Unlike smaller counties where you get thrown in with name changes, divorces and other civil matter, much like Hennepin county, Ramsey has a dedicated system for handling evictions.  They run at least one court time per day and occasionally two.

You need to file your paperwork downtown Saint Paul at 15 Kellogg Blvd W # 1700, Saint Paul.  It is the same paperwork that you use when in other counties, just make sure you have the judicial district correct (Ramsey is second district).  This county, like most of the others, except Anoka, will allow you to use a power of attorney to file as a property manager or to file for your own LLC.   When I am just running in to file some eviction paperwork, I am usually able to find a parking space right outside the front door in a parking meter.  Just $.50 and I am about 20 feet from the front door, worst case maybe a 1/2 a block.

To file the eviction docs, you will need to go through security, so leave your weapons at home.  Immediately inside security you go into the housing court desk.  There is some other desk where many people are waiting around, but there is typically no line for the housing desk.  Have you paperwork filled out and a checkbook.  Fee is $320 and you can wait for the docs.

In Saint Paul, I typically had a process server pick up the papers and serve them since it was too far for any of my regular guys to serve them.  This is especially true if you have  a distant rental property like Maplewood.  Otherwise, the process is the same with the docs needing to be served 7 days prior to the court date.  If you choose to use a process server, you can just drop the paperwork off with the fees and the desk person will put your completed docs in the server basket for them to pick up.

Court is held in the same building at 9am.  It is the usual groups of tenants, landlords, and attorneys.  The court time doesn’t seem to be as chaotic or busy as Minneapolis.  Most everyone sits quietly and there is not many people coming and going as in Hennepin county court.  In general, the Ramsey county judges are less friendly and more by the book than Hennepin county (who I have always said is more landlord-friendly).

If you need to get a writ, it is the same process essentially as the other counties.  You pay your $55 fee at the county court for the writ and then walk a piece of paper across the street to the sheriff’s office to get them to serve it.  The Ramsey county sheriff’s fees for service the writ are  a little strange.  You can pay $80 up front and then if the sheriff has to go back to the property to do the physical removal, it is another $160.  Otherwise, you can pay $210 up front and they will refund you $120 if they don’t do the physical removal.  I always pay everything up front, but that is open for debate.

Ramsey county evictions are very similar to most of the other counties in the Twin Cities.  They have some small procedural differences, but if you have done an eviction elsewhere, you will catch on quickly.

Here is the problem with this.  The tenant was no longer even attempting to pay.  He didn’t even send so much as a $100 for months.  Where else did this tenant think he could live for free?

Stop feeling bad for the tenants.  This is a business, treat it like one.  If you owned a local clothing store, maybe you would give some clothes to a homeless person or a shelter.  Would you let one person continue to come in every month for 6 months and choose whatever s/he wanted off the shelves and simply walk out the door with it?  No.

If you want to help someone out, give to charity.  Otherwise, owning rental property is a business.  Treat it as such.  You don’t need to be a jerk and can certainly manage with compassion, but often tenants will take advantage of your kindness.

In another situation, I met a landlord that had a bad tenant that got their electricity turned off for non-payment.  So despite the fact that the tenant owed him rent money, he allowed the tenant to move into another unit in his apartment building that had electricity (she put the new unit electric bill into a relatives name).  Now 2 months later the tenant is no closer to paying the rent on apartment 1.  Plus she left all kinds of stuff in apartment so she is effectively living in 2 apartments and not paying rent!

The moral of the story is that if a tenant is more than 2 weeks late on their rent, start the tenant eviction process.  I almost never see a tenant come back from owing more than 1 months rent (unless they get assistance from the government or a charity).  You are NOT going to get your back rent.  Stop listening to the tenant’s excuses.  They are not necessarily bad tenants, they are just not paying their rent!

Look at this another way, this tenant is living rent free and taking money out of your pocket.  You need to look at it that way.  Why don’t you just take seven $100 bills out of the bank and put a match to them.  It is essentially the same thing.  This is not a charity.  It is a business.  If you can’t make these tough calls, hire a property manager or eviction attorney to do the eviction for you.  Let them be the bad guy.

Don’t send them an eviction letter, just start the eviction immediately.

First,  the tenant has 2 small children with her that are making noise the entire time and very disruptive.  She did a good job of trying to keep them quiet and was actually holding the youngest one for a while.  Although it came out that she has never paid rent, I give her credit for having copies of all documents sent by the landlord to her.

It appears the property had gone into foreclosure and then was quickly purchased by an investor.  The tenant did not have a lease with the previous landlord and took possession shortly before the end of the redemption period.  The new investor buys it in a long complicated LLC name.  It was something like Newest Rage Construction Real Estate Division, LLC or something.  Once they own the property, they send a letter to the tenant on January 18 stating that she must sign a new lease to expire on January 1, 2011 (first mistake).  They send the letter from New Age Real Estate (2nd mistake-no such company).

The person that appeared in court for the landlord put himself on the eviction documents, despite not being the owner, but just an employee of the company (3rd mistake).  He did not bring any backup documentation with him about this eviction.  The tenant and this property manager person agreed that the tenant would make one payment of $1000 and then would sign a new lease for 6 months at $1000.  He kept trying to explain how they worked it out, but just kept confusing the judge and contradicting himself.

The judge got all wrapped up in the fact that there was not a lease and really it was just verbal since they did not really sign one.  The judge could not enforce requiring the tenant to sign the lease and suggested that the owner get an attorney.

In the end, everyone agreed it was a messy case and they should just figure it out, but not on the court’s time.  Since the agreement was signed by both parties, the judge simply let it slide, despite not really being binding.

If you are evicting a tenant, fill out the documents correctly or get some eviction advice from a competent attorney.

After driving forever up to the Anoka County courthouse in downtown Anoka on first street it was easy to find parking.  Not like a Hennepin county eviction where you are in the middle of the city and can either pay $15 to park or drive around for 20 minutes looking for a meter.  I actually parked this day right in front of the court and walked right in.

Like all other counties except Hennepin, you need to go through security to get to the civil case window to file a tenant eviction.  As I expected in a quieter county, there was no line.  I gave the paperwork to the lady at the counter and as she read it, I asked if Anoka county allowed a power of attorney for LLCs.  In all the other counties in the Twin Cities, they allow me to process evictions using a power of attorney given to me by the landlord or building owner.  I had heard that Anoka county was not allowing this, but I had to ask.

The lady behind the counter informed me that Anoka county complies fully with the state statutute that states that requires that any corporate or LLC be represented by an attorney in court.  This means that not even the owner of the LLC could represent himself at the eviction proceedings.  She went on to explain that only Hennepin county has an exception on the books that allows power of attorney and owner representation for LLCs and corporations.  All the other counties, which were allowing me to process the evictions, were not following the state law, according to her.

Bummer.  Now this landlord is going to need to get an eviction attorney to process this eviction and get the tenant out.  I understand that I am not an attorney and the piece that despite a power of attorney that maybe I shouldn’t represent LLCs.  I am dumbfounded however that someone could defend themselves without an attorney in a murder case in Minnesota, but couldn’t represent themselves in a simple eviction case because they have their lease signed by the LLC.

The answer may surprise you, but I will start with a story.  A customer of mine had a tenant that stopped paying in November.  As many tenants do, she continued to promise that she was working on getting some money.  December came and she didn’t have the back rent or the current month rent.  She then claimed that she was going to withdraw money from her 401K.  That took a couple weeks.  My customer finally gave her an eviction notice, saying that she had until X day to pay or he was filing an eviction.  She missed the date.  He filed the eviction.

She showed up in court (with no money) saying she would pay him by the following Friday (about 4 days).  The interesting part of this is that by the time that they had gone to court, January’s rent was also due.  He agreed to a payment plan of just a couple days.  Friday came and went, no call, no money.  My customer went back down to court and got the Writ on Wednesday.  He scheduled the sheriff for Friday at 1pm.  He gets a call from the daughter (who lives at the house and is on the lease, but he never deals with).  She had received the Writ and was shocked to find out her mom (my customer’s contact) was not paying the rent despite the daughter contributing her portion.  My customer stood fast and said that the sherriff was going to be out at 1pm on Friday.  At noon on Friday, the daughter called and said she had all the back rent in cash for November and December and would pay January in 7 days.  My customer showed up and collected the rent and then cancelled the sheriff.

This is about as close to moving them out as I have ever seen.  I have never had a tenant pay 1 hour before the sheriff is going to remove them.

One more interesting piece of good work on my customer’s part was that he took the cash, but he actually still has the tenant on the hook for the January rent.  It was in the court payment agreement so she agreed to pay it.  Since he already got the writ, if she didn’t pay the January rent when she committed to paying it, he simply calls the sheriff again (no additional fees since they were already paid) and has her moved out within 48 hours.

Understanding the eviction complaint and how to evict a tenant is critical to using all the leverage at your disposal as a landlord.

Some of you may read this blog and think that I have it all figured out.  You may assume I make no mistakes and I am a super landlord.  Truth be told, I make some of the same mistakes you make.  Hopefully after this many  years, I make less than you, but trust me, I still make them.

I have a tenant that was in the building before I bought it.  He has lived there over 6 years and actually started in one unit with a girl friend, they broke up, he moved to another unit, they got back together, they moved back in together in his unit, a year later she moved out for good.  Very nice guy, courteous, polite.  He has always paid his rent on time.  I can’t think of one time in the last 6 years he had a late rent payment.  He has a white collar job in an accounting firm downtown.

This all changed several months ago.  He sent me his usual rent check, I deposited it, and a couple days later he called and said it had bounced.  He sent a replacement check and I deposited it and everything was good.  The next month we had the same problem, but the 2nd check also bounced.  He sent me a smaller check and it cleared and committed to sending one every week to get caught up.

I figured this was just a minor blip and based upon our 6 year relationship, everything was going to work out.  He then sent a full check for November, which again bounced.  He committed to sending smaller checks, but did not.  December’s check bounced.  He said for several weeks that he was going to take an advance on his 401K and even said he had the approval and was waiting for the check in the mail.

Nothing.

Now, he has stopped returning my phone calls.  I am working on a tenant eviction letter right now.  Hopefully our history would allow him to call me and explain what is going on, but I am not holding out hope.  It will be disappointing if I have to evict him.

Any how, the background is that a bank foreclosed on a rental property.  That bank uses our management company to manage their REO inventory until they can get it sold.  This particular property had a tenant in it.  She had not paid since the bank took the property over (several months).  We filed an eviction against her, she did attend court and agreed to a repayment plan.  That repayment date came and went.

We went back down to get the writ to have the sheriff remove her from the property.  She found free legal-aid to review her case.  They looked up the owner of the property in the tax records and found that the previous owner was still on the tax records (the county is up to 2 months behind in deed work).

The eviction lawyers filed an emergency motion to quash the writ.  This is done by taking the writ that is served by the sheriff, going back down to court and filing the proper paperwork.  In this county (which is very fair to both tenants and landlords), this motion must be approved by a judge prior to being served to insure that there is merit to the case.  Once approved, a copy must be mailed to the opposite party, served on them, and a $322 fee must be paid (which can be waived by the court if the tenant is low-income).

In this situation there was merit because the lawyers showed that the owner of record (even though out of date) was the previous owner (that was foreclosed on) and therefore our eviction was invalid because it was filled out in the name of the bank.

Now, we have documentation to show that this home was foreclosed on by the bank and that the bank is the proper owner, but it slows down the tenant eviction process and probably costs us another week.  Luckily, this is not a trick that most tenants will use.  In the end, this tenant still has not paid 4 months of rent and will be evicted eventually.   She is just delaying the inevitable!

1. Looked up on the Washington County website and saw that they have multiple locations in Stillwater, Forest Lake, Cottage Grove and Woodbury.  I figured that the Woodbury location would be closest and easiest for me to get to since it is right off of 494 and Radio drive.
2. I pulled into the Woodbury location to find out that they don’t have any court there and this is just a place to renew your license and pay fines.  Ugh.
3. The sign on the front of this door also informed me that Washington County does not take credit cards (Hennepin county does).  I didn’t bring my checkbook so I was on the hunt for  a bank location prior to my trip to Stillwater.
4. So, I headed down to Stillwater. Luckily this location is not in downtown Stillwater, but a couple miles west on Highway 36.
5. Once you get into the building, you need to go through security screening to get to the civil complaints desk.  These metal detectors appear to be turned up higher as I had to remove my belt, which I never have to do, to clear.
6. I get to the counter and the woman says that they don’t have copies of the Unlawful Detainer forms there.  I had to go up to 4th floor to the law library to print them out.  Ugh.  Note to self:  bring them with you next time.
7. Back out of security, up to 4th floor, log onto guest computers, print out eviction notice, pay $0.20 for the prints, back downstairs, go through security again (with belt off) and back to the desk.
8. I wait in line for 10 minutes while some woman talks to the counter person about the fact that she has lived in Washington county for 10 years and wants to get her named changed, but she is leaving the state for good in 1 week and can the judge move the case up(note that me and the person in front of me are the only people in this part of the building).
9. Finally get to the window.  Pay the fee and the counter person tells me the landlord tenant eviction is in 17 days and that it takes 2 days for the eviction complaint to be typed out and ready.  I ask if there is any option for the docs to be sent to the Sherriff to be served.  She says no.  What?!  I am not driving 45 minutes one way to walk a couple pieces of paper down the hall about 100 yards.  Frankly, Hennepin County does 1000s of evictions per month and you can wait for the paperwork to be typed up.
10. On my way out the door upset, I call my normal process server, and although it will be more money, my time is worth it.  They will pick it up and serve it when it is ready.

Moral of the story:  Go to Stillwater, plan to have all your paperwork ready, bring your checkbook, don’t wear too much metal, plan to come back in 2 days to pick up paperwork.

• Landlord evicted 1 of 2 roommates about 9 months ago.  While you technically evict both tenants, he made a side verbal deal with the “good” tenant (that paid his portion of the rent on time).  This agreement said that he could pay 1/2 of the rent for the entire home until he found a new roommate.  Well, several months went buy and the landlord called the tenant and said that he needed more rent.  So they agreed (verbally again) to raise it to 3/4 of the old rent.  Several more months went buy, tenant found a roommate and again everyone verbally agreed to pay 90% of the original lease amount.  No new lease signed with new roommates and the original lease has expired so they are on a month to month.
• The tenant claims that he has always paid his rent between the 15th and 30th of the month.  In court he had proof that this is the way it had always been.  (see this post about precedents on always late tenants).  As you can imagine, the landlord said he never agreed to this.  Since the tenant had been doing it for almost a year, I would have to agree with the tenant on this one.
• The property needed work done, but the tenant was a contractor.  The landlord often allowed the tenant to perform work on the home and then take the amount for the materials off the rent.  Now the tenant was claiming that all these items needed to be fixed and he was not going to do it because they were on the roof or he had a bad back and could not do it.  This tenant went on to make the case that he was unable to rent out the basement because of a water problem that he supposedly called the landlord about.  Unfortunately, this was the first the landlord heard about it.
• Something this month finally snapped with the landlord and he had enough.  He had me file the eviction on the entire deficiency in the rent since the first roommate moved out including the 10% that was missing from the original lease amount recently agreed to.

I know this landlord well and he is a decent guy that treats his properties and tenants well, so I don’t believe he was trying to screw this tenant.  The tenant on the other hand, came to court with pictures, dates and times of the conversations, and very compelling arguments for why things were the way they were.  These verbal agreements were almost the same as when I am evicting a tenant with no lease.

In the end I was pretty stuck.  I believed both the tenant and the landlord.  My eviction advice to the landlord was, forget about the previous roommate and the amount he owed you, take the money that you have in your hand (the tenant had sent in the rent after the eviction was file), accept the money coming at the end of the week and move on.

We wrote a mediated agreement that said just that, went in front of the judge and still argued about whether the rent was late or not.  The judge simple declared the case a draw, entered the agreement into the record and sent us on our way.  All of this because we were dealing completely wit verbal rental agreements.