Landlord accuses tenants of selling his items in estate sale
SCOTTS MILLS, Ore. – Neighbors who went to an advertised estate sale in Scotts Mills got an unusual surprise: The homeowner telling them the stuff wasn’t for sale.
Steve Eldridge said his tenants were trying to steal his stuff by selling it in an estate sale at his house.
“This is the stuff I own,” Eldridge said.
Eldridge accuses his tenants of putting up fliers and trying to sell his furniture.
“I’m letting people know that personally, I believe it’s a robbery in progress.”
Marion County sheriff’s deputies arrived at the scene Saturday.
Eldridge couldn't enter the house he owns. Oregon’s landlord/tenant laws require 24 hour notice.
Linda Randall, who said the tenants hired her to run the sale, told KATU News there was no theft at all.
“He’s completely wrong. Completely wrong. There’s no thievery here,” Randall said.
The tenants claim they leased the furniture and now own it.
Sheriff’s deputies disagreed and shut down the sale.
Eldridge said he plans to file eviction papers on Monday.
I think that this reporter should have looked into this better and gotten the whole truth. Instead of just the half. This is going to court soon and I think it should be looked at again. They were not stealing. They owned the things in question. Steve added extra pages to the lease agreement without the leasers knowledge. Channel 2 needs to check this out again.Â
I had some dirt bag tenants once that burned everything in the house one winter to stay warm, because they didn't pay their electric bill. They burned all the trim, cabinet and interior doors, then over half the wood floor. To top it all off they moved out in the middle of the night never to heard from again.
They say the least it to own and now it's theirs? No problem, just show us the lease agreement contract! What some people won't try to get away with. This is just one more reason I'm glad I never dabbled in the real estate rental market... Too many humans to deal with!
You can't sell furniture when you only own a leasehold interest in them, and there is probably a clause in the lease that they can't be removed from the premises. Clearly, these are tenants from hell. Beware future landlords. They're out there and the law gives them rights beyond comprehension. Politics!
 @hankhandsome Only in the KATU community should renters not be afforded rights. It's so genius. Why didn't I think of it before?Â
 @on shing dao  @hankhandsome If they want rights let them buy a house. Otherwise they have the right to stay there 30 days at a time just so long as they pay the rent! It's just like employees of a company wanting "workers rights" â a every two weeks or so, they send you a check which is a token of their undying gratitude for the work you did. If you want to be a big wheel, go start your own company. It's the same idea.
 @PDX Dave  @hankhandsome Paying rent was never the issue here, but I guess the KATU community lacks reading comprehension skills. That makes sense considering they think Romney is better than Obama whe they are one in the same.
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 @Mick Wagner No it isn't ("their property"), if the owner can show he owns the property they are selling, and they merely leased it from him, while they lived there.  If you leased a car for the weekend, does that mean you get to sell it before you take it back?  No.  Of course not.  It sounds like they are claiming they have the right to sell all the stuff they leased, claiming they had some agreement that they couldn't furnish.  If I were the owner, and law enforcement simply allowed the sale to go on, and later it was determined the tenants had no proof of ownership, and all the items were gone, and they had spent or hidden the profits, I'd sue the police for negligence.  That's just ridiculous.  How would you feel if you loaned a friend your things, and when you found out he was selling them for his own profit, the police told you, 'Gee too bad, your friend said you gave him everything'.  That's the situation here.  I don't understand your reasoning.
 @Mick Wagner Youll end up behind bars for murder
"Â he'd better bring backup, of the county's going to be advertising for a new deputy"
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So...what do you intend to do? Shoot the deputy? It sounds as if you have some problems to work out with counseling perhaps.
@Mick Wagner   Would be pretty simple to prove if they actually bought the items - show your receipt. Or how about your lease agreement? Kudos to the sheriff for not allowing the tenants to screw over the landlord as so often happens these days.
 @wondering  @Mick But again, do you feel the need to prove that you actually own all of the items of furniture and decor in your home? In fact, could you? Probably not. So, the suggestion that the renter should have to "prove" ownership by retaining and showing receipts upon demand, doesn't really hold water in the real world. The problem is, that there's clearly more to the story then we've been told. How, for instance, did the landlord even find out that the renters were holding a sale? Has he been spying on them? If so, why? I'm not necessarily saying that the landlord is even wrong, I'm just saying that I think that the way it was handled is wrong. KATU has shown a propensity recently towards these sort of one-sided stories. Where they really take the side and story of one participant, and then come to the other side with their minds already made up, and in an accusatory fashion - which, of course, causes the other person to become defensive. The first party knows they're going to be interviewed - they have a chance to prepare, both physically and mentally for the experience. Then the so-called "reporter" ambushes the other side, sticks lights, a mic and a camera in their face, and start asking "Have you stopped beating your wife?" questions. That's not journalism. These people may have a perfectly legitimate contractual right to dispose of the property - or they may not; they might be trying to pull a fast one and sell the landlord's property; we just don't really know, based upon the story.
 @Mick Wagner  @wondering  @Mick Ok, fair enough on several of your points. However, the property owner showed a lease agreement that showed it included furniture and other items on camera and, presumably to the police. According the property owner, several items specifically mentioned on the sales flyer (i.e., the bigger ticket items) were items they knew belonged to them. Police initially were not going to get involved because it was a civil matter. They either decided to get involved because the renter, the potential buyers, or KATU (or all of the above) also contacted them about the sale so the higher ups decided to send out someone to at least see what was happening and, after seeing the evidence of what the landlord had and what was being sold inside, determined that shutting down the sale until ownership could be determined was the best step for everyone involved.
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As far as how they found out, yeah, they could have been keeping an eye on the place or they could even live in the house next door. Odds are, they probably had watchful neighbors in the area who alerted them to the sale.
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I do think there's more to the story here but, without the actual renter coming on camera, we don't hear that side of the story. I suspect there's been tension between the landlord(s) and the tenant(s) and/or between the tenant(s) and the neighbors.
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To be fair, when I first heard about the story (but before it aired) I was wondering if it was the estate sale of the renters items done by family unaware of any type of agreement of personal property items. That would even be more ugly to determine outright ownership and, until it can be proven otherwise, the person with the most proof is usually the winner in court.
@Mick Wagner He can advise the people that they will be arrested or cited the moment  they sell any item that belongs to the property owner. If they have no written contract on the disputed property, they will be SOL in court. They must make the decision to shut the sale down. The sellers now lay claim to the property they admit was the property owners, but have no paper to back it up. This is not unusual for tenants to pull stuff like this, especially prior to moving. Have even seen them sell sinks, built in stoves, air conditioners, refridgerators, etc. that were all on the premises when they moved it. Then they bust the front door on the way out and claim the house was burglarized after they left.Â
 @Brownknight  @Mick I understand your points, but the reality is that this is a civil situation - NOT a criminal one, UNLESS the landlord has definitive proof that he actually owns the personal property involved. It would be different if they were selling the water heater, or say, the stove - items which WOULD normally be owned by the landlord and are considered part of the "structure" of the home. Furniture and other personal property like that is different however; you've heard the phrase "possession is 9/10s of the law"? Well that's actually not as true in most situations as you might think, but this is an exception. The tenants currently have legal possession of the premises - until a court says otherwise - and they have the right to invite others to come on to the premises, whether for a birthday party or an estate sale. Likewise, they have the right to exclude others - including the landlord, AND the deputy, unless they have a legal reason to be there, which I don't see, in this case. I can pretty much guarantee you that in Multnomah, Clackamas or Washington counties, the deputies would just tell the landlord that it's a civil matter, and that he should seek legal counsel; apparently Marion county hires from a lower gene pool.
@Mick Wagner @Mick Relisten to the video.  She admitted the landlord did own the items in question. They claimed that they leased it and via the lease the items became thiers. Very dubious statement and no paperwork to back them up.  IMHO, they are thieves who just got caught before it went too far. The statute on theft states, "intent to deprive" a person of thier property. Just because there is a rental or lease agreement does not mean civil court is the only way to address this issue.  If you rent tools, you must return them. If you rent a car and fail to return it, it becomes a felony. Landlords do get screwed on a daily basis because courts and prosecutors, too often, choose to take a cautious road and refer it as a civil matter. The deputies did a good job in questioning the sale.  Her responses, televised, were inadaquate.  Fair warning to landlords to address these issues in the rental agreement.
 @Mick Wagner While your point about landlords often ignoring the privacy rights of tenants is well taken (I rented a house where the landlord kept the job of doing landscaping... but he ended up being over in our yard multiple times a week without notice, coming inside with his key when we were at work to use the bathroom, storing large items he had purchased in our yard), I still think you're being very unrealistic about what law enforcement should do when they are informed that property with contested ownership is being sold. The police would face liability if they failed to stop such activity, unless a dispute is resolved.
I was living on my sailboat and had he Columbia County Shriffs sieze it on an fraudulant lien. They also chrged me with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and theft. I beat both felony charges and won in court but I still lost my home and was never compensated. They took it under threat of violence, they were going to taser me if I did not give it to them, I am disabled. They do not have to follow the laws, they have weapons.
 @swede760 The government can do what ever it wants and that has to stop
Justice is not for everyone, just those with enough money. It is definately not for the disabled or unfortunate.
You sound like a bad risk as a tenant. Forget to make your payments?
@PDX Dave, It was fraudulant, I will not name the Marina but they own several and this is thier practice to supply boats for thier Brokerage, basically low cost inventory. They just fail to notify the owner that there is a lien in proccess and file as abandoned property. When you have money you do not have to play by the rules.
 @Brownknight He says it was a fraudulent lien. Those things do happen.
@Brownknight Yeah I guess that is why that is about the only Marina on the river that is nearly empty and why my current landlords love me.
Does anyone remember when People were Humans?
Tenants can be weird. They don't plan well when it comes to moving and leave all kinds of trash.Â
And then, they want a good recommendation.Â
I feel sorry for landlords.Â
Thia is what mitt romney will do to America..
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@Billy Batts    I agree...why don't they drug test welfare and unemployment recipients? Oh, because they could never pass!
 @wondering  @Billy Another brilliant, though provoking remarks from one of KATU's most valuable resources.
 @cptmac11 You are off topic again...It is what obama is doing to the country.
@sortbait @cptmac11 Exactly.....Obama's support of the occupy movement and championing the 99% when it was really championing the drags on society of about the 15%...
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regardless cptmac took the thing off topic AGAIN. He is a troll!!!
Wow,...didn't you just read the article? And who is at the helm right now? This has nothing to do with who is president. It has to do with people who lack ethical behavior and self control.
What has Mitt Romney got to do with this??????
@cptmac11 It is what BHO is already doing to America
 @wondering  Lol it's what George Washington did. But the courageous KATU community doesn't want to throw a 300 year old man under the bus, er, horse in his case.
It's renters like these that make it difficult for the honest renter.
And this is why I never considered real-estate rentals as a personal investment! Too many dishonest characters out there and they seem to be multiplying in numbers? If you have a good renter it's great but I think but as things stand these days renting is beginning to be a long shot!
@disenchanted1 I rent to older folks they have a value system from a time when people respected each other..
Never had a problem..
This is why I choose not to be in the rental business. One bad renter can destroy a house in 6 months or less. And if you are renting furnished, that just compounds the problem. Very few people today take care of anything, even if they own it.
I had a renter that lost the parking space for his Log Truck so he decided to park it in my shared driveway. after he wiped the front porch off of the house, and blocked me into my part of the driveway he had the nerve to ask me to have my homeowners insurance pay to have his truck repaired.
 I am so glad I got out of the business, and managed to get a good price for the places before the housing bubble burst. I pity the rental owner nowadays. It used to be profitable, but with the attitude  of todays renter it has become a nightmare for the owner.
 And people cry about not having housing....
I'm sure Randall was in on it from the beginning. Probably gave them the idea.
@Agent Sydney Bristow
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Really?
what seems to be happening here is, they signed a lease... during this time they retain temporary ownership of the property, and are only responsible for it being damaged or missing when the lease is up.. at which point they would just give the landlord the finger and move onto the next property.
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 @Tom dogboy Collins Me too and I could write a book on tenants. I don't know what happened to common sense.
What happened is, it ain't common anymore - I've quit calling it "common sense"; call it "country sense" or something else, but it's not common!
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In this case, however, sense has little to do with it - our society is so corrupted that very few people are honest and righteous anymore; it's "whatever you can get away with that benefits you, and I'm entitled to it" attitude. Very disgusting!
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 @musiclover Take away moral education and what do you expect?
Well there is a good reason why you don't lease out a furnished home.
@wondering I have before but with a $3,000 deposit down pmt.
 @cptmac11  @wondering And only filled with second hand or easily replaceable box store items, right? I wonder about all of those places, say, on the coast and in the mountains, that rent out to tourists. I'm surprised stuff like this doesn't happen to them more often (or maybe it does and we just don't hear about it).
 @wondering Agreed, I am in property management and would never lease a furnished house, however just because they lease it doesn't mean it is there's unless there is a lease to own contract.