This is an update on a prior post, to evict a tenant, after giving her a 30 day notice that I was not renewing her lease. She did not move.

Tenant sends me an email yesterday. I find it funny. She never communicated with me since last September at all and now I get an email every night or two, LOL. Here it is in quotations.

"I received the one on my door just the other day which is why. Did you personally hand me anything??? No you didn’t. I have changed the locks because the door is such junk and was never fixed. I wasn’t even able to lock it".

In 22 months living there, she never reported an issue with the door or the lock. She tells me she changed the lock and it happened to be two days before I was supposed to come in. Coincidence? Of course not.

She is referring to the reminder that I put on her door the day before she was supposed to be out and 2 days before I was going in to be sure she had moved completely out and took all her belongings. She is one of those tenants that like to procrastinate about everything. I had put two other notices on there previously. She claimed not to get the 30 day, even though I posted it on her door, mailed a copy and sent an email of it, with confirmation of delivery by email. I did not send it by certified mail as I knew she would not sign for it, so it would look like I never sent it.

In 10 months living there, she never reported an issue with the door or the lock. She tells me she changed the lock, two days before I was supposed to come in. Coincidence? Of course not.

I am guessing she thought I wouldn't file for eviction if she made me think she was going to be out. NOPE. Not falling for it. Want it on the record that I was evicting so she couldn't just stall until Biden gets in there and makes it impossible to evict anyone for any reason. Worried about that.

She sent by email, the following.

"Don’t worry I’m moving out, but it won’t be for another week. Why waste your time filing? Not my money wasted though.

Anyway. I filed today. Tried to make sure I had given the judge any info he may need. Now I have to call in on court date and time. I hope it is an easy process.

Luckily filing costs have not gone up for a few years at $94.50. Surprisingly, sheriff's fees in total got better. $85 for service total. It used to be $85, plus around $40 every time they attempted to service the eviction notice.

I hope they can serve her in time for eviction. If everything goes according to plan, and since I have both eviction and money judgement in the filing, if I get the eviction, the judge should allow me another date to submit what she owes in money damages. Of course I will add the cost of the locksmith I will need if she locks the door with her new lock and I can't get in.

Wish me luck with the judge. First time in front of this one after the previous one retired.

Thanks for the update. I hope it goes the way you want. WOW I'm envious of how inexpensive your court & sheriff's fees are.

Good job filling and not letting her get away with it.

She will, hopefully soon, find out that this does hurt her in the end.

Look many get caught up in the he said and she said game in court. I was guilty of it for years.

Here in our state rent can not be withheld for say repairs. The judge starts off court telling Every ONE THIS IS ABOUT RENT AND NOTHING ELSE. Although the court may sympathize with you and your claims-- we are here about rent only.

Don't get dragged into a ballet about repairs if your there for rent.

We finally started using a RE atty versed in Evictions. We saw the guy who handles all the apt complexes and he's now our guy also. If the tenant is in court and there is time set for their complaint-- our guy handles it. It removes us from the proceedings and removes the target off our back.

It was 22 months. She moved in March 2019 Steve. I originally put 10 months in error and thought I had changed it to 22 months before posting that.

I have no intention of mentioning rent or damages, etc at the court hearing. I only mentioned that she changed the locks as it will show that she planned to stay after the lease had ended. The judge would know right then that she broke lease terms without the mention of rent.

My hope is, that she does not phone in to the court procedure which would give me an automatic win. I am however prepared. The judge will have the lease to prove that she is month to month and in this state, I do not have to give a reason to not renew.

I did not tell her about the declaration as it is not my job to do so. That is like knowing a robber is in your area and putting a note on the door, telling visitors that you are not home and the door is unlocked so come on in. An open invitation. I will focus on non renewal only.

She was not a bad tenant the first year as she paid her portion of rent on time or close to it. She was so lucky to only have to pay $180 month including utilities.

Then something happened. Not sure if she went on drugs or what but she would not renew with HUD and they kicked her off the program for not renewing. I only found out because they sent me a letter stating that she was no longer on the program. I contacted her and she seemed shocked and said she would never do anything to go off the program and did not get the letter from HUD. They sent it twice and GAVE it to her in person after I contacted them. She didn't return it then either.

"sadly many parents are not good parents"

I get my locks from Landlordlocks so each cylinder is numbered. I don't think I have any identifying marks on the lockset itself.

I will have to see what I paid for my locks on my last statement. I have an email where she stated she changed the locks in her own typed words.

I doubt highly I will collect anything. She has a poor little me mindset. I want her and her drama out first. Then I will continue with the money judgement.

If this does go to a rent issue, I do have proof that she lied to an agency that helped with pay her rent. Just found out a couple days ago that she told them she was homeless. She has lived in my apartment since March 2019 and has never been homeless in all that time, as she is still there.

Ray-N-Pa,

She is convinced that I can't evict her since she is behind in rent and won't even consider that she has to move because of non renewal.

WMH NC you posted that myob IS RIGHT ON this one!!!! R U SAYING I HAVEN'T BEEN RIGHT ON ALL MY POSTS?

Cat, you said that you had proof that she lied for the rental assistance. Use that proof against her and have her arrested.

Thanks everyone for your feedback. It is appreciated.

6x6. I don't think she lied on the HUD application but lied about not getting paperwork, about calling them (never did) and not renewing.

Apparently according to someone in the WRAP program, she lied on that application about being homeless.

I don't want her arrested,only for selfish reasons. I don't want her to be held up from getting her stuff out and actually moving out. Having her arrested, which would not help me, would give her another excuse to not be moved out and I doubt they would arrest her anyway. She does have a 12 yr old son. It would just make things more complicated and time consuming. She was arrested a few months ago, for theft, so she is certainly not an upstanding citizen. She didn't have anything bad on her record when I approved her in 2019.

I also don't want the person that told me that she lied on the application in the WRAP program to be thrown under the bus because she was nice enough to give me that info. Hopefully the judge will just give me the eviction and for me to not have to drap this out with other things until she is out and I can complete the case with the money amount owed.