State Specific Question About: MISSOURI (MO)

I rented an apt to a nice young lady and her fiance.

(long story short) They had a big fight and he hit her...well now he's in jail and she has a restraining order against him, apparently this was not the first time he had been in trouble. He's now in Jail for 6-8 months. The young lady no longer feels safe in the apt so she wants to move. Oh yea, they are both on the lease. Now I'm wondering when she moves out what should I do with all of his stuff....including his truck (not tagged) in the parking lot....Should I get an Lawyer ?? Any advice??

ps..nothing negative showed up on his background check

Your primary goal now is to ease them out and move on to new, better tenants.

Find out the rules for jail visitation. Use language that does not place blame. You want his signature (and hers). Sometimes his own attorney, clergy, or a social worker will help you get it. You can also offer to make a small deposit into his "cigarette" account.

In most cases like this, you would need to follow through with standard eviction procedures. You can use a landlord's petition (easiest paperwork) as soon as rent is owed. Or you can serve a ten-day notice of terminatino of the lease for a lease violation, since presumably he has violated your lease. It would need to be followed by an unlawful detainer action, which is trickier.

If you could persuade the woman to remove everything, including his things, you could consider the place abandoned, and use that as a way to take back possession - following appropriate action.

Remind her both are responsible until all their personal property is removed. Hopefully, she will take all his junk. I hope you got a good SD.

John

New Jersey

p.s. - If only the inoperative truck remains on the property, I would move it into the street and park it safely on the side. the town will remove it and charge the titled owner of the vehicle. Many tow companies will NOT touch junk vehivles on private property without a vehicle title.

Let her move and I would probably assist her as much as I could.

He will not pay rent from jail so file for eviction for nonpayment as soon as the first payment is not there which will be September 1.

He will not be able to show up since he is incarcerated and you will get possession because he is not there. You win the case.

His stuff is a problem. Since he is violent you don't want him mad at you. Yes, get his truck off the property to the street. Can you move his stuff to a public storage place? Yes, it will cost a few bucks but in the long run you don't want a madman in your apt. When he gets out give him the keys to the storage unit and he can deal with it after that. I don't know if there is a minimum time you can rent one of those for but take the minimum.

Big E:

You've gotten good advice from Carolyn - she knows her stuff.

I have to wonder why, if he'd had trouble with the law previously, nothing showed up on his background check. Are you familar with Casenet in MO? Any previous court proceedings should show up there. It's just one of the steps I take in the background check and it's free.

I agree with everything Carolyn said. Be careful about moving the car onto the street. I tried this once on a junker car a tenant abandoned after I evicted him and got a call from the police saying that someone saw me move the car onto the street. I was going to get hit with unlawfully abandoning a car (which wasn't mine). Doah! I explained my ignorance to the officer, who graciously gave me 24 hours to do something about it. Called the PD, got an "event number" and had a private towing company move it for $45.

I had this happen once....when the guy showed up to pick up his stuff, i simply said "oh, the place was empty when i got here, i assumed she took it with her"

Read into that whatever you want, but it works...

RENT ON !! and good luck

Interesting situation - I started several repsonses and erased them. One thought: why doesn't she get a roommate and have you write a new lease for her and the new roommate? To do this, you will need his agreement in writing from the jailbird to cancel the existing lease - ManateeAlley had a good idea around that. Also get his agreement on the disposition of his stuff - if he doesn't have a relative who can come and get them vehicle, get him to give you the title or bill of sale so that you can get it hauled away.

Definitely be careful about moving that vehicle onto the street - it is a quick way to solve the problem, but as sid pointed out, you could end up in a lot of trouble - even more if that vehicle in the public road is the cause of an accident before it can be removed by the police.

What Manatee said, I have done this and it worked great, got my place back the same day no hassles. Just make nice that you are doing this for their benefit.

Also don't forget to get a release from her if both are on the lease.