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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have an investment property in Fairfax county. We rent it to 4 young women. One of them got a dog that has been terrorizing the other three tenants. One of the tenants has moved out because of the dog. We have asked the woman who got the dog to move out and she refuses, claiming the dog is an emotional support animal. What can we do? I feel for the other tenants and want to resolve this amicably.[/quote]

Former FFX landlord here. FFX is more tenant friendly than landlord even if you have tenants that turned your house into a crack den and have completely destroyed the entire inside....ahem sorry.

You have to go through this long ridiculous process. You have to serve a 30 day notice. Pay a service to do it otherwise its void in court. On day 31 you go to the courthouse and file the eviction paperwork. 30-ish days later you end up in court where the judge asks them if they agree to the eviction and of course they will not agree, so you'll get a follow up court date approx 14 days later to argue your case in front of the judge. You'll get awarded the eviction, hopefully, and then you have to wait for the sheriffs office to serve the eviction (up to 14 days) and then wait up to another 30 days after that to actually have them out of your house. It sucks. If you can afford it hire a lawyer to alleviate some of the frustration, do it. But you must follow the steps or you'll have to start all over.

Also expect for her to file a case with the landlord/tenant division in fairfax county and you'll have to give an official response to her complaint and it stays in their system for 5 years. They are generally ok if they feel sorry for you, but they will start off like treating you like a jerk landlord. Some were helpful with helping us figure out the rules, laws and procedures we needed to follow to get them out. others were really rude and mean.  Keeping calling back to ask questions until you figure out which ones and then always call back ask for them. Our ahole tenants was great at googling things to stay off eviction so we went with a lawyer since we didn't have the time to keep dealing with all of it and the lawyer knew how to deal with all the loopholes. A lawyer would know the exact write wording needed to not allow the service dog exception.  I would think since they did not claim disability when moving in, they can't claim it now and I would request paperwork showing how she was diagnosed and that her doctor said she needed one, and not just the paperwork off the internet.  I would also get a written statement from the tenant that moved out.

Some judges are so jaded they don't care and will give you a hard time and the sheriffs office definitely doesn't give a hoot and will do nothing to help the process. ours went on vacation and so ours didn't post the eviction until day 14 after we were awarded with the eviction and then didn't complete process the eviction until day 29 after that. all they do is show up on eviction day and stand there, but no way can you just hire an off duty cop to do it sooner.

It's a horrible process. VA stinks for landlords. Good luck. [/quote]

This sucks so bad. I am so sorry.[/quote]

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