Here's the situation: we have a rental house on a month-to-month lease. Both parties - boyfriend/girlfriend - signed the lease. Girlfriend just called to say that her boyfriend is in jail - probably longterm. She is locked out of the house and would like to get back in to get her stuff out. June rent has been paid, amazingly.

We don't have a problem letting the girlfriend back in to get her things out since she's on the lease. She doesn't want to get her boyfriend's stuff out, partly because there's a lot and it's too heavy for her.

Question: Is there anything legally we can do before the end of June, since the rent is paid, to begin to empty the house? Do we have to go through an eviction process?

Find out where he is in jail.

Contact him and see if he will sign papers saying he is surrendering the lease. Get him to sign.

Ask if he has someone to remove his stuff, get contact info and arrange to get stuff out.

If he does not want stuff, get signed letter with permission to dispose of it. If it has any value, offer to sell it, have it sold via auction or whatever and net cash after your expenses sent to his account at jail.

This often gets results as usually all their stuff gets thrown in the dump.

Tell him you're helping him rather than just evicting and trashing his things.

Agree with all the others.

But first try to get the girlfriend to handle things.

Contacting the boyfriend, getting papers signed, at least helping moving out the other stuff.

Explain how you are trying to help her out to keep a judgement off her credit report and any garnishments.

I had a tenant who ended up going to jail leaving his apartment in the hands of a companion. When rent time came no one was to be found. Parents, emergency contacts and friends never returned my calls. I had no choice but to do a legal eviction. My attorney had the jail bird tenant notified and served in jail. I won my eviction by a default judgment.

I had to document every item taking pictures. I put the entire contents in storage. I fixed up the unit and re-rented it to limit my damages and start getting rent again.

I then advertised and conducted a legal auction. Almost no one showed up at the auction so things were donated to charity.

When the x-tenant, jailbird, got released from jail his first order of business was to hire an attorney and issue threats -- unless I fork over tons of money, he was going to sue me.

Now it was my turn. I refused to return phone calls. Letters went unanswered. There was a judgement for eviction recorded against my x-tenant so this wasn't a mystery.

Since they didn't have a case against me and the x-tenants attorney knew he didn't have a case, they finally left me alone.

Jointly and severally liable. Is that in your lease?

I'd come down hard onthe girl first to get all the stuff out.

If she takes it, I don't care who's it is. Chances are if she just takes her stuff, it's all going to be ransacked by her and the interim new boyfriend anyway and you'll have more of a mess.

KathyB,

Jail bird criminals: Reason 910 why you MUST keep your personal name and info private from renters and applicants. He'll make friends in jail too!

Stuff: This a common everyday problem in LLing and should be addressed in a proper lease. If not you have a case of WimpyLeaseItis.

First, call the jail. He might. bto you hFI ne released on bond. Don't take the GF's word.

My lease is clear: 4 Emergency Contacts per adult and one is marked "In the case of death, incapacity, or incarceration this trusted person may remove my personal property".

It also states we may deliver abandoned items to the Emer Contacts. So we take tons of photos, box/bag up ff, and deliver the pile to Parent's or Granny's porch with a tarp over it. Take more photos to prove it was delivered safely.

Provide notice in writing telling him where his stuff is. Everything on the up and up.

I would never sell his stuff because people get weird if you touch their stuff AND they will claim you cheated them on price. Now they are really mad at you personally and will be out someday.

BRAD

Thank you all very much for excellent ideas. I will discuss these with my business partner. Brad, we will include your lease ideas in the future. And we will definitely verify what the GF told us. And we will document everything we do.Thank you. Great input!

Jail or Prison. I'm told there's a difference, jail being short term and prison is the long stay. Find out which and for how long. This will help your strategy. If it's a month, you might not be able to persuade him.

Give the jailbird some say in the matter.

Dear Jail Bird,

I noticed you no longer live at my place at 123 Main Street as you are here. Your GF doesn't live there either at this point, so who do you want to take and store your stuff for the next 99 years? Please understand that this storage is at your cost so let me know how I can assist you in what you want done.

I can always sell your items so you don't have to pay for the storage or this other person you know can get rid of the stuff for you. Either way - you should have a say on where your stuff is going as it is clear that you are not coming back to this home any time soon and you can't afford to pay rent there if you are living here. Since I want to save you as much money as possible - let me know how you want your items disposed of.