In the August 29th edition of the weekly The Woodstock Independent, there is a letter to the editor from Jennifer Feller, of Woodstock. She writes about taking pity on a prospective renter and how now she has not only been stiffed on rent, but the locks have been changed and she cannot even get into the house.
Although she apparently doesn't know it, there is help available. Low-cost, excellent legal advice is available to her. If you know her, tell her to call me.
She is not so "right-less" as she believes.
If the tenant gave her a check for rent and then stopped payment on it, she can file criminal charges against the tenant. Most likely, the tenant gave her the check and intended to stop payment on it. She should not let the police talk her out of that one. It's called something like defrauding the landlord.
She has the right to enter the house to inspect it. The tenant cannot change locks to prevent her entry. She should get the police to go to the door with her, so she can retrieve her personal effects.
Why can't she shut off the water? Do it. Call the gas company to shut off the gas to the hot water heater. If the tenant then lives without water and gas, the police can force entry so that she can inspect the premises to make sure it is habitable.
It doesn't have to take weeks or months and cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. It's time to play hardball.
You never know who is interested…
3 months ago
1 comment:
After reading the letter from Jennifer Feller, Landlords Beware, curiosity got the best of me. As everyone knows, there are two sides to every story so I did some investigating. What I found should be a warning to tenants. I found that Fellers is not the last name she used when she purchased the townhome and the records are in her former last name "Schmuck." The townhome in questions appears to have been forclosed on in December 2011, which means payments had not been made prior to that date. The property then went up for auction July 19, 2012 and was sold with the final court approval on November 29, 2012. She has rented out a home that was already in forclosure. I would consider what Jennifer is doing is fraud. To expect rent money and not pay the bank is wrong. What happens to the tenant when the house is sold? What protection does the tenant have?
What right does she have to enter the premises, to turn off any utilities if she is not paying for them, remove items from the unit since she NO LONGER OWNS IT!!! I think you need to rethink the help you are offering this woman and realize she is a fraud and a thief just trying to make people feel sorry for her. Look it up on-line Gus...it's public information.
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