Good riddance to bad rubbish, Sorta!

Too bad you have to wait 15 days for her to get the rest of her stuff out, she should have taken everything, but so glad you are finally rid of her. Now you can finally get back on your feet.

Thanks guys, without your help I'd still be agonizing with her here. Such a terrible person. Her whole life is being spent taking advantage of others. Lots of stuff on the court records. Wish all files were open, but a lot are 'masked'. She's just a bad bad person. I will never see any of the money she owes me. I'm still wondering if she will try to sue me for something or other. She seems to love court.

As for the Locks. First thing I did after the Sheriff left. I double locked the sliding glass windows, then I changed all 8 knobs and deadbolts. Was going to do that anyway since I never seem to get back the keys from renters. Easier to just change locks. I get the ones that are all 'keyed alike'. 8 locks and all the same key. Neat. Now with the new knobs, I made sure I get the ones that are 'rekeyable'. Kwikset makes them. Expensive, but cheaper in the long run because all you need to do is choose ANY key that will fit and with the little tool they include, you just change the locks to the new key in about 30 seconds. All locks locked up tight AND I took one of my 'driveway alarms' and put it down there so when I'm working inside I can hear if someone drives up or walks up. No surprises for me.

Things are going to be hard for awhile. Gotta finish paining the living room. She left the paint, but she should have finished that since she started in November 2018. Yeah, a real great starter of projects and not finishing them. She does however, do a very good job of painting. Much better than I can.

Cleaned stove, fridge, sprayed tub with mildew eraser. Got some stuff that takes away the mildew AND the stains in about 15 minutes. Amazing. All fresh and white and clean. Actually the bathroom is pretty clean. Toilet spotless, sink pretty good, tub just a few spots that needed a touch up since she refused to use any cleaning products that were heavy duty. Hey, if it's not smelling like strong bleach, it's not working, right?

Carpeting is the worst. So many spots. I will have to rent a machine to clean it. Tried spot cleaning today and it's not doing much and toooo many spots. Things are looking much better and after I get paid this week, I can hire my plumber to fix the leaking sink, and unclog the sewer pump, if I haven't already managed to do it myself. Hate that sewer pump! She should have told me that toilet was glurping huge bubbles when it flushed. Or that the washer drain was leaking out because the pump receptacle was overflowing. Nothing like bright green tall grass to help you spot a problem with your septic/sewer pump.

I'm so wanting her to come back and take the rest of her junk. She legally has 12 more days and then I can dispose of it, however, I think I will just drag it into the driveway and put a tarp over it and see if she appears in a week or two after the deadline. I'm sure she will try to say she 'didn't know'. Not a biggie, but I need things out of the house so I can rent it and start getting an income again. Boy will that be great! My taxes will be so low because of only 1/2 my income since February. Yep, lots of stuff I need to buy and especially I need to pay my mortgage! Thank goodness I'm not being foreclosed. Could have been worse.

Best and most stupid thing she did/said was that she thought she could come back every day (and even sleep there) AFTER the Sheriff locked her out. I wonder what she thinks the words 'lock out' mean? Duh.

Tomorrow, I might start painting. Ugh! Hate painting!

Happy dance! Woot! Congratulations! Yay! You've finally got your house back! Holy cow... what a freaking ordeal. I wish there was some way to make sure this sick individual doesn't do this to someone else. Seems like the courts are finally catching on to her though. Just gotta make sure all the jurisdictions know who she is... don't know how to do that.

Glad all went well Sorta. Hope you are done with her! I'll bet she doesn't come back for the rest of her stuff. I think its a good idea to leave it in the driveway covered so you don't have to let her in again!

So Happy you have your house back.

How much do you want to bet she will try to get back in with her keys! I'd love to see her reaction to that!

you might have to change the locks, i am happy for you, sorry for her next victim.

Woot woot, Sorta, so glad you got your house back. Smart of you to rekey the locks 'cos you know she made a copy of the keys, so even if she gave them back, the house would not be secure.

Hope she gets her stuff so you can be done and over! on all the work you need to do. Hopefully she is in your rear-view mirror.

Each day I wake up KNOWING I don't have to deal with a crazy nasty person. Whew! Only 12 days left for her to claim her stuff. I'm sure she will come on day 13. Don't care now, she's someone else's problem. Probably will follow the same routine. I'll keep check on her. Only problem with the courts is they 'hide' the Unlawful Detainer cases for 60 days. If you know both parties and the address you can see it, but with her giving no forwarding address, I will have to keep checking the court records after 60 days to see if anyone filed anything on her. I'm SURE it will happen again.

Place is getting in shape. Big problem is the yard and getting to the sewer pump so I can see if it's totally dead or just clogged. Not sure what yet and dragging the lawnmower down there and attacking those 5 foot high weeds and grass is a real project. I'll do what I can until I collapse. Gotta get this place rented. Nice little house, quiet, simple, private drive. Should have been great except for crazy tenant.

So great all of you supported me with prayers and good wishes and all the energy I could FEEL. My neighbors too, who I drove nuts with all my whining. They have been good to me. Some actually got their families in other states interested in the saga and got daily updates. Glad this is all winding down. Hopefully there will be NO further saga of the Tenant from Hell.

So very glad this is over for you.

Hope she claims the stuff she has left behind with no more problems for you!


Please don't rush into renting again until you have checked references and phoned landlords to check any new people out, I know you need to rent the house as soon as possible but ....

I'm glad you got your house back. One suggestion, I would not put her stuff out on the driveway until her deadline is up. Doing so before, she could say it was damaged or things are missing and end up suing you. If you watch Judge Judy, she has had several cases like this and almost always the tenant wins.

Hopefully, you will now be able to get back on track and in control again, Sorta Blonde

Thanks Ispace. I am not moving any of her stuff until the time limit is up and over a few days. Then I will move things out so I can finish rehabbing the house. Hard to work around all that stuff in the one bedroom and the entire patio is packed with stuff. Can't do much until it's gone, but even so, I will carefully move it, protect it with a huge tarp and try sending her a letter telling her it's going OUT. She already has the initial, legal notice about Abandoned Property which spells out everything. She doesn't listen well, so I''ll make sure she knows she has to get her things.

SHE wrote me an email today asking if she got any mail. I told her I would keep it for 2 weeks as a courtesy. After that it goes back to the post office. I did have some mail so I asked what time she wanted to pick it up. She said Noon. So I was at the house, waiting and cleaning at 11:30. At 1:30 I gave up. 1/2 hour later, I get another email saying she's running late. How nice of her. So I put the mail on the back security door and emailed her to contact me IF she wanted to take any of her stuff at the same time. 1/2 hour after that, she rushed down the driveway (I have alarms that let me know) and grabbed the mail, and rushed back out. Good for me, I didn't want to see her anyway much less have to chat.

Hope she is sooooon gone for good. Real pain in the *****. Makes an appointment and then doesn't show? Par for her.

Keep smiling Sorta ... you'll make it

And in addition discovered in my cleanup...the TUB is clogged and running very slowly. I wonder when she was going to tell me about that problem? She kept harping about TERMITES in the last few weeks. Are there any seen now? Not a one, nothing, no bugs, no signs of active termites, nothing. I think she was going to use that one for court too if she could. Maybe she will use it later. I'm still not sure she won't file some weird case against me for something. Being nice to her now. Not pushing or criticizing. All smiles and happiness. Not poking that bear, wish I could.

I've been following your tenant saga, Sorta, and I'm glad she's finally locked out. However, I've been wondering if the plumbing problems might be sabotage on her part. Maybe that's why she didn't want to meet you.

Ahhhh LadyKestrel, my thoughts exactly all along with her need to get lower rent, more money from everywhere without working a day. Once I get the plumber here (could be a few weeks with no money and have to buy a new pump) I will have him carefully examine the pump to see if something was dumped down the toilet that deliberately clogged it. I have a whole list of stuff on the rental agreement NOT to flush. Those pumps are a royal pain, but she may have indeed done this on purpose. She complained about every little thing that went wrong, WHY not sewer gas smell wafting into the house and tub drain clogged totally? Doesn't make sense. And I've always thought she might have 'engineered' the wet carpet during the big rain storm. Pattern of wet was very strange. That got her $550. off the next month's rent. It got me a whole lot of paranoia and work and money to rip out the entire room of NEW carpet, dry it, put in all new baseboards, seal the house inside and out along that wall, etc. Then she tried claiming it was AGAIN wet the next 2 months in a row. Something just didn't seem right. How to know. Professional Tenant in Evictions. Ugh.

SHE has been back twice in the last 2 days. Once to pick up her mail (she emailed first as instructed) and today to sell someone a huge heavy dresser and get her vacuum and her shopping cart. We went back and forth on when she was going to come so I didn't have to wait around all day for her to not come or to be late by 2 hours like yesterday. She's playing me big time. I tried to get my point across and got 4 rapid fire emails about how 'she knows, the rules, she knows what the Sheriff said, she knows the law, etc. I should have just not complained. Always turns out badly when I mention something and she takes offence immediately. Not worth it. Soon everything will be gone and I can rest. Well that is after I pay the plumber a lot of cash to fix all the things she probably broke.

The joys of Landlording. Not fun sometimes.

i am happy she is out, but sorry about someone else being her victim, i just wish all the landlords would see her coming, and know about her.

Yes family, I wish I had known how to look up Evictions on our court website. My friend told me how. Now I can check everyone before renting to them. Only problem is that they 'hide' the Eviction case for 60 days while it is in progress so if someone is applying during that time, you wouldn't be able to know anything. After 60 days, all you have to do is type in their name and everything appears. Something about protecting innocent tenants if the case goes in their favor. I think it's horrible for Landlords to not know until it's too late.

I've never been a renter but I have known a couple of doozie landlords, which tenants don't know until it's too late too. (Just saying. Sometimes there is a "second side" to a story.)

So, when you get a GOOD landlord like Sorta, you really, really shouldn't treat her like something to scrape off the bottom of your shoe.

Agreed!

I agree with the bad Landlord scenario oldbroad. Known a few myself after having been a renter for 30 years myself. Oh the tales I could tell. I try my best to not be like them. This gal is just unstable in so many ways. I'm really thinking it's a mental problem that should have been diagnosed and treated. Who enjoys the suffering of someone else? She does. She gets absolutely gleeful when she causes me trouble. Of course whatever drugs she is taking and selling adds to the fun. I'll be glad not to see her 'customers' driving up. it's easy to tell when she has the drugs and doesn't by her behavior. So awful to watch and know you can't do anything. Soon she will be a memory. Only 10 more days to get her things and hopefully I will never hear from her again, but knowing who she is, I'll bet she keeps in touch and probably will ask if I will rent to her again. Ha.

I hope those ten days go by fast for you Sorta. You have suffered enough and this needs to end.