From our e-Series Guide "Winning at
Eviction"
JUST BEFORE AND AFTER THE EVICTION --
HERE’S WHAT EVERY LANDLORD NEEDS TO KNOW
(Legally reviewed & revised for 2011)
© 2014 Landlord.com
Eviction is the strongest weapon in the landlord’s
arsenal of enforcement weapons,
providing ultimate leverage to ensure
compliance with the rental agreement.
When an eviction is started it can leave
a nasty mess that needs to be cleaned
up. Not only is this as costly to the
landlord as it is to the tenant, even
when it is successful, it leaves an
aftermath that must be dealt with.
This article deals with the minimization of problems and
helpful tips for cleanup. We are not
dealing with issues like minimizing rent
losses. For this see our report titled
“Minimizing Rent Losses in Evictions.”
Nor will we deal with obtaining a
judgment for rent and other monetary
losses your tenant owes you over and
above what you were awarded in the
eviction proceeding. Here we discuss
the period of time between the end game
of the eviction proceeding and the
successful reletting of the unit, and
how to use the time optimally. The key
to a successful transition from eviction
to new cash flow is to move as quickly,
efficiently, and smoothly as possible,
while being aware of what you can and
cannot do.
For the purpose of discussion we will divide the time
framed by the end of the eviction
proceeding to the rerenting of the
rental unit into three segments. The
first is the period spanning the first
indication that permits you to predict
with some certainty, within a week or
so, the date on which the physical
dispossession of the tenant will take
place. This is usually marked by the
entry of the tenant’s default in court,
if he has failed to lodge a response to
your petition or complaint, or the
setting of a trial or hearing date, if
he has filed such a response. The
second is the date on which a peace
officer, in enforcement of the judgment,
has cleared the premises of all
occupants and given you possession of
the unit, and a day or two after that.
The third is the period running from
that point to the point at which you
move a new tenant in.
Preparing for the Eviction
The first segment is used to prepare for the eviction. A
competent legal practitioner can
estimate, at the point at which the
tenant’s default is entered or the trial
date for a contesting defendant is set,
when his evection will take place,
within a week. If you are handling the
eviction yourself you can do the same.
This time frame is determined by the
procedures of your local jurisdiction.
You will need to know how long it
typically takes to get an eviction
judgment, have it entered in the court’s
records, get the needed paperwork to the
peace officer who will enforce the
judgment, how long it takes the officer
to act on the papers you deliver to him,
whether he must give notice of the
impending dispossession and how long
that notice must be, and any special
considerations that might be unique to
your case or the peace officer’s
policies or availability. For example,
in many jurisdictions, dispossessions
are only done on certain days of the
week. If your jurisdiction does
physical evictions only on Tuesdays and
the officer must give three days notice
of the eviction, then the day you can
get the papers to the officer can have a
profound effect on how long you will
have to wait. If you obtain your
judgment on a Thursday and get the
necessary paperwork issued that day and
delivered to the peace officer on the
next, a Friday, he will probably serve
it on Monday, which means, allowing for
the three days notice he must give, he
cannot evict on Tuesday. He must wait
for the Tuesday following to evict. We
go into this to illustrate that sitting
down with a calendar and actually
mapping out the time line is critical to
determining how much time will elapse
before you can get your property back
and how it may be easily affected by
factors you cannot control.
This is not the time to enter into any firm commitments,
especially about rerenting your
anticipated vacancy. There is a great
temptation, especially if the housing
market is slow, to get a tenant lined up
to move in on a date you think the
property will be in your hands, or to
set up contractors and other workmen to
go to work to prepare the unit on that
date. This is a very risky business
because your tenant, even if he is in
default, is not a statue. There are
many things he can do before he is
dispossessed to stop or delay things,
and some he can do even afterward. A
prospective tenant who has given notice
at his present residence or a contractor
who has foregone other work in
anticipation of your job can become both
angry with you and expensive to you.
Moreover, at this stage, you will be
unable to show the premises to best
advantage, which means you will not get
optimum rent, even if you can gain entry
to show the place without a breach of
the peace.
While we counsel against trying to rerent the property
before you have possession of it, good
management practice dictates contacting
persons on your waiting list or
apartment listing services and alerting
them that there is a vacancy coming up.
The prospects on your waiting list will
have already seen your building and so
will be pre-sold, and can let you know
whether they are still interested. Just
be careful not to get tied down to an
early fixed date for possession and
never sign a lease or rental agreement
that binds you to a specific move-in
date.
Making contact with the Tenant who is “under eviction”
Some landlords attempt to enter the premises at this
point to get an idea of what kind of
work needs to be done to get the
premises ready for the next tenant
during this first time segment. In our
experience this is not a very good
idea. Even if you can gain entry, you
risk that the over imaginative tenant
will invest any conversation he has had
with you with meanings you did not
intend, providing him with talking
points if he is going to court, or grist
for an eviction defense mill if he is in
default. If you are represented by a
lawyer and feel the need to enter for
this purpose, be sure to discuss it with
your attorney first. In any event, be
sure that you follow your state’s rules
for entry of the premises to the
letter. See our legal guide “Landlord Right of
Entry by State” If
you are unsure of the rules, forget
about it and think about doing some of
the following things...
This
articles continues with coverage on
the things that every landlord must know
Just Before & After The Eviction:
-
Making contact with the Tenant who is “under eviction”
-
Arranging vendors for cleanup and refurbishment
-
Don’t forget the utilities
-
Keep good records
-
Receiving the premises from the Sheriff
-
The eviction appointment and the importance of
bringing a camera
-
Perfecting possession
-
Handling the former tenant’s personal property
-
Schedule workmen, or start the work yourself
-
Your NEW tenant moves in
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