What do you regret telling your landlord as a tenant?
Respostas
I have a story, but in this case, I am the landlord. I had a strict pet policy (cats only) and a tenant accidentally slipped up and told me about the challenge of potty training their puppy.
Look, I like dogs, but this was dishonest on their end. They knew they couldn’t have a dog. After some thinking, I submitted a notice that I would change the pet policy and include dogs under a certain pound. Of course, I required pet rent thereafter.
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.
So she already had possession of the house when we met at the house, filled in the lease agreement, and everyone signed it. It was the middle of the month, and the rent was paid to the end of the month by my previous tenant, so she said she’d mail a check to reach us by the first and we left it at that.
The first month’s rent - which was to include a deposit - bounced, and I couldn’t reach Trish… she didn’t respond to my phone calls or email. After nearly three weeks she called and apologized and said she had been traveling, but she’d include all three checks in her next month’s payment. The second month she claimed she had sent the check for both months and the deposit “a few days ago… just give it a week and if it’s not there I’ll cancel the checks and send new ones.” Long story short - we never received even one payment from her.
Sooooo - she’d been in the house for two weeks on her ex’s dime, then for a month and a half on mine - and now it was nearly Christmas and I was in New York for the holidays - clear across the country. By the time I got home she had been living on my dime for well over two months, and her excuses - and my patience - had run thin. I don’t make money on my rentals - I just use the rent money to pay the mortgage - so this wasn’t working for me.
I live in the Bay Area - 4.5 hours (with traffic) from the rental, so I hired a local paralegal to fill out and post a three-day notice to pay rent or quit… then waited three days. The same paralegal then got the earliest court date - three weeks out. And the paralegal - who was great - served 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.
Data do Tribunal Número Quatro: Na próxima semana, o juiz original está de volta. Quando ele pediu seus recibos a Trish, ela puxou uma sacola de papel cheia do que parecia ser lixo e a jogou sobre a mesa. Meu marido pegou um recibo - é para uma refeição infantil no McDonalds. Ela alegou que os recibos das refeições eram para seus amigos pagantes que trabalhavam na casa com comida - para me economizar dinheiro! O juiz disse que ela tinha que 1) digitar seus recibos e 2) entregá-los a mim no mínimo 24 horas antes da próxima audiência. Ele marcou outra data para o julgamento, três semanas depois, já que o tribunal estava lotado.
Já se passaram quase três meses desde que afixei o aviso de três dias em sua porta, e ela está morando de graça na minha casa há quase seis meses. . . Tirei o dia de folga e dirigi nove horas para o tribunal e voltei quatro vezes. E ainda nem começamos a ter uma audiência completa.
Data do Tribunal Número Cinco: Na próxima audiência, começaremos às 13h, depois do almoço. Uau! Um tempo de partida muito melhor para essa viagem de 4,5 horas! Chegamos cedo, mas Trish não estava em lugar nenhum. O juiz fez a chamada e depois de terminar a chamada nos diz que nosso caso não será ouvido naquele dia, pois Trish havia chamado naquela manhã com a mesma desculpa - seu filho estava doente. Ele marcou outra audiência para a próxima semana às 10 horas. Isso significa que terei que sair de casa por volta das 5 da manhã para garantir que estarei lá a tempo para a audiência.
Data do Tribunal Número Seis: Na próxima audiência, meu marido (que soldado!) e eu estávamos lá às 9h30 - nada de Trish. Ainda não recebi nenhum recibo nem lista de recibos dela, apesar de o juiz ordenar que ela os forneça. O juiz chamou roll, e ela não estava lá. Ele nos disse que Trish havia ligado novamente para o tribunal para dizer que seu filho estava doente e ela tinha que buscá-lo na escola, e perguntou se eu concordaria em adiar a audiência para outro dia. Ele disse que ela encontraria uma babá e viria à tarde se a audiência não pudesse ser adiada.
Expliquei que esta era a sexta vez que eu dirigia 4,5 horas para ir ao tribunal, e que ela nunca havia pago NENHUM aluguel, já que seu primeiro cheque de aluguel havia sido devolvido, junto com seu depósito.
O juiz disse que entendia, e que iria adiar a audiência até as 16h, momento em que ouviria o caso, estando ela presente ou não. Meu marido me levou para um almoço descontraído, depois voltamos para o tribunal.
Ela não compareceu, então o juiz ouviu meu lado da história e, em seguida, julgou cerca de US$ 11 mil em meu favor por aluguel atrasado e danos. Quando saímos do tribunal eram 16h45, então fomos pressionados a tentar atravessar a fila na janela do funcionário para evitar ter que fazer aquela viagem novamente para obter a papelada para assinatura do juiz.
Enquanto estávamos na fila da janela do balconista, quem deveria aparecer senão Trish! Vestido com esmero, como um advogado, à nossa frente na fila para outro funcionário. Ela estava fingindo ser uma advogada que veio buscar o julgamento para seu “cliente”.
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. . .
My son - a self-proclaimed “Balloonatic” - in our garden behind the creek. The cat - a wandering wild cat tamed by my son when it was a kitten - was taken in by an elderly neighbor. I never knew her name, but we used to pick apricots for her every summer for years, and we would visit her - and our cat - every month or so, just to keep company. I’ve been unable to locate her since the fire, and have no idea if she (or our cat) made it out or not. I try not to think about that.
What was left of my house when allowed to come back to the property a couple of months after the Paradise Camp Fire. Look at the dead tree forming a “V” just above the two burnt-out center cars… The above photo of my young son was taken just behind that tree.