Please help!

[casehanks]

I desperately need help on a house I am currently renting in Grove City. My husband and I were transferred to GA I could not sell the house so we put it up for rent. One year was completely successful with perfect renters. Now... I have the tenants from hell and don't have a clue as to what to do...

Long story stort... 4th rent payment was due August 1st. The 16th came and went and we posted a 3 day notice after two invoices stating that they were late. Not having a clue as to what I was doing we realized after speaking with a lawyer that we gave them the wrong date to be out by so we started the process again. Yesterday we gave them a 24 hour notice because we have good reason to think they have cut carpet out of my 6 year old $250K house!!! and they told us we could not enter the property and have changed the locks!!!

I just want them out of my house. Do I have a right to deny rent and tell them to move? Can I get the rent with a lawsuit in court? Am I able to have a lawyer represent me and not have to appear personally as I live almost 900 miles away?!

Any advice would be great. They have until Wednesday to be out but we have learned they conveniently left on Sunday to go out of town until the 8th!

[ohiolandlord]

If they didn't pay August or September's rent on time, then you don't have to accept it and can carry on with the eviction. I assume when you say 24 hour notice that you mean a 24 hour notice of your intention to enter the premises in order to inspect it. If you did this correctly then you can enter the premises after 24 hours has passed. If they changed the locks, this is also generally grounds for eviction as is refusal to allow the landlord to enter.

Good luck getting rent from them after you have evicted them unless you know where they work or where they move to. You can have a lawyer represent you with appearing yourself. Generally, you would sign an affidavit swearing to the facts supporting the eviction. This does not guarantee that you don't have to show up at court. If you have a property manager here in central Ohio, that person can testify as to unpaid rent, damages, etc., instead of you as well.

Our eviction guidebook explains the Ohio eviction process in easy to understand terms. You can find it at the following link:

http://www.ohiolandlordtenant.com/evictkit.html