Tenant wants us to pay for work done, and includes this in the eviction case?

[TeresaO]

What is the name of your state? Oregon

Ok, I'll give background.
1. served tenant with "termination of contract", the 30-day notice thing. No cause, just want to end the contract.
2. He promised to make this as expensive and horrible as possible and so far hasn't let us down. Naturally, he did not leave at the end of the 30-day period.
3. Our lawyer filed an eviction lawsuit and served summons to tenant via a deputy. When the case went to court, it turns out the summons was improperly delivered (missing a document), and tenant asked to have the case dismissed. This is where the tenant also made us an "offer" -- to be out August 31, no rent paid in the meantime, we pay all attorney fees, and we pay him for "repairs" he made to the place. (We have letters we sent to him telling him NO repairs to be made, and we sent contractors in to make any repairs needed.)

Problem 1: if the case is dismissed, we pay his attorney's fees. However, our lawyer indicated that his attorney's fees would include the work the attorney has done creating a laundry-list of repairs tenant made that we owe him for. I thought that was a totally separate case to be taken up in small claims court, unrelated to the eviction. Tenant is trying to run up a huge lawyer fee for us to pay, but not a lot of it is related to the eviction itself. Do we have to pay that???

Problem 2: Can we have our attorney write up a new eviction lawsuit and serve the summons in court the day the current eviction lawsuit is (inevitably) thrown out?

Problem 3: Do we need to start all over and send another "notice of termination" of the contract, wait the 30 days, and then re-file an eviction lawsuit, or can we just re-file right away?

Any suggestions for how to proceed would be great. We just want this guy out of our hair as quickly and cheaply as possible. Speed is the first priority (the longer he's there, the worse it gets), and expense is the second. In other words, having to pay a little more to get rid of him sooner is ok.
Thanks.

Also, what do we do with our lawyer? he really seems to be disinterested in our case, but certainly interested in charging us a premium. If the summons was improperly prepared and given to the deputy without the correct paperwork, that is the fault of our lawyer -- what do we do about that?

 

[ENASNI]

A.
What kind of papertrail do you think tenant has?

2.
Did you not hold true to the landlord tenant rules of your state, and can you prove you did or not.

III.
Are you a good witch or a bad witch... what I mean is... are you sure you have done all you could to make this a good moving out are are these tenants real buttcheeses?

 

[TeresaO]

answers

A. If the tenant has a papertrail, it is a fabricated one. We have copies of all letters to him, specifically stating that any repairs done on the place will be at our discretion, by contractors we choose. In some cases that has been him. We've paid him (not deducted it from rent or anything) and have receipts for all of this. When we've had contractors go in there (plumbers, etc), tenant has verbally abused them, threatened them, etc. So, i guess that answers question III -- he's a total buttcheese. The place caught on fire (second time since he's been there, though it's never been proven he did it) in May. that's when we decided it was a good time to terminate the contract -- having him out would allow us to make the repairs necessary and etc. One room was damaged, I specifically told him not to touch it (he was all set to do the repairs himself). We had our lawyer, when we sent the termination of the contract, send another letter telling him to make NO mods to the place, nor any repairs.

2. I don't know the landlord/tenant laws of Oregon. However, when tenant asked that things be repaired, we had them repaired right away. We've been very accommodating. The place was always in good repair until this most recent fire. Since then it's been uninhabitable (well, by most standards, though the fire was confined to one room), but we have not been charging rent during this time either. Morally and ethically, we've been above board and etc. Legally, I believe we have as well.

III. My brother and I own this place together. We inherited it with said buttcheese already there. We've been very reasonable. When my brother called said buttcheese at the end of the termination of the agreement, he was actually considering giving the guy another month to get his stuff out. But, the buttcheese had some interesting observations about my brother in terms of oral fixations and etc. so...

 

[TeresaO]

By "good moving out" I assume you mean, have we been reasonable?

And the answer is yes. We've tried to be very careful about this. When we sent the termination of agreement, my brother was in the hospital recovering from heart surgery. The tenant thought I'd acted independently and said he'd leave without any fuss if he had a written agreement from my brother that he was aware of the eviction and in agreement. My brother provided that, and then the tenant called him. he told my brother that he was going to make this as difficult and as expensive as possible, and then he assured my brother "Yes, that IS a threat."

I mean, we can't even go down there (we live out of town) because this guy is so threatening and violent. We can't file a restraining order against him though. We are afraid of sending contractors down there anymore as well because this guy has been so threatening/violent to contractors we've sent there. They actually have called us (two different guys, two different times) to complain about the tenant. So, anyway, yeah we've tried to make this as good a moving out as possible -- haven't called, haven't sent anyone down, haven't threatened anything.

This is one of those deals where the law really supports the bad guy and screws us for trying to be above board.

 

[ENASNI]

I hear you but it is Sunday Bud

http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/090.html

http://tenant.net/Other_Areas/Oregon/land_ten.html

http://tenant.net/Other_Areas/Oregon/

 

[TeresaO]

Someone with experience care to comment?

I've read the landlord/tenant handbook, thanks. Was hoping someone with relevant and/or similar experience could provide some feedback to the original questions.
Thank you.

 

[ENASNI]

nope

I've read the landlord/tenant handbook, thanks. Was hoping someone with relevant and/or similar experience could provide some feedback to the original questions.
Thank you.

glad to say nothing never met a horrible tenant they have all been angels..

Most of your questions were answered in my links the rest is just up to the court gods... get your sacrifices ready. I have no clue on what they will find.

But maybe a new moon offering may do it or a new lamb... do you have a new lamb?