Landlord Shmandlord

I received notice that my ex-tenants, the ones against which I received the default judgment, filed an appeal. First of all, I still don’t understand how they are allowed to appeal a default judgment when they did not show up in court the first time around, but apparently they are. What exactly are they appealing?

Anyhow, in response I had to file my formal claim against them, which has already been received by the court. The thing that was interesting about this complaint is that the court would tell me absolutely _nothing_ about how to format it, about the process, or anything. To each question, they recommended I get a lawyer or go to a law library and look up the state’s civil procedure laws. While I did not pay a lawyer to help, I was able to consult with one in order to get all the paperwork together properly.
Now that I’ve filed the complaint, the defendants are most likely going to have to get themselves a lawyer in order to take it to the next level.

I am particularly curious if they had planned this from the beginning (of the small claims process). Are they aware of how much trouble it is to file the formal complaint, and if so, chose not to show up in court with the intension of appealing?

Looks like Prlinkbiz and Kimber over at No Limts Ladies tagged Shmandlord this week. Thanks a lot! Time to continue the very, very, long line of taggers.

I too am not sure how it started, but the idea is to list 5 “secrets” about yourself that your readers don’t already know.

So, here it goes:

1. I grew up on a farm, raising sheep, chickens, horses, and goats. It was a lot of fun.
2. In my spare time I enjoy playing the guitar and recording songs. I love listening to the resulting music much more than anybody else.
3. I live in Philadelphia now. There is construction going on outside my window. They jackhammer in the middle of the night.
4. I have three computers at my desk: one running linux, one running OSX, one running windows.
5. My girlfriend and I are in the process of watching Arrested Development on DVD. Very funny.

Ok, so now I get to pass it off.

1. Building an Empire
2. I will teach you to be rich
3. Do-It-Yourself Landlord

4. The Landlord Blog

5. i bought a duplex
   

Here is an overview for the new readers…

The reason why I started this blog was to cover a dog situation that arose. It turned out that some of my tenants were the owners of two trained attack dogs. When I sent them the Notice to Cease, they promptly stopped paying rent. The game was on…

After several weeks of dealing with the slow government, we finally had our day in court, where I got a judgment..

Oh, but that wasn’t the end of it. After I filed the Warrant of Removal, my tenant tried to pull a quick one by filing an Order to Show Cause, which was denied.

Finally, I went with the court officer to lock out the tenants, only to find that they completely trashed the place. They ripped up the carpets, broke the windows, left holes in the wall, and left an insane amount of garbage. It took a long time to clean.

Now, I am in the process of tracking these guys down, since I am still not sure where they went. They owe me a lot of money, and I fully intend to collect. Stay tuned to see what happens…

Thanks charlietyack for the image.

Check out this great list of “Most Unusual Buidlings”. It’s amazing what people come up with.

The other night (before December 1st) he called to ask when and how he should pay December’s rent. Rarely does a tenant have this type of initiative, and when they do they’re keepers! The tricky part is to keep this enthusiasm. It will be imperative that he knows I expect the rent on or near the first of the month.

I’ve found that as soon as you let a tenant slip, they will slip more in the future.