my buddy was renting to someone... and they renters decided not to pay rent the last month.. then broke into his room prior to leaving and took some stuff. they called recently and wanted to come by and pick up their mail. IS it illegal to with-hold the mail untill rent is paid? He has asked for there address to send the mail but they refuse and insist on picking it up. Is it illegal to hold out for an address to forward? They caused about 1,500 worth of damages to his house.. and he only wants rent and a few extra bucks to pay for the supllies he had to buy to fix holes, pet stains and some damge they did when they broke into stuff.. aside from talking immediatly to a lawyer.. which i'm sure he intends to. has anyone gone through somthing like this before? or advice to steps he should take?
I would probably talk to a lawyer, and if they broke into his place, the police, cause last i checked B & E is against the law. If they refuse to talk to the police, have em come pick up the mail and have a cop waiting, not to difficult.
I would just "return to sender" and pursue the damage issue with a laywer/court case. Let them deal with their mail issues its not his job to deliver it but he probably shouldn't keep them from getting it.
I would get a lawyer and do the return to sender deal. I am almost positive that if you withhold there mail that is illegal. But returning it to the sender is not. Sorry to hear that happened.
if this is fairly recent, and they actually took anything of value, a call to the police and making a theft report might be a good idea if he hasn't already. Then at least it's documented. Also if he hasn't fixed the damage yet, or took some pictures or something, maybe they could be charged with 'crim. damage to property'. I guess it all kind of depends on how much more time he wants to put into the mess or if he just wasnt to let it go and forget about it. Hmmmm... could do return to sender on some of the mail, give them the junk mail back, and have someone tail them home!
As for the mail, they are no longer tenants and the relationship giving your friend the authority to get their mail out of the mailbox has ended. He is under no obligation to hold the mail for them (unless he agreed otherwise). They should have set up mail forwarding with the PO when they moved out. A lawyer proly won't take the case. Now, your friend could get their new address and take them to small claims court (service by certified mail), get a default judgment (most never show), and garnish their wages if they have a real job (deadbeats = unlikely). Generally, a judgment attaches to the person, meaning that if they want to buy a house, take out a loan, buy a car, it will show up on their credit record, and they will be denied unless they clear it up. :biggrin: So if your friend had the time to bother going to the courthouse, he could recover his money someday.
my family (mostly my grandparents and an uncle) owns dozens of rental properties in the twin cities area. don't give them any leverage. I doubt it's legal to withhold it. but even if it is, it'll give them more leverage in court against owning up to the damage they did and the money they owe. unfortunately, landlords are never given the benefit of the doubt in the courts, so you have to work extra hard to get what's yours. if he doesn't plan on going to court, or pursuing charges in relation to the damages that occurred, than go for it. but I wouldn't recommend it.
heres the latest... I told him to layout the mail somewhere and take pictures to prove that he was recieving mail at his resedence.... this proves that he lived there long enough to have mail forwarded to that address. Then take the junk mail and allow them to pick that up. have someone tail to find the new address. mark the rest of the mail as return to sender, persons unknown. he has taken pictures of all damged property, and after pictures of the fixed items. he then sent him a few messages on his cell phone asking when he is willing to pay hime the money owed for rent + damages and stated an amount. he recieved a reply saying he will never get his rent money (amount stated) and he won't be seeing any money for damages. then I told my friend to tell him he won't be available anytime they are intrested in picking up the mail and that he should give you the address to forward untill he either gives you the address or gets pissed off. the other guy then gets pissed off and leaves a nasty voicemail about how he's never giving him any money for anythign ever and the damges were severe enough that he should pay anything. ((we now have a vocal statement admitting he owes money, and addmits to makeing some form of damage... )) he also states in the message that since he lived at the house, he had every right to break into my friends room to collect what he felt was his. my friend doesn't care about re-cooping this... but this is how low it went. his dog chewed up my friends x-box 360 controllers, so the tenant bought my friend new ones for christmas to replace them. then before leaving, while in my friends broken into room... he swapped the controllers leaving my buddy the chewed up ones. lame. so thats about where we are.
Was there ever any actual formal lease agreement? Or was the guy just renting the room to some friends "off the books" so to speak?
The Minnesota Attorney General has a free handbook "Tenant and Landlords Rights" that anyone who is on either side for the renting game should get a copy of and read. https://www.ag.state.mn.us/Brochures/pubLandlordTenants.pdf
actually a verbal agreement about rent is legally binding in the state of minnesota. It shouldn't be hard for the landlord to prove he had been paying in the past and therefore set the precedent that the renter was paying.
