Audience: USA

Yee Haw! Eviction Law In Texas Become Uniform For All Counties.

Some good news from the Lone Star state. Effective August 31st, 2013, all 254 counties in the state of Texas will be required to abide by the same rules with respect to residential evictions. Previously, the process remained open to interpretation by local small claims courts and was a bit of an dentist waiting room dance. Why is this important? Well…it forces landlords to become more organized and it enables lone star state landlords to move more quickly in dealing with delinquent tenants. In many of the smaller counties, where precinct judges do not work full time, securing a court date in less than a month can be difficult. The new law forces the courts to set a date within a 10- to 21-day window.

“Timelines are so important and these rules were written out to help landlords deal with these tenants who are not paying rent,” said Bell County Precinct 4 Justice of the Peace Bill Cooke, who is a full-time judge. “These changes are not only going to give opportunity for more rights for the landlords but repair and remedy for tenants as well”.

Landlords previously took a tenant to court for an eviction hearing if rent wasn’t paid. The new laws will force landowners to take all of the tenants on a lease to court in order to evict them from the property.

Are you a landlord in Texas? What do you think of this legislative change? Share your thoughts with us!

 

Absolutely Insane Landlords from California Get Jail Time

Came across this compelling story from the ole’ Sunshine state of California.

Kip Macy and his wife, Nicole Macy, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of residential burglary, one felony count of stalking and one felony count of attempted grand theft. These two geniuses owned an apartment building in the gentrifying South of Market area of San Francisco. Their plan was to evict the tenants they had to renovate the apartments and then to sell them as individual units.

Nicole Macy sent fraudulent emails to the attorney of one of their tenants with whom they were involved in a civil case. In the emails, she pretended to be the victim and fired the victim’s lawyer. In another incident, she sent fraudulent emails to her own civil attorney in which she pretended to be the same victim. Then…wait for it…she threatened to “kidnap and dismember” the attorney’s children.

Together – Kip and Macy also cut the floor joists of an existing tenant’s unit in an attempt to make the floor cave in. Guess they really wanted to get rid of him or her.

Other crimes included purchasing a semi-automatic handgun and threatening to shoot the building manager, changing locks, cutting phone lines, shutting off utilities, removing a victims’ belongings from their apartment and destroying them, multiple burglaries and threatening letters to victims. All of these events took place between September 2005 to December 2007.

Here’s where it gets interesting. The couple were charged with felonies in 2008, but posted bail and escaped to Italy. They were taken into custody in Italy in May of 2012 and extradited back to the U.S. on May 17, 2013. Bail was set at $2 million for each of them. After pleading guilty to four felony counts on Tuesday, the couple are scheduled to be sentenced to four years and four months in state prison on Aug. 22.

Nuts. They need to be in jail.

 

Ohio Landlords Targeted by “Discrimination Testers”

Came across this shocking piece in Ohio’s Star Beacon.

In October, an elderly Ohio landlord was ordered to pay $22,000 in damages for alleged housing discrimination practices at a rental property that she owns. The whole things started  with a $100 security deposit that the landlord, Helen Grybosky, requested from a potential renter with a “therapy dog.”

Here’s the kicker. There was no bona fide renter or therapy dog. The inquiry was made by a tester hired with a federal grant provided to the Fair Housing Resource Center by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Read the piece here: http://starbeacon.com/local/x503826604/Landlords-targeted-by-discrimination-testers

With that said, there was another incident at the tail end last year that was ruled on by the Ohio Civil Rights Commission.

Denying or rejecting an applicant on the basis of the colour of their skin, their religion, or their sexual orientation is wrong – and can cost landlords. Clearly the federal government is cracking down on these kinds of cases and is clearly attempting to educate landlords on the rules. What do you think?

U.S. Housing Slump Creates Opportunity For Accidental Landlords In Oregon

Came across this great article at Oregon Live about accidental landlords. The U.S. housing slump has created some interesting opportunities for homeowners, as many are turning For Sale signs into For Rent Signs.

The piece talks about a couple who were intent on selling their home,  but couldn’t get enough to pay off the mortgage. U.S. housing prices are at their lowest point since 2005 in Oregon, but interestingly, at the tail end of 2011, the census bureau pegged the greater Portland area’s vacancy rate at just 2.9% while the national average in the U.S. hovered at around 9.4%. At the end of 2012, that vacancy rate rose a bit, but so did rents in the area.

The Oregonian also had a similar piece in October of last year further elaborating on falling vacancies and rising rents. You can check that out here.

Are you a landlord in Oregon? How are you finding it? Share you stories with us.