to face. Every state has specific rules and procedures as to what exactly constitutes proper legal service, including who can serve notices, the method of delivery, the specific parties who can be legally served, and the amount of time the tenant has to respond to the legal notice. Check with your local attorney for the requirements in your area.

By law, a trial date is set, and your tenant has a certain number of days to file an answer to your summons and complaint.

At this stage, most residents will vacate your rental. The legal summons and complaint tells them you know the law and you know what you are doing. They know that they broke some condition of the rental agreement they signed with you when they moved in.

Often a resident will want to settle with you out of court. That’s fine if you both come to an agreement. Just don’t forget to dismiss your eviction action with the court.

If your tenant doesnt file an answer in a timely manner, the eviction action proceeds to court without the tenant.

This is called an uncontested eviction. The court requires you to prove your case, but the tenant isnt there to respond to or deny your charges. Typically, you can easily prevail in this situation, as long as you have good documentation.

4. If your tenant files an answer and appears at court, each party receives the opportunity to present its evidence before the court makes a ruling.

The court calls this a contested eviction. If you have all your paperwork and proof in order and professionally present yourself and the facts, you generally will win. But if you have acted illegally to evict the tenant you will not.

5. After you win the eviction suit with the court, you then give the court judgment to your local police department.

Your local police will then give the tenant one last notice of a pending lock out. A lock out is when the police physically remove the tenant and his possessions from your rental unit. You need to meet the police at your rental unit and immediately have the locks changed once you get legal possession of your rental unit.

I recommend you have a property management company or an attorney handle the eviction process. The filing and serving of various forms in the eviction process must be done in a precise way. One mistake can delay the entire action even if your tenant clearly is in the wrong.

You want to use an “eviction collection” law firm that specializes in property management law.

Eviction and collection attorneys will handle everything for you. You just turn the eviction process over to them and they do the rest. They do all the filings with the court, the correct serving of your tenant with the appropriate legal notices, and they even call the police and schedule a date for the lock out to take place. They even have their own collections department where they collect on past due rent and have the power to negatively impact a tenants credit report until he does pay you.

I hope this free advice helps you with dealing with the eviction process of your tenant. Should you require extra property management services and if you are a property owner in Fresno or Madera County in California see property management Fresno CA

As a renter, you will have more rights than you might imagine.  Owning a house is a great dream, but it comes with a large amount of responsibility.  When something goes belly up on a rental property, you may be inconvenienced, but it’s’s not up to you to mend it.  As a tenant, it is always a good concept to know about owner responsibilities. 

Outside the normal wear and tear, a whole host of things can go wrong.  Many apartments or rental homes have things such as washing machines and cookers that are already fitted in the property.  When something happens to the washer or the burner, you don’t have to fix it.  This is one of many owner responsibilities.  In the past years, there are have been devastating hurricanes that have ravaged the southern part of our country.  The most important have been Louisiana and Mississippi.  Lots of the house owners have lost everything and don’t have the funds to rebuild.  For those in the devastated areas who were renters, they don’t have the financial responsibility to reconstruct, though they do need to find another place to live.  Rebuilding those houses are owner responsibilities. 

Besides appliances, the general maintenance of the exterior of the house is also part of owner responsibilities.  This could include peeling paint, siding damaged by strong winds, broken steps or gutters.  You ought to have a look through your lease, but customarily part of owner responsibilities embodies the upkeep and maintenance of the yard, if you have one, and any trees or shrubs.  The owner may pay you to look after lawn cutting, or they may hire a landscaping company. 

Landlord responsibilities also extend to your heating and water systems.  They should have your heating system checked every year before it is turned on.  If there’s a problem with the heating or plumbing, they should fix it, or contact somebody to mend it, as soon as possible.  If you have got any questions about landlord responsibilities, refer to your lease.  If the lease fails to help you understand, don’t be afraid to call your landlord and ask for specifics.  Easy communication is typically the key to evading big issues between owner and tenant. 

Maybe one of the most important landlord responsibilities is to keep records and ensuring your security deposit gets returned to you when you vacate the premises.  Your lease should spell out what is predicted when you leave the property.  If you’re sure everything is as it should be, and you are stillwaiting for your cash, you can raise a complaint.  As a final resort, you can seek legal help with regard to landlord responsibilities.  If you’re feeling you are mistreated or that your living situation is dangerous and your landlord won’t do something about it, don’t be scared to ask for legal help.

This article was written by Harold Fenton, a UK insurance advisor with a particular interest in self employed public liability insurance

Leasing a ranch

Renting or leasing a home does have its advantages, because  the only obligation leasing creates is to pay the lease on time and to do minimum maintenance as listed in your lease agreement.

Check out the Neighborhood
Leasing a home for awhile, will give the tenant all of the benefits of being able to live in the neighborhood for a period of time to “try out” a neighborhood and to see if he might want to purchase the home in that particular area, and it gives him an opportunity to check out the local schools, shopping, medical facilities, etc.. A great place to check out are the Malibu homes for lease.

No Maintenance Costs
Leasing takes all of the burden of maintenance off your shoulders and places it on the property owner because the property owner is obligated to have repairs made immediately, as is called for in the lease agreement.

You Don’t Like the Home?  Move.
If a person decides he doesn’t like the home, he is not obligated to stay, and if he is at the end of his lease obligation, he is free to leave or sign another lease, or possibly just pay rent month to month, however in the event the tenant cannot stay as long as the entire lease period, leases are breakable as long as before the lease was signed, you talked with the owner about what might transpire if you have to leave early.The owner will usually have an “exit” clause written in the language of the lease agreement, and there is usually a small charge to break the lease early, and usually taken from any deposits made.

A Lease Option to Purchase
A lease is much easier to obtain than a mortgage, so many times, people opt to lease with an option to purchase the property after a certain time period,  because no large down payment or big deposit is required to seal the purchase, so if you have found a home that you really like, and are not able to buy, perhaps the owner will lease it to you with an option to buy it giving you a great price and “freezing” it for you for a year or more, giving you time to get your finances in order so you will then be able to buy the property.If this is the case, he may have an obligation to sell, but you do not have an obligation to buy, making it a very desirable way to purchase a nice home, especially when you have been able to live in the home, know all about the good and bad things of the home and neighborhood, schools, parks, etc..

There have been some questions in the industry regarding which Crime Free addendum should be used by Arizona landlords.  Apparently there are two versions floating around.  However, there are only two (2) official versions of the Crime Free addendum for private housing. Now that H.R. 69 was voted down in committee, public housing authorities are still mandated to use the housing and urban development version of the Crime Free addendum, which is actually contained in, and is part of, the government subsidized lease.

On January 6, 2009, House bill 69 was introduced under the Bush administration to change the Clinton/Rehnquist “one strike you’re out” legislation and Supreme Court ruling.  H.R. 69 would have been used to gut the law upon which HUD v. Rucker ruling was based, changing “one strike you’re out” to what is commonly referred to as the “innocent tenant” rule.  Remember the Crime Free addendum in private housing mimics the Crime Free language of Jack Kemp, who was the Secretary of HUD under Ronald Reagan.  In 1992, when Tim Zehring created the Crime Free programs, that same HUD language was used in the development of the private Crime Free addendum.  

In 1988, Henry Cisneros, who was appointed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, was the person who had the original Jack Kemp rule amended giving local housing authorities sweeping power and more control for living environments. In March 1996, one strike you’re out guidelines gave public housing administrators greater ability to screen and evict tenants involved in crime.  President Clinton sent a message that, “If you mess up your community, you have to turn in your keys; if you insist on abusing or intimidating or hurting other people you will have to live somewhere else.” Clinton said, “I know that for some, one strike you’re out sounds like hard ball. Well, it is. This is because it is morally wrong for criminals to use up homes that could make a big difference in the lives of decent families.”  Therefore, the original language of the Crime Free addendum that stated, “Resident and Resident’s Occupants, whether on or near of the property…,” for public housing changed to “on or off”.  The Crime Free programs did not change its addendum at the same time.At the 2009 International Conference the Crime Free Addendum was amended to read “on or off’” instead of “on or near,” for private housing as well as public housing.         

In his 2003 Supreme Court ruling, Judge Rehnquist made it very plain that “…any criminal activity that threatens the health, safety or right to peaceful enjoyment of the premises by other tenants or any drug related criminal activity on or off such premises, engaged in by public housing tenant, any member of the tenants household, or any other person under the tenants control, shall be cause for termination of tenancy.”  He further stated that,”… public housing tenants are obligated to assure that a tenant, any member of a household, a guest, or any person under the tenants control shall not engage in any drug related criminal activity on or near the premises.” He also indicated that “control” meant giving “access” to the premises to another. Judge Rehnquist’s opinion stated that the Crime Free Addendum language is reasonable and constitutional to evict even when the tenant does not know about criminal activity of their occupants or guests. Judge Rehnquist also stated, “such “no fault” eviction is a common incident of tenant responsibility under normal landlord-tenant law and practice.”  He stated, “Strict liability maximizes deterrence and eases enforcement difficulties.”  He also stated that, “With drugs leading to murders, muggings and other forms of violence against tenants, and to the deterioration of the physical environment that requires substantial government expenditures, it was reasonable for congress to permit no fault evictions in order to provide public and other federally assisted low income housing that is decent, safe and free from illegal drugs.”

Well, that is exactly the same argument for private housing. Since private housing is not as regulated as public housing the parties are free to enter into a Crime Free contract. The Crime Free Addendum has always been an enforceable agreement.  The Crime Free addendum has been working well in the private sector since its inception in 1992. The key for private owners is to use the Crime Free addendum as it was intended; for material breaches involving criminal activity. But, because some judges have difficulty in determining what the word “near” means, the International Crime Free Association changed the wording of the Addendum to be consistent with public.” Arizona is the only State that will not change to “on or off”.  Arizona will remain “on or near”. The reason for this is due to the Arizona statute provisions of the Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act.  Ironically, in 1995 when a large portion of the Crime Free addendum was added into Arizona statue, in A.R.S. 33-1368 A, at the same time A.R.S 33-1368 G was also added, which states:

For the purpose of this chapter, the tenant shall be held responsible for the actions of the tenants guest that violate the lease agreement or rules and regulations of the landlord if the tenant could reasonably be expected to be aware that such actions might occur and did not attempt to prevent those actions to the best of the tenants ability.  

Obviously, this section had the unintended negative consequences. This provision almost completely negates the one strike you’re out languageH.R. 69 would have done had it passed.  Nonetheless, until the Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act is amended, Arizona will be less than effective in its overall fight against criminal activity. 

Author Resources: Denny Dobbins is General Legal Counsel and the Assistant Executive Director for The International Crime Free Association, a leading expert and educator of police departments, police officers and property owners in the detection and deterrence of criminal activity and protection from liability for the criminal acts of third parties regarding tenants, contractors and vendors. Denny is an accomplished National and International speaker on Crime Free Principles and Premises Liability Protection.