Evicting Tenants

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jenny35
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
J

Jenny35

Guest
This is bothering me, and I keep telling myself to leave it alone, that it’s none of my business, but it keeps getting brought up, so maybe someone else can weigh in?

A friend of mine is 30, has a good job but spends his money very poorly and lives with his mother. Has never lived on his own. He has met a young lady that he plans on asking to marry him next summer. The part that bothers me; his mother owns a rental home which has been occupied by the same tenant for 10 years. They plan on evicting that tenant in March so that my friend can live in the house.

I realize it’s their property, they can do with it what they want, but it has set wrong with me ever since he told me a few months ago and every time it’s brought up, it just leaves me with a sick feeling. I’m not going to say anything to him, but am I wrong in being bothered by this?

Anyone? (Bueller?)
 
hi Jenny35,

No, I don’t think that you are wrong at all for how you feel.

After reading your post, I feel the same way.

I think that it is wrong that they want to evict a tenant that has lived there for all of those years. I don’t know if they can just do that, without cause though, especially if that person is on a lease. I am no legal expert.

The best thing that the Mom can do for her son and new DIL is to let them live on their own somewhere else so that they can learn how to budget their money, and learn how to take care of themselves.

I am assuming that by living in her rental property, she may be giving them a break–that is why she wants the other tenant out of there.
 
I don’t see that there is anything wrong with it. If the mother wants to live in the rental or let her son live in the rental, that’s her choice. As for the renters, it’s possible they aren’t on a lease anymore but just a month-to-month basis. As a courtesy, I would give them more than the required notice of 30 days since they have been there so long, but otherwise, there’s nothing wrong with asking them to vacate so you can use the property yourself.
 
If the tenants are getting lots of notice, this isn’t out of line. Renting is a two-way street. On the one hand, the tenants may have to leave a home that they have loved, but on the other hand, they have hopefully been spared 10 years of anxiety over repairs and maintenance.

I would not move an unsatisfactory adult child into a rental home of mine (what if you had to evict them–yikes!), but it seems like bad financial decision-making runs in this family. Since your friend is the unsatisfactory adult child, it doesn’t seem like it would be your place to talk his mom out of this. If she were your friend, it might be OK to ask once, “What do you think Jeffrey is going to learn from having a free house with no strings attached?”
 
As long as she doesn’t trump up any reasons to evict them (like damages to property, nuisance, etc…) and does it in accordance with the lease that was signed, I don’t see anything wrong with it.
 
Evicting a tenant so a family member can live on a property is not immoral, provided that it doesn’t violate local laws. (It is possible that local law only allows eviction without cause if the property is to be occupied by the landlord personally or has been sold to a new owner, that kind of thing.)

There is a reason people buy instead of rent, after all. The tenant ought be given as much advance notice as possible, however, and certainly as much as the law requires. If it happened to me, well, that’s one of those things. As long as there was no “handshake” agreement about never evicting me, that kind of thing, I wouldn’t feel abused if I were being evicted so that the landlord’s son or daughter could live there. Again: this is why people *buy *property. If the tenants had wanted to move out, after all, all they had to do was give notice. They don’t have to find a buyer, they don’t have to worry about what will happen with the house or the money tied up in it if it doesn’t sell, they don’t have to worry about an upside-down mortgage if the price had fallen since they bought it. That is their freedom, and it has a downside, too. 🤷
 
Jenny35 said:
I realize it’s their property, they can do with it what they want, but it has set wrong with me ever since he told me a few months ago and every time it’s brought up, it just leaves me with a sick feeling. I’m not going to say anything to him, but am I wrong in being bothered by this?

Anyone? (Bueller?)
Click to expand...
I don’t see anything wrong with what they are doing. And I don’t think you are wrong for being bothered by it. However, I do think that is NOT what is really bothering you. I think you need to get at the root of what is bothering you. Is it jealously that this friend is getting a free ride? Is it because you were once unfairly evicted? I really think there is more to it that just the surface

Angie
 
You are not wrong. You could intercede for them so that the outcome is favorable for them.
 
It is a business relation between landlord and tenant, period.

If there is a lease, at the end of the lease either party can choose not to renew the lease as long as proper notice is given.

In most states that have what is known as “tenant at will”, only 30 days notice is required for both parties.

However, I have rarely seen rental situations with family members end well. And quite honestly, your friend sound like a “man-child” and I feel sorry for his future wife because it sounds like she’ll be getting both a husband and a child for the price of one!

Bottom line: You may not like it, and yes, it’s none of your business. (You did ask!)
 
Yes to everything Coach Dennis said. It’s a bad plan all around and it’s going to cause a lot of hurt feelings before this is over, but it’s not the OP’s business.
 
Xantippe said:
Yes to everything Coach Dennis said. It’s a bad plan all around and it’s going to cause a lot of hurt feelings before this is over, but it’s not the OP’s business.
Click to expand...
I didn’t ask if it was my business. In fact, I clearly stated that I know it’s NOT. I also said, I’m not going to talk to the person about it. I was asking an opinion on the feelings I have.
 
Anglewannabe said:
I don’t see anything wrong with what they are doing. And I don’t think you are wrong for being bothered by it. However, I do think that is NOT what is really bothering you. I think you need to get at the root of what is bothering you. Is it jealously that this friend is getting a free ride? Is it because you were once unfairly evicted? I really think there is more to it that just the surface

Angie
Click to expand...
It bothers me because they are going to give her 30 days notice in March and they’ve been talking about this, picking out paint colors, buying dishes etc since October. The reason they are waiting until March is b/c he isn’t going to have enough to money until then. Had they told her in October that she had to leave in March, I wouldn’t be posting this.

I rent. I don’t want to buy, it’s not a jealousy thing. It’s the long term planning to kick her out with next to no notice after her living there for as long as she has that feels wrong to me. This person is somewhat self righteous and often talks about how others don’t do the right thing, he’s JW, so he’s always evangelizing and this just seems sneaky and underhanded.

But there is definitely a mixed bag of opinions here, so maybe I am wrong in feeling this way?
 
Jenny35 said:

“I was asking an opinion on the feelings I have.”

Sorry. As to that, you are totally right in feeling squicked out by the situation. You’ll just have to decide if you want to be friends with these people, or if it’s just too much. You don’t have to be friends with everybody. I wouldn’t be friends with him, unless he had some other huge redeeming qualities, because I just wouldn’t have enough in common with him.

The only thing I can suggest is to offer to send the young couple to a personal finance class as your engagement gift to them. (Get the green light from them first, so you don’t buy them something they won’t use. Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University is good, but I’m sure there are other good ones.)
 
Jenny35 said:
The part that bothers me; his mother owns a rental home which has been occupied by the same tenant for 10 years. They plan on evicting that tenant in March so that my friend can live in the house.
Click to expand...
Just an aside:

A good long-term tenant is gold. As an owner of several rental properties, if I had a 10 year tenant who paid on time and didn’t destroy the property, NO WAY would I evict them to make way for a relative who “spends his money very poorly.”
 
I’m a landlord… I see nothing wrong with evicting a tenant in order to move in a family member. Landlord-tenant relationship is a business. I’m not the tenants’ buddy, nor are they mine.

That said, I like stable tenants, heck, let’s rephrase that, I love stable tenants. If they pay on time and treat my property well, then I will reward them by keeping the rent under the market rate for the area. They continue to get a good deal, I continue to get a cash flow I don’t have to worry too much about. So I too would be loathe to kick a stable tenant out to bring in a potentially unstable relative. Unless of course I had money to burn and I really wanted to help that relative.
 
EasterJoy said:
Evicting a tenant so a family member can live on a property is not immoral, provided that it doesn’t violate local laws. (It is possible that local law only allows eviction without cause if the property is to be occupied by the landlord personally or has been sold to a new owner, that kind of thing.)

There is a reason people buy instead of rent, after all. The tenant ought be given as much advance notice as possible, however, and certainly as much as the law requires. If it happened to me, well, that’s one of those things. As long as there was no “handshake” agreement about never evicting me, that kind of thing, I wouldn’t feel abused if I were being evicted so that the landlord’s son or daughter could live there. Again: this is why people *buy *property. If the tenants had wanted to move out, after all, all they had to do was give notice. They don’t have to find a buyer, they don’t have to worry about what will happen with the house or the money tied up in it if it doesn’t sell, they don’t have to worry about an upside-down mortgage if the price had fallen since they bought it. That is their freedom, and it has a downside, too. 🤷
Click to expand...
Easterjoy is right. Also, I want to point out that generally speaking you cannot evict someone because you want to. There are eviction laws that have to be followed. I don’t know in which state you are and eviction laws differ from state to state but eviction usually doesn’t work like hey I want you out. There must be a reason. Non-payment or breach of the lease if there is one may be reasons but landlords must follow the landlord tenant law. In my state MA, landlord tenant law is completely favoring the tenant and evicting someone can be a real nightmare. Not all states are so inclined to one side as MA but the landlord need to follow the law, if they don’t they may get in big trouble.
 
BettyBoop416 said:
Just an aside:

A good long-term tenant is gold. As an owner of several rental properties, if I had a 10 year tenant who paid on time and didn’t destroy the property, NO WAY would I evict them to make way for a relative who “spends his money very poorly.”
Click to expand...
^^^ Bingo here! I can say you are a very smart and skilled landlord. My soon to be husband is a a landlord lawyer and what you just said is exactly the same advice he gives to many landlords that come wondering should I let x tenant go for a relative or for someone with section 8.
 
marymary1975 said:
Easterjoy is right. Also, I want to point out that generally speaking you cannot evict someone because you want to. There are eviction laws that have to be followed. I don’t know in which state you are and eviction laws differ from state to state but eviction usually doesn’t work like hey I want you out. There must be a reason. Non-payment or breach of the lease if there is one may be reasons but landlords must follow the landlord tenant law. In my state MA, landlord tenant law is completely favoring the tenant and evicting someone can be a real nightmare. Not all states are so inclined to one side as MA but the landlord need to follow the law, if they don’t they may get in big trouble.
Click to expand...
Many states have websites which outline tenant’s and landlord’s rights and obligations. It would be a good idea for anyone in a rental situation, landlord or tenant, to know those rights and rules thoroughly, but especially if an eviction is planned.

Having said that, in many states moving a blood relative into a property is one way to accomplish an eviction.
 
EasterJoy said:
Many states have websites which outline tenant’s and landlord’s rights and obligations. It would be a good idea for anyone in a rental situation, landlord or tenant, to know those rights and rules thoroughly, but especially if an eviction is planned.

Having said that, in many states moving a blood relative into a property is one way to accomplish an eviction.
Click to expand...
True, landlords need to know the laws in their State. We don’t know the State so we can’t know know if they are following the laws or no, but certainly if they want to evict someone they have to check the laws and make sure they are following the law 100% on every little detail.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top