Well, not REAL advice, more just a more informed opinion of whether someone should proceed with seeking legal counsel or not. Long, but don't read if you don't want to.
My sister (she's in her 60's, you don't want pics) owns a condo in Washington D.C. She lived there when she worked for the State Department, but has retired and has leased it out for the last 10-15 years. She has a property management firm. Place was built in mid-nineties I think and was recently redone in the past 5 years or so. Not a dump.
In January of this year the property management firm leased it out to a new tenant, who promptly began filing complaints to the DC board who oversees rentals. Major one was some pipes rattling in a wall, which were actually pipes to the downstairs tenants in a separately owned unit. When they would send someone to fix the problem she would often not let them in for one reason or another, or just wouldn't be at home for the appointment. Continued to make complaints and calls - her AC unit not working, but tech came and found nothing wrong. Het toilet not working, but plumber came and found nothing wrong. Something almost every month, resulting in a trip charge and PM fees.
Since January she has paid ZERO rent. DC won't let landlords evict tenants right now because of Covid, even though she did not lose her job and the failure to pay rent had nothing to do with Covid. She had agreed a month or two ago to pay the rent for a 1 bedroom, since she could not use the second because of the pipes banging in the wall. Sister reluctantly agreed to this to at least get some income until she could find a way to legally terminate the lease. Week or so ago my sister got a call from her neighbor asking if they could rent her parking spot since the tenant had moved out. No notice to anyone from the tenant, either to my sister or the property management company. This is good news, we think, because now she can either sell the place or find a tenant who will actually pay rent.
Sister has spoken to a former neighbor who is supposed to be a lawyer, fluent in tenant-landlord relationships, but she is not liking what she is hearing.
The issues now:
So bottom line, do any of you legal types think she's getting good advice to basically just take the loss, or does she have enough legal ground to stand on and needs to look for a more aggressive attorney? I'd probably be wanting to file against the PM if it were me.
Where's that Grackel, er Jackal guy when you need him??
My sister (she's in her 60's, you don't want pics) owns a condo in Washington D.C. She lived there when she worked for the State Department, but has retired and has leased it out for the last 10-15 years. She has a property management firm. Place was built in mid-nineties I think and was recently redone in the past 5 years or so. Not a dump.
In January of this year the property management firm leased it out to a new tenant, who promptly began filing complaints to the DC board who oversees rentals. Major one was some pipes rattling in a wall, which were actually pipes to the downstairs tenants in a separately owned unit. When they would send someone to fix the problem she would often not let them in for one reason or another, or just wouldn't be at home for the appointment. Continued to make complaints and calls - her AC unit not working, but tech came and found nothing wrong. Het toilet not working, but plumber came and found nothing wrong. Something almost every month, resulting in a trip charge and PM fees.
Since January she has paid ZERO rent. DC won't let landlords evict tenants right now because of Covid, even though she did not lose her job and the failure to pay rent had nothing to do with Covid. She had agreed a month or two ago to pay the rent for a 1 bedroom, since she could not use the second because of the pipes banging in the wall. Sister reluctantly agreed to this to at least get some income until she could find a way to legally terminate the lease. Week or so ago my sister got a call from her neighbor asking if they could rent her parking spot since the tenant had moved out. No notice to anyone from the tenant, either to my sister or the property management company. This is good news, we think, because now she can either sell the place or find a tenant who will actually pay rent.
Sister has spoken to a former neighbor who is supposed to be a lawyer, fluent in tenant-landlord relationships, but she is not liking what she is hearing.
The issues now:
- She's out for 9-10 months rent. Not sure what she was leasing for, but that's somewhere between $20-30k in D.C..
- She has no way to contact the tenant. Property management is not helping much at all. Her "official" manager at the company hasn't returned her calls or e-mails since July. Apparently, until she can confirm the tenant has abandoned the lease or that the tenant has received notification that they are terminating and changing locks, she can't do much, even though rent has not been paid, due to D.C.'s Covid policies.
- Lawyer also said they have seen similar cases where the tenants claimed they had not abandoned the lease (even though they moved all their furniture and belongings out) and had in fact left some extremely valuable jewelry in a drawer which was now conveniently missing once the property owner changed the locks.
- Lawyer there is telling her there is almost no way she will collect against the tenant, again due to the current Covid policies. Says courts are overwhelmingly siding with the tenants.
So bottom line, do any of you legal types think she's getting good advice to basically just take the loss, or does she have enough legal ground to stand on and needs to look for a more aggressive attorney? I'd probably be wanting to file against the PM if it were me.
Where's that Grackel, er Jackal guy when you need him??
