Category Archives: Real Estate Law

RI Property Management Client: Tenant refuses to pay rent, can you help?

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Interestingly, we signed up a new property management client recently, who then notified their tenants in writing and verbally that we were taking over the management of the property. We also notified the tenants in writing and verbally. Somehow these tenants, from Nigeria, feel that they can intimidate us, like they had the owners (who live 1000 miles away) and tell us that they do not have to pay the rent, or listen us at all. Either these folks like pretending reality has no impact on them, or they like hitting a brick wall…

Rhode Island Property Management Services

Some background: these tenants have been paying the rent late (no sooner than the 20th of the month for the entire tenancy to date. They agree to have contractors come to make needed repairs and then are not at home, and the owner gets the bill for the plumber, carpenter, electrician, etc. for having shown up but not having gained access to the property. The tenants also yell at the owners, and now at my staff, for their lack of professionalism in wanting to collect the rent on time. Today I received the calls from two of them, all family, saying they need not work with us, and have no intention of paying the rent at this time.

Rhode Island Property Management Services

They are now on a month to month tenancy, with the year lease having reverted to that as of October 31.

Seems I have to go there tomorrow, enter the premises for an announced and expected inspection, and wait until I collect the rent. Of course, I will have assistance with me, and that assistance will double as witnesses.

Fortunately for our client, we are not so easily intimidated… if we do not get the rent on time, seems we may be serving up notice for vacating the premises unless these people get real…

What are your thoughts?

Agent brings Buyer to Foreclosed Property, vandalism underway!

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As it turns out, the crew that was showing up to vandalize the property mentioned in our previous post were all arrested on the spot! It seems they also had keys to the house, and to several others also listed by that brokerage. So, for all their gall, they will pay… perhaps so will whomever it was that got them the keys???

Agent brings buyer to show foreclosed property, crew shows up to remove copper pipes etc.

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Today, one of our agents showed up with her buyer to show another broker’s listing, and as they pull up, a van with a bunch of guys gets there, and enters the house, talking about pulling out all the metal in the place, including the copper pipes, furnace liners, hot water boilers, etc. The crew ignored our agent and her buyer as if they were not even there.

Our agent called the listing broker and told them what was going on, then called the police. The police, as well as several agents from the listing brokerage then showed up. As we speak, the police are there, interviewing our agent, the listing agents, and of course detaining the culprits.

We have seen many houses where the copper and other valuable assets have been removed, making the house far more costly to buy. But this time, we got the culprits… !!!!

Just goes to show that attentive agents with some sense of justice are still out there, and still trying to protect property from vandalism… way to go!!!

A Lender With Their Collective Heads Up Their A**es

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An amazing development has just transpired with a client for whom we are working to reinstate his mortgage after it went delinquent for 15 MONTHS… After faxing authorizations for the lender to discuss the loan with us 5 Times, after spending 2 hours on the phone with the lender last week, ordering a reinstatement quote, we followed up today. The client has sent a check for the amount requested by the lender… some $30,000… they have received the check, but not allocated it to his account. On our follow up call, it seems that the authorizations we sent 5 times, was never received, and there is no record of our previous 2 hour discussion with them… How can that be?

They have not yet ordered the reinstatement quote.

They have no record of our previous conversations.

The do not have the authorizations we faxed repeatedly.

They have a record of receiving the $30K check, and, it seems, a record of receiving a regular payment in an amount not ever previously required or invoiced.

The client has not received a statement on the account for more than a year and the lender refused to provide any.

The law firm dealing with the foreclosure process swears by the almighty that they ordered the reinstatement quote, and of course has the authorizations we sent to them as well as to the bank.

So, as of today, after money has been sent, faxes and phone conversations have taken place, we are back at ground zero.

Can you guess which major lender we are talking about here?

I give you a hint: They purchased the previous loan holder, back when that firm was going under… and since that purchase, the client has never received a statement.

Drum role please… 5 letters…

It amazes me that this bank could remain in business doing business the way they are.

HUD Redefines “Foreclosed” to Include 60-Day Delinquencies

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HUD has announced that it’s changing how it defines foreclosed to include properties in default and abandoned with lingering code violations. Effective immediately, HUD is classifying any property that is at least 60 days behind on the mortgage or the property owner is 90 days or more delinquent on tax payments as a “foreclosed” home.

In addition, HUD is expanding the definition of an “abandoned” property to include homes where no mortgage or tax payments have been made by the property owner for at least 90 days or a code enforcement inspection has determined that the property is not habitable and the owner has taken no corrective actions within 90 days of notification of the deficiencies.

HUD officials say the new definitions will help communities acquire, rehabilitate, and re-sell foreclosed and abandoned properties more quickly under the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) and help prevent further decline in hard-hit neighborhoods.

Also, the FHA has a moratorium in RI for three months on foreclosures due to the flooding.