[wooohooo]

My family owns quite a bit of rental property and never in the 20+ years have we had a problem like this.

Person X about a month ago expressed that she wanted to move out and so we told her we needed a written notice. Well, we talked to her a few times and she said that she would send the notice as long as this months rent in the mail. We waited for weeks and it still had not come and by this time we could not get hold of the tenants. We called utilities to see if they had cancelled them and they had, so we went over to their place and it looked empty and so we posted an eviction notice. The next day, as we believed it was abandoned, entered the premises and everything was gone with the exception of a mattress and some clothes in a garbage bag in a room.

Assuming that this place was abandoned as utilities were canceled and almost everything was gone we sent in a contractor to fix the place up. He ripped out the toilet bowl and brought in tiles and was about the paint the place. Needless to say, the tenant came back and said the place was not abandoned and called the police. At this point the police said we had no options as it had not been the 14 days since the eviction notice was put up and had to leave immediately and tools and materials were left there. Also, some tools the contractor put in there before were stolen.

At this point I'm led to believe my only options are to wait the full 14 days and then take them to court. Is there anything else I can do? How about in terms of renovations?

Thanks in advance