Articles — evictions

I recently encountered an interesting situation in eviction court that provided an opportunity for clarification on the best practices for evictions. The tenant being evicted lived in a building containing multiple units. The building had access doors in the front and rear. Each access door was locked, but had a coded entry pad. When the tenant failed to pay the monthly rent, the landlord taped a notice on the door of the tenant’s rental unit indicating that the tenant would be evicted if the rent was not paid in full. When the tenant failed to pay within the proper time...

As some of you might have noticed yesterday, the state House of Representatives passed House Bill 41, which addresses victims of domestic violence in rental housing, by a 90-3 vote. I wrote a blog post on HB 41 f few weeks ago, found here, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the bill from a landlord’s perspective. As those of you on my e-mail list know, I was able to meet with Representative Joni Jenkins, the sponsor of HB 41, and the bill’s advocates in order to discuss the concerns of landlords with the early version of the bill. Representative Jenkins...

As everyone who’s watched Kentucky Evictions from A-Z knows, the Uniform Residential Landlord Tenant Act (URLTA) is an odd piece of legislation. It was passed into law by the state legislature, but it only applies in a particular city or county when it is adopted by that city or county’s government. As a result, the URLTA only applies in 19 jurisdictions in Kentucky. For a complete list, check out this article.  HB 380 Last week, a bill was filed in the state House of Representatives to change that. House Bill (HB) 380 amends the URLTA to make it apply to...

Every landlord has to deal with arrests at some point. For some, that day comes when you’re in the management office and look outside to see a convoy of police cars rolling onto your property with lights on and sirens blaring. Shortly thereafter, the officers are leading one of your tenants away in cuffs, for everyone to see. For others, the experience is not quite so dramatic, as you only deal with arrests on paper, typically when a criminal background check on an applicant shows a history of arrests. So what do we do when confronted with the arrest or...

The Background For years, Kentucky law was arguably unsettled on whether a non-attorney, such as a property manager, could file evictions in court on behalf of the owner of the property. As a result, the standard practice of many property owners was to have their property managers handle evictions. By "handle", I mean completely handle. The manager would sign the Forcible Detainer Complaint, file it with the local court, then appear at the hearing to present the case against the tenant in an effort to obtain a judgment of eviction. If successful, that same manager would then obtain a writ of...