Evicting a Renter in Fairfax, VA

[Anonymous]

14:47 - VERY helpful. Not OP, BTW.

Spanish surname. I looked it up because I was wondering how common it is.

Very well fed family, apparently.

[Anonymous]

Please name more names. How would one find out who these families are to avoid?

[Anonymous]

Searching by last name here for civil cases isn't a bad place to start: http://www.courts.state.va.us/

Demetro really stood out, but it might be worthy trying other gypsy names.

[Anonymous]

Wow, if you search the archives for Demetro, there's like 18 more unlawful detainer cases between 2005 and 2007 in Fairfax County alone. What a bunch deadbeats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How about you two pick better tenants?

In my case, the person is a professional in his 50's, family man, earning $250k+ per year when commissions are factored in. That's the issue though -- he's in a business where you do 1-2 transactions per year and take a massive commission on those.. but meanwhile his ex-wife is having all his wages garnished for child support, so he has no free cash. Of course, I learn about all this only after he moved in, since that didn't show up in a credit report.

In the future ask to see most current pay check stub it may have shown up there. Also your management company should have done a check in the courts to see what he was up to. I personally check DC,MD, and VA court records on my tenants even if they say they haven't lived in one of them. I have found some interesting things by just going and checking court records. Divorces with garnishment of wages and all sorts of things that don't show up on basic back ground checks that management companies do. Management companies look for felonies, sex offenders and stuff like that. They don't usually do the work to show where someone has been in trouble financially in the past or could be in the future. Also if the divorce was recent the amount owned in child support/alimony may not have reached the credit bureaus yet.

[Anonymous]

PP in MoCo here. Finally got my tenant out yesterday! Eviction was due for today, so finally yesterday he shows up with movers and is all out. I save $450 on paying an eviction company then.

Now to figure out how much he owes on unpaid utility bills. Water (WSSC) bills stay with the property so I'm on the hook for that one, along with the fees he accrued for bouncing checks to them. Electric (Pepco) bill travels with the person so no worries on that one. Not sure about WashGas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know exactly one of the gypsy families you're talking about, the Demetro family. One of my landlord friends had issues with them, and I did a little digging online.

Do the following steps.

1) Goto: http://www.courts.state.va.us

2) Click "Case Status and Information"

3) On the new page, under "General District Court", click on "Case Information"

4) A Terms and Conditions page will appear. Enter the CAPTCHA test.

5) Select "Fairfax County District Court" in the dropdown on the side, and then click "Name Search" under "Civil"

6) Enter "Demetro" in the "Last/Business Name" field and click Search.

You'll see Unlawful Detainer cases (evictions) against several members of this family: Anthony Demetro, Bobby Demetro, Christina Demetro, Edilte Demetro, James Demetro, Jimmie Demetro, Lisa Demetro, Madison Demetro, Michael Demetro, Mike Demetro, Nick Demetro, Nina Demetro, Pamela Demetro, Patricia Demetro, Sandra Demetro, Sarah Demetro, Shawn Demetro (a real pro here), Steve Demetro, Steven Demetro, Terry Demetro, Thomas Demetro, and Yaz Demetro.

Run a search for Alexandria, and you'll see largely the same batch of people running up Unlawful Detainers in Alexandra: Bobby Demetro, Michael Demetro, Pamela Demetro, Ricky Demetro, Sam Demetro, and Velvet Demetro. What's impressive here is they are fooling established management companies.

There's 30+ of these cases in Fairfax County, and another 8 or so in Alexandria. So maybe about 40 cases in the last 7 years. That's about six evictions a year for this family.

Purely my guess... This probably is an organized gypsy family ring that fakes employment information and other background references to landlords in order to get leases. They then stop paying rent, while the slow eviction process moves forward (60+ days). If they are good with excuses, they can get away with several more months of free rent.

I'd also guess they are not a poor family. Here's a wedding video from 2008. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iJtIxjIydI . There's a couple more online as well. My guess is they can live quite well considering all the rent they haven't had to pay.

I'm not telling you to rent or not rent to anyone in Fairfax County with a last name of Demetro. I'm merely showing you an online tool, demonstrating some results, and posing a guess as to what's behind the data. I'll let you decide what to do with this information. Just make sure you run very thorough due diligence on anyone you lease to. My friend did do some due diligence, but clearly it wasn't enough.

I am surprised they haven't tried this in DC. With the laws leaning in favor of tenants. They could get away with murder in the city doing this. Of course if they are trying to rent in the <2000k range in the city they could end up in small basement apartment in SE. For once I am glad DC rents are high.

[Anonymous]

Based on your tenant's credit score and their financial situation, I think they are late paying their rent. They are going to pay as they aren't going to want to wreck their credit rating.

I'm sorry, but I think you are jumping the gun on the situation.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, there is "no jumping the gun" when it comes to evictions for late payment.

The art is to make the process as "friendly" as possible for the tenant. When I was at the courthouse for my hearing, I saw plenty of management companies talking with plaintiffs and working things out. This can happen simultaneously with the eviction process. Meanwhile, the 5-Day Notice and Summons for Unlawful Detainer can be completed for under $100.

If the case gets settled at any time between the five day notice and the probable 40 to 45 days to the hearing, then great! No harm done.

But a lot of harm can be done to the landlord financially if they wait months to start the eviction process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, there is "no jumping the gun" when it comes to evictions for late payment.

The art is to make the process as "friendly" as possible for the tenant. When I was at the courthouse for my hearing, I saw plenty of management companies talking with plaintiffs and working things out. This can happen simultaneously with the eviction process. Meanwhile, the 5-Day Notice and Summons for Unlawful Detainer can be completed for under $100.

If the case gets settled at any time between the five day notice and the probable 40 to 45 days to the hearing, then great! No harm done.

But a lot of harm can be done to the landlord financially if they wait months to start the eviction process.

Exactly right. Basically the landlord can stop the process at any point, even the day the sheriff turns up for eviction. What's important is to _start_ the process, since it can take weeks for the gears to turn in the county.

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much for putting the name Demtro in here- a couple using the name Sarah Fisher and Shawn came to our rental this afternoon to look at our place. After seeing this listing and several other I believe they are the Demtro's.

[Anonymous]

The landlord of a rental house wants to remove the people from his house because he is going to sell the house, and the tenant refuses to leave. What should he do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The landlord of a rental house wants to remove the people from his house because he is going to sell the house, and the tenant refuses to leave. What should he do?

Need more info - lease situation and most importantly, jurisdiction of rental property.

[Anonymous]

they are the worst ever. I have all there info I went to the mew agrees where Steve Demetro lives now. and he gave me every dollar back.
his new address is 513 Pasturebrook rd severn Md

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is a lengthy process - 30 days at least because they can appeal. However, I will tell you this, when you do go to evict them with the sheriff, take their cars. We did not know to do this and we lost $12,000 in back rent and had to pay our lawyer on top of it.

Have the Sheriff take their cars while you are there. You have a right to seize any property and to sell it.

In case you didn't have the introspection to realize this, previous poster, you are probably a complete a$$hole. Do you realize how class-less it is to prey on the poor? Most people don't go into a rental situation with a plan to steal as much time for free from the landlord as possible; they go into a rental, because their only other option is living on the street. By confiscating your renter's cars, you are leaving them destitute with very few options to get to work or find a new job and be productive citizens. OP and other prospective and current landlords, please have a heart in these tough economic times.

Actually it's pretty common. Sorry to disillusion you but sometimes paying for clothes, beauty treatments, phones and cars is far more important than paying rent even for hard working poor people...