The last several, several months have been very difficult for my mom and I. I lost my job after almost seventeen years of service with a credit union, and I’m still searching for a new job. Two days later, my dad became ill and passed away six days before Christmas. Why does this matter to the reader? Well, the plot thickens.
My parents allowed my aunt to move a mobile home on their land, and when she passed away, her husband was told to move the trailer. And, he did. I’m not exactly sure how many years later, but they allowed someone else to move a mobile home on the land. Since I worked at a credit union, I knew how difficult it can be to remove individuals from property. They knew nothing about the renter, but he always paid on time, and he kept the yard cut, clean and neat. He moved out, but he told us his son would be moving in. Before I go any further, we had lease agreements on the father and son.
My mom has a lot of health problems; so, I do all I can for her. We’ve decided to sell the house because it is too much for me to keep up. I told the renter he would have to move, and he did. He left us a present, and it is the trailer and a yard full of garbage; he also decided to not pay us any longer. Yay for us! I am beyond angry! Have we not been through enough?
My mother doesn’t want to pay a lot of legal fees, but I know we will have to. I tried to explain to them the reasons to not let someone rent land from them, and this is why. How do I get the trailer off of the land, and how do I get all of the garbage up? I seriously don’t have the time to do it, and why should I clean up their mess? I know if don’t take care of this issue now, the house won’t sell.
Can someone please help me or tell me where to turn? I need to get this situation taken care of.
Oh the joys of landlording — the big decider of how to handle this is whether or not you can contact the the bum. If you can, then perhaps you can get him to sign the title over to you so you can have the home hauled off to the mobile home graveyard. (I am doing that right now with several homes and it is costing me about $2k/home.) Then if you feel up to it, you can take him to court for the cost of cleaning up his mess. Know that if you clean it up yourself the court will assign no value to your efforts. If you win the lawsuit, the court does not cut you a check. Instead, they give you a judgement against the bum and it is up to you to squeeze it out of him.
Good luck with that.
If you can’t get in touch with him, then you have to go through the lengthily process of filing for the abandoned home’s title to be transferred to you, which you must do before you can do anything with it. And you get to clean up the mess.
@Randy_CA has a great reply. The only thing I would add is if you own the land then you can get started cleaning things up around the yard & outside while you wait for the order to go inside the home. You’re going to pay or do all the work no matter what. Just a matter of when you get to it. If you wait too long, the city will do it for you. Rent a dumpster and it will probably cost $500-$1k.
It too bad that you have all this on you and it seems to keep piling on. There are all sorts of angles here and I don’t want to add to your burdens but you need to have an idea about them and work out a plan.
If the bum will sign the title over to you, make sure the bum truly has clear ownership of it first by checking with the County Tax folks. If the bum does, all the better. You then pay to haul it off as @Randy_CA has said or concurrently with all that activity, list it for sale at a slightly below fair price. Then when contacted about a buy, offer to let them have it for pennies on the dollar (a few hundred) if they move it within say 7 calendar days.
If the bum has no clear title, or won’t sign it over, offer to assign your rights to a buyer who will go through all those headaches for you if they get it all done within say 30 days (including moving it off your land). In other words, trade off any value it may have for others to go through the headaches for you.
I appreciate y’all’s responses. I’ve been researching the process of what we have to do, and it is a pain in the butt! There is no way in the world I would purchase a mobile home park, rental property or an apartment complex due to the situation we’re going through right now. I’m still mad as you know what! In the south there is a name for people like this, and we call them PLAIN WHITE TRASH! (not bums) I’ve always held a job until being let go, and I’ve paid my bills too. I have excellent credit. Why should they be any different? I just pray the good guys come out on top, and we are the good guys. We are meeting with an attorney Monday, and will try to seek legal action against the father, son and daughter-in-law. If they get away with what they’ve done to us, then America is a sad place to live.
My parents have always worked their tails off, and my dad kept the yard beautiful. The idiot white trash people have screwed up the yard. I’ve never seen such a mess. If my dad were still alive, there is not telling what he would do to them. He had a temper to not be reckoned with, FYI, I have a temper exactly like his if I am pushed, and I guess it is because I am his child. In essence, there is no reason they should have been done so dirty. Please pray things go in our favor. Thanks guys…RIP dad, I’m trying so hard for you and mom!
Can any of you see my e-mail address? If so, I need to speak to someone outside of the forum by e-mail. This has turned into the biggest mess. I want away from this redneck state.