Cat Fight

We got a call the other day about some tenants fighting. One of my tenants allowed his girlfriend to move in with him. Apparently he has beared children with her and one of my tenant's sister. I guess jealousy got the better of her. She got in to a shouting match with the "ex", who was visiting her sister. I also need to mention that both of these girls are pregnant. I guess the shouting escalated and rather than the pregnant girl slapping the other pregnant girl she slapped the pregnant girl's sister(my tenant). Her reasoning was that she would go to jail if she slapped a pregnant girl so instead she slapped the pregnant girl's sister. Plus she knew that she wouldn't get slapped back because she is pregnant. It must have worked because the police came and no one went to jail. Go figure!

The Burglar Part II

It seems the burglar has returned. Yesterday someone broke into the trailer behind my manager's trailer. It happened in broad daylight while they were gone to work. This guy has got some nerve to do it in broad daylight. It makes me wonder if it's not another tenant who is familiar with the comings and goings of the trailer park. Luckily nothing was stolen. I am not sure if the guy got spooked again or what.

The Burglar

The other night my manger was having trouble sleeping so he decided to go into his office to watch TV. All of a sudden the dogs started barking. He got up to check what the commotion was. He stopped at the back door and saw the handle turning! He hustled out the front door and snuck around to the back side of the trailer. There he saw someone standing up on his back steps trying to break in. He started over towards the burglar when he was spotted. The burglar took off running with my manager right behind him. He almost caught him but he lost his footing and the guy got away.

I can't believe someone tried to break in with the dogs barking, the back porch light on and they were home. That guy is lucky he didn't get shot through the door. We have decided to install security cameras and put an alarm system on his trailer. There are times when he has quite a bit of money there. Now I am afraid for their safety. Who knows what could happen next time.

The Late Night Phone Call

One Sunday night we got a call from our manager saying about 5 police cars were in the park. They had one of our trailers surrounded. Details were sketchy. We jumped in the car and headed over. Unfortunately we missed all the excitement. The police were already gone. Apparently someone was trying to break in one of our trailers and the "suspects" were hiding in the trailer next door. There are two young girls that live there. They let their boyfriends move in with them. I also need to mention they are under eviction. I guess between the four of them they can't come up with $90 a week. Monday was the day for us to file the 24 hour set-out on them. They had asked that we wait because they had the money and were going to pay. We reluctantly decided to give them a chance. These two girls have been rumoured to be some of the problems in the park. They like to party and be loud. Drugs have even been mentioned.

The story was the two young guys were seen looking in one of the tenants cars. (It just so happens to be a guy we use to clean out trailers after someone moves out. There was shop vac, steam cleaner and cleaning supplies in his car. All of which belong to me.) They also tried to break in to a trailer by pushing out a window. I guess they got spooked and took off to hide in "their trailer". Well the police arrived and after some coaxing they came out. The police didn't arrest them but told them to leave. I am not sure why. We informed the two girls that we were filing the eviction on Monday. Oh boy!! They didn't understand why. "We didn't have anything to do with it! Blah blah blah!!!" We explained she was responsible for her guests and that she had blown her chance with us. She was gone by Tuesday.

I think there are two more tenants we are going to have to evict to have the park pretty well cleaned up. The sheriff told me that one of the two is being watched. They think he is dealing drugs. The problem is he pays his rent every Friday. He already had one warning from "Saturday Birthday Party". It's just a matter of time.

Our First Set-Out

Just before Christmas the time had come for us to do our first set-out. First, some history about this tenant. When we took over the trailer park this particular tenant was under eviction. They were about $800 behind. At the last moment they came up with the money. Two months later we started eviction again and once again they came up with the money. Well here we are in December and they are once again behind. I did a search on the local county website using his name. (Boy, I love the Internet!!) His name popped up about two pages of stuff. Drug charges, bounced checks, evictions, all kinds of stuff. Just since he has lived in this trailer park he has been evicted 11 times!!

He has been served his 10 day eviction. Of the $550 he owes he paid about $400. I think he thought we would stop the eviction. We didn't. We served him his notice to vacate in 24 hours. That set off a fire storm of phone calls to my manager. They didn't understand why they had to leave. "We paid $400, isn't that enough?" They actually asked for their money back! The set out is scheduled for 9:00 on Friday.

Friday morning my manager said they called and had the money. He told them he would have to talk to us. He explained that we told him not to accept their money and that they were going to have to leave. My manager is awesome!!

At 9:00 we all loaded up and along with the sheriff and showed up at their door. They had nothing packed. His wife was at the door with the rest of the money clenched in her hand. Before we went to their place we had decided to let them stay since it was Christmas. We had a 20 min stern discussion with them. We told him that if it wasn't for Christmas he would be sitting out in the street. I think having the sheriff and a crew of guys behind me scared them. We told him we knew about all the other evictions and that we weren't doing this anymore. I explained that if he doesn't pay his rent on Fridays by 6:00 he will be evicted. I told him not to show up on Saturday morning to pay his rent. My manager is not to accept any late payments from him.

Deep down I am glad we didn't kick them out. I couldn't imagine what it would have been like to set them out in the street at Christmas time. As a landlord this is the absolute worst thing that I have to do. I am pretty sure that we got the message across. I believe next time they will move and we won't have to go through this. Only time will tell..

The Good Neighbor

A couple of weeks ago we had to evict one of tenants. He was living with his son in one of our trailers. We were told they couldn't get along so the son moved out. Then the father lost his job and couldn't pay rent. He was a nice guy but had trouble holding down a job. I hated to evict him but business is business. He became friends with an elderly lady that lived next to him. When she found out he was being evicted she offered for him to move in with her until he got back on his feet.

We have registered with http://www.familywatchdog.us/ so that if someone moves in to the trailer park we will be notified. Well, when he moved in with "The Good Neighbor" it triggered an email notification since he had to report his new address. His convictions are KIDNAPPING and COMMIT OR ATTEMPT LEWD ACT ON CHILD < 16. We told our manager who in turn let her know. He said that she has young grandchildren that visit her a lot. She apparently got very upset and wanted him to leave immediately. We contacted the sheriff for advice. He said that there was nothing we could do except evict him in the normal process. That takes 10 days! It was now becoming apparent why he had lost his job and why his son moved out. I think his son rented the trailer for him.

Well, when all this went down he was out fishing with his brother. My manager and I decided that we would talk to him and ask him to do the right thing and leave. The next day my manager talked to him and explained the situation that "The Good Neighbor" didn't want him there anymore. He said he would leave and not cause any problems. Thank goodness!!

Power Meter

A couple of weeks ago we evicted one of our tenants for failing to pay rent. She moved in a couple of trailers down with some friends, so we thought. We were later told that she was sneaking into the trailer at night to sleep. People saw lights on. My manager went down and pulled the meter. We haven't seen her since.

The next week we had someone that wanted to move in. The meter was replaced so they could have the power turned on. When the power company showed up we went over and told him what had happened. He checked the meter and found out that it had been stolen from one of my other trailers. The meter guy remembered going out to that trailer to reconnect the power and the meter was gone. She had stolen that meter and used it in her trailer. She is going to have to pay for the power on that meter and a stiff fine. I doubt she will ever get power in her name again. The meter guy gave us some tags and a blank filler panel to put in the electrical box if it happens again. It's incredible what some people will do.