patrick.net

How about, "I'm sorry you're in a difficult spot, and I will mind my own business. And don't worry, as I am your friend you can count on me that I won't postgossip about your pending legal problems and your personal opionions about lawsuit parties onto a web blog?".

One of the main reasons I don't own rentals is that one of my first purchases, with a partner, ended in a lawsuit like this, where the renters stayed because they claimed I came to the house and threatened them.

What I actually told them is that they had done the damage to the property they were claiming was neglect.

It makes no difference, we won in court, but the house was completely trashed.

What I know some thirty years later is that they need a Real Estate attorney. It's a very specialized field, but they would be wasting money otherwise.

Second is that, and in my case I was younger, and more stupid than I am now, they need to inspect the property for damage as soon as possible. They need to give the renter notice, go in, and take pictures.

If they need to have someone else go in to take the pictures fine, but they need to document the condition of the property.

There should be a follow up to the inspection once a month until the renter is gone.

If damage is found, and again it was my own stupidity that didn't have me do this, they should schedule work people to go in and repair it.

All of this needs to be done with proper notice.

It took us over six months to get rid of the nice Christian couple who rented my first place, but I now know that if I had stayed on top of the situation in a more professional manner I might still own that place today.

Your friend should be VERY careful about making contact with these people. They sound highly litigious and all contact with them needs to be documented to avoid future claims of harassment and such. From what I understand, trying to evict tenants in SF, deadbeats or not, is extremely difficult.

As for their lawyer, I don't know what to say. Report him to the BAR association? What you posted definitely sounds fishy. Either that, or the lawyer has seen this a hundred times by now and knows that the legal fees and lost time from this sort of thing will actually end up costing about $150k and he is suggesting that they pay that instead of a bunch of legal fees and property repair costs. Seems unlikely though.

consult another lawyer. why use a lawyer you are not happy with? also why rented out a room with no parking and said nothing about that in the lease? i would stop talking to this woman as well. these people cannot be helped.

Nobody liked my suggestion about not gossiping on legal matters except a non-Bay Arean (who clicked "like" but did not post).

Welcome to The Bay Area.

Here's some advice: don't rent out property in San Francisco, you can't win. The city actually funds tenant help agencies who know how to screw naive landlords.

donjumpsuit says

I thought we had a decent forum going on.

"Decent". Gossip about someone else's legal problem "decent".

I see.

Also I thought that redacting ....would be enough to not gossip on legal matters.

You thought so, did you?

Did she thought so too when you asked her if it'd be OK to share her pending legal problems and her thoughts about it on an internet blog?

Welcome to the Cool and Hip Bay Area.

Obligatory:

So they have already lost 3.5 years of rental income and can potentially lose their whole income from the unit for the last 15 years. What a great investment it turned out to be. Tenants and toilets, what can go wrong?

While this advice isn't specific to this case, anyone who is landlording that hasn't yet sat down with a litigator specializing in evictions/landlord suits, needs to do so. Cost is like $200 for an initial consultation and review of your lease. I did this only once I had a scare (was able to get the tenants out in 15 days with no damage and it only cost me a month's rent). But it was the best $200 I ever spent. The attorney I consulted typically represented the tenants, so she shared the tactics she normally uses to go after landlords, and how she'd try and poke holes in my lease, serving of notices, etc.. Definitely worth your time to sit and learn how to go 'by the book', and close up some of the gaping loopholes.