Never Rent To A Friend

[weplumcrazy]

What is the name of your state? TEXAS

After some "friends" (man and his girlfriend) of ours house burned down we allowed them to move into the vacant area on the other side of our house that we had turned into a small apt. This was to be TEMPORARY but has now turned into nearly nine months. Neither of them currently have a job and they have not paid any rent in three months.

We have begun the eviction proceedins but it will take 2-3 weeks to finalize. In the meantime there is negative friction and some words have been exchanged primarily with the girlfriend. A couple of days ago we received a threatening phone call from a man telling us what he was going to do if we "got in that woman's face again". We traced the number and found the call came from the phone belonging to a woman who visits these people quite regularly. We informed the tenants we knew the call came from her phone and told them to tell her she was not welcome on the property anymore.

Today she showed up again and made several rude remarks as she got out of her vehicle.
Can we place a restraining order against her or are restraining orders limited to family violence?

Also, the man is the only person on the signed lease. Since his troublemaker girlfriend is not on the lease, can we have her removed from the property for trespassing?

We never intended to be landlords and the tenant/landlord laws are somewhat confusing.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

 

[Cvillecpm]

DUDAH?!?.....never rent to friends, relatives, friends of relatives, friends of friends or ANYONE you meet at church.

Being a LANDLORD (feel free to deconstruct the word) is a BUSINESS and you need to take friendship out of the equation entirely.

Deal ENTIRELY through your eviction attorney and if you don't have one - GET ONE!!

 

[BL]

About the harassing phone calls , ask your local PD .

Usually if a person is undesirable ( or has caused problems on your property ) , you can restrict them from coming on it .

Perhaps just ignore the whole bunch , until they're gone .

Yelling ? Heck I've yelled and cussed out LL's before , it isn't a crime .

 

[applecruncher]

The title of your post says it all ~ Never rent to a friend (and/or) relative. Never, ever. What a mess you have gotten yourself into.

Just curious – didn’t these people have insurance? I think I know the answer to that already.

Concerning that phone call, I realize it’s after the fact, but I don’t think you should have talked to/confronted them at all. Make a police report re: the threatening phone call – do that NOW, and yes, my experience has been that restraining orders are usually limited to domestic violence situations. The police can answer your question re: trespassing, but you might not like the answer.

They can and most likely will make more "rude" remarks. If there are any threats or confrontational behavior initiated by them or their cronies, call the police. Do not get into ANY discussion with them. Frankly, I would not even speak to them. The sooner you evict and wash your hands of these bums, the better.

Keep checking back here for valueable input from others.