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  • 1.  Unpaid rent, Unpaid lien, Useless yard art... The death of a renter

    Posted 01-20-2023 07:38 PM
    I have a renter that passed away in August 2021, I sent a letter to his estate September 2021 to advise them of the rental contract and property left at my facility and that we needed to take care of changing over property and rental agreement to whom ever the executor of the estate or beneficiary of the property was. No one answered to first letter sent nor did anyone answer the door to where the renter was living. I have gone by this property several times each month leaving the same letter and  a note that someone needed to call me with no answers or return calls or mail. I assumed that the brother (only next of kin known by anyone who knew my renter including myself) had been receiving the letters sent in the mail and ones that I left at the home since none were returned by mail and none were ever on the door to the residence where I had left them. Upon further research, I found that the brother had committed suicide almost a month after the death of my renter. This leaving no one to be able to vouch for said property. After asking close friends of my renter and previous room mates I still have not found anyone related to my renter or anyone who has be appointed to the executor of his estate. To be completely honest my renter had been a very close friend of mine for 20 plus years. I knew his mother had passed years prior to his passing and he not once spoke of his father in the 20 years we knew each other.  

    After months of searching for someone who was next of kin or executor of his estate I had moved his property to an open area of my facility so his space could be opened up to someone that was paying. This gave the opportunity for anyone that could drive by my facility to see the property and maybe claim it or come and tell me of who I might be able to contact. My renter also had a business beside my business so I assumed that someone would be to the business to collect his assets and close his business since this was a restaurant. None of this happened, over night new people moved into this building and no one has spoken of it since. I kept looking for anyone who knew my renter through other friends of his/ours and ended up at a dead end. I called the parks and wildlife commission since they are the ones that keep up with boat owners and registration of boats and they did not have any information for me either. I have kept in touch with parks and wildlife and spoke with several different people there to find out my next step to finding family.
    In July 2022 Parks and wildlife finally gave me the information that I had needed the entire time. They gave me the name of the 1st lienholder of the property and I called them to see if I could get any information at all. This was a lengthy process and after 3 months of talking with the 1st lienholder they directed me to collections who directed me to the 2nd lienholder who bought the debt/property from the 1st lienholder. This once again took months of talking to supervisors to get to their collections department since payment had not been made since my renters death.

    When speaking with 2nd lienholders collections supervisor on November 11th 2022, they asked me to send them the bill for the past due rent and they would pay this bill and retrieve the property. After submitting the invoice for past due rent and fees, the supervisor asked if I could wave some of the fees and we could get this all taken care of. So I removed the fees and told them that it needed to be taken care of by the end of the physical year or the fees would be added back to the billing. I had even asked 2nd lienholders collection supervisor if I paid off the amount that was still owed on the property and waved the past due rent and fees if this would help the situation. They told me to submit an offer and they would let me know if this would relive the debt owed. After no response from the 2nd lienholder about my offer, I called them back to talk about this again. When talking with this supervisor I let him know that the longer the property sat at my facility it would rack up more charges each month and past due charges by the day from the 10th of the month and extra past due charges each day at the 20th of the month as the rental agreement stated. The 2nd Lienholders collections supervisor told me that he had spoke with their attorneys and my offered amount with me paying the past due rent and deducted fees was not going to cover the debt. So at this point the lienholder still had not given me an amount of the debt which is not any of my business anyway and I am in agreeance with that but figured it to be more than the past due rent plus my offered amount of a total of the two being 10K. The supervisor asked me for an updated billing a few days after this which was the amount I gave him with the fees removed, he let me know that he was going on vacation and would let his team know what was going on.

    A week passes and no return call from supervisor or his team but I received a call from a collections company wanting my hours of business and trying to make an appointment to pick up said property. I let them know that the lienholder had not paid the past due bill and and they could call whomever told them to pick up the property, until the bill is paid in full as discussed nothing was to move from my facility. Between then and now this company has called me two more times to schedule a day for pick up each time I told them the bill had not been paid and the property could not be removed. I had also called and left messages and sent several emails to the lienholders supervisor that said he was going to go on vacation on our last phone call but would have someone take care of the situation before the end of the year. No return phone calls or emails in this time frame. So I continue to call all through December and finally he answers my phone call on January 18, 2023, he told me that he had been on a 45 day vacation. I let him know that no one has let me know of any type of arrangements to pay the bill and that there was a new billing for December plus late fees and a new bill for January with late fees plus I added back in the previous fees like I said would happen if the bill was not paid by the end of the year. I emailed him the bills and asked for him to respond to my email so I knew that he received it. Which no reply nor phone call had happened. Thursday January 19th, I sent another email asking why no response. He emailed me back saying he has called me and my number was disconnected. I immediately call him back and asked him to look at the caller ID to make sure he was calling the correct number. He told me that was strange because he had called that number. At this time I told him I was done with the games and this situation needed to be cleared up this week. He told me that his attorneys rejected my bill and told him that all they were liable for was one month rent at what they figured rent was reasonable and not for the rent that I have listed on my rental agreement. I said no this is not the way it works and the property was to be locked inside of a building on the property  and we ended the call with that. No one to pay the bill and no one picking up the property. I just have a space that is taken up and no one to pay for the space. If the property has a lienholder I can not hold an auction as I will not get the title to the property.

    I am not sure what I can do at this point with this entire situation as the bill for rent will continue to stack up each day, each month. Anyone with any knowledge on any of this would be nice and appreciated before I have to get an attorney involved.

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    Janette Bush
    Owner
    321 Storage & Logistics, LLC.
    Denison TX
    (903) 821-8604
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  • 2.  RE: Unpaid rent, Unpaid lien, Useless yard art... The death of a renter

    Posted 01-21-2023 09:01 AM
    The best course of action is following the Gold Book guidance for holding a foreclosure sale. Your lien should supercede that of the lender. The lender can pay your lien before the auction of they can bid alongside other bidders. You can conduct the sale in person or online.

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    Michael Meylor
    Neutron Corporation / Alamo Storage
    San Antonio TX
    (210) 593-8858
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  • 3.  RE: Unpaid rent, Unpaid lien, Useless yard art... The death of a renter

    Posted 01-22-2023 07:30 PM
    Thank you for the information, I figured that the lender was playing games. Telling me how much they would pay and for how long they would pay for. They let the property sit here for this long knowing exactly where it was. When talking to the first lienholder they knew that the owner had passed away and this is one of the reasons they sold the debt to the second lender which I am sure they are a "top notch" stand up company just by the way they have handled this situation this far. I have the room for the boat with motor and trailer it is on. It has not been a nuisance to anyone here nor has it been in my way at any time. I let the lender know that I had to move it to another location on the property to let the prime spot go to a paying customer. I am going to start the foreclosure process according to the Gold book ASAP. I think that these people can be bullies and try to scare business owners when they know it is not right. Thank you for the second opinion. I have made so many changes to my location to better the type of business and the area that I am in. It has been hard to turn this into something to be proud of but I am almost there. Changing the color of my building will finish it up and take the muck off of my location. So far my renters have told me that they actually like to come in and pay their bill now even after raising the rent and making new more strict rules. I have happy renters who do not leave messes behind unlike how they did previously. It is making it all worth while.

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    Janette Bush
    Owner
    321 Storage & Logistics, LLC.
    Denison TX
    (903) 821-8604
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  • 4.  RE: Unpaid rent, Unpaid lien, Useless yard art... The death of a renter

    Posted 01-21-2023 09:04 AM
    Janette,

                   With all due respect, at some point you need to cut your losses and move on. You are likely going to spend way more money involving and attorney than you will ever get back. I dont know what kind of property you are talking about but since you mentioned Parks and Wildlife Im going to assume its a boat. The longer anything sits the harder it is on it, especially boats. 

    We all want our rent money. I dont blame you for pursuing this to all ends. I personally feel like you have taken this as far as anyone could. Let them pick it up, document it as best you can, rent the spot out to a paying customer and move on.

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    Carl Schach
    Owner/Operator
    North Edinburg RV and Boat Storage LLC
    Edinburg TX
    (956) 533-1205
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  • 5.  RE: Unpaid rent, Unpaid lien, Useless yard art... The death of a renter

    Posted 01-22-2023 07:50 PM
    Carl, 
    I do understand what you are saying. Yes this is a boat with motor and trailer. It is also a newer set up, the lender knows they can resell the property and make money. These guys think that being a bully is going to get them out of paying. I have room for the property and have moved it to a different area of the lot. I am going to start the foreclosure process as soon as tomorrow. I should be able to do it on my own with the information given to me through the Gold book. I have already notified everyone I was supposed to notify at the beginning of all of this and no one ever got back to me. This lender has known where the property has been sitting while they took their 45 day vacation on the beaches in the Caribbean. I really didn't think that they would let this ride for so long. The lender allowed me to know that my renter who was also my next door neighbor in business gave them the address where it was to be stored in the beginning per their contract. The two lenders had spoken with one another and gave very detailed information of his business address and mine for billing purposes. I am sure that the insurance that he had on the boat asked for the address of the insured property too as they do with anything that has a lender backing it. I am going to stop the rental fees at the time of the foreclosure process until the property is picked up or whatever they are going to do with it from now.

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    Janette Bush
    Owner
    321 Storage & Logistics, LLC.
    Denison TX
    (903) 821-8604
    ------------------------------