Posted by ToolBar_SC on July 10, 2001 at 11:58:27:
I understand what you are saying and hear you about the situation. As far as I know a notice MUST be given in SC also. I’m just not certain about the law on a visitor/tenant eviction.
If your not willing to push a legal action to get you grandmother’s belongings back, then I don’t see how your going to get these backwoods apartment management to pay you much attention. Even if you don’t want to go to court you may need the advice and guidenance of a lawyer (MY GOD DID I TYPE THAT!!! YES I DID!!!).
I’d ask the apartment management streight out, where I can pick up my grandmother’s belongings. If I couldn’t get them or I didn’t like the answer I’d get the advice of a lawyer. It may only take a letter from the lawyer to streighten everything out. If it doesn’t then your either going to have to decide to forget it or push harder which may or may not require a legal suit.
Sorry I can’t help you more but your in a gray area that common sense should prevail and not having to have laws to do whats right.
Does anyone know what the law entails about evicting a holdover tenant? I am not familiar with SC real estate law, but my grandmother who was renting an apartment last month died on June 30. The rent was current. We just needed time to mover her things to a storage unit and make funeral arrangements. My uncle who had moved in last month to help take care of her physically, was evicted on July 3. We never received notice and of course all of her belongings were thrown out. This was an apartment complex, not an elderly care facility.
The property management said that notice is not required if you are not on the lease. In every state that I have lived even if you are not on the lease, a notice still needs to be delivered. Does anyone who invests in SC real estate know the answer to this question? Just curious to find out.
Re: A Question for SC investors - Posted by ToolBar_SC
Posted by ToolBar_SC on July 10, 2001 at 09:14:32:
I live in South Carolina and have rental properties here. However, I’ve never had to deal with a death of a renter. I’m not positive that a notice would be required to evict your uncle since he was only there to take care of your grandmother and not there to live. I would think his status might be more of a guest visiting rather than a tenant.
In eather case your uncle should have been given sufficient notice that your grandmother’s belongings needed to be moved. If the rent was current for July and NO notice, verbal or otherwise, was given then the belongings should not have been thrown away.
I suggest you get ahold of the local magistrate and inquire about getting reimburst for her belongings. You can find out who and the number of the local magistrate by contacting the court house or the local police department.
Really, I can’t believe that the belongings would have been thrown away without some type of notice being given and some time available to move the belongings. I’d find out from your uncle just what conversations occured prior to his being evicted and what action he took to safeguard your grandmother’s belongings. Did he make an effort to contact the apartment management and let them know what steps were being taken prior to the belongings being thrown out? If he did and he was told he had only 3 days to move her belongings and he took no action then you might have a problem. If on the otherhand, he had contacted a storage company, tried to talk to the apartment management and get more time, etc., you might be able to win a case over the apartment complex.
I suggest you get the full story and talk to the local magistrate to see what can be done.
We personally contacted the property manager for the apartment and informed them of my aunt’s death. We asked them how much time we had to move her belongings since all of us are coming from out of state and needed to plan how long we needed to be in town for the funeral and other related tasks. However, because it was the week of the 4th, when we called to found how much time we would be granted to move her belongings we were unable to get a concrete time from these backwoods people (sorry but I can talk about them because this is my hometown).
However, in my experience with evicting tenants even if they are guests…the law states that some type of notice must be given…you can’t just throw people out without some type of notice. In the state of Florida we have to give 2 weeks notice since they are not on a lease and an eviction notice still has to be filed. The actual eviction process tends to be expedited because of the non-leasehold estate, but there is still a legal process. Unfortunately for us landlords, squatters have rights too.
Because of the emotional nature of this situation, I don’t want a legal suit…I am only interested in retrieving some of her lost??stolen items. This is a very small town, where the actual law of the land sometimes deviates from the written law of the land. My aunt was pillar of the community, who paid all of her bills on time, so current rent was not an issue. What has happend is that they have re-rented the apartment already. Like I said, we the family do not want a lawsuit…just the belongings. My efforts to get in touch with the local sheriff, social services and local magistrate have proved useless thus far since we are viewed with negativity as out-of-towners who abandoned the town. Yikes!!!