Eviction

I had to evict the tenants in the Unsellable Condo in Vinings. Actually, "evict" is too strong a term - I terminated their lease in accordance with the terms of the contract, and initially gave them three days to move out. They had moved in last January, but had stopped paying rent in April, the husband claiming that he had lost his job. They finally came up with April's rent in early May - thanks in part to Catholic charities - but May went unpaid, as did June.

The final blow came while I was in Portland and got a call from the property manager for the unit below mine saying that a leak from my bathroom was coming into his tenants' unit, and had already destroyed his bedroom furniture and wardrobe. Apparently, a leak had occurred in my unit's shower valves, and since he was behind in the rent and trying to avoid me, my tenant tried to repair it himself but only made matters worse. From Portland, I had to call a plumber and have him fix the shower, which wound up costing over $850.

Worse, the plumber told me that when he first knocked on the door, a 4-year-old girl answered the door and said that her parents weren't home. He refused to enter the premises with an unsupervised minor, a decision against which I could not argue. It took a second day of flooding the downstairs unit before I could remotely coordinate a plumber with the adult tenants.

Unpaid rent, unreported repairs, unsupervised children - that was enough to get the better of my patience and generosity, so I told them I couldn't wait any longer for them to try to catch up on the back rent. Two weeks ago, I hand delivered the lease termination paperwork - handed to a lone little girl who answered the door and told me that her Mommy and her Daddy weren't home.

On-line advise that I found said that if tenants refuse to leave, it's actually cheaper to bribe them with a couple of hundred dollars than it is to hire an attorney, go to magistrate court, file for eviction, etc. I was prepared to offer the tenants up to $300 for their "troubles," but before I could offer, they called and requested one more week so that they could wrap up work and move the kids to South Carolina to be with their grandparents.

No problem. One more week costs me nothing more - it was cheaper than handing them $300. And I was glad that the kids were being moved to a place where they could finally get the supervision they deserved. I told them they had until Friday, and to leave the keys and gate remotes on the mantle and I'll come by on Saturday to collect them.

I went by yesterday to inspect the premises and collect the keys and remotes. I knocked on the door before entering, and hearing no answer, I entered. They were obviously in the process of moving - most everything was packed up and all - but they still hadn't left. I left a message on their cell saying that I needed them out, and today.

I got a call back from the wife apologizing for not having left yet, but that she was having problems (allegedly a lost ATM card, problems renting a van, etc). She promised to be done later that day.

I got a second call later that evening, asking to be let back into the unit. Apparently, she had left the door unlocked during the day and when I had come by to inspect the premises, I had locked her out. I zipped over to let her in.

The wife and her eldest son were managing the move alone - Dad had moved back in with his mother and left the young ones and the move to her. Nice. Her plans were to take the kids to her mother's home in South Carolina, come back to Atlanta to finish out her job over this summer, and re-join her children in September. She looked exhausted - beyond exhausted - and since it was already 8:30 at night, before she had a chance to ask, I told her it was alright for her to stay one more night before driving to South Carolina. Just be done by Sunday afternoon.

I came by again this afternoon and they had taken everything out of the condo - but everything was now stacked up outside by the front entrance, and once again they weren't there. Another telephone call confirmed that they would be coming back for the rest of their stuff. I didn't stick around to watch.

Walking through the empty unit was depressing - the place was trashed. Major stains on the carpet will require steam treatment, the "repaired" shower still needs to be re-tiled and the wallpaper in that bathroom was peeling off the wall. There were holes in the walls that need re-spackling and re-painting. A ceiling fan light fixture had been pulled out of the ceiling and was hanging by wires. And that's just what I noticed during a brief tour.

I will be meeting a contractor there this week to get an estimate on the repairs. I'll have the cleaning girl who's been keeping my house "show ready" go by when the contractor's through and clean up. And the property manager of the unit below is asking me for compensation for his tenant's losses. All of this will cost me, and the Unsellable Condo continues to drain my finances. I'll find new tenants, hopefully more reliable than the last two, and rent the place out again with the hope that the balance sheet will eventually go into the black, although this year I'll obviously close in the red. To move to Portland, I need reliable tenants there who won't flood the units downstairs, won't let unsupervised children answer the door, and will pay the rent in a timely manner. I hate to think I won't be able to move because of the Unsellable Condo.

As Tyler Durden warned in Fight Club, "The things you own end up owning you."