When to start eviction proceedings

[Kate Elson]

I have a tenant on the second floor of a duplex on a month to month lease.  For various reasons I have decided to end the tenancy and gave the tenant notice that I would not renew the lease at the end of the next rental period (6 weeks notice). 

The apartment is filthy, the police are by on a regular basis, the hallways (common area) and completely blocked with stuff and a fire hazard, and she recently flooded the bathroom causing significant damage to the bathroom in the first floor unit.  My good tenant on the first floor is thinking of moving because they are tired of dealing with this. 

We delivered notice this past weekend and had not heard from the tenant.  Monday morning my first floor tenant called to ask if we had work going on in the basement and that it sounded like someone was cutting pipe.  She said it sounded exactly like when we upgraded the heating system recently. 

My first floor tenant heard the people in the basement, heard them go upstairs to the second floor unit, come back to the  basement and watched them come out of the basement with bags of pipe.  They managed to cut all the drain lines and any empty pipe that was in the basement and some rebar and spare plumbing pipe that was down there but did not disable any of the systems.  We called the police and they actually got names from my 2nd floor tenant, who admitted they were her friends and had stayed at the apartment the night before but she of course had no idea they were doing that in the basement. 

I'm wondering if I can now try to get her out sooner or do I still have to wait out the notice.  She's current on rent since her Mother sends me a check every month, but she's responsible for the actions of her guests and this is theft and malicious destruction of property. 

I would rather start proceedings now if I can rather than wait until the end of September.

The property is in Massachusetts

[Mike Hurney]

@Kate Elson  Ugh... I hate to hear this crap:-(

I'd call the Junk Yard Dog of Eviction Attorneys [REMOVED] (I believe his partner may be handling this work right now) to set up a plan for this Eviction.

Then coordinated with the Attorney serving her:

1.Call the mother who's also on the lease and get her up to speed with what's going on.

2. Then something like, Offer a Good Recommendation (if you can, if she moves ASAP). 

3. Offer to move her (you pay a moving company, again if she moves ASAP).

4. Call the City Health Inspector who reviews rentals for compliance with the State Sanitary Code (because she will and you can document the current condition with the Inspector).

5. Get all your paperwork together: Application, Lease, Statement of Conditions, Escrow Statement (for their Security Deposit(?) and a check for the interest if you haven't paid it annually yet) , Blue Lead Form. If you don't have these forms and lost them when moving, you can create them as accurately as possible but let everyone involved know this.

Mike

PS let us know how it goes;-)