Tenant Abandoned The Apartment? (long) - Posted by Hugh James
Posted by Hugh James on April 08, 2000 at 14:32:49:
Just bought a three unit in Chicago, and am preparing to call the attorney for advice on Monday, but would like to hear the opinions of those on this board first.
Here’s the situation:
We closed the 31st of March. Tenant pays $400@ month, MTM tenancy and no security deposit. She was to have vacated the apartment prior to closing. She wasn’t out at the final walk through, so we got a possession escrow at closing for $1,500 paid out at $100 per day for each day she remains in the unit.
Saturday, April 1st, she announced she wasn’t moving and had no money for rent. The place is a shambles. I suspect she is either mental, alcoholic or a drug abuser. She may have been related in some way to the previous owner. He moved at once to Tennesee. Her utilities were also in his name, so he had them turned off. There have been no utilities in the unit for a week.
The only remaining tenant says she has not seen her all week. We entered the apartment today to leave a 5 day notice to pay or quit. It is just one pile of junk after another through out. (We didn’t care about condition, because we are gutting this unit completely, to the brick walls, for our own use.) We can claim the entire $1,500 possession escrow this coming Friday.
So, what do you all think? If she still hasn’t returned by next Friday can we change the locks and dispose of her stuff (awful as it is–you wouldn’t want to touch it)?
In our previous experience we’ve had to do several routine evictions. No problem. We had one guy last year who abandoned a dog in one of our units for two weeks with no rent. Animal control declared the poor dog abandoned, we cleaned up the mess and never heard from the guy again. This one, however, is a new one on me? Anybody have any experince with this? Would love to hear your opinions.