Divemedic

Hunter Walks in 3, 2, 1…

Hunter has been charged for being a drug user purchasing a firearm. Now that this law is going to be gone, he will walk. Who knew that Biden would rid us of more gun laws than Trump? Score:

  • Trump: 1 (bump stock ban)
  • Biden: 0 (-1 for drug user and guns, +1 for arm braces)

EDITED TO ADD: For those who say that the only reason Hunter is being prosecuted, read on. Of the 478 referrals for lying on a 4473, there were 298 criminal charges filed- that’s a charging rate of 62%. That’s high for most crimes. Among the most solved and charged felony in the US is homicide. 61.4% of reported homicides are charged. Only 14% of reported burglaries and 33% of reported rapes result in charges.

By Divemedic, ago

New Tenants

The tenants who have been renting from us since before COVID just informed us that they have bought a house and will be moving out. So now we begin planning for new tenants. There is some work that needs to be completed. The kitchen counters need to be replaced, pest control, painting, landscaping updates, and other maintenance items need get taken care of.

They haven’t given us a date for the move out yet, but wanted to give us a heads up. They were guessing that they will be moving out a month or two early. Depending on how early, I may or may not hold them to the early termination clause in the lease. We will almost certainly work something out, because they have been there for nearly four years and have always been on time with the rent. (The only time they were late was my fault, so I don’t count that one. I screwed up the electronic billing.)

The flip side is that we have been renewing the lease for about 10 percent less than market because I wanted to encourage the current renters to stay. We will adjust the price so that we are getting close to market, which means a 10% increase in rent. I hope that the place won’t be empty for more than a month or two.

By Divemedic, ago

No Such Thing

There is no such thing as a friendly chat with an FBI agent. I will refer you to an old video, titled “Don’t talk to the police.” Don’t talk to the cops, no matter what. They aren’t your friends. They aren’t there to help you. They are there to make a case to arrest someone, and they will get the arrest that requires them to do the least amount of work they can. They get to pad their stats and look good for getting a felony collar without having to do any police work at all.

The cops may not have enough to arrest someone, but you talking will give them what they need. If they DO have enough to arrest you, there is nothing you can say that will talk them out of it. Refuse to talk to them, close the door, and go about the rest of your life.

First, let’s see the ‘friendly chat.’

Now watch this most instructive video. It’s 45 minutes long, but well worth your time:

By Divemedic, ago

Military, or Cops?

A platoon sized element of cops who are in military camouflage catch an escaped convict. This is only the ones who were there when he was caught. Our police ARE the military that the founders worried about.

All of that for one guy who stole a 10/22. Happy switches, a hundred thousand dollars worth of NODs, and a million bucks in overtime.

It’s easy to run around in the woods wearing camo and play soldier. Yeah, I know a lot of those guys are probably veterans, but still. A lot of guys watched this and took note of the time & manpower necessary to locate one guy. A guy who doesn’t speak English, has no resources, no family or friends in the area, armed only with a .22 rimfire, and no military training.

By Divemedic, ago

Tenants and Bankruptcy

Although he was posting under a fake name because he was trying to evade a ban and is thus a complete asshole, Hedge (posting as “TheMan”) raised an interesting point, one that I am sure he didn’t seriously intend.

When you file bankruptcy in Florida, the automatic stay will protect you from eviction unless:

  • The landlord received a judgment of possession prior to the filing of the bankruptcy. A judgment of possession is the final court court order in an eviction proceeding. When this order is signed by the judge, the tenant is officially evicted and the landlord may take possession by legal means. The judgment of possession extinguishes any legal right the tenant had in the lease, thus there are no further actions to stay. If the order was not signed before the bankruptcy is filed, the automatic stay will stop the case from proceeding.
  • The landlord files a motion with the court stating the tenant has damaged the property or the tenant has used illegal drugs on the property within the past 30 days, the tenant will have to respond or the stay will be lifted, and the debtor will be fully subject to ALL of their creditors’ actions to collect debt. If the tenant responds, the court will decide after a hearing. Since Bankruptcy Court is a FEDERAL court, and marijuana remains illegal (for now) at a Federal level, weed is enough to meet this standard. If your tenant has a weed card, you can get their stay lifted.
  • If the tenant does not make lease payments due AFTER filing bankruptcy, the landlord will be able to get the stay lifted.
  • If the tenant does not cure the default on the lease (pay past due rent due before the filing) within a reasonable time, the landlord will be able to get the stay lifted.

A tenant filing Bankruptcy is actually good news, because you know that you are going to get paid from that point forward, with the power of a Federal Bankruptcy court behind you.

By Divemedic, ago

Minnie the Moocher

I have this love of brass from my upbringing in New Orleans, I guess. I have always loved NOLA style jazz. In keeping with our musical journey of brass, we will take a look this week at the Swing Ninjas with the Speakeasy Three. This is a sound my mom used to call “dirty jazz.”-

By Divemedic, ago

Lawyer Comes Unglued

I was giving a deposition a few years ago when I sued my mortgage holder, SunTrust bank. I had gone through a Chapter 7 bankruptcy and it had been discharged. There was a court order, so they weren’t allowed to do anything to collect the debt. All they were permitted to do was foreclose on the house.

Here is the problem- it turned out that they were NOT the mortgage holder. They had lied to the bankruptcy court. They tried all sorts of tactics- they forged a note. They lied to the court. None of that worked, and they were unable to foreclose on the house. So they resorted to sending collection agents to my house, and calling me repeatedly on the phone. I wound up suing them 5 times in 4 years and collecting more than $40,000 in damages. They still kept it up, with a collector calling me a deadbeat who doesn’t pay his bills, so I sued them again.

So that’s how we wound up in the deposition. I brought my attorney. One part of the deposition went like this:

Divemedic: I have a tape of your client’s collectors harassing me on the phone and calling me a deadbeat

SunTrust Lawyer: Did you ever think, even once, that if you paid your bills, the calls and visits would stop?

DM: Are you telling me that you and your client are knowingly violating the orders of the Federal Bankruptcy court to collect this debt in violation of Federal Law?

STL (to the court reporter): Stop recording this. This is off the record. (To my attorney): You need to remind your client that I am an officer of the court, and he needs to be civil, or we will ask for contempt charges.

My Lawyer: (to me) You heard her. You have to be civil.

DM: (to my lawyer) This is still off the record, right?

My Lawyer: Yes.

DM (To STL): Kiss my ass.

The SunTrust lawyer came unglued and ended the deposition at that point. On the way out, my lawyer told me that my comment was the funniest thing he ever heard at a deposition. We wound up settling the lawsuit for five figures, but I can’t comment on how much because of an NDA. That was almost ten years ago, and I still laugh about it.

By Divemedic, ago

Creative Accounting

A blog post from WIrecutter over at Knuckledraggin My Life Away brings us a story about how California landlords are charging fees for parking spots, trash pickup, pest control, use of a mailbox and routine maintenance requests everything they can think of. This is the only sensible response that landlords (or any business) has when a government has inflationary policies coupled with price controls.

The entire situation was created with the double whammy of the eviction moratorium and tax increases. In my area, you can add large increases to property insurance. Any business that has increased costs must recoup those costs by increasing prices. The government responded to that by enacting price controls (rent control). In places all over the nation, landlords are being told what they can charge for rent, even as the costs like property taxes, interest rates, and insurance continue to climb.

So landlords are responding in exactly the way that I predicted they would- they are looking for new revenue streams by charging for perks that used to be gratis. Here is what I said on the matter nearly two years ago when communities in Florida were talking about rent control:

If rent control is enacted, there are steps I can take: Each year, I will raise rents by the highest permitted under the new law. On top of that:

– I will no longer provide lawn service as a part of rent. That will shift $900 a year of expense to the tenant.
– I will no longer provide a free washer and dryer. I will recommend a company that will rent the tenant one at an additional cost, if they don’t have one. That company will be owned by me. The going rate for that is $144 a month.
– I currently pressure wash the outside of the property twice a year. I can push that off to the tenant, and make it their responsibility as a part of cleaning.
There are many ways that I can maintain profitability. Just taking the three steps above will have the effect of increasing the cost of renting by 15 percent without increasing the rent itself.

Landlords will have to be creative.

The list is endless. I can have parking stickers made, and I can charge you $15 per month for each sticker. Any car parked on the property had better have a sticker, or there will be a $50 fee charged per day for not having a sticker. If the fee isn’t paid, cars without stickers will be towed. I’m not a jerk, though. Parking in the garage will still be included in the rent.

I offer my tenants a lot of free perks- washer and dryer, lawn and pest control, all included in rent. Many landlords offer similar perks. Some rent furnished homes and include the furniture in the rent. I can see rent for furniture being an extra fee. Perhaps extra fees for things like a refrigerator, a stove, or a dishwasher. Florida law requires rental properties to have functional heating, but not air conditioning. There can be extra fees charged for use of the air conditioner.

This is a situation that was created entirely by government. Businesses respond in a rational way to price controls and increasing costs. Government officials and idiot liberals don’t seem to understand that.

By Divemedic, ago