Evicting a Renter in Fairfax, VA

[Anonymous]

a deadbeat tenant in a condo near me had not paid rent in two years. Landlord was getting cockblocked at every step of way so decided to sell. A person said as is no problem at all gave 5 percent cash down and then dragged it on and on and on. Turns out was a fake name who bought house was actually tenant. Well that bought him another year. By then owner walked away and bank dragged in. Bank just foreclosed finally. It is year seven. Over years deadbeat did legal name changes, married, divorced, my favorite sued landlord for harassment and no heat. The deadbeats brothers a cop and his uncle is a mob type guy. My favorite he stole drugs from a drug dealer and when guy came tenant gave him a beat down. Cops saved the bloody drug dealer who refused to press charges.

[Anonymous]

My advice would be if you ever run into someone with the last name Demetro in the D.C. area (including Maryland & Virginia) that you run for the hills or at least make sure your tenant screening is up to snuff to account for credit, eviction, criminal history, and documented income. Do not fall for large deposits up-front, you will get burned in the end.

[Anonymous]

Guessing this is the family:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iJtIxjIydI

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

But the key is for the landlord to want to resolve the issue and not boot the tenant.

My view is to follow the above advice and remain agnostic about the outcome. If the tenant pays up and pays fees, fine. If not, keep the process moving along.

The risk of going full on fight is that your house could be utterly, utterly trashed. Happened to a friend of mine who went hard on a tenant who had nothing to lose. All of the appliances were broken, copper wire taken, and the entire place was trashed. Cost him 25K to just turn the damn place around.

I'll take an intact house with late rent or a tenant leaving on their own over booting them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

But the key is for the landlord to want to resolve the issue and not boot the tenant.

My view is to follow the above advice and remain agnostic about the outcome. If the tenant pays up and pays fees, fine. If not, keep the process moving along.

The risk of going full on fight is that your house could be utterly, utterly trashed. Happened to a friend of mine who went hard on a tenant who had nothing to lose. All of the appliances were broken, copper wire taken, and the entire place was trashed. Cost him 25K to just turn the damn place around.

I'll take an intact house with late rent or a tenant leaving on their own over booting them.

Honestly, once you have bad folk in your house, there's likely no resolution for things like late rent. I was 100% professional to the folks I eventually evicted, and when I finally got control of my property back. there was about $5k worth of repairs in addition 5 months of lost rent. They lied like we breath, and there was always some reason for missed rent, like a job they didn't get paid for or some relative in the hospital. They physically blocked inspections of the property, despite rights to inspections being in the lease.

I can't say this enough; get a security deposit equal to one full month's rent, and first and last month's rent, upfront. The most wiggle room I'd ever allow is maybe 50% of last month's rent. And be very diligent on credit checks and other validation of documents. And if you don't want to put in the effort, get the property professionally managed.

[Anonymous]

New names for eviction cases: John Demetro Jr., John Demetro Sr., Jessica Mitchell, Billy Mitchell

[Anonymous]

In D.C., search the superior court public records by name for eviction history:

https://www.dccourts.gov/superior-court/cases-online

https://eaccess.dccourts.gov/eaccess/home.page.2

To search for background, credit, use a site such as:

https://www.mysmartmove.com/SmartMove/login.page

Do not rely on any website to verify employment, income, assets. Require 60 days pay-stubs and supervisor information to verify employment, require last 2 years tax returns to verify stated income, require bank statements to verify assets.

[Anonymous]

WTF? Reading up on this family makes me question the notion that Virginia is the land of landlord heaven.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi All,

Unfortunately, our tenant has not paid rent. He has been served a 5 day quit or pay notice, which expired yesterday. Today, the rental company contacted their lawyer to request a court date. Does anyone know how long it takes to get a court date?

It sounds like once the court date is set, the tenant has 10 days to appeal and then the Sheriffs office has 30 days to post the eviction notice. Any guesses on how long the Sheriffs office will take? Ideally, the eviction notice would be served immediately and the tenant would have 72 hours to vacate. How long should I expect it to take to get the tenant out? Obviously, the sooner the better as we need to get a new tenant.

If I am mistaken of my understanding of the process, please let me know.

Did you run his/her credit/eviction report before renting?

As usual, in typical DCUM fashion, the fact the renter is not paying rent is a shortcoming of the OP/Landlord. Good Grief.

Yep only bunch of arrogant asshats transplant here. Miss native dcers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WTF? Reading up on this family makes me question the notion that Virginia is the land of landlord heaven.

Virginia isn't landlord heaven by any stretch, nor is it hell. Pretty middle of the road.

https://www.rentcafe.com/blog/renting/states-best-worst-laws-renters/

Now West Virginia.... They'll get a bad tenant out in a matter of days.

[Anonymous]

A friend of mine got conned into renting to one of those professional rent evaders, not from one of the gypsy families. Fairfax, very close to city of Alexandria. Guy paid 1st months rent, never paid again. It took them a huge amount of time to evict him, and guy not only didn't pay rent, he trashed the place. This fellow was malevolent in causing damage. It's not that easy to evict these types because they know how to play the game. My friend was a reluctant landlord; condo market was flat so he rented out while waiting out the slump. Careful due diligence would have avoided this scenario, but at that time he didn't have the experience to realize this sort of thing could happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is why we never bought rental property.

Dolly Lacroix is part of this scam too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Yes, we have a property manager. Credit was check (just over 700). HHI was close to $200k. Accounts were paid on time. Monthly debt was low. So by all accounts, we should have had no problems.

I read the info posted on Fairfax Co website about the eviction process. There was no mention of how long it takes to get a court date. Seems like once the court date is set, eviction is 45 days or less.

I've heard the court date can take 3 weeks. I'm hopeful the Sherrifs office will serve the eviction paperwork sooner than 30 days.

You can send your own letters with suggestions to the tenant. You can also state that when the sheriff comes things will be going down hill fast so it's best to vacate ASAP.

Goodness that is seriously bad advice. Great way to piss off a judge. Don’t take advice from the internet!

[Anonymous]

All these posts that target specific names are ripe for a libel suit. You can’t libel people in a public forum. That’s illegal. Just like not paying rent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All these posts that target specific names are ripe for a libel suit. You can’t libel people in a public forum. That’s illegal. Just like not paying rent.

It's not libel if it is factually accurate.