"An eviction tsunami"

[mikewof]

I finally got my cunt of a "tenant" out this past weekend.  She was ruled evicted by the court back in Oct, but was given a grace period where if she got out by the next Friday (1 Week), he would not file the eviction against her record.  She said fine, she would leave.  And then the very next monday appealed, which held up the entire process.   We just had the appeals hearing two weeks ago and was again told by the judge to GTFO because she didn't meet any grounds for appeal, but he again gave her the week to clear out and he would not file the eviction against her record.  We also offered her money, deposit back, etc to get her to leave the place clean and undamaged.  She agreed to meet me at the house this past Sunday at 1pm to turn over the keys.  Of course she was a no show and I had to get a locksmith to open the house and change the locks.  This is what we walked into this....... 

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I have never seen a more disgusting, filthy sight in my life.  The 1 year old refrigerator is going to have to be tossed as it smells like there is a dead body rotted inside.  The new GE Profile stove we put in a year ago is so disgustingly caked with burned on food that our cleaner says she'll never get it clean enough to use again.  Half eaten chicken bones from KFC in the bedroom.  Food everywhere on the floor.  And this was not an anomaly.  Everytime I went over there to do anything, the kitchen was a filthy health hazard.  She was a fat white trash girl who lived in her own filth.

We had had a few late payment issues with her in the past when she had fallen on hard times.  But after enough chasing, she usually made it back up.  As soon as covid and the moratorium hit, she immediately took advantage and just stopped paying.  Cold.  And ignored any calls to figure out how to catch her back up.  She would then tell the usual tale..... "I've lost my job, I was in a car accident, blah blah blah".  But we knew she had a good job.  In mediation, she said she would pay $500 over the current rent if she could stay, but offered no money to catch up the back rent.  We knew it was her usual stall tactic.  She was denied for the COVID rental assistance because she made too much money.  The Marshall who ran the court pulled us aside after the 2nd time in court to evict her said in any normal times, she would have been gone in weeks or LEO would have shown up at her door and dragged her out into the street and then locked her stuff in the house. He said now with the sensitivity around covid and evicting people, Judges have been bending over backwards to make it reasonable for the tenant who might be in a bad spot.  But he said he sees more like my white trash bitch just trying to capitalize on the situation and landlords like me trying to work with them, than people who are down on their lock and Landlords who are just being dicks.  

Fuck her and the box of twinkies she rode in on!!!  And @ShortForBob - I'd be tickled pink if this lying bitch were homeless during Christmas and living under an overpass in the snow.  She deserves everything she gets.  With an eviction on her record in this tight market, I'd be surprised if she could rent an abandoned crack house.

If it makes you feel any better, that mess would be on the "relatively clean" end of the spectrum of some of the past rentals that I managed. I tend to base them on the number of roll-offs that I need to clear the place out.  My record is three. And that wasn't me hiring anyone, it was me dragging that excrement out of the house but by bit over weeks of soul-crushing labor. At the worst point, I had to trash a teenage girl's personal stuff and even her diary. Her reprobate parents couldn't manage their alcoholism well enough to even help their daughter hold onto some faint tendrils of her young life.

 

[mikewof]

The water bill thing is also a matter of who should assume risk. A tree broke my main water line out in a part of the property where I seldom go and by the time I found it, our water bill was $800. And that after the city reduced it to their lowest rate.

We've got some old homes with old pipes in the concrete floors. One of those could run up a big bill. OK, who should have replaced the pipe sooner, the tenant or me?

Out West, the water bill is usually the landlord's final responsibility. It is an outgrowth of the original ditch operators not getting screwed by the railroad tenant farmers.

 

[mikewof]

 If you're constantly getting bad tenants, maybe there's another reason why. Could be the property, could be your vetting practices. 

Often times it has to do with the underlying economics of the area.

A landlord COULD "vet" out any potential undesirable as you seem to suggest. But many times we stupidly want to help people who need an affordable place to live and raise a family.  And yes, often times we are screwed in the process, but just as often we really do help people who need the help and they are able to become stable and healthy due to a mutually beneficial business transaction. 

 

[ShortForBob]

Meli's half truths again Tom. The property owner is billed for usage by the provider, the usage bill is passed on to the renter.

Not in Victoria. Tenants get their own water bill from the provider.

 

[ShortForBob]

The water bill thing is also a matter of who should assume risk. A tree broke my main water line out in a part of the property where I seldom go and by the time I found it, our water bill was $800. And that after the city reduced it to their lowest rate.

We've got some old homes with old pipes in the concrete floors. One of those could run up a big bill. OK, who should have replaced the pipe sooner, the tenant or me?

Depends on your lease agreement.

Here in Vic, generally the landlord is responsible for the building, inc pipes, heaters, air cond, and all fixtures that came with the property.

Unless the tenant fails to notify the landlord making the damage worse.

Ie if there is a leaking pipe and don't notify the landlord in a timely manner and the water damages floors. landlords are liable for the pipe. The tenant for the floor damage.

The cost of the lost water goes in the first instance to the tenant because they get the water bill. (the tenant can also get the the pipe fixed immediately if the pipe's leaking badly and the landlord fails to fix it)

Water loss cost could be negotiated with the landlord or taken to VCAT (Victorian civil administration tribunal) This body holds all bonds/deposits in residential leases so the Landlord cant take deposits for repairs on a whim.

 

[Fakenews]

So checking into this thread for the first time and wondering why it’s still going?  Haven’t seen any “tsunami of evictions” being reported.

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

So checking into this thread for the first time and wondering why it’s still going?  Haven’t seen any “tsunami of evictions” being reported.

You shouldn't really say that. The fear of the coming tsunami was the basis for the unconstitutional Trump/Biden moratorium. The fact that it turned out to be a ripple is very inconvenient and best not discussed.

 

[mikewof]

You shouldn't really say that. The fear of the coming tsunami was the basis for the unconstitutional Trump/Biden moratorium. The fact that it turned out to be a ripple is very inconvenient and best not discussed.

The moratorium was stretched so far that the lease expirations were able to take over, except in places like NYC, which still has its day of reckoning with the moratorium.

So the tsunami has been replaced with a scam to pass all these costs onto the property owners and ultimately onto the economy and taxpayers. In my case, $12k of lost revenue and tenants who burned through their tent money in inebriated and broken electronics. 

A few trillion here, a few trillion there, it eventually adds up to inescapable economic damage from which neither left nor right can use to their advantage.

Our economy gradually resembles the fate of University of Florida football; once a powerhouse; now struggles to be an also-ran.

 

[Burning Man]

Our economy gradually resembles the fate of University of Florida football; once a powerhouse; now struggles to be an also-ran.

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

Landlords Suing Over Lost Rent



Edited to correct archaic language usage.

Federal Court of Claims Rejects Buyback Claims Against CDC Eviction Moratorium

It went almost unnoticed amidst the dramatic legal developments at the Supreme Court. But, on May 17, US Court of Claims - the trial court that hears buybacks claims against the federal government - rejected a buybacks claim against the federal eviction moratorium, that had earlier been struck down by the Supreme Court as beyond the powers of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), which had enacted and reenacted it at the behest of first the Trump White House and later Biden. The buybacks case continued even after the moratorium ended, because the plaintiff property owners still sought compensation for the losses they suffered during the roughly 11-month period that the moratorium was in effect before the Supreme Court invalidated it.


In a post written when the buybacks lawsuit was first filed, I explained why the argument that eviction moratoria qualify as buybacks requiring compensation under the Fifth Amendment was boosted by the Supreme Court's 2021 ruling in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid:

...
The Court of Claims ruling didn't reject this reasoning. Instead, it ruled against the plaintiffs because the eviction moratorium was never properly authorized by Congress. Ironically, the Supreme Court's ruling against the legality of the CDC's policy actually helped the agency in the buybacks case
...

So it remains unresolved whether the rent at issue counts as a buyback or not.

 

[MR.CLEAN]

Resolved under existing law, which is no longer a thing, apparently.

 

[mikewof]

Resolved under existing law, which is no longer a thing, apparently.

Resolved? The exemption is gone, but the reimbursement has not been enacted. The Housing Protection people do not return my emails, they moved the program out of state, outsourced it to a company in Mississippi, and they don't return phone calls or emails either. I still have about $12k worth of damage and back rent in my late grandmother's house to pay off from the COVID exemption with apparently zero effort from the people who received Federal tax dollars.

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

Resolved? The exemption is gone, but the reimbursement has not been enacted. The Housing Protection people do not return my emails, they moved the program out of state, outsourced it to a company in Mississippi, and they don't return phone calls or emails either. I still have about $12k worth of damage and back rent in my late grandmother's house to pay off from the COVID exemption with apparently zero effort from the people who received Federal tax dollars.

Sounds like a buyback to me and should be eligible for compensation under the fifth amendment as such, but the problem the court identified is that it can't really be a legit buyback if the agency didn't have the authority to do it in the first place. So because they shouldn't have done it, you're screwed on the compensation front.

 

[mikewof]

Sounds like a buyback to me and should be eligible for compensation under the fifth amendment as such, but the problem the court identified is that it can't really be a legit buyback if the agency didn't have the authority to do it in the first place. So because they shouldn't have done it, you're screwed on the compensation front.

Nope, they have to pay.

I am responsible for my screw-ups, they are responsible for their screw-ups.

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

Another tsunami on the rise?

Los Angeles County Extends Its Eviction Moratorium Again, Citing Rising COVID, Flu, RSV Cases

One of the country's longest-running eviction bans will last a little longer. Last week, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a one-month extension of its eviction moratorium, citing rising cases of COVID, flu, and other respiratory illnesses.

A motion approved by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors last week prohibits the eviction of lower-income delinquent tenants who claim a COVID-19-related financial hardship through the end of January 2023. Renters also can't be removed for causing nuisances or having unauthorized pets and occupants.

The same motion asks county staff to study the feasibility of extending the moratorium through the end of June 2023, or over three years after the original May 31, 2020 expiration date for the county's eviction ban.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated our housing crisis, and experts fear an 'eviction tsunami' is on the horizon if we don't take bold, swift action," said Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis on Twitter last week, shortly before the board approved the one-month extension. "Our families need eviction protections for at least an additional 6 months."
...

Because protecting the public health makes it necessary for landlords to just tolerate unauthorized pets (and the enormous liability that comes with them), nuisances, and unauthorized occupants.

Why?

No reason anyone will name because this is just another panicdemic power grab. A policy solution without political support seeking "emergency" support because PANIC!! It's a PANICDEMIC!!! Any power grab goes, get 'em while they're hot, or even long after they've cooled to room temperature.

 

[Goodvibes]

Meli's half truths again Tom. The property owner is billed for usage by the provider, the usage bill is passed on to the renter.

 

[00seven]

Wow. It only took you 12 months to figure out a VPN & fake email so you could respond. Well done, Randy!

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

The much feared eviction tsunami's have turned out to be ripples, hardly worthy of an emergency power grab.

Want to know what can REALLY cause a wave of evictions?

A 440% increase in property taxes.

...
He and his mother own the 10-unit Lincoln Park apartment complex. Last year's tax bill for all 10 units combined was $23,674, but now the same 10 units are $128,282 dollars this year; up 440%.

"I was outraged. These are basically simple one bedroom units for college graduates who work downtown," added Markellos.
...

The tax authorities say they can apply for a reduction maybe next year. After coming up with the $128k right away, of course.