My neighbor got evicted

[tmm99]

My neighbor got evicted last week from her apartment she had lived in for over 10 years. She was ill for a while - diabetes and lupus - had a small stroke maybe a year ago or so which disabled her for a few months. Right after that, she got terminated from her employer (very small company).

She said she had applied for SS disability, but I guess it was taking too long. She is a single mother with a child in middle school. She finally got money borrowed from her sibling and contacted her landlord, but her landlord said it was too late. She came by to ask me to store some boxes in my backyard until she got her car fixed and sold before she moves to Hawaii to live with her sibling (who is helping her financially so she and her child can finish stuff here and move).

There is an eviction notice on her front door now, and "No Tresspassing" sign inside, visible through the front window.

The thing is... she is a hoarder. I've never been inside her place, but from the front door, I could see the mountains of "stuff" piled on both sides with a narrow walking trail in the middle. I'm pretty sure this continues to the rest of the house.

I know she cannot get back in there anymore and I don't think she has any intentions to (she already boxed things she is going to ship out and taken out of the property by the required date), but now what is the landlord going to do with all that "stuff"? From the notice I see on the window, it looks like the landlord has to hold it for a while? Is that the case or once the tenant says she doesn't need it anymore, he can just throw it all away? I imagine it would cost the landlord tons of money to even just throw all the stuff away. It would cost even more if he had to store them somewhere.

Since there are a lot of discussions on this forum about buying/maintaining rentals, I was curious if any of you had encountered something like this and what you ended up doing.

 

[Amethyst]

Some, thankfully not all, tenants seem to regard a rental home as a sort of disposable garment that they can dirty, abuse, and tear up, then just walk away from. We've had tenants move out and leave horrible messes, huge old cruddy furniture, anything, in short, that they didn't feel like taking with them.

If there is a security deposit, the landlord can deduct the cost of having tenants' abandoned junk hauled away. In your neighbor's case, the landlord is already "out" whatever security deposit the tenant put down, in terms of making up for the rent she failed to pay. So the landlord will need to eat the cost of having the tenant's cr@p hauled away, and whatever else it takes to make the place habitable for someone else.

Amethyst

 

[eridanus]

It depends on state law. In some landlord friendly states, the landlord can give notice and then haul it to the curb. Yes, the landlord eats the cost. The next step is small claims court but there ain't no blood in that turnip.

 

[tmm99]

Some, thankfully not all, tenants seem to regard a rental home as a sort of disposable garment that they can dirty, abuse, and tear up, then just walk away from. We've had tenants move out and leave horrible messes, huge old cruddy furniture, anything, in short, that they didn't feel like taking with them.

If there is a security deposit, the landlord can deduct the cost of having tenants' abandoned junk hauled away. In your neighbor's case, the landlord is already "out" whatever security deposit the tenant put down, in terms of making up for the rent she failed to pay. So the landlord will need to eat the cost of having the tenant's cr@p hauled away, and whatever else it takes to make the place habitable for someone else.

Amethyst

Yeah, I imaigne this is like a landlord's worst nightmare (in terms of the stuff he has to deal with). I have a feeling though that the carpet underneath is probably pretty clean once you can get to it.

I now wonder, if she wasn't feeling so ill, she could have sold all her stuff on ebay or whatever and could have come up with at least one month rent, but that's just my opinion.

 

[calmloki]

Now the fun begins for the landlord. After eviction is complete the landlord needs to send proper notice to the last known address of the tenant, arrange to store the goods for several weeks, releasing them to the tenant at her wish during normal working hours. After the appropriate waiting period the goods can be disposed of as abandoned goods.

Been there, done that, have the threats of legal action from the tenant if so much as a scrap of paper was missing and the dump and labor fees and riled up stomach as souvenirs.

Have cleaned with a scoop shovel and found hypodermics in the scrap piles and loaded a 20 yard dumpster from just one place before.

Hey - anyone want a 7-unit in Salem Oregon?

 

[kyounge1956]

Some, thankfully not all, tenants seem to regard a rental home as a sort of disposable garment that they can dirty, abuse, and tear up, then just walk away from. We've had tenants move out and leave horrible messes, huge old cruddy furniture, anything, in short, that they didn't feel like taking with them.

If there is a security deposit, the landlord can deduct the cost of having tenants' abandoned junk hauled away. In your neighbor's case, the landlord is already "out" whatever security deposit the tenant put down, in terms of making up for the rent she failed to pay. So the landlord will need to eat the cost of having the tenant's cr@p hauled away, and whatever else it takes to make the place habitable for someone else.

Amethyst

I don't dispute that the landlord will get stuck with the cleanup cost, but it sounds like tmm's neighbor may have compulsive hoarding disorder.

 

[Rambler]

Now the fun begins for the landlord. After eviction is complete the landlord needs to send proper notice to the last known address of the tenant, arrange to store the goods for several weeks, releasing them to the tenant at her wish during normal working hours. After the appropriate waiting period the goods can be disposed of as abandoned goods.

Been there, done that, have the threats of legal action from the tenant if so much as a scrap of paper was missing and the dump and labor fees and riled up stomach as souvenirs.

Have cleaned with a scoop shovel and found hypodermics in the scrap piles and loaded a 20 yard dumpster from just one place before.

Hey - anyone want a 7-unit in Salem Oregon?

Been there, done that. Had 4 single family unit rentals. Got fed up, sold them all. The last one was a section 8 tenant, a family for whom I tried to have compassion. They ended up in a similar position. They had money for crack, fast food, beer and sodas, not to mention a junk car he was rebuilding, and a motorcycle they decided to rebuild inside the house (on the carpet), but never enough to pay the rent. Eventually the husband left, wife and kids left behind. After not paying for two months, I served notice that I was selling the home and that they had to move out when the lease ended two months hence.

They didn't leave for a few more months. In the meantime, no rent, couldn't show the house for sale due to the shape it was in, and I kept warning, asking, begging, pleading. Finally I told the lady she had until XX day to remove her belongings, and that she could put them in the garage if she needed, for up to 2 weeks, and I would help her move the heavy stuff if she needed.

Day XX came and she had not moved a feather, so I went and helped her move her stuff to the garage, and drove her to her relative's home to stay, and changed the locks except for the garage entry. The following weekend, I went back to check on her. She had cut a hole in the ceiling sheetrock, climbed up on her boxed stuff into the attic, and went back into the house and had moved her stuff back in. I told her I would be there the next weekend with a truck and a crew, and we would be moving her out to a place of her choosing, or we would move her stuff into a storage unit, and pay for 3 months of storage for her.

We ended up moving her stuff to her relative's garage. Spent a couple months re-habbing that place after that. Pain in the @$$. Don't want rentals again.

R

 

[veremchuka]

being a landlord is 8th level of hell especially if your rental is several hundred miles away. i owned a house and had a management company find renters, collect the rent, evict and clean up for next bunch of dead beat slobs. typically they'd pay 2 months then stop. they'd destroy anything possible in the house then move out in the middle of the night. destroyed carpets, things flushed down a toilet that no one would flush, broken interior door frames and plumbing, holes punched in walls, anything short of burning the house down (which would have been a blessing) they'd do. it'd sit empty for a year or 18 months and the next group would repeat the cycle. never made a penny over about 5 years tho the 1st person that was in there a year or more w/o a problem, after that forget it. this was in a nice suburban neighborhood too not in a city. today they'd use it for cooking meth and i'd have a toxic waste site on my hands!

 

[chinaco]

Those that own and manage rental property often describe it like it is an investment... But, in most cases these landlords are owner proprietors of a small business and they do the work.


Nothing wrong with it if one chooses to do it.... but it is a j*b.

 

[Amethyst]

The underlying "investment" is the value of the property itself. Rental income gets traded for rental expenses, in hopes of reducing the cost to the owner of owning the property. In a bad housing market, it is obviously a bad investment. In a decent market, the landlord may recover losses due to increase in the value of the property. Or not.

Amethyst

Those that own and manage rental property often describe it like it is an investment... But, in most cases these landlords are owner proprietors of a small business and they do the work.


Nothing wrong with it if one chooses to do it.... but it is a j*b.

 

[ProspectiveBum]

Every once in a while I contemplate purchasing a rental property. I'm thankful for these threads, which provide a valuable reality check. Yikes!

 

[NW Landlady]

Now the fun begins for the landlord. After eviction is complete the landlord needs to send proper notice to the last known address of the tenant, arrange to store the goods for several weeks, releasing them to the tenant at her wish during normal working hours. After the appropriate waiting period the goods can be disposed of as abandoned goods.

Been there, done that, have the threats of legal action from the tenant if so much as a scrap of paper was missing and the dump and labor fees and riled up stomach as souvenirs.

Have cleaned with a scoop shovel and found hypodermics in the scrap piles and loaded a 20 yard dumpster from just one place before.

Hey - anyone want a 7-unit in Salem Oregon?

LOL!! I have been there & done that many times too!

Bottom line is it is the cost of doing business & a tax deduction as an expense. We Screen Screen Screen our tenants as much as we can, but still have an eviction every couple of years. We have gotten good at cleaning up the CR*P!

 

[tmm99]

Rambler,

What you did for this family is unbelievably kind and compassionate.

My neighbor is not a drug addict or what one might call "trashy". The only thing out of the ordinary with her is that she is a hoarder (everything she has is folded and piled nicely from what I could see, but as kyounge said, it is probably some kind of mental disorder...) She had a good job for years and then got sick and lost her job. I feel for her, but all I was willing to do for her was to agree to keep her stuff for a few days.

You did WAY beyond and above.

 

[Westernskies]

Been there, done that. Had 4 single family unit rentals. Got fed up, sold them all. The last one was a section 8 tenant, a family for whom I tried to have compassion. They ended up in a similar position. They had money for crack, fast food, beer and sodas, not to mention a junk car he was rebuilding, and a motorcycle they decided to rebuild inside the house (on the carpet), but never enough to pay the rent. Eventually the husband left, wife and kids left behind. After not paying for two months, I served notice that I was selling the home and that they had to move out when the lease ended two months hence.

They didn't leave for a few more months. In the meantime, no rent, couldn't show the house for sale due to the shape it was in, and I kept warning, asking, begging, pleading. Finally I told the lady she had until XX day to remove her belongings, and that she could put them in the garage if she needed, for up to 2 weeks, and I would help her move the heavy stuff if she needed.

Day XX came and she had not moved a feather, so I went and helped her move her stuff to the garage, and drove her to her relative's home to stay, and changed the locks except for the garage entry. The following weekend, I went back to check on her. She had cut a hole in the ceiling sheetrock, climbed up on her boxed stuff into the attic, and went back into the house and had moved her stuff back in. I told her I would be there the next weekend with a truck and a crew, and we would be moving her out to a place of her choosing, or we would move her stuff into a storage unit, and pay for 3 months of storage for her.

We ended up moving her stuff to her relative's garage. Spent a couple months re-habbing that place after that. Pain in the @$$. Don't want rentals again.

R

Rambler, this story sounds eerily familiar and answers a question that I have been pondering for years... Where did those problem tenants go after I kicked them out of my rentals?

 

[tryan]

In MA the landlord hires a mover (cost ~$400/room); everything is tagged and stored for 3 months (another grand). This is all after 3 months of no rent; Forget the security deposit; that was applied to back rent by the court.

Always found it easier to work with the people to avoid this process. The last one happened over Christmas week (mom bailed her daughter out ... a new job and a paying roommate ... everything back on track). Much cheaper!

 

[clifp]

Gee these stories make me so excited to become a landlord.

 

[Telly]

In MA the landlord hires a mover (cost ~$400/room); everything is tagged and stored for 3 months (another grand). This is all after 3 months of no rent; Forget the security deposit; that was applied to back rent by the court.

It's much different in Texas. After court, everything is "stored" out at the curb: Tenant Eviction in Texas

I still wouldn't want to be a landlord, though.

 

[Major Tom]

I used to own 3 three bedroom rental houses which were professionally managed for me. The management company filled two of the houses with kids who had spent their lives being looked after by the state. It was part of a program to transition young people from being wards of the state to responsible adulthood. The good part was that because it was state money, the rent was always paid. These kids were living 6 to a house (2 to a bedroom). Bad idea? Sure was. One of the houses worked out OK, but the other was trashed. We're talking windows and mirrors smashed, graffiti on the walls, window frames jemmied, holes punched in walls, appliances wrecked and here's the kicker folks - sorry to have to say this, but there was poop smeared on the walls.

The cleanup was very expensive and I only got half of it back from the insurance company. Luckily it was during the last property boom and I made a good profit from the sale of the house.

Looking back, I wonder what I was thinking to allow 6 kids to live in a 3 bedroom house. I don't own any property now. I do screen tenants for my current landlord, as he hates doing it and so far, they've all been good 'uns.

Sorry that this isn't directly related to the OP's question, but it seemed like a good opportunity to tell my landlord scare story.

 

[tryan]

If I am ever the first house a kid is renting (no references) ... the parents co-sign the lease. Had to drag one mom into court ... things settle VERY quickly.

After court, everything is "stored" out at the curb: Tenant Eviction in Texas

Process is very similar ... until - of course - the tenant has to be physically moved. This is where the owners cost double. Probably not a more tenant friendly state than MA.

Helps to join a Landlords Association. Most cities have a group that meets once a month. A huge service of this was the "eviction list". Some body made a effort to log every eviction that went thru court the prior month. This was probably the best screening tool available. Reminds me of one woman who was very persistent about moving into a vacancy ... flashing lots of cash saying "I have the deposit". So I reviewed her ap against the "eviction list" and asked her: "Do you want to tell me about your eviction?"; She RAN to her car.

 

[tmm99]

I used to own 3 three bedroom rental houses which were professionally managed for me. The management company filled two of the houses with kids who had spent their lives being looked after by the state. It was part of a program to transition young people from being wards of the state to responsible adulthood. The good part was that because it was state money, the rent was always paid. These kids were living 6 to a house (2 to a bedroom). Bad idea? Sure was. One of the houses worked out OK, but the other was trashed. We're talking windows and mirrors smashed, graffiti on the walls, window frames jemmied, holes punched in walls, appliances wrecked and here's the kicker folks - sorry to have to say this, but there was poop smeared on the walls.

The cleanup was very expensive and I only got half of it back from the insurance company. Luckily it was during the last property boom and I made a good profit from the sale of the house.

Looking back, I wonder what I was thinking to allow 6 kids to live in a 3 bedroom house. I don't own any property now. I do screen tenants for my current landlord, as he hates doing it and so far, they've all been good 'uns.

Sorry that this isn't directly related to the OP's question, but it seemed like a good opportunity to tell my landlord scare story.

I am the OP, and I'd say, Keep it coming! I am sure future potential owners of rental properties will appreciate everyone sharing their experices.

 

[calmloki]

The dirty little secret about landlording and rentals is that more than a few of us have made substantial bucks doing it. The horror stories make for good conversation and keep all the multitudes out of the business. Crazy tenant stories are more fun than losing 75% or more with BofA or Enron or having half your stock holding value go POOF for no good reason. At least with crazy tenants you have a target to fix blame upon.

 

[73ss454]

I've never had any rentals and don't plan on it. I like being free and with my temper being what it is I think I'd end up in jail. Somehow I know I wouldn't be good with folks smearing Poop on my walls.