Expert: liznarr - 3/17/2004

Question
I sold a mobile home lot in 1999 with a no interest contract. The lot was never transfered to the buyer. The buyer has not paid the taxes and is over a year behind in payments. I have paid all the taxes to keep my credit good. The buyer has a doubelwide trailer on the lot and is avoiding any contact with me. What do I have to do to force the buyer to vacate and remove his trailer from the lot. The late charges equal more than the sale price. I just want him off the lot so I can put it back on the market. Thanks.  Tom Welsh

Answer
Hi Tom,

Thanks for using the All Experts site.

If you “sold” your mobile home lot, and ownership for the lot was never transferred to the buyer, I am assuming you sold the lot under the concept of a Land Contract, also known as an Installment Contract of Sale.

Laws vary state by state for forcing such a person to vacate your property.  Since you still own the land, but this person has placed a doublewide trailer on it, I would think you would still have to go through some type of Eviction process.  You cannot simply “evict” someone on your own.  The process is handled through the Court system.  

Most states have smaller court systems (as opposed to Common Pleas or General Sessions) known as the Magisterial system which will generally handle this type action.  There will be filing fees to pay (which will include the cost for the Magistrate's office to serve the Eviction papers), and you should not need an attorney to handle this for you … this is part of the Magisterial system design to make it easy on the general public and, at the same time, ease the load of the larger court systems.

You need to apply to the Judge (Magistrate) in the jurisdiction in which your property is located for this relief.   There are dollar limits generally in effect for the magisterial system, but a call to your local magistrate's office should yield all the information you need.

Your magistrate can also tell you if you need to file a separate action for the amount of money owed to you by the person you want to evict, or if both claims can be handled in one action.

Just be sure when you appear in Court that you have two copies of all your supporting documentation with you – one copy for the Judge to review and a second copy for you to refer to in Court if the Judge asks you questions.

Before you put your lot back on the market, make sure that you have properly TERMINATED the Contract you had with the buyer and also given Notice of the Termination to the Buyer you are evicting.  Your local Magistrate should also be able to help explain this process to you.  

You might also want to check with your CPA or tax preparer regarding “NO INTEREST” Contracts.  Even though you did not charge this person interest, it's possible you may be liable to the IRS for any interest that COULD have been charged and collected.  Again, I'm not qualified to give you accounting advice, so you need to contact your CPA or tax preparer about this.

Good luck to you.  Write again if you have additional questions, and don't forget to rate my answer.

Regards,

Elizabeth Narr