People living in rental property before lease is signed

[flipper71]

Please help! I have someone that has moved into my property before a lease was signed. A relative of a relative was looking for a place for his sister. I was about to forclose on my mobile home and he offered to do a lease-purchase. The original (verbal) agreement was that they would cover the house payment, insurance, water bill and lot rent. He could not get the lease-purchase to work out the way he wanted so, he decided they would just rent it. I did a lease/rental agreement that would cover all that was originally agreed upon. They have had the agreement for over 3 weeks and have not signed it. His sister and family have been living in the mobile home for over a month with nothing in writing. I never actually gave an okay on the move in, they just did it. Now the people actually living there say they are not going to pay the $ on the lease/rental agreement and that I can not change the original agreement. They are threating to sue me for moving expenses it I insist that they pay the $ on the lease/rental agreemtent. The sister says they agreed to cover the house payment and no more. What can I do? The mobile home is in another state, which makes it even harder. Please help!!!

 

[JETX]

Here is what I would do..... and it is contingent on your statement that they have NO rights in this matter.....

Arrange with a local process server (in that area) to post a notice on their door. This notice should state in large bold type that they are in illegal possession of your property and are without any legal rights of possession. Include a requirement that if they are not out of YOUR property within 5 (?) days of receipt of the notice, you will file a criminal trespass complaint with the local police department.

Then, if they don't move, file. After receiving your complaint and investigating to confirm that they have no right of possession, they will threaten to arrest them if they don't leave. Then, they will either leave on their own, or not.
(I had to do this one time on a 'squatter' possession of property).

 

[flipper71]

This property is in Alabama. Over the weekend, I hand delivered a rental agreement to the people living in my house. They refused to sign it and called the sheriff's department and accused me of harrassment. When I got my chance to talk to the sheriff that came out, she says it is a civil matter. I don't see how that can be, I never said these people can move in. I went to the Sheriff's office today and was told I would have to do an eviction. Is there not something that can be done without costing me hundreds of dollars? There is no lease signed. Can they be arrested for treaspassing?
Dased and Confused!!!!!!!! In need of help,..

 

[JETX]

You obviously didn't do what I suggested last time, why should I waste my time offering more assistance??

 

[flipper71]

I did what you suggested. The only thing they say I can do is pay several hundred dollars to file the paper work for an eviction. They don't do, "illegal possesion of property". Is there anywhere I can get the legal paper work and do it myself? Can I let the mortgage company repo the trailer and let them worry about getting the people out?

 

[JETX]

http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?WRD=Florida+landlord

http://www.google.com/search?q=florida+eviction+law

 

[wtd]

You were advised to -

Arrange with a local process server (in that area) to post a notice on their door. This notice should state in large bold type that they are in illegal possession of your property and are without any legal rights of possession. Include a requirement that if they are not out of YOUR property within 5 (?) days of receipt of the notice, you will file a criminal trespass complaint with the local police department.

Then, if they don't move, file. After receiving your complaint and investigating to confirm that they have no right of possession, they will threaten to arrest them if they don't leave. Then, they will either leave on their own, or not.

You did -

Over the weekend, I hand delivered a rental agreement to the people living in my house

And then you said, oddly enough -

I did what you suggested

You probably couldn't have gotten better advice, so your best bet I would imagine is to follow the links in the previous post, as no oone could improve on the advice you received, you just won't follow it.

wtd
(not a lawyer, but some common sense every once in a blue moon)

 

[flipper71]

If you will read. I said I contacted the local sheriff's office and I can not do what was suggested. The laws there do not allow that. Thanks for your input...next time read all of it....

 

[JETX]

Sorry, but in addition to "wtd's" accurate depiction, you still did NOT do what I suggested.

You can't just walk into a police station and meekly say, "Uh, I want someone removed from my property." The first thing that the police will say is, "It's a civil matter".

What you need to say (and what I implied) was, "I went to MY property and there are trespassers living there!! I don't know who they are and they have NO right to be there. This is clearly a case of TRESPASSING and I would like an officer to arrest them! In fact, here is a copy of the notice that I put on the door on ___(date)__."

The police will either ignore you (as you apparently let them), or they will respond to your complaint.

However, in re-reading your original post, I have noticed a POTENTIAL problem in your entire scenario.... I didn't realize at the time that these people are really living there with your permission. You said, "A relative of a relative was looking for a place for his sister. I did a lease/rental agreement that would cover all that was originally agreed upon." The fact that you actually offered a lease to them does give them SOME rights.

You now have three choices:
1) Live with the problem as it is and accept that they are your new tenants... on their terms.
2) Get the police involved and try to get them removed for trespass, illegal possession.
3) Take civil action and get them evicted.

None of these are going to be easy from a distance. You may actually have to get your hands dirty and deal with this problem.

One thing I do have to ask though... since they never signed any agreement for posession, how did they gain access to the property??? You didn't give them a set of keys, did you?? (Pretty much kills the criminal trespass issue!).