I am in the process of purchasing a park … present owners inherited a POH with a very vague agreement to purchase the home on with payments. Bad tenant I believe is 4 yrs into the agreement for 96 months total.According to the present owners he is the worst of the worst… cursing out the owner and the manager, loud, drinking etc.Owner is a decent person and with a professional occupation.They believe the wife is the enabler she works he does not. Keeps the place a mess (looks like in violation of rules) they seem to be intimidated by him and let him continue living there. He has threatened to leave and take the home. They did write him a letter but did not follow through.He threatens to call state attorney and blah, blah, blah.Because they have a weak rent to own agreement with him they seem helpless. The only copy they have his signature is not on there. He won’t produce his copy to them.He has told everyone in the park that the new owner is going to kick everyone out.Besides raising the rent through the roof what are the alternatives?
Non-renew the lease. Bring it to a head. Go to court. Let him give it his best shot. Before you do, however, hire a good attorney to handle it for you and review all the details of the case.The park owner holds all the cards. The tenants sometimes think they have power, but they don’t. Don’t let him convince you otherwise.
Or as the new owner let him continue to intimidate you.You will need to deal with many very difficult situations as a trailer park landlord. Ask yourself If you can kick out a mother with small children knowing they will have no place to live. If the answer is yes without hesitation you can or should be able to kick out a bully and should actually enjoy doing it. Successfully removing bad tenants from a park is one of the pleasures of my job.
I myself have no problem with kicking a guy out like that. I don’t own the park yet. I thought since this guy has a contract to buy the home from previous park owners there might be a legal issue kicking him out and having to leave the trailer.Frank is right it needs to be handled by a lawyer.
Your primary legal relationship with any tenant is in regards to the rental of the lot. Nothing else takes precedence.
Greg:Yes I fill the same way about not having any liability with that transaction. The current owners absolutely have not a single signed lease or park rules by any tenant in the park. They only have unsigned ones.He had to get a copy of the signed lease and purchase agreement from the guy which took some doing and confrontation every time he asked.The owner before that had a financial company separate from the park and is now in prison for murdering his wife just a couple of months after selling the park to the present owners. …that being said, yeah he has to go but be careful… you never know what that guy is capable of if you push to hard. I think this one is better left to a lawyer.
I need to mention having the financial company he was selling the homes to the present tenants who are about 4yrs into those contracts expiring in 2019. It is not even clear if the park has title to that home. I am sure it conveyed over.
I personally hate having to use lawyers but fortunately our landlord tenant Board up here (Canada) does not require the use of lawyers. Unfortunately our provincial government has a pro tenant nanny state mentality so actually evicting a tenant for other than non payment is generally impossible.
Canada eh? Nice place. Only been to Vancouver in 2000. Grouse Mountain resort snow up there and nice weather below.
Here’s a few techniques that many of my best managers tell me they use: 1) even if you are the owner, present yourself as a mere manager or employee;2) Always stay polite and professional, but don’t bend. “The rules are the rules. I just enforce them. If you can’t comply, I understand and I’ll do my best to make your departure as easy for you as possible”;3) Make sure the rules are reasonable and designed to create a safe, quiet community where everyone wants to live;4) Remember that when you enforce the park rules against one tenant, you are generally making everyone else in the park happy - the rules are there for everyone’s enjoyment.