It’s a pretty amazing country isn’t it? As long as they had permission at some point, they’re not considered trespassing. For instance, if the original tenants invited some people over to stay and then the original tenants left, then those new people there aren’t considered trespassing, they had permission from someone to stay there. And then it becomes a civil matter.
As for self help evictions, I’ve heard many stories about them. I guess it all depends on the type of tenants you’re trying to self help evict and how deep your pockets are. If you’re just an average joe, and the tenants are deadbeat skum, they may not know enough to get you into deep trouble. On the other hand, if they’re professional tenants…
Again, it’s always best to have the place delivered vacant and always do a walk through before closing.
We were managing a rental for my mother in law (MIL), a nice professional lady had a boyfreind move in. Turned out he was a free loader, unemployed. so she asked him to leave. He refused, so she gave us notice, and she moved instead. She was on a month to month bases.
So we’re stuck with this freeloader, and when he tried to pay the following months rent, our attorney advised us to refuse it, so as not to establish his tenancy.
One day, a moving truck showed up in front of his unit, and we thought he was moving. No such luck. He got a job as a helper, and his boss had to come by looking for him. He overslept, and my MIL had to go in to wake him up. Needless to say, he was fired a few weeks after.
Fortuanately, he moved a few weeks later, sparing us the need for a costly eviction.
To this day, I wondered why I had to “evict” someone that was never a tenant to begin with, or if our attorney is just too cautious.
Quote from Real Estate Fundamentals (RE licensing textbook):
An estate at sufferance arrises when a tenant who lawfully came into possession of real property continues to hold possession of the premises after his or her rights have expired, without the consent of the landlord. Because the tenant’s original possession was legal, however, the tenant is not considered a trespasser. It is an estate of indefinite duration because the landlord can institute legal action to regain possession of the property at any time.
I’m guessing that the suffering in sufferance is solely that of landlord…
With reference to thus issue of “An estate at sufferance” , it would apply to someone who became a “legal tenant” to begin with. Some freeloader boyfriend may have receivd the permission of the tenant to visit and stay, but certainly did not receive the permission of the landlord.
In our leases, we further define someone in this situation as a visitor, and to become a tenant, would require the landlords’ written permission, after application, and credit checks.
As this was many years ago, and when this happened, the original lease expired, and I don’t recall if I had thsi provision in that lease…
Based on the interpretation above, if I allowed some “homelsss person” to sleep in the hallway for a night because of extreme cold or rain, and keeps coming back without my permission, then the only way is through eviction??
I did in fact had the “homeless” daughter of a tenant sleeping in the lobby of one of my buildings, and she claimed that her mom, the legal tenant, gave her permssion to sleep there.
When I questioned mom, I was told she WAS NOT ALLOWED into her unit, and told her to stay outside. Her daughter interpreted that as legal permission to stay IN MY LOBBY.
So the question is, "is the daughter a trespasser, or as someone who received verbal permission to stay, requiring an eviction??
I’m not sure about the laws in your state, but I did hear this from a judge that came to a landlord meeting and she answered all sorts of landlord issues. One of them was on trespassing and I think the police would just leave it up to the judge. The judge would probably decide in your favor, but I think you’re still forced to go through the process. I think the key point was that they had legal permission at some point.
I can see why the police would be reluctant to decide. Perhaps if you spoke to the person directly and told them you were going to press charges unless they vacated immediately, your problem might be solved on it’s own.