Evicting Tenants

I remember the first duplex that I owned.  About one year into owning the property, the great tenants that I had decided to sub-lease their unit. I didn’t put the new tenants through the same background checks as I did previously. Shortly after they moved-in, they began to fight amongst themselves, and then they decided they weren’t going to pay me to live there.

I wasn’t sure what to do. I didn’t know what my rights were, and was a little intimidated that I had people living in my building that were so hostile.

Then, someone told me to call Jon Leibowitz, who specialized in evictions. I called him and was surprised how short he was with me on the phone. I kept explaining what the situation was and how it made me feel, and all he said was “I don’t care, just give me their names and phone numbers.”

After I got off the phone, and thought how could anyone be that much of a jerk and stay in business. Then it dawned on me, he was going to be my jerk!

Two days later he said he had arranged a court date to have them evicted. The tenants contacted me and taunted me about the situation. A week or so passed, and the day was upon us. I didn’t go to court as Jon said don’t bother. Within minutes I received a call from my tenants. They wanted to pay me! That afternoon they met me at the property and had a huge stack of money to pay me, and they asked for two things. One, if they could come back for the big screen TV that wouldn’t fit in any of their vehicles, and two that Jon would not contact them again!

Sure, you can file the eviction yourself, but you still need someone to deliver the notice. I believe Jon charges about $300 more than what the process would cost to do yourself, but whatever he said to the tenants is something that is priceless. I have referred him to a few other owners over the past 15 years and they have all been stunned by the results.