AboutBill Iannelli Expertise Anything to do with residental real estate: Disclosure, title issues, buyer and seller representation, foreclosure, ethics, rentals, landlord rights, evictions, inspection, time frames, Arizona purchase contract.
Experience 18 years in the business. Broker owner of Iannelli and Associates. Have my own real estate radio show "Real Estate Matters" every Saturday morning at 11:00 on 1480 KPHX or nationwide at www.aaphx.com
Own my own portfolio of real estate, developer of apartments, commercial real estate and single family homes.
Organizations National Association of Realtors, Member of both the Phoenix and Prescott multiple listing service.
Publications Desert Advocate Newspaper Carefree Arizona. Question and answer column
Education/Credentials Licensed Real Estate Broker, BS in Education, certified real estate instructor on the code of ethics.
Awards and Honors Don't want to brag. Not important to the public. They want answers and advice not me telling them how many millions of dollars of real estate I have sold
Expert: Bill Iannelli Date: 6/30/2008 Subject: Landlord Rights
Question I was notified threw the company renting my house out that the tenants are breaking the lease. The have yet to pay Julys rent, and the rental company still has there security deposit. The rental company did an inspection and the house is boxed up. The company is saying that if they don't pay rent that we have to begin the eviction process and that could take up to 30 days. Is this fair giving the person who owns the house no notice and the tenants being able to squat for a month while my house goes to shambles. The tenants have clearly broken the lease by moving out 5 months early. I loose one months rent plus the security deposit. What remedies if any, do I have?
Answer First let's review the eviction process. You must give a five day notice notifying the tenant they breached the lease and notice to vacate the property. Usually that is done by certified mail and posting notice at the property. After 5 days the owner must go to the justice court and file for a forcible detainer and get a trial date which usually takes about a week to 10 days. A process server is used along with mailing you a copy. This will have the location and trial date for you to show up and plead your case to the judge. In this situation the judge will side with you and the tenants will not show up. You will get a default judgement. This can be done in about 18 days if you hustle. Since they are long gone the process server will have to note that and post notice on the house. You said they moved out 5 months ago. Were they paying rent all this time? If so it would be hard for the property management company to have any reason to check up on them. I would start the eviction process today and by mid July you will have the property back. I am not really happy with many of the property management companies in the area. They seem to drop the ball on items like this. I prefer the smaller companies I work with that handle about 20 or so properties. I would ask them why it took them so long to notify you the tenants had split. What can be done? Look at the agreement you signed with them and see if they do drive by's of the property.
