Absentee landlord having major issues with tenant

Good Evening Everyone,
I am looking to help my parents out with some issues they are having with a tenant who has been renting for the last 8 years. We have a tenant who has missed 7 months rent and forfeited their security deposit in the last 2 years and our looking at our options for eviction. My parents believe it is very difficult to evict someone with a family because the laws in RD are not the same as in the USA. Also they were told they cannot evict from oversees and they need to be in the country, is this true?

The rental unit is located in the capital and the tenants 2 year lease is up in May 2017. As I said above there is no security deposit left and 7 months rent has been missed since 05/2015.

What course of action do you recommend we take here?

ExDR said:

Get a lawyer with gonads willing to kick heads in. I tell you what the authority will say, "well you are not living there and you want us to put them on the streets? Will require a show of force or bribery to the NP at least in SD and La Romana. Been there, done that.

Click to expand...

retiree said:

Agreed. Guzman Ariza law firm.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I have contacted the Guzman Ariza law firm to help us out with this situation. My father provided me with a copy of the lease and it has the clause for eviction however it seems its useless to threaten over the phone.

I will try to provide updates to this thread in case anyone in the future has this kind of situation.

ctrob said:

So do they have nobody looking out for the residence in their absence? Is it a free standing villa or condo? I'm just wondering that once the action starts you may have to worry about the place being cleaned out - assuming it will get adversarial real quick. You need somebody to keep an eye on that for you. A sympathetic neighbor could be a big help. Good luck.

Click to expand...

 




The property is in a 16 unit condominium which has a guard on premise. My aunt is retired and has a unit in the same complex, however she does not want to get involved in trying to collect rent from that tenant.

bob saunders said:

These people have been in this house for almost eight years and it seems that the lack of payment is recent, as in the past year. Have you actually talked to the tenant to find out what the payment issue is?

Click to expand...

This issue is definitely not recent, from my understanding this tenant has gone 2/3/44 months without paying rent a few times over the years but they have eventually paid the balance owed. My parents have been very understanding since they are a family of four and they feel bad evicting them but this is not the way to manage an investment.

To be clear the 7 months of rent and security which are owed are not consecutive months, they have missed payments on certain months and we are not totaling 7 months; possibly 8 since we have not received payment for January.

In an attempt to collect the owed rent my parents flew to the RD in November, without notice, and showed up at the apartment. The tenants naturally freaked out but made all kinds of promises that the balance will be paid, they even got their family member involved (Aunt or Uncle) who is supposedly a successful engineer to guarantee the owed balance will be paid in 3 months. Since then they only paid one months rent, and my father cannot get in contact with the tenant again.

zoomzx11 said:

Non Dominicans trying to evict a Dominican will have an uphill battle. You need a Dominican find out what is the problem. Be a lot cheaper and easier to settle the situation without lawyers or the court system. Dominicans do fine settling issues among themselves. Just find out what it will take for them to move. Bingo, bobs your uncle.

Click to expand...

WE ARE DOMINICAN LOL! well technically I am American, but my parents are both Dominican so yea.