Today I went with my dad to the courthouse to help evict a tenant in our apartment complex.
Peter, our tenant in unit #2 had been living with his wife in the apartment for over +20 years (He was one of the original tenants when my dad purchased the building). We have never really had a problem with him until earlier this year when he stopped paying his rent. When my dad asked him, he simply replied “I don’t have the money to pay”. Having no other choice, we proceeded with the eviction process.
The entire process was a curious one, as I (or my dad) had never been through something like this before. We hired an eviction lawyer, who walked us through the entire process prior to the court hearing. She was really nice and reassuring that based on the situation, that we would have no problems moving forward.
On the day of the hearing, my dad and I arrived at the court building to meet with our lawyer. We waited in a long hallway in front of doors that led to the courtrooms. I remember asking the lawyer when we were going into the courtroom, but to my surprise, she said that disputes are usually settled outside in the hallway. Only cases that can not be settled outside actually enter into a courtroom!
And so, the way it worked for us that day was that we were on one side of the hallway with our lawyer, and the tenant was on the other end with their lawyer. Both lawyers would meet in the middle, discuss terms to a settlement that both parties would agree on, and then walk back to the clients to see if they agree to the terms. We’d later find out that the tenant didn’t have their own lawyer so they were assigned one that day from the city.
The negotiations didn’t go as smooth as we thought. The tenant initially refused to pay any of the back rent owed to us, and also had the nerve to state that he had a previous agreement with the former owner that he would sweep the floors in the common areas for a monthly amount, and that we actually owed him money over 20 years w/interest. So, after about 5 rounds of back and forth, we finally agreed to terms that the tenant would leave in a month and we called the lost back rent a wash.
San Francisco has pretty tenant-friendly eviction laws, so we were just happy that the tenant was leaving without any further issue.
It was definitely an interesting experience, and one I hope I don’t have to go through again for a long time!
