I rented rooms in my single family home to 3 people. 2 tenants are left, one is leaving the end of this month, and the other I have started eviction proceedings with.

The tenant who signed onto a year lease in July. We had disagreements and amended the lease to end 12/31/20. In the lease it says upon lease expiration tenant must Vacate the premises.

I actually gave him December rent for free to help him. He contacted me on 12/30 asking to stay until the 5th of Jan latest. Spoke with him on the 4th and we agreed to meet the next day to hand exchange keys and security deposit. (I recorded these conversations)

Turns out his place fell through and I offered to give him till the 7th. By then he said he couldn’t find a place and was going to stay. “You’ll have to go through the court process and I know that will take a couple months, I know you can’t change the locks etc”

Well now I’ve filed all the paperwork, got him served, hoping that by the return date that he has left, but he filed an Answer stating that Iforged his signature and initialson the amendment.

I’ve already contacted a couple lawyers through online legal support on JustAnswer, and they confirmed that because this isn’t an eviction for rent payment that I am well within my rights to evict.

The thing is, my lease at my current place ends at the end of February and I need to be able to move back to the house to prepare it to sell. The tenant holding over is presenting those challenges. Plus I haven’t collected any rent from him since November.

Again this isn’t a rent payment issue, but a matter of lease expiration and tenant refusing to follow his contractual agreement of vacating upon termination.

I want to add that this past week my other tenant called me for a confrontation. The holdover tenant threatened him with physical violence and then the holdover tenant called the police on him. It’s a he-said he-said situation but I’ve contacted the police for an incident report.

The tenant filed an Answer to the filing and requested a Jury Trial. He states that I forged the lease amendment and he did not sign it. (He signed the amendment differently than he did on the lease). However the E, and his initials on the Answer have similar strokes. I spoke on the phone with a lawyer from JustAnswer and he says that my evidence is admissible to refute his claim I forged his signature, and show he had knowledge of this move out date. (text messages and audio recordings of calls)

The annoying part of this is he's just dragging this along as long as he can, esp with a Jury trial that will likely have a later date than not.

Sent him a long message, told him I had evidence to refute his claims. Told him I want us to both walk out of this happy. Offered him $500 to move out by the 31st, and reinforcing that it's two months of not having to pay rent. Told him it's not about money and I dont have any intent on taking anything from him. So hope he shows humility and just agrees.

Inb4 too long sorry it’s been stressing me TF out, and my parents too so I had to vent.

Any of you guys been in a similar situation?

that would be a shame if someone killed him next time he left the house

Some people just want to take advantage of you. It’s sad.

didn't they extend the eviction moratorium already?

him perjuring himself about the forgery should help though

see it all the time

Remember that you are proving in a court of law that you both had a legal agreement and that you followed those terms while he did not.

Have you provided him a written 30 to 60 day notice to vacate prior to the lease ending depending on your state? If not you are currently in a holdover lease and you are in the wrong to be evicting.

As for that $500, don't pay that idiot a god damn thing and give him his eviction notice electronically and physically today and then take a picture of the notice on his door. TODAY.

Remind him that the eviction process will essentially make him homeless and threaten to post his face all over the place as a scammer and degenerate, which is legal as long as you tell the truth about what he has done. He will legally be required to reimburse you for 2x the rent that he did not pay for the months after the lease expired. If you get that judgement then immediately sell that judgement because you will never see a penny from him.

Source: Landlord

The CDC moratorium covers evictions for non payment of rent / payment disputes. Doesn’t cover other violations of the lease which not moving out would be considered as such.
I did not provide a 30 day notice, technically you usually do need to, however because the lease agreement says “Upon expiration of the lease, tenant must vacate unless [renewed by new lease agreement, accepting rent which will turn it to a month to month].
Because we had that verbal agreement I didnt think to, however on the 7th I gave a 3 day notice. As the lease was expired by that point and tenant did not move out. All the paperwork has already been filed, just awaiting hearing date to be set up now.

Thanks I will sell that judgement, and I was aware that I can get 2X the rent. I just wanted to avoid the hearing all together.
But he didn’t respond to my text so I assume he’s going to take the difficult route.

Put his things in storage and give him access to his property there, change the locks, make him prove in court he has a right to be there, reverse it on to him.

I wish it was this easy lol.

hes PLAYING YOU on technicalities, so do the same. I would wait until he leaves, get 5 or 6 of my buddies and move all his crap out. Let him spend the money on attorneys trying to prove that he DIDNT agree to vacate.

edit: turn off the heat and electricity. you have a recorded conversation, he has nothing.

Can I do this? If he were to pursue me in court for removing his things and wrongful eviction, I would be denying that I moved his stuff out and denying that I change the locks.

I wonder how that would work.

I plan on turning off the internet as that wasn’t included in the utilities, but he doesn’t really use the internet.

You seem like a good landlord but I think you are being way too nice. If he doesn’t take your deal I would file a lawsuit and hopefully that’ll scare him.

well that's what you get for voting for libtards

LOL do not do this. Strong tenancy laws (and the current climate) are making lives tough for landlords. Throw in eviction moratoriums and it's almost constant gridlock to get an eviction application moving forward.

Fill out the necessary forms pursuant to your local LTB, then see if there's an "Urgent Application" to have the hearing time shortened so that you can evict him sooner rather than later.

Also, please see sig.Verify what your notice obligations are under month-to-month

By not collecting rent “to help him out” you set a dangerous precedent on a potential claim from the lessee about this being about rent.

And if he can argue that or illustrate/tie that in, you’re phucked with the Covid world we live in.

These are some of the most difficult judgements to win, you’re just lucky he’s a man with no kids.


Good luck

Exactly

Rent out the room to someone else as furnished and give them the keys.

I’ll see what I can do to shorten the hearing wait time

I stopped accepting rent after the lease expired therefore it did not turn to a month to month. So the agreement per the contract stands as Tenant must vacate upon expiration.
See below

I only waived his rent for December, which was the last month. Once it expired I did not ask for any rent payments, only for him to abide by the contractual agreement of vacating

Wouldn’t the cops make you open? Are you afraid of him destroying your house? Blow out walls, take copper and valuables, cement down toilets, destroy landscape and yard etc. not like you can go after this worthless scumbag. Probably has next to nothing

Edit: I guess that’s what insurance is for

Exactly, gonna avoid all those scenarios.
He’s already been in prison for 10 years or something. Don’t think he cares.

(Passed the background check service on MySmartMove somehow smh)

now it makes sense why every landlord is asking for proof of assets and salary requirements

renting to paupers/scum seems like a nightmare

Great example of why I pay $70 a month to an agent.. who vet the tenant properly in the first place.

Did you literally never watch Pacific Heights?

Cash for keys. Offer him a month or two's worth of rent in cash to move out. You'll save money and headache in the long run.

Offering $500 and he gets his $700 deposit back, he hasn't responded doubt any negotiation is going to happen. I'll spend $500 on a lawyer then.

Let’s say he says yes. Without getting a lawyer, what would prevent him from making another copy of the key and taking your money?

unless you have some muscle to intimidate him out then you are fucked! as a bad tenant i know it takes at least 2-3 months after the eviction date b4 the police would actually get involved and remove me from the premises and can have movers put all my shit in storage (legally) and charge me. and now with covid probably even longer just lol yourfucked boyo

have the tenant he threatened file a restraining order and then have him call the police for being in the room next to him violating that restraining order

As a LEO, when it comes to evictions, we usually tell people its a Civil matter and not criminal so there's nothing we can do. If he can't pay rent or find housing, I doubt he can afford a lawyer to handle this case. Most likely handled at small claims court or the equivalent in your state. For a lawyer the juice aint worth the squeeze.