A masterclass to help landlords win in court without the expense of a lawyer

[James McGovern]

Many landlords fear the court system and piss away a lot of money to lawyers. I am thinking about organizing a master class to guide landlords in bringing their own evictions and small claims cases to court without using a lawyer . 

would this be worthwhile?

[Marcus Auerbach]

Love the intention, but let me shoot some holes into this. I am on the board of the RPAWI in Milwaukee (a non-profit landlord organization) and have enough exposure to landlord-tenant law and the cases of our members (and a few of my own) to say evictions are very complex, the circumstances vary so much, the devil is in the details and it even varies by county. 

As long as it's a simple non-payment of rent and the tenant does not contest at the hearing you might be fine as a DIY. But our tenants get now free attorneys that will find a stupid clerical error in your paperwork and delay the inevedibale another month or two, costing you more money. If you make a mistake with the security deposit you could be on the hook for double damages. If your lease contains any of the 10 deadly sins, you may have to refund all of the rent that tenant has ever paid (Koble vs Marquart) and if you have more tenants in the building they may try to do the same thing! Personally, I'd rather hire an attorney!