Real Estate Investing 101

Funny, But True Landlord/Tenant Stories

We have not posted one our “Funny Landlord Tenant Stories” for a few weeks so we are over due. In the midst of life’s ciaos, a little humor is a good thing.

Thanks go out to Andy Hull for his on-going offerings of great stories. If you need a knowledgeable landlord/tenant attorney, he’s well respected in the Greater Phoenix area. 

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In one case, the tenant appeared in front of the Judge and admitted that she had not paid rent. Her main concern was that she would be liable for the remaining months on her lease and would potentially have to pay that off. After looking at the lease, the contract had expired several months prior and the tenant was on a month-to-month tenancy. This was pointed out to the Judge, and the Judge informed the tenant that she would potentially only be liable for one additional month if the landlord was unable to re-rent the property. The tenant starting jumping up and down with joy, praising God, and yelling “Hallelujah, Amen”. The Judge said he had never seen a tenant so happy to be found guilty and evicted from their rental unit.

Another potential client contacted our office with the following correspondence. “Please help me get these people out of my house. Have you ever seen the movie Pacific Heights? I am living it. I am not cut out to be a landlord. I am a sucker that people like this pray on. I have been set up from the very beginning. I let them get so far behind on their rent because they came up with this huge story about the tenant’s father dying, the tenant being an only child, and he had to pay for all the funeral expenses. He didn’t want his dad to be buried in a pine box with no headstone. I found out later when his father called me looking for his son that he was very much alive and living in California. His father said, “if you hear from my son, please have him call.”

Take care... Ron Urban & Gene Urban

Funny and Sometimes Strange Landlord Tenant Stories

It’s been a little while since we’ve posted some of the strange but true landlord & tenant stories. These are courtesy of Andy Hull’s office. If you have a good story of your own, send it to us so we can put it on Real Estate Investing 101. Below are today’s tales.

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The tenant alleged that she should not be evicted from her apartment because the landlord breached the contract. When the Judge asked the tenant what the landlord had done to breach the contract, the tenant informed the Judge that the landlord was renting apartments to illegal immigrants and that the tenant was under indictment for illegal alien smuggling into the country and, as part of her release orders pending her criminal trial, she could not be anywhere near illegal immigrants.

In one case, the tenant came in front of the Judge and looked at the attorney and the Judge and said, “Don’t worry, I’m on my medication which prevents me from killing people”.

In another situation, the tenant filed a written Motion to Dismiss the eviction case stating that she did not get the 5-day Notice. The tenant cited the Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act and the proper ways to serve a 5-day Notice. The tenant, however, attached as an exhibit to her Motion to Dismiss, a copy of the 5-day Notice that she claims she had not gotten.

Best of days to you,

Ron Urban & Gene Urban
The Urban Team at Realty Exeuctives
602-234-5777

Strange & Often Funny Landlord, Tenant Stories

Another chapter in our on-going series of strange and funny tenant, landlord stories from the Arizona courts.

A landlord was terminating the tenant’s lease for false information on the application. The tenant had listed her employment as an adult caregiver but was arrested for prostitution.

In another case, the tenant appeared in Court and told the Judge he could not pay rent because his father had just died of cancer. The next day the father appeared at the apartment complex asking to speak to the manager because he was there to fill out his application and be signed on with his son’s lease. When he was told by the manager that he was dead, at least that was what the tenant told the Judge, and that the tenant had been evicted, the father said, “I guess you won’t be needing that application after all.

If you have a story of your own, please email it to us for consideration.

Have a great weekend,

Ron Urban & Gene Urban
The Urban Team at Realty Executives
602-234-5777
gene@urbanteamaz.com

Funny Landlord Tenant Stories... the problem with poker.

Here is another story in the never-ending saga of landlord/tenant stories. Since we like to play Texas Hold'um we kind of sympothized with this tenant.

 

Our funny story for this week...

 

The tenant was being evicted for nonpayment of rent and asked the Judge if he could throw himself upon the mercy of the court.  The Judge responded that there is no mercy in his courtroom and he must follow the law.  The Judge asked the tenant why he had not paid his rent.  The tenant informed the Judge that he was leaving his apartment with sufficient cash to more than pay his rent and suddenly realized three hours later that he was at a casino and not the rental office.  He indicated to the Judge at that point he had lost more than half of his money and attempted to win back the money lost.  Of course, the tenant lost all of his money but felt that this was a reasonable excuse for not being evicted. 

 

What do you think... leave your thoughts in the comment section below. Have a great weekend and don't bet all the mortgage or rent money on a pair of Queens... they always seem to get beat at just the wrong time.

 

Gene Urban & Ron Urban

The Urban Team at Realty Executives

602-234-5777

OOPS... funny and sometimes strange landlord, tenant stories

Here's another story from the life and times of landlord-tenant attorney Andy Hull. This is a good one.
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In one matter, the tenant appeared in Court and asked the Judge for leniency on failure to pay rent because his mother had just passed away. The tenant brought in an obituary from the newspaper. However, it was clear that the obituary was a phony, and the tenant had tried to replace his mother’s name on the actual obituary. The apartment manager went out in the hallway, used her cell phone, and called the last known number for the mother who of course answered. The manager then came back into the Court room to see if the Judge wanted to speak to the deceased individual and ask her about her obituary.

Gene Urban
The Urban Team at Realty Executives
602-234-5777

OOPS... Trump Get Caught By His Own Lease

From our strange and funny story department comes a good one. Let's say you are the Donald... Trump that is.  Let's say you tell your attorneys to draw up a lease agreement you will use with the bazillion tenants you have in your various holdings. As you can imagine, the lease agreement just might favor Trump Corporation.

This is great, provided you are the landlord and not the tenant. According to Am Law Daily, it seems Trump Corporation used one of his own leases when renting several Manhattan co-op apartment units. Now Trump finds itself going to court for allegedly failing to pay rent totaling $87,000 and the lease agreement they are up against is their own. 

The attorney for the Co-op, Andrew Perel of Steptow & Johnson, says "If you don't pay the rent when Donald Trump is your landlord, he comes down on you like a hammer."

Sounds like this time, Trump is the nail...oops.

OOPS... A look at strange, funny and sometimes weird landlord-tenant stories. Volume 4

It's time for another in our series of funny, sometime strange stories from the courts hearing landlord tenant cases. Thanks again to Andy Hull for his library of interesting tales.

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In one situation, the tenant applied for a new apartment and brought in a letter from an employer and letters from previous apartment complexes as rental references.  The manager, feeling something was amiss, took the copies and began an investigation of her own.  She was able to determine that these documents were forged.  She contacted the police who set up a sting operation at the apartment manager’s office so that when the tenant came in to sign the lease, they could arrest the individual.  A detective from Document Crimes came to the property, and the detective asked the prospective tenant to give a handwriting sample.  Without a blink of the eye, the tenant responded, “Oh, I couldn’t, I might break a nail!”  The tenant was arrested for forgery and taken away.

Finally, a tenant came in upset because the air conditioning had been down for a couple of hours.  He got very loud with the office staff and they asked him to please get out of the chair and leave the office.  As he stood up, he didn’t notice a plastic baggie with a green leafy substance falling out of his pocket. The property manager noticed it and was quite sure it was marijuana.  She called their crime free police officer to come over and verify that.  The tenant came back to the office approximately an hour later wondering if anyone had seen a baggie of exotic tobacco that he had ordered from Europe and he had somehow misplaced.  The manager said, “No, but we did find a baggie of marijuana which the police are now having their lab analyze as well as fingerprinting the baggie.”  The tenant immediately turned and ran from the club house saying, “I forgot about an important meeting I have to be at.”

We hope you've enjoyed another offering in our series. Come back next Monday for more. If you have a good story of your own, let us know.

Gene Urban & Ron Urban
The Urban Team at Realty Executives
602-234-5777

OOPS... A look at strange, funny and sometimes weird landlord-tenant stories. Volume 3

Another post about the strange, funny, and sadly true stories of tenants, landlords, and judges. We want to thank Andy Hull, landlord tenant attorney in the Phoenix area, for never ending supply of tales.

Below is this week's chronicle:

A tenant wanted to transfer apartments because her sister had put a demon curse on the apartment that she was currently in.  She informed the management that demons would come out at night and beat her up in her bed while she slept.  Of course, she had no bruises or other evidence of any injury... just an evil sister who liked to use demon curses when angry and mad.

One tenant showed up in court for nonpayment of rent and explained his situation as follows.  He had to go back to the Midwest because his father-in-law became extremely ill.  He had just returned from the Midwest when he found out that his wife’s sister (who was his ex-wife) had also become ill.  He immediately said, “I know what you’re thinking, but I’m not from Arkansas”.

Here is a story from one of our readers...

The property manager (PM) for a single family home gets a midnight call from a tenant explaining that she had just had her car stolen. The PM consoled her as best as possible and asked why she called her at midnight to to tell him this. The tenant responded, "Because I need you to come over right now and put up a fence around my driveway so no one steals my other car."
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That's it for this week, keep coming back for more stories of strange, weird and funny.

Ron Urban and Gene Urban
The Urban Team at Realty Executives
www.urbanteamaz.com
www.UrbanLife.com
602-234-5777

OOPS... A look at strange, funny and sometimes weird landlord-tenant stories. Volume 2

Another group of bazaar, funny, and often strange stories from Andy Hull. Dr. Evictor.  Thanks to Andy for letting us share these on Real Estate Investing 101.

BELIEVE IT OR NOT:

In one case the tenant was claiming that he should not have to pay his rent because there was a hole in his door which was letting the bugs in.  The tenant had even gone so far as to highlight the move-in inspection report to show that this was pre-existing.  However, what the tenant had highlighted was the security peephole in the door.

 

There was an incident at a property where two tenants were so drunk that they had lost the keys to their apartment.  They lived on the third floor, so they went out to a Cox Cable truck and stole the extension ladder off the truck.   They then went to the second floor and both tried to climb the ladder at the same time up to their third floor patio.  The ladder gave way, and they both fell and were seriously injured.  The residents requested that they be let out of their lease because they could not get up to the third floor due to their injuries.

Hope we brought a laugh to your day.

Ron Urban & Gene Urban
The Urban Team
602-234-5777

OOPS... A look at strange, funny and sometimes weird landlord-tenant stories

Andy Hull is the go-to-guy for many landlords in the Great Phoenix market. His knowledge of landlord tenant law, eviction processes and other investment property law is LEGENDARY. Plus he is a very nice man. 

Speaking of nice, he is graciously allowing us to reprint some of the interesting stories from the life of a landlord/tenant attorney. We'll be making this a weekly event here on Real Estate Investing 101.

BELIEVE IT OR NOT....

First, one of our tenants received the form packet repair list from one of the local tenants associations.  The tenant listed the stove as one of the areas that the landlord should repair.  The tenant then, of course, subsequently moved out early claiming the landlord failed to make repairs.  The issue of the stove came up and the manager’s comment was, “I had a hard time locating the alleged defective pilot light on the electric stove”. 

In another situation, the tenants appeared in court and claimed that they could not pay their rent because they had to go to their mother’s funeral.  The Judge indicated that he wasn’t sure what the tenant was “on” but that this had been the fourth time this tenant had appeared in front of this Judge being evicted from four different apartment complexes.  Each time the tenant came to court, it was the same story, their mother had passed away and they had to back East and used their rent money on the travel expenses.  The Judge commented and wondered if the tenant had any other mothers who hadn’t passed away yet besides the four that he know about.

 

Stay tuned to more of the bizarre and unusual here at Real Estate Investing 101.

 

Ron Urban & Gene Urban
The Urban Team
602-234-5777