Tenant won't move out and requesting a Jury trial...
I have a tenant who is month to month and is a lawyer who has a checkered past to put it nicely, he is a felon, but has been given his law license back. He has stopped paying rent, and told me he will not pay, or move until a judge tells him to. He will not communicate with me, and will not give me his lawyers contact information. I have given him a 30 day notice to leave (per month to month tenancy in ohio) and plan to give him a 3 day notice, then start the eviction process. I've spoken to multiple layers who know him and they said he will request it being moved from a suburban court to downtown and will request a jury trial which with the backlog of cases will buy him at least 6 to 12 months rent free. I have a great lease, and it is clear I have done everything right, the tenant knows he will loose, but he also knows it will cost me (estimates so far) over $5,000-$10,000 to fight this as a jury trial plus the lost revenue in rental income. I have no idea what to do, as I can't believe you can have a jury trial for an eviction when you refuse to pay or leave. I can not afford the loss in rental income along with the associated legal fees, and am looking into selling the house.
Does anyone have any advice on this , or has anyone gone through this in the past and has ANY insight at all of what to do? I will be trying to sell the house, while also starting the eviction process with the tenant, and hiring a lawyer to try and stop his change of venue, and request for a jury trial but my lawyer said he will most likely get both of those requests.
I will loose the house if he doesn't pay, and I have to take on legal fees. I tried telling him he doesn't owe any back rent and I will return his security deposit in full even though there is damage to the property and he won't accept that either.
Finally, when I tell him I will be entering the property with 24 hours notice he purposely is not there, and has two very large German Shepard dogs which he claims are mean so I can not even access my own property.