Got trashed during spring break- to sue or not?

[Mango]

My neighbor and I rent our side by side units together for larger groups. We had spring breakers who we spoke to the mothers and they said they would be supervising 8 girls with 4 moms. Sounded reasonable.
Found out from one of the other owners they threw a party, and cars from Alabama were parked up and down our driveway, in the street etc.
The other owner called prior to the party and she said she spoke with one of the moms. WE called after the party and asked the other on-site owner to stop by and ask to speak with a parent under the pretense of a maintenance issue. This was 8:30 am. Girls claimed parents were out. Got a call from a Mom on cell who claimed she was at the beach. Assured me she was supervising, that the party was the next door unit to ours, and that she owned a house in Gulfport once and understood our concern.

My neighbor who I rented with came down the beach that Friday night to check it out and stayed in my other house on grounds, and found a hellish nightmare. Margarita mix all over her down comforters, down the banisters , broken twin metal frame, our toilets were all backed up, my sinks backed up, and broken disposal. She seemed to get the brunt of it. But we knew the moms could not have been there when we found vomit glued to our decks and railings!
We had a $600 security deposit, and fortunately her husband was able to repair everything himself in my unit and his, comforters were replaced, and they even managed to lightly power wash the deck (which was just stained!) to get the vomit off.
I gave her all the deposit collected, but I have a couple of questions?
1) If my lease has a limit of occupants, and a party is thrown, and my lease says they can be evicted, cars towed off grounds for violation, can I deadbolt the unit and leave their stuff by the curb?
2) Can I sue for additional damages? The deposit just covered the new linens, comforter, disposal, not to mention the time involved for my friend who did the work while on spring break with her family.
We are not sure it is worth persuing further, but seething from doing our due dilegence and then being outright lied too by adults! We decided only families from now on. No groups! even adult groups, since only one person is signing lease usually.

Thanks,
Donna a/k/a Mango

 

[imasunbum]

Donna - Afraid I don't know your legal rights on this, but just wanted to say how sorry I am that happened. I worry about that nightmare too, just as I am sure everyone else thats rents does. What really concerns me is that anyone can get on the phone and profess to be a parent these days. Do you think that could have happened, and that there were actually never any parents involved?

 

[Mango]

Being a native New Yorker, (we don't trust anyone) I made two of the parents sign the lease, and spoke to both. I am certain that they were adults. I even googled them, and found the father and mother and believe it or not, the father is a lawyer. I got checks from them, so unless she has an adult sister and they stole a check from Dads checkbook, no, the moms lied.
I believe they were at the beach, just not staying with the girls.
I even called their house at 5 am in Alabama to see if I got a Mom on the phone, and no one answered. I would assume that they would have answered a call that early if they had any concern for their daughter, especially after what happened to that other girl -was it Lacey, who was abducted on one of the carribbean islands.
Donna

 

[imasunbum]

man what a shame - I hope you get some satisfaction.

 

[Destiny]

Mango,
I am sorry to hear your sad news. We are renters and always appreciate the opportunity to stay in clean, nice accomodations when away from home. I have posted on the board in the past that some accomodations have been cleaner when we leave than we were arrived. I suppose that has to do with the previous renters.
I don't know what legal recourse you may have but wish you well and hope you have better luck with future renters.

 

[Cork On the Ocean]

1) If my lease has a limit of occupants, and a party is thrown, and my lease says they can be evicted, cars towed off grounds for violation, can I deadbolt the unit and leave their stuff by the curb?
2) Can I sue for additional damages? The deposit just covered the new linens, comforter, disposal, not to mention the time involved for my friend who did the work while on spring break with her family.
We are not sure it is worth persuing further, but seething from doing our due dilegence and then being outright lied too by adults! We decided only families from now on. No groups! even adult groups, since only one person is signing lease usually.

Thanks,
Donna a/k/a Mango

I'm not a lawyer but have rented for many years. The answer to #1 is definitively NO. You can't take eviction upon yourself and lock them out or remove their belongings or YOU will be sued!

You can sue for additional damages but whether you will win or not is a different story. I had a long term lease one time where malicious damage was done. A tenant got mad at his girlfriend and literally went through my house with a baseball bat. I called the police and was told they couldn't do anything because the people had my permission to be there and they could just say that's the way we live. So I couldn't file criminal charges in that case but maybe civil.

In my case, the guy was in bad financial shape by the time he left and there was nothing to get. In yours, if you have the parents signatures on the lease and they have assets, you may be able to get damages but I would think that if the dad is an attorney, he'll drag you through a bunch of legal hassels that will cost more time and money than it's worth. Maybe small claims court where you could file yourself and you wouldn't have a lot of legal expenses but have an attorney review it first to see if you even have a standing. Personally, I wouldn't do it out of emotion, only if the remaining expenses are extensive and worth your trouble.

So sorry about the damage. This is one of our biggest concerns with doing property management.

 

[Paula]

Sorry about the damage Mango. We haven't had that yet, and hope we never do (but it's possible...).

Cork, if people lie on a lease (e.g. parents are not around or you catch them doing damage), you really can't evict them? For example, if your rental says that no one under 25 allowed to stay at the rental without a parent present and there's no parent present, can't you evict them because they lied (and it's clearly unsafe and then you could get sued for not supervising your rentals if someone falls off a balcony?).

Anyway, Mango, as I've said before on this board, I advertise our rentals as family-friendly and the area as inviting to little kids with lots of safety things around so that teenagers and partiers will choose to go elsewhere rather than share a community with little kids and parents who treasure their peace and quiet and who will go absolutely insane if anyone wakes up their peacefully sleeping toddler.

 

[Cork On the Ocean]

Sorry about the damage Mango. We haven't had that yet, and hope we never do (but it's possible...).

Cork, if people lie on a lease (e.g. parents are not around or you catch them doing damage), you really can't evict them? For example, if your rental says that no one under 25 allowed to stay at the rental without a parent present and there's no parent present, can't you evict them because they lied (and it's clearly unsafe and then you could get sued for not supervising your rentals if someone falls off a balcony?).

Anyway, Mango, as I've said before on this board, I advertise our rentals as family-friendly and the area as inviting to little kids with lots of safety things around so that teenagers and partiers will choose to go elsewhere rather than share a community with little kids and parents who treasure their peace and quiet and who will go absolutely insane if anyone wakes up their peacefully sleeping toddler.

Paula, telling them that they've breached their contract and asking them to leave is different than evicting them. The contracts that we've considered using do say that violation of the contract is a breach and they can be removed but physical eviction is a legal process that can't be taken into one's hands. Like you can't turn off utilities, lock them out, take their stuff. It's my understanding that only the sherriff can physically remove them after an eviction order has been received. I have a client in PC going through it now and believe me, he'd love to kick their a$$es out but he's got to evict them. Surprisingly the county said it would only be a few weeks. Some places it can be months. I would definitely tread lightly and ask an attorney before doing anything forceably. I've always had great luck with the "threat" of eviction - A required 3 day written notice before you can start eviction. Once they get the 3 day notice, they generally move. Only had to ever evict once.

 

[Mango]

The $600 was sufficient to cover losses, and cover my friends time in repairs, and e learned a valuable lesson. We sent a well worded professional letter to the parents
Its funny, the Mom asked me to send lease to daughter etc. since she wanted her to learn responsibility!
Too bad the daughter has no model to exemplify.

On the whole, most of my guests are clean and take care of my homes to the point of detailing even small items which I appreciate.

Donna

 

[Cork On the Ocean]

Its funny, the Mom asked me to send lease to daughter etc. since she wanted her to learn responsibility!
Too bad the daughter has no model to exemplify.

Now that's enough to want to teach the mom her responsibity but I guess just use the experience as a lesson and move on.