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My parents recently purchased a 3 unit house with tenants still living there. Everything was fine for the first couple of months they all paid their rent on time and had no complaints. Then one of the stopped paying their rent. They refuse to answer the door or their phones. When we do see them they act like nothing is wrong and keep giving us excuses like "I don't know whats going on let me call someone to see whats going on and ill tell them to call you". No calls nothing. I just found out about this problem that my parents have I'm trying my best to help them but I'm lost. If you can please give me a step by step process on how to evict the tenants i would really appreciate it. Could it be done with out a lawyer? And if so how?How much would it end up costing my parents if they do have to get one? Thank you.
My parents recently purchased a 3 unit house with tenants still living there.
Everything was fine for the first couple of months they all paid their rent on time and had no complaints.
Then one of the three stopped paying their rent.
They refuse to answer the door or their phones.
When we do see them they act like nothing is wrong and keep giving us excuses
No calls nothing.
I just found out about this problem that my parents have I'm trying my best to help them but I'm lost.
If you can please give me a step by step process on how to evict the tenants...
Could it be done with out a lawyer?
Cutting to the chase... Mom and Dad NEED a landlord oriented LA lawyer immediately.
Whatever it might cost will be far less than trying to do their first eviction by themselves.
They need to have the lease reviewed and squared away and address at least 10 basic issues
you haven't even mentioned... THEN they'll get onto managing the civil process required.
Pay attention and learn the process and the best lease language and management practices.
In addition... join an active property owners & managers group.
These are a good source for finding active capable well regarded LL attorneys.
Also... take a morning to visit the local "rent court". Bring a lunch. Watch and learn.
Cutting to the chase... Mom and Dad NEED a landlord oriented LA lawyer immediately.
Whatever it might cost will be far less than trying to do their first eviction by themselves.
They need to have the lease reviewed and squared away and address at least 10 basic issues
you haven't even mentioned... THEN they'll get onto managing the civil process required.
Pay attention and learn the process and the best lease language and management practices.
In addition... join an active property owners & managers group.
These are a good source for finding active capable well regarded LL attorneys.
Also... take a morning to visit the local "rent court". Bring a lunch. Watch and learn.
hth
Agreed, the eviction process with rent control is not for people who have never done it before. I second the idea of contacting an eviction lawyer who is familiar with rent control, as well as joining a property owners/managers group, such as AOA (Apartment Owners Association). I read their magazines each month, they have lots of useful info for landlords. They also have eviction lawyers who advertise with them. I used one when we had to evict a tenant. Took a while, but we got the eviction done.
Look up AOA's website and look at lawyers who do evictions. A well known one is Dennis P. Block (he's the one we used), he's very familiar with rent control and getting tenants out, but I'm sure the other lawyers who advertise in AOA are good too. You can do all the proper notices and everything yourself, and when the tenant doesn't pay the rent, you can contact one of the lawyers' offices to start the eviction process - they typically charge around $100 + court costs (you're gonna pay the court costs anyway, so it's only an extra $100 to have a lawyer handle the process). OR, you can contact a lawyer's office now and pay them to serve all the proper notices now, if you aren't sure what to do yourself.
Rent control is a huge hassle for landlords, I highly recommend using a lawyer to deal with this, since there is so much nit-picky stuff you have to do correctly, otherwise the whole eviction gets thrown out of court and you have to start over.
My parents recently purchased a 3 unit house with tenants still living there. Everything was fine for the first couple of months they all paid their rent on time and had no complaints. Then one of the stopped paying their rent. They refuse to answer the door or their phones. When we do see them they act like nothing is wrong and keep giving us excuses like "I don't know whats going on let me call someone to see whats going on and ill tell them to call you". No calls nothing. I just found out about this problem that my parents have I'm trying my best to help them but I'm lost. If you can please give me a step by step process on how to evict the tenants i would really appreciate it. Could it be done with out a lawyer? And if so how?How much would it end up costing my parents if they do have to get one? Thank you.
The best way to find out what your legal avenues are is to contact an Attorney who specializes in this area of the law and ask them.
The attorney is the only one who can give you good information and "Legal Advice" regarding this issue.
My parents recently purchased a 3 unit house with tenants still living there. Everything was fine for the first couple of months they all paid their rent on time and had no complaints. Then one of the stopped paying their rent. They refuse to answer the door or their phones. When we do see them they act like nothing is wrong and keep giving us excuses like "I don't know whats going on let me call someone to see whats going on and ill tell them to call you". No calls nothing. I just found out about this problem that my parents have I'm trying my best to help them but I'm lost. If you can please give me a step by step process on how to evict the tenants i would really appreciate it. Could it be done with out a lawyer? And if so how?How much would it end up costing my parents if they do have to get one? Thank you.
Not sure how different LA is from the State laws. But maybe these will help.
On the plus side, hiring a lawyer will be less expensive then a tenant who does not pay the rent, and any money lost or expended is deductible as a business expense on the rental property.
Not sure how different LA is from the State laws. But maybe these will help.
From what I've heard of it, dealing with rent control evictions can be frighteningly complex. There are additional notices/forms that have to be dealt with, and doing any little thing wrong will result in losing the eviction, and the landlord has to start the whole process over. You have to deal with Rent Registration Certificates and whatever other regulations the almighty rent control board has imposed on landlords. This is why I recommended the OP contact a lawyer who knows about rent control, to make sure everything is done properly. This is also why I would never buy a rent control rental. The eviction process for the state of CA is bad enough already!
+1 on the lawyer idea. It will be cheaper than doing it yourself and getting caught in some dumb technicality where it all falls apart and you have to start at square one.
These people have stopped paying, most likely they will not resume paying, and will not catch up. They are going to ride out this and live out of your pocket for as long as possible.
DO NOT ACCEPT EVEN A PENNY FROM THEM, doing so can delay eviction process for even longer.
From what I've heard of it, dealing with rent control evictions can be frighteningly complex.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CarlitosBala
+1 on the lawyer idea. It will be cheaper than doing it yourself and getting caught in some dumb technicality where it all falls apart and you have to start at square one.
An echo here also including poster MRational's initial response which has been repeated ...
Good luck to your parents - they'll do fine as long as they're educated in all the ins and outs of being landlords but right now they need professional assistance. They obviously bit off more than they could even envision chewing and the tenants mentioned quickly figured that out. These scofflaws know every trick in the book ...
It could be done without a lawyer, but you also put yourself in a bad position. This isn't the time for on the job training and this scenario should be planned ahead of time. Most people don't even know what "Served" means although they think they do because they watch TV.
I'll be blunt
1) Get a lawyer
2) Get a Management company because it sounds like your parents will be too nice.
3) Sell if they don't want to be the 'bad guy' or hirer a manager.
You don't need a lawyer. Evicting someone from rent control is only different, from what I understand, in that you may have to justify why you are kicking them out. Failure to pay rent is always acceptable.
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