How "Serial Evictees" Game A System Meant To Protect Renters From Abuse
There's nothing we dislike more than people who scam a system put in place to protect vulnerable consumers from abuse, but the sad fact is that they do exist. SF Weekly has an article that tracks the exploits of a serial evictee, a "renter" who leases apartments with no intention of paying rent, and then games the system in order to stay rent free for as long as possible.
Depending on the vigilance of the landlord, a seasoned serial evictee like Getzow can get away with a minimum of 45 days and sometimes up to a year of free rent. The actual number of serial evictees operating in San Francisco is difficult to track, but some attorneys who specialize in representing landlords estimate there are between 20 and 100.
Landlord attorney Clifford Fried of Wiegel and Fried says these types of tenants know they're unlikely to be punished for withholding rent. "You can go into a store and steal a loaf of bread and do a year in jail," he says, "but you can steal months of rent from a landlord and never do any time in jail. It's a great crime to commit because there are no penalties."
The evictees are well versed in the ins and outs of the San Francisco eviction process. They take advantage of the all the programs and aid that the city provides to its residents who are facing eviction. Of course, they're only a small percentage of the renters that seek help:
Carolyn Gold directs the San Francisco Volunteer Legal Services Program, which manages a group of 10 volunteer attorneys who help tenants in the 30 or so eviction cases that come through Superior Court each week. She says she sees very few serial evictees like Getzow. "In fact, what we see more of is serial evictors, landlords who continually come up with ruses for one eviction after another," she says. "There are lots of tenants who have gotten themselves into a tight spot for one reason or another — they're elderly, they have medical conditions, lost jobs — things that are beyond their control. I see it every day, and it's very, very sad."
The serial evictee profiled in the story, however, is an especially nasty one. His last run in with a landlord ended in charges for assault:
According to police, Getzow came into the Holy Grail on Feb. 10 at about 1:30 a.m. complaining about noise and attempting to goad O'Reilly into a fight. O'Reilly refused and tried to get Getzow to leave. Bartender Patricia Herlihy was so alarmed at Getzow's behavior that she began taking photographs of him with a digital camera. Getzow approached her and shoved or pushed the camera into her face, SFPD Sergeant Neville Gittens says.
Herlihy was taken to the hospital, Gittens says, though the police report contains no information about the extent of her injuries. Getzow retreated to a nearby crepe restaurant, where he was still in such an agitated state when the police arrived that it took several officers to restrain him, the report says.
How Renters Work the System to Live for Free in One of America's Most Expensive Cities [SFWeekly]
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Just rent illegally without the paperwork. Then you can kick people out whenever you want. Avoid legal troubles by saying that whoever you're renting to is a friend that's just staying for free, and do all transactions with cash.
I know I shouldn't laugh at this, but the part when the deadbeat jerk hid out a crepe restaurant made me giggle.
We have them here in the UK, too. A girl a few doors from here just got evicted - moved in not long ago, had all night parties and swung it as long as she could before the Housing Association got its act together and threw her out. The families either side of her are relieved, but know it may happen all over again next month.
This is a problem in many areas. I understand the gov.'s motivation to err on the side of the tenant so that people don't end up homeless. On the other hand, its absolutely theft and should be criminal. If the gov. wants to make it hard to evict people based on public policy goals then the gov. ought to spend more on rental assistance programs.
I have a neighbor this sounds like - she hasn't paid her mortgage (or her condo dues, which is the reason I care), in years, and she's filed bankruptcy FIVE TIMES over the past two years, every time within days of the house going up for auction - each filing gets thrown out, and she just re-files a month or so later. Sickening.
Getzow retreated to a nearby crepe restaurant, where he was still in such an agitated state when the police arrived that it took several officers to restrain him, the report says.
That made me laugh out loud for some reason.
This should be a crime. If they can prove you've been evicted two or more times you should be punished with a crime. This is theft of services plain and simple.
"San Francisco"
Ah, makes sense.
Landlords should be able to give a 30 day notice to move out and if they don't the police should be able to use force to have them move out, in these situations.
But ofcourse most of our laws don't protect citizens in everyday life situations and if they do it costs them $1000's in lawyer fees and you are just better to be out $500.
That was to ebounding.
@AirIntake: So your solution to someone working the leagaly (albeit immorally) is to flat out break the law. Nice. Your scheme would actualy help a guy like this because since you have no paper trail you get into a "my word vs. his word" battle. He would be protected from eviction for a certain period of time to allow him to search for new residentcy, because you allowed him to say there in the first place.
@AbsoluteIrrelevance: Probably not as likely:
"In San Francisco, which has some of the most progressive rental policies in the state, there are numerous free services and programs for tenants."
"retreated to a nearby crepe restaurant..."
Now that's a phrase I never get tired of seeing.
something's wrong with the comment code today...
@EBounding - Oh, so you "Ah, makes sense" comment was the the availability of programs for tenants, not to serial evictees. Got it.
"In fact, what we see more of is serial evictors, landlords who continually come up with ruses for one eviction after another,"
Did anyone else read this and think about Voting Fraud? I am sure people will use this one in a million idiot as reasoning to erode rights for all renters.
I find it funny to think that if the Holy Grail was called 'Applebee's Holy Grail' this discussion would likely attract a thousand comments with the bulk of them blaming the big, bad corporation for abusing the little guy, possibly even being apologetic for the 'poor customer' punching the corporate agent (the bartender in this case) in the eye because they are 'standing up for their rights' against 'the man' and blaming to police for having to restrain the fool afterwards.
Thankfully it's a mom-and-pop operation.
"...but some attorneys who specialize in representing landlords estimate there are between 20 and 100."
Wow, that's a pretty broad gap.
I don't know how things work in SF but here in New York if you get on a landlord's bad side no one will ever rent to you again. Ever. Even years and years later. Isn't it the landlord's responsibility to research his potential tenants? Or is this some sort of quasi-government housing BS? Or perhaps SF has passed so many tenant-favorable laws that no one with a brain or a heart wants to be a landlord, only scumbags and idiots.
The most progressive rental policy in San Francisco is the cost. Rentals in San Francisco makes Manhattan look affordable.
I was recently house shopping in an association and struck up a chat with the association president who would have just so happened to live next to me had I bought.
She stated 60% of the homes were investor owned. 80% of those are rented. 50% of renters were not paying their rents (that she was aware of, possibly more) and 60% of properties rented were in default for association payments.
Sad.
@ nicemarmot617: My dad got burned by "He/She looked like a nice person" four times.
They all look nice, until they stop paying rent in two months.
It's theft, agreed; but a year of jail for stealing bread? What is this, Les Miserables?
I wish I could get away without paying my mortgage for a year without consequence.
@nicemarmot617: True, no one will rent to these folks, but you have to be able to figure out it's them. There's not an easy way to find out they are the ones doing it. Fake names, friends acting as landlord references, stolen ID's, preying on small landlords who have trouble getting tenants.
In Mass., it takes 6 months to evict if they contest (I know from experience) -- scheduling court hearings is what takes time. The "smarter" ones break everything then call the health department on you to stretch things out.
i like how the numbers work here.. in a city of 776,733 people out of that number we get between 20 and 100 scammers on the renter side. on the Landlord scams there are between 17-20,000 .. yet the only thing that is important are the few people that are scamming the landlords? Where is the outcry for the innocent people that are being scammed every day by landlords? I'm not saying that we shouldn't be mad at those guys.. but why is there no newspaper articles on the landords.. are they above reprisal?
In the 1940's landlords used to offer rent concessions, one or two months free as an inducement to rent. Tenants would sometimes move in the middle of the night at the end of the two months to avoid paying rent. I know someone who wwent to 28 different schools because of the constant moving. Serial evictees are nothing new.
We now have strong tentant protection laws in most cities. A landlord is often a corporation and often owns multiple buildings. They have more money for court battles, they have access to your credit, they have access to your home.
This is not an equal balance of power between the two parties, so laws are enacted to protect the party with less power. As with all laws, protection also can invite abuse. Abuse doesn't mean the laws are bad - it means the abusers are bad.
Someone who does this has to be a total sociopath. To put that much effort into screwing people indicates they have something wrong with them.
You would think they would get charged with ID theft or fraud for pretending to be someone else in order to rent.
[quoting orignal article] "In fact, what we see more of is serial evictors, landlords who continually come up with ruses for one eviction after another,"
That rings my BS bell. Why would a landlord do that? Vacancies cost money! The only way for "serial evictors" to benefit is if they're taking security deposits and not returning them / accounting for them properly (already illegal) or pulling some other scam. Why would a landlord rent-em and then boot-em?
@nicemarmot617:
I've heard the idea of having rental histories show up on credit reports, which I don't believe they do currently. If you rent for 10 years, and are never so much as a minute late, you get exactly the same amount of credit as someone like the guy in the article. It would also help landlords avoid people like this with just a quick credit check and may cut down on abuse in the eviction system.
Wow. Squatters have really upped their craft. As long as you don't own too much, this would probably be pretty easy to do, given the amount of people stuck with properties that are praying that someone will give them anything, be it a purchase or rent.
Had someone pull that sh*t on me in one of my upper/lowers. Bad mistake. The person in the upper liked me (but never saw the other renter before due to differing schedules) and was cutting the grass, blowing the snow, weeding, et al, for 20 bucks off the rent (I also keep the lawnmower / snowblower tuned and gas there). One night she heard a lot of smashing and called the cops and then me. She thought someone was in a fight or robbing the place.
I got there about 10 minutes after the cops and he's like "this place is a sh*t-hole, just go look inside, nobody should be allowed to live here," et al. He caused (by estimate) just shy of 10k dollars in damage to the apartment and nearly started the place on fire! I had to shut off the lower's water and electric and told the cops that I was pressing charges.
been six years and still haven't gotten all the money, but I check that the order's still in place. The idiot did try to sue me for loss of items, with gall, but the judge tossed that because he caused the damage that led to his items being damaged.
All of this over not getting the garage...
@PinkBox: But when you consider how many renters there are in SF, is even the high estimate, at 100, a significant problem? Yes, it's unfair to the landlords, I agree. Yeah, it's immoral, too.
From the demographics provided in the 2000 census, aggregated at this site, there are 214,309 renter occupied housing units. Even if there were 500 serial evictees, that would be less than 1/4 of a percent.
Laws binding landlords are there for a reason. Landlords are much more likely to abuse or take advantage of tenants rather than vice-versa. A change of the laws governing landlord/tenant relationships to relieve tenants of power would be foolhardy because 1) there is not a prevalent problem of tenants abusing landlords and 2) there is still a problem of landlords abusing tenants, in spite of the laws, as evidenced by "In fact, what we see more of is serial evictors, landlords who continually come up with ruses for one eviction after another."
@: Reasons for a landlord trying to get rid of a tenant:
Drug dealing / prostitution / Two many people in apartment / noise / smoking / unsavory visitors / damaging common areas / vandalism, etc. etc.
While many of these can be 'legit' reasons for evictions, you may know a tenant is dealing drugs, but to get the police involved, get an arrest, wait for a trial, wait for a conviction, then pursue eviction can take many years. Often it is more expedient to make up an excuse to get rid of a bad tenant.
How "Serial Evictees" Game A System Meant To Protect Renters From Abuse
I see you've met my former neighbors. All of them. I know how to game the system just from watching all of them.
As a land lord myself it is really hard to find GOOD tenants. I rent out the top of my two family house. When good tenants leave it can take months to find other good ones. Background, credit and employment checks are a must. Last year I rented the apartment above me. About 1/2 of the people that came to see the place wanted to pay me in cash now, and move in today. YEAH RIGHT.
The tenants before them tore holes in the wall, broke doors and stained the flooring. I know what you are thinking? Security deposit? Well turns out we gave them their security deposit back just to GTFO when they went two months behind on their rent. In reality this was cheeper then trying to have them evicted. So we basically lost two months rent($800 x 2) and the secuirty deposit (another $800) and spent $2000 in repairs and went rentless for three months ($800 x 3) trying to find good tenants. $6000 because our tenants were scum bags. Luckily I learned the hard way the first time. I'm selling the two family and getting out of the rental buisness, not pretty.
I guess we could of sued them but what purpose? They have no money and would just file for bankruptcy.
@Mr.SithNinja
Alright, then how about: "I have never seen this man before in my life, and I have no idea why he thinks he's allowed to stay at my residence." He would have to spend money to take me to court to prove otherwise. And since this person is trying to live for free, it's safe to assume that money isn't something that he has. Also, he'll have no paperwork.
It's sad that people are dishonest and game the system, but as a renter, I'm glad I have some rights. It sucks enough being a renter in the US, where the end-all-be-all of public policy is homeownership. That's not easy for someone of modest means and a brain smart enough to understand a mortgage (before the bubble).
That said, we've rented our apartment for over five years. One minor snafu with the rent, but otherwise, a perfect record.
There are lots of tenants who have gotten themselves into a tight spot for one reason or another - they're elderly, they have medical conditions, lost jobs - things that are beyond their control. I see it every day, and it's very, very sad."
It's great to help those people, but at the same time is it fair that their landlords should have to go months without getting payment for renting to them because something bad happened to them? Sure, some landlords are slumlords or big companies, but some are normal people renting out a second property or the other side of a duplex. Why should the government make them rent for free?
There was some really cheesy 80s movie where this happened. Almost Lifetime quality. Loved it but forgot all details...
That's why I only rent to illegal immigrants.
@SkokieGuy (and xsmasher)
You missed one. Rent control. I believe San Francisco has it. If you want to make more money from your property you need to get rid of your existing tenants in order to raise the rent.
I'm not saying that happens often but it's definitely an incentive to evict people.
@: "A landlord is often a corporation and often owns multiple buildings."
My father owns two, small apartment buildings. He formed an LLC (type of corporation) to protect himself in case someone injures themselves on the property and sues. Does that make him one of those evil corporations? What if he hired a handyman or two, or maybe a bookkeeper? How many employees does a corporation need before we can despise it?
The sarcasm isn't specifically directed at you, but I just tire of hearing people lament about corporations like they're some species of monster. Its simply an amoral legal entity.
I'm a landlord and I take the extra time to review possible tenants thoroughly. Luckily I live near a university and try to target graduate or international students who seem to have more respect for the property than their American undergrad counterparts.
Also, can't a lot of this be avoided if landlords in SF required significant security deposits?
There are just some people that take advantage of every loop hole possible. It makes me sick.