An Eviction and Then Some!

Alabama has 10-day notices rather than the 3- or 5-day notices that are used in Florida. We give 10-day notices on the 15th, since the residents of this community have previously learned that they can go months at a time without paying rent. Keeping them on their toes is a re-training issue for us.

One tenant, a true renter, paid a $100 security deposit and $375 rent on July 1. We bought the community on July 14th. She paid no rent on August 1, telling Jim she would pay later in the month. Since it was our first rental month, we allowed this. No money arrived. Jim handed her a 10-day notice in early September - our first one. (We have given out many since then!) She informed Jim that he could not evict her.

We chose to have an attorney handle this first eviction. We were not used to Alabama laws, we wanted to have a local attorney we could call when we needed, plus we had a feeling there would be issues with this woman. This proved to be a good decision. When we were close to the time necessary for an actual eviction, an insurance investigator showed up at the office. He was investigating the fall that this tenant supposedly had and the insurance claim she had filed. We knew nothing of any fall, but quickly realized the only way she could have known who carried our insurance was missing mail. (Mail we did not know we were missing.)

We knew, before the formal eviction day, that this woman and her family had moved in with a neighbor across the road. When the Sheriff came, she was nowhere to be seen. We were, however, informed by the woman across the road that the washing machine belonged to the tenant. The rest of the house was virtually empty, so we put the washing machine by the curb. It was removed and placed alongside the home that was now occupied by the evicted tenant.

The next day we sent the tenant of house #2 a certified letter. This letter was a notice of violation of park rules. We officially informed her that her "guests" had stayed longer than the seven days allowed by park rules. (We knew when they had started sleeping and parking across the road from the house from which she was evicted.) We also officially notified Tenant #2 of issues with her dogs.

If you have not guessed by now, our letter went to non-other than the original problem tenant; the one who has been referred to in several previous posts. As a follow-up, we have now handed her an official demand to move out of the park as well. We are not renewing her month-to-month lease. Our attorney approved the notice, so we are well on the way of removing our problem tenant.

Removing a paying tenant is a hard decision to make. We need every bit of lot rent we are receiving. Upgrading our tenants, however, makes this decision the right one.

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