Attempting to Evict (Urgent)

[Stover]

What is the name of your state: Ohio
I have a tenant I am attempting to evict for Non-Payment of Rent. He moved in December 2016 and receives assistance from Section 8 to pay the rent. In December Section 8 told him and I what his portion of the rent would be that he needed to pay. Towards the end of December 2016 I received another letter from Section 8 stating they would be paying the entire amount of his rent starting January 2017. I decided I did not want to rent to him and file for eviction. We went to court the end of January 2017 and he requested a continuance to seek legal counsel. We are schedule to return to court tomorrow. I received a letter yesterday from Legal Aid stating that he is offering to pay his portion of the December 2016 rent and pay half of my court filing fee for the eviction. The letter also stated that if I did not accept the offer then he will request a Jury Trial. It is my understanding that the Jury Trial could take anywhere from 6 to 12 months and could still be kicked back to the orginal eviction court. It is also my understanding that during this process the monthly rental payment from Section 8 would be held in an account by the court until this issue is resolved.

He lied on his application about his current address (where he was living when he completed the application). He lied about his current employer (he is unemployed). He lied about previous evictions.
He lied about lied about being convicted of a crime. I know I can give him another Notice To Leave and base it on the grounds that he lied on his application.

My questions is:
1. Can I have him charged with Misrepresentation/Fraud?
If so, what could be the possible consequence(s) to him if I win my case?

2. Is there any way at all to avoid a Jury Trial concerning the current case of eviction for Non-Payment of Rent?

 

[Gail in Georgia]

"1. Can I have him charged with Misrepresentation/Fraud?"

If you wish, although this would likely be a criminal, not civil issue. What would be the point?

"If so, what could be the possible consequence(s) to him if I win my case?"

You mean after he's been able to live rent free in your property for six to twelve months while his jury trial request goes through the system?

"2. Is there any way at all to avoid a Jury Trial concerning the current case of eviction for Non-Payment of Rent? "

In your state a tenant has the right to request a Jury Trial. It's unlikely there's any way around this for you. How long do you want this to drag out without receiving rent on your unit?

Look; you've chosen to cut a deal with "governments version of the devil" (Section 8). Your tenant has free access to Legal Aid. There's already an offer in to pay what he owes for December rent and half the court costs. Section 8 will be paying all of the rent starting in 2017. Your best bet is to accept this offer, do the year lease and then refuse to renew another lease with this guy.

The time to find out this tenant was lying through his teeth regarding his employment, his eviction and criminal history and his previous address was during your screening process, not after you agreed to rent to him.

Frankly, my suggestion is to avoid this program if at all possible but I know is some states this isn't an option.

Gail

 

[Insane Jane]

How much damage do you think he can do in a year?

 

[quincy]

How much damage do you think he can do in a year?

What??? ...

 

[CTU]

What??? ...

Consider the oh-so-familiar source, q

 

[Just Blue]

What is the name of your state: Ohio
I have a tenant I am attempting to evict for Non-Payment of Rent. He moved in December 2016 and receives assistance from Section 8 to pay the rent. In December Section 8 told him and I what his portion of the rent would be that he needed to pay. Towards the end of December 2016 I received another letter from Section 8 stating they would be paying the entire amount of his rent starting January 2017. I decided I did not want to rent to him and file for eviction. We went to court the end of January 2017 and he requested a continuance to seek legal counsel. We are schedule to return to court tomorrow. I received a letter yesterday from Legal Aid stating that he is offering to pay his portion of the December 2016 rent and pay half of my court filing fee for the eviction. The letter also stated that if I did not accept the offer then he will request a Jury Trial. It is my understanding that the Jury Trial could take anywhere from 6 to 12 months and could still be kicked back to the orginal eviction court. It is also my understanding that during this process the monthly rental payment from Section 8 would be held in an account by the court until this issue is resolved.

He lied on his application about his current address (where he was living when he completed the application). He lied about his current employer (he is unemployed). He lied about previous evictions.
He lied about lied about being convicted of a crime. I know I can give him another Notice To Leave and base it on the grounds that he lied on his application.

My questions is:
1. Can I have him charged with Misrepresentation/Fraud?
If so, what could be the possible consequence(s) to him if I win my case?

2. Is there any way at all to avoid a Jury Trial concerning the current case of eviction for Non-Payment of Rent?

Wat was the criminal conviction for?

 

[Zigner]

What??? ...

Although there was no clue to point to it, I think it was sarcasm.

It would have been better if she had said "How much damage do you think he can do in a year? " or "Imagine how much damage he can do in a year".

 

[Stover]

Thank you to everyone that replied to my post.
A Jury Trial could take 6 to 12 months to resolve and Section 8 would place the rental payment with the court until the matter was resolved. He would still be in the house during this time. So if he is going to still be in the house I should get my rent. I explained to his attorney that 90 days before his lease expires I will be giving him a letter informing him his lease will not be renewed. My lease states I only have to give him a 30 day notice his lease will not be renewed but I want to give him alot of time before the lease expires to look to new housing. I don't want him to be able to use the excuse that he did not have enough time to find a place to go. I also talked to his Section 8 case worker and explained everything to him and he said 90 days should be more than enough time for him to find new housing.

I know I should have checked him out before renting to him but he is a Vet and I wanted to help him and I also thought why would a Vet lie? He is getting help from everywhere and would have no reason to lie. The lesson I learned is it does not matter who it is or what they have done for the country, still do a deep check on them. If I had done the check like I always do I would not be in this position now. I promise this will never happen to me again!

Again,
Thanks to everyone for the information and your help!

 

[Just Blue]

Thank you to everyone that replied to my post.
A Jury Trial could take 6 to 12 months to resolve and Section 8 would place the rental payment with the court until the matter was resolved. He would still be in the house during this time. So if he is going to still be in the house I should get my rent. I explained to his attorney that 90 days before his lease expires I will be giving him a letter informing him his lease will not be renewed. My lease states I only have to give him a 30 day notice his lease will not be renewed but I want to give him alot of time before the lease expires to look to new housing. I don't want him to be able to use the excuse that he did not have enough time to find a place to go. I also talked to his Section 8 case worker and explained everything to him and he said 90 days should be more than enough time for him to find new housing.

I know I should have checked him out before renting to him but he is a Vet and I wanted to help him and I also thought why would a Vet lie? He is getting help from everywhere and would have no reason to lie. The lesson I learned is it does not matter who it is or what they have done for the country, still do a deep check on them. If I had done the check like I always do I would not be in this position now. I promise this will never happen to me again!

Again,
Thanks to everyone for the information and your help!

Soooo...What was the conviction for?

 

[FarmerJ]

Keep in mind that even if you have in conversation mentioned to his S8 case worker that your not going to renew its likely that what they are going to do is 3 to 4 months before the end of the lease they will do a annual re inspect and if they see fit to they will issue repair orders and you will still have to comply with them or they could as a consequence start abatement and hold their contracted payment back , since you said the Hap contract was going to increase to 100% of the rent then that's zero $. SO If he is going to stay on then you want to regularly do a quick look for repair concerns and even if he damaged it take pictures then fix what ever it was and take more pictures to show the repairs as completed for your records and send him a bill via certified mail with a deadline to pay ( since failure to pay would be grounds to begin to evict )