Buying a home is stressful but also exciting at the same time. You finally have your down payment saved up, your pre-approval letter and you’ve found the home that you have been searching for. You do everything right until everything goes so wrong so quickly and your stuck being able to do nothing, while feeling taken advantage of.
This is my story… We had our offer accepted for a 3 bedroom home that needed some work and tenants living inside. The listing stated that the tenants were fully aware of the sale of the home and had been given their 60 day notice to vacate. Everything at the start was going smoothly, the tenants agreed to a specific move out date, were super friendly and would communicate with us about inspection time frames and updates on when they were leaving, we had no worries.
About 1 month into escrow the tenants asked if they could stay for three more weeks and everyone agreed on a new date. We decided not to close escrow until the tenants were out so we extended the time frame. I did not want any tenant liability. When we first opened escrow the sellers and I had come to an agreement that the home would be delivered vacant.
After the tenants asked for the extension they stopped communicating with the sellers. They stopped paying the rent and started demanding for money in order to leave the property. Now I have no idea what happened or why the sudden change in plans/attitude but this would go on to continue for the next 10 months of my life. The tenant started to refuse entry into the home even though they were given plenty of notice, they would claim that they never received any type of notice about having to move or that we did not give them enough time.
Another month goes by and I try to talk to the tenant. When I peeked through the windows all the furniture was gone, it looks a bit trashy with random things on the floor and some moving boxes but all big items such as couches, desks, tables, dresser, shelves were gone. I thought this was a great sign and wow this nightmare can finally be over. (this was three months into escrow) I was getting hopeful that I could finally get my house, sadly that was not the case.
The next day the tenant demanded even more money and stated that they would not be leaving. It never made sense to me, but to this day I don’t know where any of their furniture went because the house stayed almost empty for months but yet they still lived there. I didn’t understand why they just didn’t leave. At this point we had to get a lawyer involved to start the eviction case, luckily the 60 day notice had already been given and everything was on paper, the lease agreement was up to date and the attorney had high hopes that this would be over quickly.
The court system took two months to hear our evictions case. Not only did they misplace our file and the case “fell through the cracks”, (courts words not mine) but once the files were found they scheduled us a month later for the case to be heard. I have been so patient but so frustrated through out this entire process because California gives no help to the landlords and I never even wanted to be a landlord, I just wanted my house. We patiently waited for the court date to come thinking it would be all over. I was wrong again.
The tenants hired their own lawyer, they refused to pay rent for the last couple of months but were willing to pay for a lawyer which is another thing I did not understand but okay. At trial, the tenants asked for a jury trial and in the state of California if someone wants a jury trail there is no saying no. Not only did we wait two months for a trial date but now we have to wait another entire month for jury trial, which apparently is a tactic used by tenants to get even more free time and leverage. Not only are they asking for a jury trial, they also want $25,000 that she owed to be forgotten and extra two months to move. Seriously more time? I can’t do anything because if I do anything, it would be considered harassment and then I could potentially owe the tenant money or the state of California would fine me for illegally kicking someone out.
At this point I have to pray that they won’t cause any damage to the house. I keep picturing that I will walk into concrete filled pipes and that just leaves sinking feeling in my stomach. I am almost worried that the jury is going to be on the tenant’s side and say “don’t worry about it! you don’t have to pay back the $25,000 that you previously owed and better yet why don’t you just stay in the house for the rest of the year for your pain and suffering.” I know it sounds crazy but this entire situation has been crazy so anything can happen.
For legal reasons, I don’t want to get into the tiny details of what happened inside the courtroom, I am not sure what will end up being public record so let’s just say the judge made a decision. The decision involved me gaining access to the home in a few days. You may think the story ends here and that we all lived happily ever after but my life does not tend to go into the Disney direction. After the judge made the decision, the tenants filed an appeal. A freaking appeal! Delaying the process for the third time in a row. This entire process has killed dream homeownership for me, this was the first house I have ever purchased. I was so excited to give my dog a yard, have my grandmother sit out on the porch and enjoy her coffee in the mornings but everything just got destroyed with layers of frustration and disappointment and being taken advantage of.
Nobody warns you that this can happen to you, this can happen to you even if the house is owner occupied. Think about it, the owner of the house could put their house for sale and on the last day of escrow instead of moving out, they just continue living there. You just bought this nice home without tenants you shouldn’t have to deal with the previous owner not wanting to move out so you call the police, thinking maybe this falls under trespassing now or squatting, nope. The police will tell you to go through the courts system because there is nothing they can do in California. This entire thing has frustrating and I would not wish this on my worst enemy, be careful when buying a house.
