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eviction question

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Primulas

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? MI

Apartment complex cleaned out my apartment without informing me of the eviction date(Except over the phone; In which i received 2 different dates from two different employees of the apartment management.) Everything was cleaned out of my apartment and the locks changed. I was told over the phone the evictions court date was 12/20/07(MI law says i have 10 days from the evic date.) The locks were changed on or before the evening of 12/16/07. After calling back(on 12/17/07) i was told the eviction court date had been on 12/11/07. Also over the phone i was told no Sheriff was not present when my belongings were removed. I did notify the apartment verbally that i was going to get my things. This phone conversation took place on 12/10/07. During the same phone conversation was when they told me the eviction court date was 12/20/07. The value of everything in my apartment is estimated by me to be =<7000.

My parents are long time MI LL's. They seemed convinced i had a case.

-D
 


Gadfly

Senior Member
Are you saying you never went to court on this? Did you KNOW about the court date?

I'm asking because there seems to be a whole step missing here.
 

Alaska landlord

Senior Member
Why didn’t you know when the eviction court hearing was being held?

Have you tried checking your mail?

When was the last time you dropped by the apartment?
 

Primulas

Junior Member
I was not living in the apartment(but i called them and told them i was coming to get my stuff.) In the before mentioned phone call one of the building managers told me the court date was on the 20th. She also told me usually they give 24 hours after the ruling to get my stuff out(I later found out it is usually 10 days.) I go to my apartment on the 16th; The locks are changed. Call the next morning to find out they threw all of my things out. Also this time a different lady from the apartment told me the court date was actually on the 11th.

Yes i was notified verbally of the court date(apparently she gave me the wrong date anyway.) I was never served. I honestly wasn't going to go to the court date anyway. I had absolutely no way to pay the money i owed at the present. So the court date was either on the 11th or 20th. Either way i believe they illegally tossed my things. The apartment was cleaned on or before 12/16. Even if the court date had been on the 11th, that's only 5 days after the court date.

-D
 

aabbcc

Member
If you weren't living there, the property may be considered abandoned according to the lease or laws of your state. You should obtain court dates from the complaint or get it from the court clerk, not from the landlord.

Your attempt to "hide" from the situation has caused more problems. Hiding does not grant you more time or change the eviction timetable.
 

reggiebob

Member
The landlord has the right to remove your property after 30 days of abandonment. However they must put said property into storage for additional 30 days. Then they have the right to sell or dispose of property. If they sell the property they must keep the funds for an additional year. I guess I would want to know when you last paid rent and how long ago that was?? If you were not more than 60 days late you might have a leg but if you got court notices delivered to the address of residence ( your apartment) you will probably be in content. I would contact your local courts and ask them about the notices to appear? If you can get around the court then you may be able to go after the owners but you are in for an uphill battle with the court problems!! The owner will be entitled to the monies owed plus court costs and attorney fees. So if your property say isn't worth at least $3000 I don't think it would be worth your headaches...that is just my opinion. If it was worth more than $3000 you should of got it out along time ago. I own several apartments in Tenn and deal with tenants like you and have no sympathy. After all this, it all comes down to the judge and basically I hope he is not sympathetic to dead beat tenants. Good Luck!!
 
Ok, if you knew an eviction case had been filed against you, why you didn't bother to check your apartment door or mailbox for the notice? Why would you ask the LL or PM when the hearing was? Why didn't you call the clerk of court and ask? Why would you take the word of the people who were evicting you??? And for heavens sake, if you knew the eviction had been filed and you had $7000 of stuff in there, why didn't you get it out pronto???

Sounds as if the court date either got moved up or the management told you the wrong date. You should have asked the court itself. Its not your LL's job to notify you of the hearing. You didn't collect your notice of the eviction and missed the court hearing. (But you weren't going to show up anyways and it would have been automatically granted against you.) Did you call the court and ask if the LL had been granted an eviction against you and was given a writ for possession of the unit? Is there one on file? Was there a motion for a set out? If so, your stuff was legally tossed to the curb. Why don't you call the court and ask?

And finally, if your parents are longtime LLs, you should certainly know better than to keep your things in a unit where you aren't paying the rent. You should know that the LL will evict for non-payment. Promises of moving out don't hold any water with a LL who hasn't been paid. All I can say is you should know better.
 

Primulas

Junior Member
Well, when the land management tells me i have until the 20th, i believed them; Perhaps that was my bad. I showed up to get my things on the 16th. That would be 16 days of non-payment. I didn't plan on showing at the court date for several reasons. i was broke with no car and no permanent place of residence and no job. I figured me coming to the court date would make no difference. I couldn't possibly pay the lease breakage fee and 2 months of rent. So i figured either way it would become debt; Had i went what difference would it have made?

As far as dead beat tenants go. perhaps you should know all the information before you go around calling names. The reason i could no longer afford the rent is because my GF at the time(who was also on the lease) moved out 2 months after wrecking my truck. She moves out leaving me with no car and unable to afford the apartment we both leased. So please don't be so judgmental, sometimes things in life happen that are out of your control.

Bottom line is my things were tossed out after =>16 days. no Sheriff was present(which i know there is supposed to be in MI). I just don't know if it's worth pursuing. I don't have receipts for the things in my apartment; Even if i had they would have been thrown out by my apartments. Even if the judgement just went against my debt to them i would be happy. I will call the courts and find out exactly wht they filed against me.


thanks again.

-D
 
Where did you see the word "deadbeat" in my post? Certainly, lack of good judgement. But I never said deadbeat. That was your word.

What difference would it have made had you gone to court? You could have pled your case. Explained to the court why you were unable to pay the rent. You could have explained that you had no where else to go (but why not if your parents are LLs and are both alive?). The judge could have taken it easy on you and given you more time to remove your possessions. As it is, since you didn't show up, the eviction was uncontested, and the judge probably granted the writ of possession right then.

So your GF left you. Breakups happen all the time. You could always go back and sue her for her share of the money you owed in small claims. Were you depending on her to pay the whole rent? A partial payment of rent might have bought you some time if you had explained this to your LL. As for the truck, why didn't you have insurance on it? If you had, you would have had transportation since the insurance would have repaired it when she wrecked it. You could always sue her for the repair costs of the truck if the wreck was her fault.

Bottom line - when your rent wasn't paid the 1st, they posted the 3 day on the 2nd, it expired on the 6th and they filed eviction. The case was heard the 10th. You could have called your parents and told them you were being evicted. I bet they would have helped you come get your things out of the apartment. Evictions can happen quickly for non-payment, especially when they are uncontested. (If your parents are LLs, you should know this.) Ignoring the non-payment of rent didn't make this go away. It just sped up the process.

All you can do now is verify that the court granted the eviction in favor of the LL and gave him a writ of possession. You could attempt to sue him for the depreciated value of your possessions (not the purchase price or replacement price) if he failed to get the set out through the sheriff's office, but no doubt he will countersue for the lease break fee, the unpaid rent, the lack of 30 day notice, damages to the unit, advertising costs, and utility costs if they were your responsibility per the lease. In the long run, it probably isn't worth it. Good luck in your next place.
 

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