We had a good time during our 3 day weekend. Our primary agenda for the trip was to visit TK Towne, which is a model home community near Anderson, Indiana (my wife and I are thinking about building a new house). So, we took the motorhome on a road trip and stayed at the Timberline Family Campground near Anderson. The campground was nice and offered excellent service, including WiFi. While we were there, we went to the new Casino (I've already forgotten the name) and I did a lot of bicycle riding. On one of my rides, I rode by a place called Camp Chesterfield. I thought it might be a boyscout camp or something like that, so I rode my bike in to see what it was. As it turns out, it was a "spiritualist" camp with signs on the houses that said things like "Clairvoyant Teacher", Medium, and Tarot Readings. I felt like I had entered the twilight zone!
On the way home from Indiana yesterday, I got a call from one of my tenants who is moving. She said that she would be out by July 4th and that she would pay for whatever days she was there after the 1st. I told her that if she was there after June 30th, she would owe rent for the entire month of July, as was called for in the lease. A few minutes later, I got an angry call from her husband (a truck driver). He was furious that I would expect them to pay the rent as was required by the lease and stated that he would not do so.
This tenant is an inherited tenant, which means that he was already in the property about 2 years ago when I bought it. The previous owner accepted sob stories and excuses in lieu of a security deposit and this tenant therefore didn't pay a security deposit. That is very normal when you buy property from a distressed landlord. The tenants have usually not been properly screened and they usually didn't pay a security deposit. Obviously, this puts me in a very weak position in dealing with this tenant. The end result is that I'll probably lose a month's rent (unless I can re-rent it on the 5th). Furthermore, if they're not out by the 4th, I'll have to start eviction proceedings on the 5th to ensure they leave.
There isn't really any lesson to be learned from this story. I bought this property knowing that the tenant didn't have a security deposit and there was nothing that I could or should have done differently. I almost always find that inherited tenants are problems and they will often need to be evicted. They were often living with the original landlord because they didn't have to meet screening requirements or pay a security deposit. When you've got that caliber of tenant, you can expect problems until they're gone.
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2 comments:
I just began my first eviction process in Dayton. Of course it was an inherited tenant. The former owner's property manager found out he was selling, so it appears they threw in the first warm body that could write her name. That way the property management could charge him a placement fee before he sold the building to me.
Stephen,
Yeah, it's almost a given that inherited tenants will need to leave. I have 2 evictions in about an hour and another next week. All part of the joy of being a landlord!
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