OH - waiver of eviction process, but wont leave after notice.

[Cozzafrenzzy187]

Tenant signed lease saying he waived his right to eviction process and must leave if notified. He has been told he needs to leave and has none for weeks but refuses to return keys and remove his belongings and vacate premises. Has not paid rent and done over $3,000 dollars of water damage by turning heat and water tank off in middle of winter and leaving to freeze for days. Landlord lives out of state and tenant will not comply with LL request and will not return calls or follow through with what he says he will do and is taking advantage of situation. He keeps saying he is not living there but is there everytime someone goes to check.Is self eviction possible since he signed waiver stating they will not use eviction process through court since he agreed to that on lease? Does the fact he signed that mean anything in Ohio? Is owner withing rights to force entry to remove items and change locks since tenant will not return keys? Please help

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

 

[Zigner]

Tenant signed lease saying he waived his right to eviction process and must leave if notified.

Such a clause is illegal in Ohio (and many [most?] other states). http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/5321

 

[Cozzafrenzzy187]

Thank you for response

What would be the best way to initiate a proper eviction to get this person out peaceably and asap before more damage is done? He is basically living there for free and destroying the place in the meantime, and is completely uncooperative.

 

[FarmerJ]

Do you have photos of the damages the tenant has done ? do you have photos of what the unit looked like before tenant moved in ? if you do and since you do not live near it I suggest you hire a attorney to evict this tenant for you and don't put things in your leases that can make you look like a horses backside in a court room, Your attorney can file to evict based on non payment.

 

[HRZ]

unfortunately for you, the worst tenant has the same big stack of due process rights as does the best tenant in the world. STUDY up op on due process steps to,get him out ...pay a lawyer for his or,her skills to get it done .
And based on other parts of your post ...pay a lawyer to,get it right this time ...a provision to waive due process suggests you are not up on any fundamental steps.

BTW! A seasoned squatter,will,turn frozen pipes and lack of services against you!

Sometimes cash for keys ..is actually faster cheaper,and more,reliable ....but you best play that card well and smart .and actually get written surrender ...one of my Yale lawyer friends has his 6' 8 office manager with him to play such cards .

A promise to leave has the legal strength of wet toilet paper ...and the statmemt of Im not living,there is about as weak ..UNLESS you get him to sign a scribbled statememt that says I'm out and I surrender all claims and rights for this stack of 20s on XX ...and you physically secure the place 10 seconds later...and you want a lawyer to get the surrender words right ...did did poorly on your own ...and I mean the surrender worded so you are not giving free storage to junk for 180'day..buy his junk for extra 40 if that's what it legally takes.

BTW..get out of the absentee LL,business ...

 

[Cozzafrenzzy187]

Darn i dont know anyone that tall...

unfortunately for you, the worst tenant has the same big stack of due process rights as does the best tenant in the world. STUDY up op on due process steps to,get him out ...pay a lawyer for his or,her skills to get it done .
And based on other parts of your post ...pay a lawyer to,get it right this time ...a provision to waive due process suggests you are not up on any fundamental steps.

BTW! A seasoned squatter,will,turn frozen pipes and lack of services against you!

Sometimes cash for keys ..is actually faster cheaper,and more,reliable ....but you best play that card well and smart .and actually get written surrender ...one of my Yale lawyer friends has his 6' 8 office manager with him to play such cards .

A promise to leave has the legal strength of wet toilet paper ...and the statmemt of Im not living,there is about as weak ..UNLESS you get him to sign a scribbled statememt that says I'm out and I surrender all claims and rights for this stack of 20s on XX ...and you physically secure the place 10 seconds later...and you want a lawyer to get the surrender words right ...did did poorly on your own ...and I mean the surrender worded so you are not giving free storage to junk for 180'day..buy his junk for extra 40 if that's what it legally takes.

BTW..get out of the absentee LL,business ...

Thanks for the input, I don't think LL will be able to stomach the thought of giving him another free dime. So guess we know the answer now for sure

 

[HRZ]

HE actually has a noticeable bulge in his pants ...legal of course ....he carries the money too.

A LL not smart enough to know when to pay to get off a sinking ship is destined to take a serious bath worse than his current plight ..and it won't be measured in dimes...

 

[Cozzafrenzzy187]

Thanks man! Lol

HE actually has a noticeable bulge in his pants ...legal of course ....he carries the money too.

A LL not smart enough to know when to pay to get off a sinking ship is destined to take a serious bath worse than his current plight ..and it won't be measured in dimes...

Yeah I get what you are saying. I'm just the maintenance guy for the property and trying to give my boss some good advice, he is so mad with the situation his head is spinning. I had a feeling the tenant knows what he is doing and is a professional victim but wanted to run it by someone else and see what they have to say about the situation .

 

[Cozzafrenzzy187]

Damage photos

Do you have photos of the damages the tenant has done ? do you have photos of what the unit looked like before tenant moved in ? if you do and since you do not live near it I suggest you hire a attorney to evict this tenant for you and don't put things in your leases that can make you look like a horses backside in a court room, Your attorney can file to evict based on non payment.

Thanks for your response I thought I replied already but I guess not. Anyways, yes I have photos of damage that I would like to think are very self evident that the place wasn't rented that way(hopefully a judge would see it that way with texts I have from him in regards to coming to fix it). I.e. broken toilet frozen solid, multiple areas of copper pipes that ice popped apart upstairs and leaked down to kitchen which caused the surface mounted ceiling tiles to fall down(and it had already just been replaced a few weeks prior because he overflowed toilet or tub everywhere), Also have pics of water running out of h2o heater that froze and popped cuz he turned it off for some unknown dumbass reason, and the kitchen faucet valves now leak and sprayer cracked, all from ice. Basically anything water related was ruined. Not to mention run of the mill water damage from just getting everything wet. House will probably end up moldy but I hope not. So with all that said I would imagine it would be obvious to anyone that the place wasn't rented that way, but I don't know if original photos are available because they were taken by previous building maintenance person. I also realise how things can be twisted, so I am thinking LL is taking it as a loss and lesson learned about not trusting anyone anymore and nice guys finish last, but I am trying to help fix and figure out any possible recourse we might have. It's a really bad situation all the way around. And the tenant is just unreal in his lack of cooperation and is denying any type of fault and making stuff up to try and pass the buck, and claim victim status. He even told us he turned the heat Down a couple weeks ago to save energy since he wasn't staying there, and we think he tried covering up some of the damage by saying someone broke in during that time, and that the door was left open, he knew we caught him in a lie about his timeline though when I showed him that the toilet tank was still a block of ice, and what robber would go and turn a tank off? He is such a liar you just can't deal with people like him... It's just really unbelievable, and makes you regret even giving him the benefit of doubt.

 

[justalayman]

Do you want to give your boss some great advice?

Tell him to get out of the landlord business. It’s obvious he’s in way over his head.

 

[Cozzafrenzzy187]

This is a forum not facebook...

Do you want to give your boss some great advice?

Tell him to get out of the landlord business. It’s obvious he’s in way over his head.

Thanks for the snarky comment, it helps me, um? hmm... not at all! and I learned absolutely, let's see, oh! NOTHING! from it. You are truly an asset to this forum as demonstrated by that sage advice. And to everyone else I appreciate your responses and hopefully others can learn from them as well.

 

[justalayman]

Thanks for the snarky comment, it helps me, um? hmm... not at all! and I learned absolutely, let's see, oh! NOTHING! from it. You are truly an asset to this forum as demonstrated by that sage advice. And to everyone else I appreciate your responses and hopefully others can learn from them as well.

You learned that you should not giving your boss legal advice and your boss doesn’t know what he’s doing. If he wants to play landlord he needs to either learn the laws and how to apply them or figure he’ll be running a charity housing project for whomever decides to take advantage of him.

 

[Cozzafrenzzy187]

Found the troll....

You learned that you should not giving your boss legal advice and your boss doesn’t know what he’s doing. If he wants to play landlord he needs to either learn the laws and how to apply them or figure he’ll be running a charity housing project for whomever decides to take advantage of him.

I got advice for you. If you join a help forum keep your ignorant comments to yourself and keep scrolling if you can't add any useful info. If I knew all this stuff I wouldn't be here. My boss knows how this works, I don't. I want to be able to talk about it with him and not sound like I'm completely clueless, and there is allways more to the story so I wouldn't be so sure of your assumptions .. now run along back under your bridge and go correct people's grammar or argue with people about religion and politics, instead of trashing people's help threads with your nonsense.

 

[Gail in Georgia]

As has been pointed out, a clause in the lease waiving a tenants right to an eviction process is both illegal and useless. Your landlord has two options..

The "cash for keys" route which, understandably, is upsetting to many landlords (it would be to me), especially if a tenant has done much damage to a rental unit. It is an option sometimes used when the eviction process is either a long one or an expensive one in a particular state.

The eviction process. In the case of a stubborn tenant the use of an eviction lawyer will sometimes get these tenants "moving" quicker than if the landlord tries to go through the process themselves.

Gail

P.S. If the unit is in such bad shape the landlord MIGHT consider contacting Code Enforcement who might just condemn the unit as being unfit to live in. If so, the tenant would have to immediately leave. However, that route is going to open a new can of worms that the landlord might not want to have to deal with.

Good luck..

 

[justalayman]

My boss knows how this works, I don't. I want to be able to talk about it with him and

Then let him deal with it.


The landlord has the right and has had the opportunity to serve the guy with a notice to quit (3 day). This has obviously taken a considerable amount of time to reach the point he’s at now so. , by now he should have already served the 3 day notice and then filed for eviction. If he hasn’t....well, obviously he doesn’t want the guy to leave bad enough to actually do anything about it.

All the discussion here is just silly. He needed to start the eviction process a long time ago. It’s that simple