Landlord hid the Eviction

[charcolatta]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New Mexico

Around July of last year we moved into a trailer house that was offered to us to buy with the condition of no receipts for payments due to the landlord being in an offer to compromise with IRS for not paying business taxes so he wouldn't have to give all the monies to the IRS and payments needed to be cash. The other condition was that we would not be able to get financing on the place until the offer to compromise was up sometime around June this year. For all July 2014 and the first half of August we were unable to contact the owner to pay our payments. Well on August 18th at about 10am we got a call from a guy that lives with us that the constable was at our house giving us notice that we must vacate the premises by midnight. Come to find out that he had been to court and got a default judgment and won the eviction for nonpayment of rent. We never received any notice, by mail, on the door, in person, NOTHING. He said in court that he hired a company to serve notice and posted it on our door and mailed a copy to us. This did not happen Or the notices were intercepted before we saw them. Obviously so we were not be able to defend ourselves in court. Well what's done is done as far as we have already moved out. We went to court after being evicted to be allowed to retrieve the rest of our belonging that we were unable to take due to the time allowed, we were given 4 days to remove our items. Can I sue him for not giving proper notice after the fact. The attorney that we hired to get us the time to get our belongings got a copy of the notice and it was only to 1 of the 5 people living there, which from what I understand is not acceptable, all tenants must be notified. Because we were under the understanding that we would be buying the place we dealt with many problems with the property like, no running water, sewer gases escaping into the kitchen, no working air conditioning,& illegal wiring in the back of the trailer that later caused a fire and made 3 rooms of the house have no electricity. I just cant let him get away with this with no consequences but I spent all my savings on the attorney to get back into the property to retrieve the rest of our belongings and to rent a place to live. I cant prove that he didn't give us notice but he cant prove that we got notice either because not one of us was notified of a court date to try to defend ourselves. Can I do anything in small claims court?

 

[STEPHAN]

You knew that something quite illegal was going on and decided to support it.

What did you expect?

The court usually does not evict anybody if the notices were not properly served by a processing server (not by the LL).

You have a lawyer, why do you not use him?

In future think twice before you get into such a mess again.

 

[Gail in Georgia]

The OP needs to review the steps to evicting someone in New Mexico:

http://jec.unm.edu/manuals-resources/court-brochures/landlord-eviction-brochure.doc/view

As previously stated, once the paperwork for the eviction is filed in the court, the notice for such cannot be served by the landlord; it can be done via County Sheriff or Process Server and both must follow very specific steps to accomplish this.

Your repair concerns with the place are not the issues here. Failure to pay rent was the reason for the judgment against you. Quite honestly, you seem to have a lot of excuses (couldn't find the landlord to pay rent both for July and August, didn't get the notice for court) as to why this happened and it's unlikely a court would believe you.

Gail

 

[LdiJ]

The OP needs to review the steps to evicting someone in New Mexico:

http://jec.unm.edu/manuals-resources/court-brochures/landlord-eviction-brochure.doc/view

As previously stated, once the paperwork for the eviction is filed in the court, the notice for such cannot be served by the landlord; it can be done via County Sheriff or Process Server and both must follow very specific steps to accomplish this.

Your repair concerns with the place are not the issues here. Failure to pay rent was the reason for the judgment against you. Quite honestly, you seem to have a lot of excuses (couldn't find the landlord to pay rent both for July and August, didn't get the notice for court) as to why this happened and it's unlikely a court would believe you.

Gail

While I agree...I also know that there are predatory landlords who sell properties on contract with the hope that they can get repairs made by the buyer, keep the down payment, and force people out later. I have a handful of clients who have been victims of just that sort of scammer.

 

[justalayman]

While I agree...I also know that there are predatory landlords who sell properties on contract with the hope that they can get repairs made by the buyer, keep the down payment, and force people out later. I have a handful of clients who have been victims of just that sort of scammer.

I guess maybe they shouldn't play along with the landlords illegal activities then. You know what they say about playing with a snake, right? In case you don't; if you play with a snake, don't complain when it bites you. You knew all along it was a snake.



Not arguing the tenant is the bad guy here but really, if the demand is in cash and there are no receipts, just what did he think could happen, especially when it comes down to the OP proving he made any payments?

 

[Gail in Georgia]

"I also know that there are predatory landlords who sell properties on contract with the hope that they can get repairs made by the buyer, keep the down payment, and force people out later. I have a handful of clients who have been victims of just that sort of scammer. "

As a general rule, "rent to own", "lease to own" situations typically end in disaster for tenants. I've had my share of applicants ask if I'll do one with them. Never. Most will never get approved for the financing down the road.

We once worked on a house where the fellow across the street was also working on his "rent to own" place...except, after a while, we noticed he was taking items OUT of the house. Seems he'd been working on it for the past three or four years, faithfully paying the owner who SHOULD have been paying the bank but instead, was pocketing the money.

The bank foreclosed on the house and this fellow decided he was going to take out EVERYTHING he had put into the place. And I do mean everything. All kitchen appliances. Then the kitchen cabinets, sink and countertops. Then the bathtub, toilet and sink. And the new plumbing. And the new wiring and electrical box. And the HVAC unit. Followed by the windows, the siding and the tin roof. Then the hardwood floors. He couldn't remove the large front window so he threw a brick through it as his final gesture.

Interestingly enough, he was angry at the bank who foreclosed, not the original owner who didn't pay the mortgage.

Gail