Quem foi seu pior inquilino e o que eles fizeram?
Respostas
Vou limitá-lo a uma história de terror. JP tinha pombos e quando cometi o erro de alugar para ele, ele construiu um galinheiro no quintal. Eu tinha concordado com isso desde que parecesse bom.
Ele era o tipo de pessoa que, se pudesse puxar um rápido, ele o faria. Ele provavelmente ensinou seus netos que ele estava criando a serem assim.
Vamos ver - o que ele não fez?
Ele encheu o porão com lixo (quero dizer, cheio - descer lá era como mergulhar no lixo).
Ele transformou o quintal em um ferro-velho.
Ele voou seus pombos em casa durante o inverno - não os pássaros mais limpos.
Ele consertou um cortador de grama na sala e estragou um tapete novo.
Ele decidiu que o aluguel estava pago se ele se lembrasse.
Ele acusou meu pai de peculato - insistindo que ele tinha pago quando não tinha.
Ele me mandou sair da minha propriedade - ou tentou.
Vamos apenas dizer que eu não alugaria para sua sobrinha porque eu suspeitava que ela pudesse ser como ele e um pesadelo daquela família era demais.
Ele me custou um total de US $ 10.000 com todos os danos que ele fez e aluguel não pago.
Alguns inquilinos você nunca esquece - eles eram ótimos ou absolutamente horríveis e você se perguntava se eles haviam sido criados por lobos. JP foi inesquecível.
Tenho algumas casas que alugo na Califórnia e Nevada, casas que comprei para minha residência e decidi alugar em vez de vender quando me mudei. Levei seis meses para tirar um criminoso particularmente engenhoso da minha casa. Essa criminosa em particular - vamos chamá-la de "Trish" - porque esse é o nome dela - estava morando na casa com o namorado, mas eles se separaram e ele estava se mudando, e ela perguntou se poderia alugar a casa no lugar dele. Ele estava alugando de mim há cinco anos, e tinha sido um ótimo inquilino, então eu não imaginei que seria um problema... ela estava morando lá com ele por alguns anos, de vez em quando.
Então ela já tinha a posse da casa quando a gente se encontrou na casa, preencheu o contrato de locação e todos assinaram. Era o meio do mês, e o aluguel foi pago até o final do mês pelo meu inquilino anterior, então ela disse que enviaria um cheque para chegar até nós no primeiro dia e deixamos por isso mesmo.
O aluguel do primeiro mês - que deveria incluir um depósito - foi devolvido e eu não consegui falar com Trish... ela não respondeu aos meus telefonemas ou e-mails. Depois de quase três semanas, ela ligou e pediu desculpas e disse que estava viajando, mas que incluiria os três cheques no pagamento do próximo mês. No segundo mês, ela alegou ter enviado o cheque dos dois meses e o depósito “há alguns dias… é só dar uma semana e se não chegar eu cancelo os cheques e mando novos”. Para encurtar a história - nunca recebemos sequer um pagamento dela.
Sooooo - ela estava na casa por duas semanas com o centavo de seu ex, depois por um mês e meio com o meu - e agora era quase Natal e eu estava em Nova York para as férias - claro em todo o país. Quando cheguei em casa, ela estava vivendo com meu centavo por mais de dois meses, e suas desculpas - e minha paciência - se esgotaram. Eu não ganho dinheiro com meus aluguéis - eu apenas uso o dinheiro do aluguel para pagar a hipoteca - então isso não estava funcionando para mim.
Eu moro na área da baía - 4,5 horas (com trânsito) do aluguel, então contratei um paralegal local para preencher e postar um aviso de três dias para pagar o aluguel ou sair... então esperei três dias. O mesmo paralegal, em seguida, conseguiu a data mais próxima do tribunal - três semanas fora. E o paralegal - que foi ótimo - atendeu Trish.
No dia do tribunal número um, dirigi as 4,5 horas para chegar ao tribunal e fui enviado para a mediação. Após várias horas de idas e vindas em duas salas separadas, o mediador nos disse que não havia como resolver o caso. Ela alegou ao mediador que eu lhe devia $ 10.000 pelo trabalho que ela havia feito na casa, e ela sentiu que a casa agora deveria pertencer a ela, e ela não deveria ter que pagar aluguel. Entramos no tribunal e o mediador disse ao juiz que ele teria que ouvir o caso... mas agora, é claro, está quase na hora de desistir, então o juiz nos deu uma nova data para o julgamento.
Data do Tribunal Número Dois - duas semanas depois. E mais nove horas (ida e volta) de condução. Quando nosso caso foi chamado, Trish alegou que havia trabalhado na propriedade e gastou US $ 10.000 na minha casa, limpando, consertando coisas, pintando - basicamente fazendo trabalhos que ela não estava autorizada a fazer. Isso era particularmente irônico, já que ela morava na casa há vários meses com o namorado antes de ele se mudar, então qualquer trabalho de “limpeza” que ela fizesse era apenas limpar depois de si mesma e de sua morada. O juiz pediu recibos, mas ela “não os levou ao tribunal”. O juiz disse a ela para trazer seus recibos da próxima vez e marcar uma nova audiência para daqui a duas semanas.
Data do Tribunal Número Três: Na próxima audiência havia um novo juiz. A inquilina ligou para o tribunal e disse que não pôde comparecer porque seu filho estava doente. O juiz cancelou a audiência e marcou outra audiência para a próxima semana. Meu marido e eu voltamos para casa. Mais um dia de folga, mais um dia de carro no trânsito entre Chico, CA e Bay Area.
Court Date Number Four: The next week the original judge is back. When he asked Trish for her receipts she pulled out a paper grocery bag full of what appeared to be trash and dumped it out on the table. My husband picked up one receipt - it’s for a kid’s meal at McDonalds. She claimed the meal receipts were for her paying friends who worked on the house with food - to save me money! The judge told her she had to 1) type up her receipts and 2) Get them to me a minimum of 24 hours before the next hearing. He set another trial date, three weeks out, as the court was backlogged.
It was now nearly three months since I posted the three-days notice on her door, and she’s been living rent-free in my house for nearly six months . . . I have taken the day off work and driven nine hours to court and back four times. And we haven’t even begun to have an entire hearing.
Court Date Number Five: At the next hearing we are to begin at 1 PM, after lunch. Whew! A much better leaving time for that 4.5 hour drive! We were there early, but Trish was nowhere to be seen. The judge called roll and after finishing with the roll call tells us our case will not be heard that day, as Trish had called in that morning with the same excuse - her son was sick. He set another hearing for the next week at 10 AM. That means I’ll have to leave home around 5 AM to guarantee I’ll be there in time for the hearing.
Court Date Number Six: At the next hearing my husband (what a trooper!) and I were there at 9:30 - no Trish. I still have not received any receipts nor list of receipts from her, despite the judge ordering her to provide them. The judge called roll, and she was not there. He told us Trish had called the courthouse again to say her son was sick and she had to pick him up from school, and asked if I would agree to postpone the hearing to another day. He said she would find a sitter and come in the afternoon if the hearing couldn’t be postponed.
I explained that this was the sixth time I’d driven 4.5 hours to come to court, and that she had never paid ANY rent at all, ever, as her first rent check had bounced, along with her deposit.
The judge said he understood, and he would postpone the hearing until 4 PM, at which time he would hear the case whether she was there or not. My husband took me for a leisurely lunch, then we came back to court.
She was a no-show, so the judge heard my side of the story and then rendered a judgment of around $11K in my favor for back rent and damages. When we got out of court it was 4:45 PM, so we were pressed to try to get through the line at the clerk’s window so we could avoid having to make that drive again to get the paperwork filed for the judge’s signature.
While we stood in line at the clerk’s window, who should appear but Trish! Dressed to the nines, like a lawyer, ahead of us in line for another clerk. She was pretending to be an attorney who had come by to pick up the judgment for her “client.”
My husband ran back to the courtroom and told the Bailiff she was at the courthouse at the clerk’s window. The bailiff went into chambers and told the judge. The judge was so irritated he stayed late to sign our judgment that day so we could move forward without waiting the several days it generally takes to get the paperwork filed and the judgment signed.
Although we got the judgement that same day (Thursday was eviction-hearings-day at that particular courthouse), we could not have her evicted until the Wednesday two full weeks after the judgment was issued - which really meant one day shy of three weeks. That was 1) to give her time to file an appeal if she was going to, and 2) Evictions only happen on Wednesday. So you see, even by the choosing of days to hear evictions and days to serve evictions, landlords are at a disadvantage in California, adding nearly another month to the half a year of free rent she had already stolen.
We hired the local sheriff to serve the eviction notice, and she had, if memory serves, 48 hours once the notice was served before the sheriff came back to actually evict her. It was literally MONTHS after the first three-day notice to quit was tacked to the front door.
At 11 PM the night before she was to be evicted she called me, crying, begging to be given another two weeks so she could have time to move all her stuff out. “What will my children do without their toys?!”
Of course, this was just a ploy to start the clock all over again. I refused, and advised her to gather anything important to her and her children that night, as the Sheriff had told us he would be there first thing the next day to evict her, forcibly if need be.
And the plot thickens. My husband showed up at 9 AM to be there when the Sheriff arrived. She had packed NOTHING, but left with a friend and her purse. She called me later that day and asked when she could come back to pack up and move the entire 3-bedroom house of her belongings. My husband agreed to drive the 9 hours once again, and meet her the following Saturday at 9 AM. I told her he would be there from 9 AM to 8 PM and advised that she have some help to move, since she had a lot of heavy furniture, large screen TVs, etc., and NOTHING had been packed… the house was full.
When he showed up that Saturday - having left the house at 4:30 AM to arrive by 9 - she was a no-show. The driveway was gated with a heavy metal gate, which the Sheriff had locked, so we knew she hadn’t been there to get her things, and the house was still full. My hubby started packing the small things up, to move to storage, and was there until noon, when he went to get something for lunch. Trish called while he was at lunch and said she was at the house - where was he? He left his lunch and drove back to the house, but - again - she wasn’t there. He texted her to say he would stay until 5 PM, and then he was going back home, after hiring a moving company to move her things to storage. He informed her if that happened she would have to pay for the mover and the storage to get her belongings back. Then he started looking online for a local moving and storage place.
Then around 1 PM it got really crazy. . . a woman - the “friend” who had been with her when the sheriff came to evict Trish - came to the house and asked if she could get HER things. My husband said sure, and she went in with a suitcase and packed up some clothes and makeup. He went in the house with her to make sure she didn’t take Trish’s things - which we were responsible for at that point.
While packing she told him Trish had hired her as a nanny. Trish had promised her $1,400/month in pay and free room and board just two weeks prior. The poor woman had quit her job and vacated the room she had been renting, and was now out of work and homeless. Trish had completely fooled her, ruined her life, and boy was she mad.
She pulled some papers out of a pile in the kitchen and handed them to my hubby. They were the rental papers for all the furniture, the two 70″ TVs, and the computer in the kitchen. Trish had scammed the rental company and never made a payment. They had been trying to repossess their furniture and electronics for months, but she kept the gate at the top of the driveway locked so they couldn’t get in.
My husband called them, explained the situation, and they were there within 15 minutes… in a huge truck, with two big guys up front. They backed up to the house and had all the furniture/etc… in the truck in about a half an hour. They were just that good.
At 2 PM, just as they were finishing up - guess who pulled into the driveway! Yep! It was Trish - in a little BMW (which we later discovered had been “borrowed” from a repair shop by a repairman she was dating. The car had been brought in for servicing, and she had talked the guy into letting her drive it, “until the owner came to pick it up.” The repairman was fired and arrested for auto theft. But I digress (truth - stranger than fiction…).
Trish was apoplectic. Her “nanny” was equally furious. The two women started screaming at each other, then Trish started screaming at my husband - how dare he give HER belongings away!
You might notice this was a pattern for her - she had told the mediator and the judge the house should be hers because she cared about it more than I did - And then one of the guys in the truck called the police, because, hey! this wasn’t Jerry Springer enough already!
The cops knew exactly who she was, as she had had not one but TWO bench warrants out for her arrest, since she hadn’t shown up for a DUI hearing on two occasions after being released on her own recognizance at her first hearing.
The police parked in the opening in the gate so no car could pull out. When she saw them she went running back inside the house and locked the door. My husband gave one of the policeman the key and they went in and brought her out in cuffs … put her in their patrol car, and off to the pokey she went, hi ho, hi ho.
Leaving us with a house full of clothing, toys, a lot of legal paperwork, a fridge full of food, and a lot of garbage.
The cops promised to bring her back to get her car when she was released, so my husband gave them the combination to the lock on the gate so they could let her in and get “her” car out. Sadly, when she got out a couple of days later they couldn’t drive her back to get the (stolen) car, because her license had been suspended. So she came back on her own and broke the expensive heavy metal gate by prying at it with a crowbar until the hinges broke off. If only the rental company had thought of that!
Once she was booked and made bail, and she had broken our gate to pick up the stolen Beemer, she disappeared. Her kids had been given back to their fathers while she was in jail, and we’ve been unable to find her since. We have a judgment of around 12K now - with interest - but it’s not collectible. There is still a bench warrant out for her arrest. She abandoned her belongings and we disposed of them a couple of months later after putting the requisite ads in the local paper. The only thing of value left in the house had been a generator, but someone contacted us to get it back, as it turned out she had stolen it, too.
She had painted several rooms in my house BLACK, so I had to pay someone to repaint. And a welder to fix the gate - not as good as new, but it was functional.
And the kicker? I found out about a month later that she had put a mechanic’s lien on my house for 10K! I had to have a lawyer deal with that.
I know landlords are pretty universally despised, but I’ve never taken advantage of any renter. Although I’ve been taken advantage of more than once.
And the house? My first, my favorite, and the one I thought I would retire to? It burned down in the Paradise Camp Wildfire in November 2018, less than a year after getting rid of Trish. The town is pretty much gone. The water is poisoned, and there is no electricity, so there will probably be no rebuilding it within my lifetime.
But - look at the bright side! I guess I won’t have any more renter problems . . .
My kitchen, after remodeling, shortly before Trish moved in. . .
Meu filho - um autoproclamado "Balloonático" - em nosso jardim atrás do riacho. O gato - um gato selvagem errante domado pelo meu filho quando era um gatinho - foi acolhido por um vizinho idoso. Eu nunca soube o nome dela, mas costumávamos colher damascos para ela todos os verões durante anos, e nós a visitávamos - e nosso gato - todos os meses, apenas para fazer companhia. Não consegui localizá-la desde o incêndio e não tenho ideia se ela (ou nosso gato) conseguiu ou não. Eu tento não pensar nisso.
O que restava da minha casa quando autorizado a voltar para a propriedade alguns meses depois do Paradise Camp Fire. Olhe para a árvore morta formando um “V” logo acima dos dois carros centrais queimados… A foto acima do meu filho foi tirada logo atrás daquela árvore.