Stand off at the OK Corral

One thing we have found is that people can come up with money when they need to. We had one tenant that was about 3 weeks behind. He was behind and already had an eviction filed against him when we took over the trailer park. He didn't seem to want to pay. We finally got a hold of him and he had a bad attitude and seemed to get mad that we were asking him to pay rent. We had decided that even if he did come up with the money, we wanted him out. We told the manger we didn't want his money and that he had to leave. I didn't want to deal with him in the future.

The way the evictions work is that we have to give them 10 days to pay. After the 10th day we serve them with a 24 hour "set out" notice. Which means that in 24 hours we will enter the residence and literally set out their belongings on the curb. I am not looking forward to doing this to anyone.

The manager got a hold of him and let him know the 24 hours period was approaching. He got mad and said he would have the money tomorrow. He also mentioned that his stove wasn't working. He said, "The stove won't turn off and that's a fire hazard.". Well that scared that crap out of me! I thought, he is going to burn the place down. I felt like we were having a stand off like in the old westerns. Who is going to draw first. I told the manger to get that stove out of there as soon as possible.

The next morning came and sure enough he had his money. The manager told him we said not to accept his money and that he was going to have to leave. This is when his attitude changed. He started to apologize and begged to stay. Apparently he was about to break down in tears. The manger called us and said he had his money and that he would never be late again. We decided to accept his money and let him stay. I told our manager to let him know that this was it. If he is late anymore, to go ahead and move because we weren't doing this again.

The next day we got him a new stove. He was very happy and surprised to be getting a new stove. I don't think we will have anymore problems with him but we'll see what happens.