Fed up with low life tenant and the philly laws that protetcts them

[bonzo]

What is the name of your state? Pennsylvania.

I have posted on here before. Here is the short story. My brother passed away and left me his apartment house with 2 tenants on the 2nd and third floor. The low life on the second floor decided to stop paying her wopping $475.00 a month rent utilities included since my brother passed away.
She is 3 months behind now. My brother left me this situation with the low rent.

I have had my lawyer give her a registered letter saying she had to be out in 30 days. In the mean time i joined a home owners association which i thought was good move.

Here is the question and im cutting right to the chase. Without going through all of the going to the sheriff and get a court date etc, isn't there anything i can do like just kicking her out of my place? I called the home owners associate up and he told me that sometimes it can take a month before i may get a court date. Then he goes onto say that the laws are all in favor for the tenant. So i asked the associate, so this loser can stay im my building while i foot the bills and wait for someone to get off of their ass and give me a court date. He said yep.
Then i asked him why on their news letter they send to me every month it says that they are interested in keeping and preserving property in philly, if you let loser tenants get away with everything. His answer was, is there anything else i can help you with.

I have another question. If i wasn't put in this position i would never buy rental property if the law is tilted more for the tenant then the LL. So i want to know why someone would want all of this aggrevation, and can any other LL tell me what they have done with similar situations.

Im all ears. I don't want to give up the building, but im thinking about it if this is the way it is. Just to let everyone know. I am very fair person and my place is a clean building and i take pride in keeping it that way.

Thanks everyone and help.

 

[LABROCKETT]

No Doubt Bonzo,
Go Read My Post - And Look At What I Am Dealing With In Florida!

 

[BL]

What is the name of your state? Pennsylvania.

I have posted on here before. Here is the short story. My brother passed away and left me his apartment house with 2 tenants on the 2nd and third floor. The low life on the second floor decided to stop paying her wopping $475.00 a month rent utilities included since my brother passed away.
She is 3 months behind now. My brother left me this situation with the low rent.

I have had my lawyer give her a registered letter saying she had to be out in 30 days. In the mean time i joined a home owners association which i thought was good move.

Here is the question and im cutting right to the chase. Without going through all of the going to the sheriff and get a court date etc, isn't there anything i can do like just kicking her out of my place? I called the home owners associate up and he told me that sometimes it can take a month before i may get a court date. Then he goes onto say that the laws are all in favor for the tenant. So i asked the associate, so this loser can stay im my building while i foot the bills and wait for someone to get off of their ass and give me a court date. He said yep.
Then i asked him why on their news letter they send to me every month it says that they are interested in keeping and preserving property in philly, if you let loser tenants get away with everything. His answer was, is there anything else i can help you with.

I have another question. If i wasn't put in this position i would never buy rental property if the law is tilted more for the tenant then the LL. So i want to know why someone would want all of this aggrevation, and can any other LL tell me what they have done with similar situations.

Im all ears. I don't want to give up the building, but im thinking about it if this is the way it is. Just to let everyone know. I am very fair person and my place is a clean building and i take pride in keeping it that way.

Thanks everyone and help.

From what I read , you have to give 30 days notice in PA , then take additional proceedures if they do not vacate .

 

[gladimnotyou]

hope this helps

You must wait till the 30 days is up then you file with the district magistrate, keep in mind now you will have also incurred lawyer expenses which you can file for as well. If there is a security deposit you have the right to reatin that too resulting of the back rent owed, if they damage any of the property you can get that too. Once they do move out if after a certain time frame of any monetary judgement awarded to you , you can refile and have their property sheriff sale to compensate you for the judgement they are faulty on if this were to occur and by the way it sounds it will. I suggest you do everything by the books or the tenant can get you for wrongful anything if you mess up the way it is supposed to go abouts in even the slightest bit.

 

[txlandlady]

Take the advice of the pp's and follow your local laws. It will be a pain, but eventually you'll get rid of this tenant. The only possible exception to that, if you're willing to do it, is that sometimes you can pay someone to leave. What kind of lease is she under?04

I will attempt to address your question as to why anyone would want to be a landlord. We've owned and managed our own rental properties for 10 years. Overall we've had VERY few problems, although we've recently just come through a sticky patch with bad tenants who trashed our properties. I'm sorry to say that although there's no way on earth I'll ever understand how/why people can be such scum sucking pigs as to trash other people's property while at the same time stiffing them on the rent, but it's my own fault that those people got in my property in the first place. One was an existing tenant in a property we purchased (much like yours) and the other I let in myself. They wanted to move into a house that I had vacant on the spot. Instead of making them wait for my normal application process (credit/background checks - either which would have ruled them out!)I took a reference from her boss, a highly respected physician in our community. This woman had pulled the wool over his eyes, too. In short, your first defense is to have a good system of taking applications and screening tenants. Then, if you get good tenants in well maintained, nice units your problems will be few. You sometimes have to wait a little longer to get a better tenant, and you have to reinvest some of your income to keep your properties in top notch condition, but in the long run it's well worth it. Last tip - in the future, if you don't have the rent by the end of the grace period allowed for in your lease (3 days, 5 days, whatever) begin eviction steps RIGHT THEN. It lets tenants know, up front, that you're going to follow the lease to the letter and you expect them to do the same. If you let them go 2 or 3 months here and there they'll learn that you're a push over and they'll take full advantage. It's taken me 10 years to learn that. You don't even need to be mean, just professional and serious about running your business.

good luck
Karla in Amarillo

 

[bonzo]

thanks for the great answers

Thanks for the great answers. And TX lady, i would love to hear the positives about being LL.

As far as i know there is no lease. When my brother passed away i went through all of his files and i was not able to find a lease. And im 100% sure that the scum living on the second floor knows nothing about it either.

My lawyer has sent her the 30 day registered letter notice. I have no intention of doing anything that she will be able to use against me. Im really frustrated due to the fact that besides dealing with my brother passing away, i have to deal with this piece of garbage taking advantage of the situation. The building i have is well maintained, clean and in a great location of philly.

The other thing i want to know is anticapting i will be needing to find new tenants, is there a site that LL's use to screen potential renters as far as background and credit checks etc. I have not had to do this yet cause the tenants in the building were here al ready.

Thanks everyone for your help and TX i would like to hear about renting.
Have a great night.
Ant

 

[SkeeterBug]

advice

I am not a landlord but In the city I lived in. in the yellow pages had tenant screening services. They check to see if prior evictions, credit checks, criminal background checks you can pass the charges along to applicants and call it an application fee. My Father in law has been a landlord for years and he said never check references yourself because a bad tenant can lie and put down their friends as prior landlords. Also even though the landlords on this site are jackass's there is links to check out tenants and the site is called mr landlord and i am sure you can find in a search under tenant screening services. too bad you couldn't get you a book on landlording a borders or something

 

[gladimnotyou]

They do have books you can buy in Walden Books or any book stores. They have ones called Landlord Responsibilities and one the same for tenants. They also have ones that have forms for you and tenants alike to send in. Also you can get a generic backround form from the PA State police , the tenant fills it out and has his/her criminal backround sent to you. And as for the most part yes I have to agree certain LL's on here are jackasses, I've only come across a few on here that weren't and one of them happened to share her insight on your thread. Good Luck with everything! BTW I would have lease agreements drawn up with all other tenants as well so they can be sure what your rules and regs are going to be as since the ownership has changed.

 

[hdworker]

In pa for non payment of rent you give a 10 day pay rent or quit notice, if they fail to pay you can file at the magistrates office, cost around a hundred bucks, you should have a court date within two weeks, the magistrate usually gives them another 30 days to move. if they fail to pay you or move then you go back to the magistrate file for possession, another 100 to 150 bucks, then the tenant will be served by the sheriff's office or constable which gives them 10 more days to pay or move. Then you meet the sheriff or constable on the eleventh day to change locks, if tenant is still there they are set out of the apt and you change the locks, they then have 15 days to call you to make arrangements to remove their items. I am a landlord in pa and that's how it works around here. I would check with the local magistrate's office and they will tell you if that's the correct office to file at. If not they should tell you which office to file in.
good luck

 

[bonzo]

Great advice.

I want to thank everyone for their great advice. I will go to a Borders books and look into the landlord book. I actually have a copy of the property owners hand book that i bought from the home owners association i belong to in philly.

To be hoenst, i want this person gone. I don't want to rent to her anymore cause its only going to be repeat problem. As i mentioned my brother left the building to me. The apartments are way under rented. Once this tenant is gone, i want to see if there was any damage done to the place, make any repairs and clean it throughly and get the proper rent for it.

Now on the 3rd floor there are more tenants who pay $600.00 a month and no utilities. Once i get the situation on the 2nd floor straightened out, what is the procdure for approaching the tenants on the 3rd floor to let them know that i need to raise the rent and they have to start paying for their own electric? Is there any limit or restriction as to how much i can raise the rent at one time? I figure i can approach the people on the 3rd floor with a new lease at the same time as well.

I appreciate all the help and great responses. Im getting a crash course in landlording. Im going to try and hang in there to turn the building around and actually have it start making me some money. Any suggestions and responses are welcome.
Thanks.
Ant

 

[BL]

Have you done a search for PA Landlord handbook , or PA Landlord tenant Law ?

Some cities such as mine in a different State have Housing hotlines , Etc .
Our City Provides a Free Landlord tenant handbook . They also offer Landlord classes , I believe their may be a small fee .

Have you looked in your Phone books to see if there is one ?

 

[longneck]

Now on the 3rd floor there are more tenants who pay $600.00 a month and no utilities. Once i get the situation on the 2nd floor straightened out, what is the procdure for approaching the tenants on the 3rd floor to let them know that i need to raise the rent and they have to start paying for their own electric? Is there any limit or restriction as to how much i can raise the rent at one time? I figure i can approach the people on the 3rd floor with a new lease at the same time as well.

PA's compiled statues are not online so i can't look up the specifics, but in general, you just have to give them 30 to 60 days notice that you are going to be raising the rent, and there is no limit on how much you can raise it unless you are in a rent control area.

but if the tenant has a written lease, then you are bound to that lease and can not raise the rent until the contract expires. note that some people try to sneak in a "i can raise the rent anytime i want" type clause. in general, those types of clauses have been ruled unenforceable.

 

[south]

Lower your head.....

A little lower....

A little lower...

SLAP!!

STOP SCREWING AROUND

This is your lucky chance

Serve a 3-day notice to Pay or Get the Hell Out Notice on the 4th day run to an eviction lawyer and file an eviction to evict the tenant.

Or the required notice for your state

The tenant will lose in court for non payment of rent and days later the sheriff will kick them out, leaving the opportunity to get a new renter with higher rent, you can also sue the tenant for legal costs court costs and rent owed.

Then stick a boot up the associations ass and cancel your payments.

What is the name of your state? Pennsylvania.

I have posted on here before. Here is the short story. My brother passed away and left me his apartment house with 2 tenants on the 2nd and third floor. The low life on the second floor decided to stop paying her wopping $475.00 a month rent utilities included since my brother passed away.
She is 3 months behind now. My brother left me this situation with the low rent.

I have had my lawyer give her a registered letter saying she had to be out in 30 days. In the mean time i joined a home owners association which i thought was good move.

Here is the question and im cutting right to the chase. Without going through all of the going to the sheriff and get a court date etc, isn't there anything i can do like just kicking her out of my place? I called the home owners associate up and he told me that sometimes it can take a month before i may get a court date. Then he goes onto say that the laws are all in favor for the tenant. So i asked the associate, so this loser can stay im my building while i foot the bills and wait for someone to get off of their ass and give me a court date. He said yep.
Then i asked him why on their news letter they send to me every month it says that they are interested in keeping and preserving property in philly, if you let loser tenants get away with everything. His answer was, is there anything else i can help you with.

I have another question. If i wasn't put in this position i would never buy rental property if the law is tilted more for the tenant then the LL. So i want to know why someone would want all of this aggrevation, and can any other LL tell me what they have done with similar situations.

Im all ears. I don't want to give up the building, but im thinking about it if this is the way it is. Just to let everyone know. I am very fair person and my place is a clean building and i take pride in keeping it that way.

Thanks everyone and help.

 

[txlandlady]

even though the landlords on this site are jackass's

Bite me, skeeterbug! I pride myself on treating everyone (on this site and in real life - deadbeat tenant or otherwise) with respect. You're the first person on this site not to get that courtesy from me.

Gladimnotyou - thank you for your kind words

OP - click on my screen name and I'll email you a copy of my application. I use a local credit bureau for the credit check, an on-line service for the background check, drive by their current residence, and check everything else myself as I see fit. Books are a good start. Unfortunately, experience will be your best teacher in this.

If you want to keep the 3rd floor tenants give them gradual rent raises with the proper notice, find out if there are things that need your attention, and be prepared to lose them. (You might want to wait til you get 2nd floor all squared away.) If you don't really care if they leave or not, give them the proper notice and raise the rent to current market value, along with the proper notice that they'll be responsible for all utilities effective whenever.

I'm not sure about this homeowner's assoc. you keep talking about. I belong to the Texas Apartment Association. The main reason is for the priveledge of using their lease. It's written by their real estate atty of 40 years who does nothing besides landlord/tenant law. It's airtight. It is written to protect the landlord as fully as possible. They've also dealt with nearly any and every possible issues you could image at some point in time, and are wonderful at guiding people through stuff.

Feel free to contact me by clicking on my screenname to discuss any tenant issue.
Karla in Amarillo

 

[txlandlady]

Ooo, ooo, ooo.............

just came up with an idea for 2nd floor.

If you think it's going to take longer than 30 days to make it all the way through the eviction process to where she'll actually leave..........
march your butt up there this minute with a 30 day notice that she's now going to be responsible for paying the electricity. If she's not under a lease you can make that change at any time by giving the proper notice (make sure 30 days in the proper notice.) State in your notice that the electricity will be transferred OUT of your name at 8am on the 31st day.

Basically she'll either have to have it put in her name or it will be shut off. Now, you can't shut off utilities on tenants when it's your obligaiton to pay them, but if you give her the proper notice........double check with your atty. She'll best case have no power and probably move out very soon or worst case transfer it to her name and wait to be evicted, but at least you'll be out from under her electric bill.

Just a thought.
K in A