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Greetings Colleagues!
This month clean up your budget with some helpful hints from Flynn Law Group about those pesky budget busters like legal bills, hoarding evictions, and infestations.
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Are You Spending Too Much on Legal Fees?
It is important for an attorney to always put the interest of their client ahead of their own. At Flynn Law Group our goal is to be the effective attorneys that managers want; instead of serving our better interest. For example in the last few weeks I was able to consolidate two preliminary injunction hearings with the trial. By doing that I was able to save my client time and money; instead of appearing in court multiple times, and asking the manager to testify more than once, we were able to complete everything in one day.
Not all law firms and attorneys have your (or your budget's) best interest at heart, or they may not have the experience to know the difference. Always make sure your lawyer has experience in the areas of law that you actually need. Sometimes it is clear to me in court that other attorneys are not experienced in these areas of law, and are wasting significant amounts of time on drawn out legal matters, where an experienced attorney would have concluded the matter much quicker. There is no substitute for experience!
It's not always obvious when an attorney is wasting your time and money, but one way to know is by looking at your bill. What are the top three things you should watch for?
1. High Hourly Rates
2. Failure to Differentiate the
Rate for Paralegal Time
3. Repetitive Court Appearances
Click here to read more about the top three things you should watch for on your legal bill to make sure that you are not being gouged by your lawyer.
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Hoarding!
According to Mass Housing, hoarding is the third most common reason for eviction after nonpayment and substance use. When the state of an apartment endangers the tenant or neighboring tenants, employees, children, or anyone else it is definitely time to take action. While presenting this topic at a recent IREM seminar, a property manager asked me,
"When trying to evict a tenant for hoarding, how do we prove in court how bad the condition of the unit really is without bringing the judge to the property?"
Improper maintenance of a unit by a tenant
can be grounds for eviction. In order to prove the case, however, the landlord must keep precise and careful records of the tenant's misdeeds. Document, with dates and times, complaints from neighbors or service providers; did the meter reader notice odors, or the presence of pests? Can the resident walk freely through each room of the apartment? Are the exits or windows blocked? A well prepared landlord or condo board wants to reflect an accurate picture of the situation to the tenant and, if need be, the Housing Court judge. But it all must be documented, photos, incident reports, inspections, and complaints should all be in the tenant's file showing who, what, when, and where!
When the case is brought in front of the judge our goal is to enter an Agreement for Judgement with the tenant. Here is where we will incorporate a Reasonable Accommodation if necessary. The Agreement will set reasonable goals for the tenant to accomplish over a period of time. For example:
in 60 days the apartment must be 'walkable', all rooms must be free and clear, all entrances and exits must be usable and nothing can be stored on the stove top or in the oven
. Then the Judge signs the agreement that we've written and it becomes a court order; so if the tenant violates any provisions of the agreement we bring them back to court requesting an execution.
Don't let these matters continue for years and years costing your property money every month, these issues can be resolved if you have the right people on your team.
Flynn Law Group is very experienced in these matters and we have a lot of success in evicting these tenants, if you have any questions or concerns about hoarding on your property contact our office today!
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Attention New Hampshire Managers!
The law you might now know about but could save your property thousands!
In the state of New Hampshire HB 482 (effective since January 1, 2014) states that if a tenant is responsible for a bed bug infestation then they are also responsible for the cost of remediation. Though the landlord
must pay the costs up front, if the tenant is found responsible the landlord may recover the costs.
How do you know if a tenant is responsible for the infestation? In short the tenant can be deemed responsible if only their unit has been infested
and no other adjacent units have reported bed bugs in the last six months. The landlord must be reasonable in their expectations for repayment, and should offer a repayment agreement. If the responsible tenant refuses to repay the costs, the landlord can begin eviction proceedings for non-payment of remediation costs.
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An Empty Operations Account
A Condominium Case Success
Recently, I received a call from the President of a condominium management company. He reported that they had recently met with new condominium trustees at a property where it appeared that one of the former condominium trustees had stolen all the monies in the condominium's operating account. This account was supposed to hold all of the condominium's payments of condominium fees and also had held the reserve accounts. It should have held tens of thousand dollars however, it was entirely empty. As a result, I advised the Management Company and new trustees to hire a forensic accountant. This is an accountant who is skilled at uncovering what actions were taken with certain funds or accounts; their investigations are not only thorough but also considered expert testimony in a court of law. We were hoping the forensic accountant would uncover what had happened to the money, specifically any theft or fraudulent acts of the former trustee.
We also created a strategy to begin reviewing all accounts with the unit owners and the property. Once that was done, we instituted a comprehensive strategy to begin collecting all outstanding condominium fees and our attorney fees accordingly. Through much hard work and close attention to the condominium collection timeline, we were able to recover 100 percent of all unpaid condominium fees for the condominium. This totaled approximately $40,000.00 and saved the condominium from certain financial ruin. To this day, the condominium has been able to meet all of its bills and have survived one of the worst examples of theft and fraud that I have seen in my 27 years of condominium practice.
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Thank you for reading our newsletter, I hope you found it informative and helpful! For more information on any of these topics please contact our office.
Sincerely,
Frank A. Flynn, Esq.
Flynn Law Group
185 Devonshire Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02110
617-988-0633
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Death of a Tenant
What are you supposed to do when a tenant dies who is the sole household member?
Recently I've been asked to speak many times about this topic, it certainly is a difficult one.
The best piece of advice that I can give to any manager who encounters this situation is to act swiftly! Why?
HUD will terminate any subsidies attached to the unit a maximum of 14 days after the date of death. The longer it takes to recover the possession of the unit, the more rent money that is lost.
F
or more information about this topic
click here.
Finding the balance between delicately working with the family of friends of the deceased and avoiding dangerous liability can be difficult, luckily Flynn Law Group is here to help!
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Boston Police Foundation
Flynn Law Group is a proud sponsor of the Boston Police Foundation!
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IREM Tri-State Conference
and Tradeshow
September 22, 2016
Mystic, CT
Medical Marijuana Seminar
Keynote Speaker Sponsor
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NEAHMA
How the Substance Abuse, Opioid & Heroin Addiction Epidemic affect our Housing Communities
September 13, 2016
NEAHMA.org
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Webinar
Reducing Maintenance Liability
September 21, 2016
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