I evicted my tenants and have not been able to rent my house, can I sue for lost rent?

Question

I have not been able to rent or sell my house and had to do repairs, they cut the air conditioning power lines, ruptured my sprinklers and the landscaping is dead. Can I sue in small claims for the cost of lost rent and repairs? They are also claiming bankruptcy, what happens now? My property is in California.

Answer 1

Did you collect a security deposit? You should file a claim in small claims. they destroyed your property, and should be held accountable.

Answer 2

Yes, you can try to sue. But over the years we have found that it is a waste of time, these type of people usually own anything of value and never will. Even if you win at court, you will probably never see any money from them and your claim will just be lost in the bankruptcy.
Depending on the state of CA rules on renting, you should have gotten a deposit when they moved in to cover for any repairs. Thus, the judge would only rule in your favor for the repairs if the repairs exceeded the deposit amount they paid to you when they moved in.
Also, as far as lost rent, it depends on the lease agreement you had with them. We always have our tenants sign a year lease and it states that if they vacate the property before the year is up, they are still responsible for the rest of the year lease terms. Meaning, if they only stay for 6 months, they will still owe for 6 months of rent, whether they live there or not.
Hope this helps and good luck!

Answer 3

You can always try to sue them, as a lawyer would be happy to take your money, however the chances of you getting anything are next to nothing. It will only cost you more money. You can also try to take them to small claims court yourself, at least the cost of filing the papers would be minimal (around $30). But again, the chances of getting any actual money from the previous tenants are extremely low, especially since they've filed bankruptcy. Provided that you can prove that they were responsible for the damage you could at least get a judgment against them. It's really only a piece of paper though. It can be used to freeze their bank account among other things however, there will be more costs involved on your part. Not to mention the time involved. But if they wait for the judgment and then just include it in the bankruptcy, it isn't going to do you any good anyway.
Unfortunately, you should just accept your losses and be very careful about screening future tenants. Always check references in depth.
Additionally, if by any chance your rental was a section 8 property and they were section 8 tenants, you may be able to get a few hundred dollars back from section 8 (depending on your situation).
Best of luck to you in the future!

Answer 4

all the answers have been pretty good. yeah, you could sue in small claims court, but the worst you'd be doing to these folks is dinging their already miserable credit score. As far as suing them for lost rent, a judge will likely give you 1 or 2 months, but you have an obligation under the law to mitigate your damages (you can't take an unreasonable amount of time to fix the damages & expect to recapture all that lost rent.)

anything above & beyond the security deposit in damages will end up in the unsecured creditors pool in the BK (read: you'll most likely get $0)

chalk this up to a learning experience, & take the repairs off your Schedule E income.

Answer 5

If the renters have legally started bankruptcy proceedings, then there isn't much you can do other than make a claim on your homeowners/landlords insurance policy. If they have not filed for bankruptcy protection, make sure to sue them in small claims court. Hire an independant home appraiser to come into the home and assess the damage done by the tenants. Make sure the bring pictures to court. Chances are, the tenants won't bother showing up to court. You will win your case, then you'll have to have the sheriff make an attachment to their assets for you to receive your restitution.

Answer 6

Awhile back husband and I checked out a couple of nice little properties up for sale, thinking they might make good rent houses. Then we started doing a little homework by talking to half a dozen different people we knew already operated rentals. Every one of them had some sorry tales to tell. Renters whom they had to push constantly to pay on time; endless repairs of one thing and another that were clearly the result of negligence or downright couldn't -care-less behaviour. There were fly-by-night renters who packed up and took off leaving the last week's rent unpaid, and whose deposits were not even close to covering the damage they left behind. Not to mention unpaid utility bills that you are now forced to pay because the services are registerered in your name as the owner of the property.
You can file a court action against them, if you can find them, but most of the time the deck is stacked heavily in favor of tenants over the landlord, if you win you'll have a heck of a time trying to collect, and on top of everything else you're also out of pocket on your legal expenses. Every one of the people we asked also had at least one story about malicious damage done when a tenant was given notice of eviction; and it wasn't something that could be immediately recognised until that tenant was gone.
As you might already guess, husband and I completely changed our minds about getting into the rent-house business. I'm not saying there aren't people out there who have had nothing but positive renting experiences, and enjoyed a very nice little extra income out of it. But we sure didn't find anybody like that, and concluded that it's very much of a lottery because you have absolutely no way of knowing for sure which kind of person you are renting to. If somebody talks to you on the phone and asks if you have something available and you say yes, then they turn up to view it and you don't like the looks of 'em, you have to do some fancy footwork with your mouth to turn them down without risking a charge of "discrimination"
On top of all that potential hassle, you, as the owner of the properties, have to pay all the taxes and insurance and, once again, you are ultimately responsible for any other bills a tenant runs up and skips without paying.
About the only advice I have to give you is to get your rent properties put back into a good state of repair, make everything look as nice as possible, and put them on the market. Then take that money and put it into some nice quality investments, and sit back and let somebody else get the headaches lol.

Answer 7

searching on what state that you stay in ( i'm in PA) and what your employ says,sure. maximum places that I particularly have lived, the employ states that you won't be able to fail to pay the lease because the owner became negligent on his responsibilities. the perfect that you'll do is document him for being a slumlord and flow from there. you ought to envision out your employ because you'd be evicted in case you do not pay that lease. If he does no longer restore the project, and also you are able to coach that he wasn't doing his activity, a courtroom could award you previous lease and assist you damage your employ. it truly is only for a decide to decide inspite of the truth that. The tenant can't take it upon themselves to deduct funds from the lease or no longer pay for such causes.(i understand that I particularly have examine that line in my employ) discover out the position you are able to document him and only be particular you hit upon out what your legal rights are. only be particular you pay Oct. lease so that you do not have an finished new set of issues to face, alongside with eviction.

Answer 8

If you already went through the eviction process, any money owed should have been on the notices served prior to the eviction.

Answer 9

Oh man, that's bad. You could try, but if you had to evict them, they probably don't have any money. I think you can write off the loss on your taxes though. Please seek professional adivce. This really stinks.