I am settling the estate of my Brother who passed away. I let a relative live in the house rent free to watch the house. A year has passed and house is up for sale. Relative will not leave! What is the legal state of this person? I want to say they are not a tenant. However, when you request the police to remove the person they always want some type of legal piece of paper to do it. Where to I stand or what are the actions I can take? --70.158.xxx.xx

Eviction. --199.192.xxx.x

May be time to call his mother. --73.25.xx.xxx

There’s a statewide eviction moratorium until oct 17th --66.30.xx.xx

have the estate's attorney handle it for you --72.70.xxx.xxx

BRAD --73.102.xxx.xxx

BRAD --73.102.xxx.xxx

--71.174.xxx.xx

I would pursue this argument: this is not a suit for rent but other legal issue. C-19 Laws are for NONE PAYMENT of rent. --99.103.xxx.xxx

Just a friend go through a similar thing in MA but it was the adult brother living with the parent rent free. When the parent died, they ended up paying the brother to move because the house would not have shown or sold with him in there. --73.17.xx.xxx

That's an interesting idea. Do you mind sharing the purpose of doing this? To write off the expense that the freeloaders incurred? Can we also bill them (of course they wouldn't pay) and put it in their credit report as debt? One day when they want to take out a loan to buy a house, banks usually make them pay all debts. I had a dead beat tenant came back to pay back-rent 3 years later after she got evicted because that was a condition to get a mortgage. --199.27.xxx.xxx

Welcome to landlording. --70.92.xxx.xxx

ChicagoLL they will have to pay the IRS based on the amount of forgiven debt. You cant collect on a judgment if you forgive the debt,i prefer to hang onto the judgments as well,i just had one call me from a judgment due to eviction,$1240 judgment with interest cost him $2058.Made him drive to my partners office to pay us over an hour away from where he lives even though i was going to be within 15 minutes of his town later that day --104.229.xxx.xxx

Also agree with Busy. By living in the house, they have established a legal tenancy. Threats and bribes are your only recourse until you can evict. --107.141.xx.xxx

ChicagoLL, when you do a barter such as this, both parties are suppose to report the fair market value of the item or services as income on their tax returns. It won't really matter to you as you can already deduct any expenses that you incurred during this ordeal. However it will become taxable income for him which means he will have to pay income taxes on the forgiven debt& possibly put him in a different tax bracket. --71.174.xxx.xx

How and what wording do you use to evict? Seems critical to me. Don't forget your in one of those yankee states. LL who is right is never Wright? --99.103.xxx.xxx

The word you're looking for is "occupant." --98.245.xx.xx

I’d get a RE attorney to take a look at the situation, unless the house is basically a throw away house , which I am doubtful exists in Massachusetts. Here, in a very few areas, we still have houses listed for under ten thousand dollars that don’t sell, cuz they aren’t worth any where near that much. --70.92.xxx.xxx

--24.127.xxx.xx

Unfortunately no you can't even file a case except for very limited reasons until 10/17/2020. Of course our wimpy governor might decide to move that date to some time in 2021. --71.174.xxx.xx

Remove the for sale listing. This is going to be a long process. Hopefully, the estate has enough money to pay for it. --70.160.xxx.xxx

Look at 1099C.. I used that once --75.138.xxx.xxx

While I agree that you will most likely have to evict, the 1099 angle would be more rewarding for you because of the timing. If this person has been collecting unemployment ( and collecting the extra $600.00 per week) then you have a lot of leverage. Let him know that you will be sending the 1099 for $1000.00 per week and that you will be making unemployment aware of it. Remind him that he will have to pay back his unemployment windfall once they become aware of his unreported compensation. That should convince him to move along. --68.118.xxx.xx

Sorry this is such a mess for you - time to find that pit bull of a lawyer! --108.36.xx.xx

Anyway, in the OP's case, I would say go ahead and evict but check the eviction moratorium laws and make sure. --73.120.xx.xxx

--47.155.xx.xxx

Before you deal with the deadbeat, empty the house except for his rented basement. Get a moving crew to quickly move all your brother's items out so the tenant can't steal anything. Once your brother's possessions are out of there, then they might be easily persuaded to leave, if not, evict but at least there's nothing for him to steal. After all, they are your brother's things, and you are handling his estate. What right does the deadbeat have to stop you? They aren't the tenant's items. --108.69.xxx.xxx

also it was recently discussed on here how 1099s aren't to be used the way many of us generally thought. --72.70.xxx.xxx

Allan,I don’t like being the bearer of bad news ,but,butbut you may have to dig into your hip pocket and retrive some of those dollar bills,you know those bills you had stashed away for a rainy day,well the rainy day is here,big time and you’ll have to hire a real estate Lawyer and have him advise you,probably have him go ahead and evict your deadbeat relative,that’s the price you have to pay for doing something nice for someone.....................@@@@@...................................charlie..........not all people are decent,sad to say? --32.214.xxx.xx

Someone said to go there and take pictures,if you do that ,just watch your back,your relative won’t be happy to see you,snooping around with a camera,even a cheap one!........................charlie --32.214.xxx.xx

6X6, that is incorrect, in MA the eviction moratorium covers all non-essential evictions. Basically only evictions that are due to “health and safety” can proceed. I’m not sure, but I suspect other states may also be this way. --70.20.xx.xx

Thank you JKJ. --73.120.xx.xxx