SWAT team surrounding my rental now

[John Morgan]

So my tenants stopped paying rent in January and I filed for eviction in ft worth in Feb. I won my eviction case March 16th. However, all evictions got halted a few days later so I never got the writ of possession (which takes 7 days after winning the eviction). These people have been a problem for awhile and it’s my fault for not filing for eviction earlier. The city inspector contacted me numerous times in the last 3 or 4 months about trash violations and junk stored in the front of the house. They even had the water turned off for not paying, but my tenants turned the water valve at the street back on which isn’t allowed obviously.

Anyway, the police told me the SWAT team is surrounding the house and are about to go in. The people inside the house told the cops two of them have coronavirus. The police said they have warrants to arrest for stolen goods. I’m sure they’ll find tons of drugs in there too. He told me they may haul them all off to jail. So here’s my question. If they go busting in and haul them all off, can I reclaim the property legally? I assume I can’t since they didn’t leave on their own and all their possessions will be inside. What are my rights? It’s not in a good area and I’m worried someone will break in and steal all my copper again from my HVAC in the attic like they did last year. And take all my new appliances. Since I have an eviction award from the court, can I legally take it back if they get thrown in jail? Do I have any rights? Or just leave the house with a smashed in front door for another 60 days or whenever they allow evictions again?

The police were called out to this house 15 different times recently according to their records. The next door neighbors smell marijuana constantly coming from inside the house. They hear loud fighting late at night frequently. And hear gun shots from it occasionally. One bullet apparently hit the neighbor’s car window three weeks ago. I feel awful about the problems my tenants have caused to this neighborhood. I completely rehabbed it 11 months ago and spent 50k on it. Just wished i had some rights to reclaim my property that I’m paying big loans on. But I’m afraid I don’t have any rights since all evictions are halted.

[Nathan Gesner]

I posted about a similar situation a few times over the years. The short version (yes, this is the short version) is that a nurse lost her job, and literally walked out the door to take a job in another state without taking any of her belongings, closing the doors, taking out the trash, or even leaving the heat on. I discovered the home with front and back door wide open, no heat or utilities in the house, and the interior temperature was 24 degrees! The pipes were frozen but we managed to fix everything before it developed a leak.

I finally managed to contact her through her daughter. The tenant said she was working 24/7 2 catch up financially and was not able to come back to pay what she owed or even move out of the house. She left multiple flat screen TVs, four laptop computers, all of her clothes, all of her photos, jewelry, and even some brand new rifles! This was a 3000 square foot house with four large bedrooms and three full bathrooms a d it was full of stuff. she left a ton of trash, but her actual possessions were all high-quality items.

I hired three helpers, came up with an hourly rate, and we packed up every last bit of her stuff and placed it in storage. I told her she could have it back when she paid all the due rent, utilities, cleaning, late fees, as well as my moving and Storage cost.

After a month-and-a-half of no payment, we started inventorying her belongings and pricing them for sale. I'm not joking when I tell you we discovered an engagement ring worth $10,000 (I have a jeweler friend) plus a lot of other high-end jewelry. We chose the items we thought would sell fastest to cover the debt, did the necessary filings and were about a week away from selling when she contacted me and said she was ready to pay. we came to an agreement on the amount, she showed up a week later with a large U-Haul truck and a friend, and she paid me every last dime owed. She thanked me profusely (several times every day for three days) for being so willing to work with her!

That's the only time in my life I've been paid $100 per hour for physical labor. LOL!