Once upon a time, a tenant was more than $2,000 behind in rent. The big bad landlord huffed and he puffed, but he failed to evict the tenant properly and the landlord wound up settling to pay the tenant $1,650, plus $5,600 in legal fees and costs. The moral of this story is to follow the rules when evicting a tenant.
I love the smell of bad landlords in the morning. It is not that I favor tenants, but landlords can be bad actors when they do not have to be.
No one wants piggies living in their rental property, especially if the piggies do not pay their rent, but you cannot huff and puff and put all their stuff out on the street, or cut off their utilities or change the locks. Tenants in possession do have rights. So do landlords.
There is a proper legal procedure for eviction. It can be done. For more information, go to www.hud.gov and click on “Rental Assistance” under the “Topic Areas.” Learn about your rights and duties, whether you are a landlord or a tenant.
