Landlord Question and Answer Forum

New here but need help desparately! We moved across country for my husband's literally last minute job transfer, rented home to the tenant from Hell. Made the mistake of trusting her.Didn't have time to get anyone else in because of job time frame. There's more to story but bottom line is this; We have tried to get tenant out; won't leave. Has ignored everything we tell her. We have nobody to help us back in Upstate New York because we have no money. The electricity and water we pay. Now, we cannot afford to pay and going to be turned off any day. What do we do? Cannot afford an atty. On way to our new home/husband had heart attack, lost job because of that and now cannot afford our rent here. Tenant has NOT paid rent so we are going into foreclosure on same house they are living in. Before we left I drew up a basic rental agreement; she's violated every part of it. We gave her every violation notice conceivable, posted demand for rent and notice to vacate on the house as well as hand delivered notices. This is a nightmare! I am coming on here for help on what we can do. So please no lectures or tell me what we have done wrong in this case. We realize what is wrong. PLEASE HELP

I am so sorry for your predicament. Unfortunately all of your solutions will cost money. Leaving the tenant in there is costing you money each month. Evicting your tenant from long distance is pretty tough to do and you would most likely have to go to the hearing unless you know of someone you trust to handle it for you. Although hiring an attorney sounds expensive, the money you spend on one now will ultimately save you money in the long run. Perhpas you can even work something out with the attorney to assist with your foreclosure situation, and maybe even sell the property and then pay him back.

Posted by Donna , NC on Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Thanks for your input Donna. Here's our situation: We do not have ANY money at all; I mean not even enough to cover our rent here now after our move. All of our life savings were gone after my husband suffered his heart attack. We had to spend it on hotel, food, etc for myself and my daughter to stay in while my husband was in hospital in SD. After we arrived here in MT, my husband los his job. Then, thinking well at least we have the rental income from our house back in NY; but unbeknownst to us, the tenant put a stop payment on her rent check and moved in anyway. We didn't find any of this out until we got our phone turned on at our new home and could contact her. Luckily, our bank is working w/us about the stopped payment on the rent check; but we had to take out a loan w/them to pay it back! She's blaming her daughter in law did the stop payment w/o her knowledge. UNTRUE. Now she refuses to leave. She has had a slew of people move in since w/her, (so say the police-they have been called to the house repeatedly it seems), started a fire in our former bedroom, flooded our basement and tripled our utility bills in the 3 short months she's been there. Hasn't paid a dime either. We finally got a friend of my husband's to go personally give her a 3 day demand for rent, (which she ignored), then lastly a 30 notice to vacate. We know she is ignoring that also. What we cannot seem to find out is if this friend my husband "hired" to be his manager of the place can evict them on our behalf. My husband has dr. statement saying he cannot travel. Do we have to have an atty to do the eviction/court thing or can our friend do this? If so, we can get them out I HOPE. We have lost the house because part of her rent was to pay the mortgage on the place and now it's going into foreclosure; cannot sell it. So here we are living on food stamps to eat; temp disability from my husband and cannot make ends meet here now. Can our friend represent my husband and not have to pay an atty? Thank you so much for all of your help and sorry so long winded. We are so stressed over this situation.

Posted by Patricia S, MT on Wednesday, November 23, 2011

On a side note; we wanted to keep our home in NY so we would always have a place to come home to if things didnt work out here in MT. So by renting it out we could still keep it because the rent would pay the mortgage and a little extra so our two college daughters could travel to come visit once in a while or so. Now we have no home to go back to, no way to physically get back there to get her and who knows how many others living in there now out, can't pay the electric and water or the lawn man to do the sidewalks or mow. Bills are piling up here now; soon we will have no electricity or possibly a place to live. We are being told we HAVE to continue to provide electricity and water to our "tenants". Well we cannot! we have NO money. Our internet is going to go next. I hope I can get help here before that happens. Jobs are slim to none here; I've tried but cannot travel to them because we also were in a car accident on our way here; another long story. No jobs locally here in our town; it's very small. So this is very depressing. What will happen to us if those utilities get disconnected? and they are going to.

Posted by Patricia S, MT on Wednesday, November 23, 2011