The last six months have been beyond hard. I've never cried so much, been so stressed, anxious and frustrated. I prayed harder than ever, read and listened to conference talks, scriptures, and attended the temple a lot. Trying to evict our renter was like battling the dark side but the dark side kept winning over and over. We had the worst case scenario every time.
She moved in the beginning of July and gave us a check. Two weeks later her check bounced and we couldn't get her out at that point. I tried to look at the bright side. We have had so many health trials that I was grateful we weren't dealing with a sick child. We have always had the best case scenario with Lynnlee's heart and I am grateful for that.
The eviction process is long and slow. Every law favors the tenant. It normally is an expensive process because you have to have a lawyer and go through the court system. We were very blessed to have our old bishop help us and charge us minimal fees.
We finally got to the point to evict and lock her out in the middle of October and then she filed for bankruptcy the night before the lock out. That bought her another thirty days.
We submitted a motion to end her stay from the bankruptcy but the judge wouldn't sign it. That was so frustrating to see her win again especially when she was the one not paying from the beginning and was clearly in the wrong. We felt like the bad guys a lot and it was so backwards and frustrating.
We put it up for sale again at the end of October and accepted an offer on the day before Thanksgiving. We finally evicted her one week before closing. It took a lot to get her out and she didn't move until the very last second. It was the day after Marshall's birthday and he was there with the constable changing the locks on the door as she was moving her stuff into a Uhaul. On Marshall's birthday he went with the constable to post the notice on the door that said she needed to be out by midnight or the locks would be changed the next morning. That was an exciting birthday and will go down in history.
During the eviction process we found out that she had done the same thing five times in the last two years. Right now there is no law against it and she doesn't even get a slap on the hand. So why would she stop doing it? Don't we all wish we could live for free ;)
I wish I could rent a billboard and warn all landlords about her. We did error on the side of not doing a back ground check but I defend that because we had gotten by six years without doing checks on our other renters. We definitely learned from our mistakes. If I ever become a landlord again I will fork up the extra money to do background checks.
It felt really good the day she was out but the next day it made me feel so sick to think that she could live there, trash it, never pay, and then move out and totally get away with it all. Most times when a person takes thousands of dollars from someone there is a punishment which usually involves jail or something.
A huge thanks to our
Realtor who sold it. He approached us in September and I explained the whole story to him and where we were at with our renter. He said he could sell it even with all of the hurdles. We put it in his hands and he delivered. We closed on Wednesday. We drove up to Bountiful that morning to do a few things. Then we went to the title company and signed. It was the best feeling!
