22
23

Real Estate lawNot sure what to do. Mother's real estate agent had friend living in house rent free (self.legaladvice)

Infernal_Alistar が 投稿

My mother owns a house in Florida which she rents out. She used to live in Kansas but just moved here to Utah. She hasn't had anyone staying in it for over 2 years. Well we just found at that my mother's real estate agent in Florida was letting her friends stay in it rent-free without our knowledge for the past year. We calculated the amount to be over $10,000 of rent-free living. My mother, being 89 has no idea what to do and neither do I. any advice?

Edit: Should add that this was a century 21 agent.

全 29 件のコメント
並べ替え:
ベスト
トップ新着論争中古い順Q&A

[–]StanBurman 29ポイント30ポイント  (12子コメント)

Sounds to me like you need to do a few things right away:

  1. File a formal complaint here against the realtor: http://www.myfloridalicense.com/dbpr/re/complaint.html

  2. Inform that Century 21 office that the agent works at regarding the situation in writing and send by certified mail, return receipt requested.

  3. Contact a good attorney that deals with real estate law and get their opinion on your options.

Good luck.

[–]lamblane 15ポイント16ポイント  (5子コメント)

Quite simply the actions of this agent equate to theft.

In addition to what's proposed above, I'd file a complaint with her local Realtor board. She's very likely in violation of their local rules.

Agents are fiduciaries to their clients. Any service provided should further the economic interest of the client. This activity clearly violates that principle.

You need to ask for an accounting of who lived there and for how long. Once that's determined, I'd send a demand for reasonable market rent to the broker of the agent in question. The broker is ultimately responsible for the actions of their agent. A threat to make public the agents actions likely will trigger a settlement. Don't underestimate how much harm this could cause the reputation of that office. A settlement would cost less than just a few lost sales opportunities.

IMO, the agent should loose their licence.

[–]singdawg 7ポイント8ポイント  (1子コメント)

IMO, the agent should loose their licence.

I agree completely, as long as you learn the difference between lose and loose.

[–]bearjuani 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

loose as in expand; they should become qualified to let houses out too. Clearly they're a forward thinker and they could be making the business a lot of extra money.

[–]thepatman 7ポイント8ポイント  (3子コメント)

Was the real estate agent authorized to put tenants in the home? Did she sign leases on your mother's behalf?

[–]Infernal_Alistar[S] 7ポイント8ポイント  (2子コメント)

No, she was not authorized without my mother's knowledge.. and I'm not sure if she signed leases

[–]thepatman 10ポイント11ポイント  (1子コメント)

Was she supposed to be looking for tenants?

Right now, it appears that you might have a suit for missed rent against the real estate agent. You can also sue to have the tenants evicted.

[–]Infernal_Alistar[S] 15ポイント16ポイント  (0子コメント)

Yes, the house was always up for rent until a couple weeks ago when she moved here. She decided to sell and that's when we found at that people were currently living in her home and that we had to wait for them to move out.

[–]Nice_and_Honest 6ポイント7ポイント  (2子コメント)

May I ask how you know that the real estate agent's transaction was rent free?

Is there a possibility that the individual squatting in your mother's house was paying rent to the real estate agent?

[–]cassius3000 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Op should be aware that if the house was rented out there may be sales and other taxes due for those rentals that were less than six months. That should be part of any settlement consideration because the govt will always want it's share and could come after your mother if it gets wind of short term rentals.

[–]Breal2014 -1ポイント0ポイント  (0子コメント)

Upvote for this. The real estate agent was probably pocketing any rent money, which is fraud. Call the police or local District Attorney's office, get a civil lawyer. Sue.

[–]gratty 0ポイント1ポイント  (8子コメント)

"Missed rent"? Does anyone have a citation to authority about such a thing?

AFAIK, a landowner's only remedies against a squatter are eviction (or ejectment) and compensation for any damage done during the trespass.

[–]Pandaora 9ポイント10ポイント  (4子コメント)

The real estate agent's fraud is a much different situation than just squatters.

[–]gratty -2ポイント-1ポイント  (2子コメント)

What specific fraud are you talking about?

[–]svm_invictvs 4ポイント5ポイント  (0子コメント)

OP's mom had an agreement with the agent to list the place for rent and manage the property. How does the agent explain having tenants in there without telling the OP's mom, or more importantly paying OP's mom what the tenants are paying (less the agent's fee of course).

[–]DeadOptimist 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Might be on behalf of the inhabitant. Maybe they were actually paying rent, but it wasn't getting to OP's mom. Or maybe they were misinformed about their living situation (that it was OK).

Similarly, I would guess the agent has lied to OP's mom about the state of the property, though I am not sure how that would play out.

[–]8337 0ポイント1ポイント  (1子コメント)

compensation for any damage done during the trespass.

Now that you mention it, I'm curious as to how someone would go about quantifying typical "wear and tear". For example: We just moved out of an apartment we'd lived in for ten years, and while there was no damage, the place obviously didn't look like new anymore. The carpet was a little worn, the shiny finish had worn off of door handles, etc. These are things that would traditionally be paid for as part of your monthly rent, and wouldn't be considered damages (we had a clean wall-through upon leaving, and owed nothing extra).

Big difference between a decade of living and one year, obviously. But OP's mom is definitely owed something for wear and tear, I'd think.

[–]gratty 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

I'm curious as to how someone would go about quantifying typical "wear and tear".

The cost to restore the property.

[–]Ramady -1ポイント0ポイント  (0子コメント)

Yeah, I'm unclear how they got that $10k figure.

[–]TOMtheCONSIGLIERE 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

How do you know there were friends in the home? Do you have evidence? Sorry if this was answered already.