The Successful Landlord Blog

Well, the hearing was definitely interesting. It was nothing like I had experienced before. It just goes to show that county court judges have all kinds of latitude when it comes to how they conduct the court’s business. For the record, I have never been before this judge prior to today.

Once the judge called roll, he stipulated that what he usually does is assign a mediator to the two parties to see if things can be worked out without the need for his ruling. In my opinion, this is a great way to handle things because, from my experience, when a situation between landlord and tenant gets to the point that communication breaks down, that’s when an eviction suit is filed or the tenant stops paying rent. Read the rest of this entry »

In a previous post, I wrote about the fact that there was a smell of eviction in the air at one of my rental properties. Subsequently, I did file for eviction and the tenant proceeded to file an answer to my suit by depositing some, but not enough, money with the court, no doubt in an effort to buy herself some time.

This tenant in question has been totally stonewalling me on the rent while we wait for a court date. By the time we get to court next week, she will owe approximately $1200 in total.

In my opinion her so-called defense will consist of crying “poor” to the court in an effort to obtain mercy from the judge. From my experience, the court DOES NOT consider itself a social worker and tends to stick to the letter-of-the-law. Read the rest of this entry »