Here's an article on Incarcerated Tenant solutions

Here's an article on Incarcerated Tenant solutions by MrDan (Georgia) on December 20, 2011 @21:35

The Incarcerated Tenant
by Harry Anthony Heist, Attorney at Law

You have not received rent for the month, go out to the property to serve your Three Day Notice, and the next door neighbor informs you that the tenant is in county jail. The property is full of belongings, and the tenant’s car is parked in the driveway. Can you evict? Should you post the Three Day Notice on the door? Do you want your tenant to come out of jail and find he has been evicted and everything he owns is gone? This situation will occur if you manage property long enough, and you need to know how to deal with it properly to avoid liability and/or a serious dispute.

Where is the tenant?

You may or may not know if in fact the tenant is incarcerated. If you were lucky enough to have your property on the news the night before when they did the grow house bust at your rental home, you can be fairly sure that the tenant is in the county jail. In other situations, you were simply told the tenant was in jail by a neighbor or someone you may have contacted on your emergency number list. To confirm the tenant is in jail, you need to call the county jail system and ask for inmate information. This is public record in most cases, and you will be able to find out if the tenant is in jail and where, as some counties have more than one location for their jails. If you are unsuccessful, look up the arrest report from the sheriff’s department website and give them a call if necessary.

Do you need to locate the tenant?

There is nothing in Florida law that provides you must hunt down a tenant in order to serve a Three Day Notice. The law states that you can serve the tenant in person or post the notice on the premises in the tenant’s absence. In an incarceration situation, clearly the tenant is absent; therefore, you could legally post the notice on the door and thus satisfy the requirements of Florida law as far as notice goes. The question then is, “should you locate the tenant?” We feel that you should make an attempt.

Why bother locating the tenant?

If you post a Three day Notice on the door of the home, you will eventually file an eviction, and at the end of the eviction, you will remove all the tenant‘s personal belongings to the street, where the neighbors and passerbys will rummage through everything and take anything of value. Personal items will be taken as well, some with sentimental value. Your tenant may get out of jail only to find out that his key no longer works in the door. Your tenant then contacts you, only to find out that he has been evicted and everything he owns is now gone. What can happen? The tenant can go ballistic and cause you great harm, or decide to destroy or damage your property or the home. A surprised, evicted tenant is an extremely dangerous and volatile person. While you may have done everything according to the law, this will not matter with the recently released tenant.

You have tried to locate the tenant but cannot

At this point you need to jump into action, review the file, and begin calling your emergency numbers, contact numbers and employers. Do not give any information, other than you are the landlord and just need to contact the tenant. Do not tell anyone you know or heard the tenant is in jail. Simply work hard to track the tenant’s information down. If you cannot locate the tenant or get any information that will help you, serve your notice to the property; knock first, and if there is no response, serve the Three Day Notice by posting on the premises. If you do not receive the rent, file an eviction as you would with any other tenant.

You locate the tenant

Now that you have located the tenant and know what jail he is in, you can serve your Three Day Notice to him in jail or have a process server do this. Better yet, you can possibly avoid an eviction altogether! Many incarcerated tenants do not want to deal with an eviction and would just rather surrender possession to you, if they feel they will be incarcerated for some time. If you are able to call the tenant in jail or have the tenant call you collect, the tenant may tell you to give access to a friend or relative. While this is great, you must get something in writing from the tenant under which he is giving possession to you, who is allowed access to the unit, and when you will have possession. We recommend getting the following form signed by the tenant while he is in jail. You must be sure that the tenant did in fact sign the form, and make sure that no other people are living in the rental unit. You can often make an appointment with the jail’s social worker and visit the tenant directly in jail.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF VACATING AND DIRECTION AS TO DISPOSITION OF PERSONAL PROPERTY FROM INCARCERATED TENANT

I _________________ hereby agree that I have completely vacated the premises located at___________________________________________.

I agree that any personal property that is left behind in the unit or on the premises may be disposed of by Management and/or Owner without notice, and I agree to hold Management, the owners of the premises and any agents or employees harmless for such disposal of personal property.

I agree that this document and my vacating shall have no effect upon any financial obligations under the lease or Florida law unless otherwise agreed to in writing by Management. I agree that my Notice of Intention to Impose Claim on Security Deposit if any shall be sent to the address of my former unit, and I am responsible for putting a forwarding order in with the US Postal Service.

ADD IN SIGNATURE LINE FOR TENANT AND 2 LINES FOR WITNESSES

[ Reply ] [ Return to forum ]

Here's an article on Incarcerated Tenant solutions - Landlord Forum thread 243500