State Specific Question About: MINNESOTA (MN)

Our tenants stopped living in their unit in January without notifying us because they did not get fuel oil and the furnace stopped running. This caused the pipes to freeze and break flooding the basement. We only became aware of this when the other tenants said that they had no water. they also said they had not seen or heard the other tenants for a few weeks. Upon finding the flooded basement, we entered the unit to find it abandoned. their cat was still there. she had not been fed for quite awhile and was eating a cardboard box. the litter box was full and she was using the living room carpet. the tenants were 2 months behind in rent and had never paid the damage or pet deposits. When I did get a hold of them by phone, i was told that they had the money and would be getting it to us the next day. I told them that if we did not have it the next day, the locks would be changed and they would no longer have access to the unit. they did not bring the money and the locks were changed and a new home for the cat was found. they were given a complete list of the money owed and told that when we got our money, they could have their stuff. We had prepared a 3 day eviction notice, but never had a way to get it to them since we did not know where they were staying. we had one put on the door of the unit, but again it was never picked up.

We ended up giving them their stuff after being contacted by their attorney. she stated that we could not "hold their property hostage." And we had no right to turn the water off to their unit even thought the water was not getting to the unit because of the frozen pipes and was causing damage to the property.we totally understand tenants rights, but when do their rights stop and ours start. Are we to keep letting damage to occur to our property when it is clear that they are not living there and are not in any way trying to correct the situation.

Whoa...

They were TWO months behind in their rent and you didn't do anything about it?

And I'm confused... the one set of tenants are responsible for the oil bill for the whole bldg but other tenants live there, too?

What is done is done. You can't rewrite history. What you can do is learn from your mistakes. Correct what you can with the current sitch and you are going to have to pay the ex-tenants dear heart sorry to say.

LL's what should of she done differently to deal with this sitch correctly?

1st thing would be?

1.Serve a pay rent or quit at the first available date.

2. Correct the utilities sitch and divide the meters.

3.Check on her rentals more often

4.Serve a abandonment notice if pay or quit goes unanswered.

5. Not change the locks giving the tenants 24 hours to cure or quit. It must be done properly according to the laws of your state.

She is in MN not TX. In CA we could not change the locks until the eviction had gone through the courts and a lock out was done.

6. Sent a security deposit accounting with in her State's LL/TT laws time limit ...

to the tenants last residence which would be her rental property. When it came in the mail if not forwarded she would leave it un-opened and file it for court.

7. As a LL you have the right to enter the property in the event of a emergency. Which burst pipes is a emergency.

8. The way you handled this I believe you may have to pay double or triple the security deposit to the ex-tenants. What you did is seen as a self help eviction. Even though we know and understand what you were doing and why ... unfortunately this will be seen by the court as a self help eviction.