Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Eviction

Tenants have left by early July.  They call me to tell me that there is water in the basement, so the man who was moving them out, can't move their stuff out of the basement.  and....oh by the way...We turned the electricity off the 3rd week in June.  WHAT!!!      That means the sump pump was running on battery until it was exhausted.  Now it needs to be replaced. 

Upstairs, they had pulled the battery out of the smoke detector.  This was a hard wired detector.  No battery and no electricity means the house was not protected from smoke detection.

In the girl's bedroom, there are burn marks on the floor.  It looks like they left a curling iron on the floor.  The contractor says it will take about $500 to refinish the floor and maybe cost more, as some of the boards may have to be replaced.

The door knobs are missing from the bathroom and the bedrooms. 

I had talked to the tenants that they are forbidden to hang anything on the walls unless they use a 3M stick on hanger.  If you bang on a plaster wall , you loosen the plaster from the lath.  Walking around doing on inspection, I see at least 10 nails in the walls. 

In the sun porch:  a  window divider is broken.  Does this mean the whole window has to come out and be remade?   

The basement is stuffed with junk...much of it holiday decorations...all wet and growing mold.

Out in the yard, 2 Bull Bags are sitting, filled, waiting for pickup.  The Barbaritos have ordered these canvas mini dumpsters.  I expected they would call and the bill would be theirs.   Several weeks go by.  The tenants refuse my phone calls.  I call the Bull Bag people, who inform me that I must pay to have the bags picked up and emptied.

It is time to clean up and make repairs.  My attorney says that since they left the keys and left the house for parts unknown, they have legally abandoned the house.  I can enter and take possession.  I empty their security deposit and start paying bills.  It may cover about half the loss.   I thought We were avoiding Housing Court, but I see this will be impossible.