Is there an honest person left?

[USNRET]

or, do you want to rent a house in the Atlanta suburbs.... mine's empty.

VENT MODE ON

I leased my house out when I had to move to TX. The renters signed a 2 year lease (ends Oct 2011). Today I get an email about how they have been too busy to call but have found a really great house at great price and they have ALREADY closed on it and will abandon my property. Says he's sorry for any inconvenience but oh well.

Now when I had to leave GA on a moments notice this family who had lost their job and home in Detroit due to layoffs in the auto industry asked if I would be so kind as to approve them leasing my house as they could not buy for a couple of years due to their past foreclosure. They both had decent jobs, the only bad credit history was the foreclosure, everything else paid up and hey, some people just have bad luck. We agreed and they asked if we would sell the house to them after a two year lease. I couldn't do a lease/purchase due to my company's relo policy but we did sign another paper giving them first right of refusal at a stated price on the day after the lease expired.

All has been well since Oct '09. They have put a lot on money into the place. With my permission they built a 10" privacy fence from the house to the lake (about 150' long), added an additional drive to a new shop that they had built. Nice small shop that matched the house with matching Hardiplank, paint, shingles, etc.

I assume he doesn't plan to pay the next 9 months. How much will this legal fee be to realize squat? [:@]

Time for a cool one, vent mode OFF, sorry my friends, I feel better now.

[BigStewMan]

Venting is allowed here--i've done it more than once myself. My worse renters were relatives. I was stationed in Michigan--house was in Southern California. Let some of the in-laws rent the place. Not long after got the "i was injured at work and don't have all the rent." then it was none of the rent. Then they completely trashed the place and when I got back it was not rentable. couldn't understand how a brother could do that to his own sister. Sorry that your place is vacant; but, at least it sounds like you got some nice improvements done--maybe you can consider those as the final nine months rent.

[BLSamuel]

Well.... it could be worse. It soulds like they did some nice improvements and didn't trash the place so maybe it'll work out well. People just aren't very responsible anymore. And all too often if it isn't there's they trash it.

[jacksonbart]

Yes there are.... no wait I am lying, no there aren't.

[mark1101]

It sounds like they put about $50K into the property. No one does anything like that if they intend to move. It sucks that they broke the lease but at least you have a property worth more money now. Most landlords have sad stories of destruction to tell when a tenant leaves.

[RT FAN]

Remaining rent on lease-(minus) capital improvements by tenants-(minus) security deposit = (equals) net position on the deal. There is also the possibilty of renting out your former home at perhaps a higher rental rate. Just trying to put a "half full" spin on things. Good luck.

[Arky]

I'm no lawyer but unfortunately my closest friends are; if you are contemplating a lawsuit, I suspect you have a responsibility to re-lease the property. As opposed to letting the remaining 9 months run out then suing for the aggregate sum...course I could be wrong.

In any event, sounds like you did all you could.

[dtel]

I hope there are a few left ?

At least the did improve the property, it could have been alot worse.

[BigStewMan]

Bought a car from Honest John’s Used Cars (seriously folks, you can’t make something like that up) I should've known better; but I was still a dumb kid. A 1975 Fiat X19—no bigger piece of junk has ever been made. Salesman must have seen me coming from miles away and he took me for a ride figuratively and literally. And I was dealing with Honest John himself. Is it legal to lie if your name is Honest John?

[USNRET]

According to my real estate broker, who is also an attorney, I am due the remainder of the lease, security deposit, all 'improvements' and I can lease to someone else due to breach of contract. They re-listed the house for rent today.

A very helpful lady at the county magistrate guided me thru the process of filing a suit on line. Her position was that the judge would only want to see the lease, see the email that abandonment was intended and ask the tenant to prove payment of remaining lease.

Thanks to the internet and the helpful clerk I was able to access the county tax assessor's records and find the address of the new house my wayward tenant bought so he can be served.

Now to get a locksmith to open up as the locks as well as the codes for the garage doors have been changed.

Other folk have differing opinions on how this will work out. If nothing else for $171.00 I get to test the system and see what happens. Heck, professional athletes breach their contracts all the time.

[gnatnoop]

good luck to you...there are too many leeches in this world...

[mark1101]

USNRET..........I'm impressed at how far you have gotten with being away from the area. Good job. You will probably get a judgement of some sort and where it goes from there is anybody's guess. Most dead beat tennants never pay on their judgements. However, it sounds like you had some folks with money and good jobs who seem to have recovered from their misfortune. This will be interesting. Good luck.

[toddvj]

Are.

[JJkizak]

I've never seen so many "suttle" are's in a thread.

JJK

[muel]

I'm not a lawyer but have leased out upper mid range duplexes. I'd say most likely to cut your losses and move on. You should talk to a lawyer even if it is just so you can learn from your current situation. State laws vary as do local judges so you should really have the advice of an attorney local to your rental property. If you sue they will most likely countersue for any number of reasons including for work they did. Better hope no one got hurt doing any work on your property! You have to treat this as a business (IT IS) if you want to have as few headaches as possible. Never let the renter do any work on the property if you ever want to get any unpaid rent back... they will say you agreed to free or discounted rent for "all" the work they did. Any work done should be under contract by you. Ignore the sob stories. Save your generosity for your charity, volunteer at the local food pantry, support your Klipsch friends but keep rentals on a professional basis only!

I wish all the best, whatever you do! Try to not let it eat at you... I find that very hard to do, myself! [:'(]

[jacksonbart]

I am not an attorney but I slept in a Holiday Inn express last night... ok I lied it was a Motel 8.... no I lied again it was a friends house... ok you got me I passed out in a gutter. Gosh you're good, got any asprin and a new change of clothes?

[oscarsear]

The renters need to consider the status of their credit rating once again. They have a foreclosure and when they lose this lawsuit they will also have a judgement showing against them. Until the judgement is satisfied they will have a dickens of a time getting new credit issued. Once it is settled they will need to explain the situation each and every time they need to purchase something on credit. Sadly, I think they assumed that because you were so understanding with their initial plight that you'd also understand and accept their change in plans. It is said that nice guys finish last. Sorry for your troubles.

[Islander]

I've never seen so many "suttle" are's in a thread.

Err, that's "subtle"...

[JJkizak]

English wins again. Maybe we should have an automatic text speller/corrector and when we make a mistake a video of Josey Whales comes on and he spits tobacco in 3D.

JJK

[BigStewMan]

personally, i would not sue them. most tenants, at best, just don't damage the place. very few actually improve it. at some point, greed shouldn't win even if the law is on your side. the tenants put a lot of money into the place, so what's the problem? i wish one of my dozen tenants would have cared enough to improve the place. from the description of the improvements, it sounds like they're worth more than nine months rent. despite them leaving unexpectedly, i think you were lucky. take the improved property and rent it to someone else.