Speaker 1: Ripped new need advice, so you don't have come a
Speaker 1: run in.
Speaker 2: Just as fast as we can.
Speaker 1: Shooter's gonna help coming.
Speaker 3: This is the Troubleshooter Show now, Tom Martine.
Speaker 4: Hey, good morning. This is John Fuller again hosting for
Speaker 4: Tom Martino on the Troubleshooter Network. I am a personal
Speaker 4: injury attorney here in Denver, have been for twenty three
Speaker 4: and some odd years or so according to last count,
Speaker 4: and I am filling in yesterday, today, and tomorrow, so
Speaker 4: we've got three full days of stuff that we can
Speaker 4: talk about. Today is a gonna be a little bit
Speaker 4: different than yesterday. Yesterday we had Dan Mahoney on with
Speaker 4: the insurance group in Denver that we talked about everything
Speaker 4: insurance related that we could think of in a four
Speaker 4: hour period, which covered a lot of ground. And I
Speaker 4: think that was great. I think it gave us an
Speaker 4: opportunity to really see things from two different perspectives. But
Speaker 4: today we have something equally interesting. We have Brad O'Brien
Speaker 4: in the house today. Brad is another attorney, so you
Speaker 4: get two attorneys today for the same price. And Brad, welcome.
Speaker 4: I appreciate you joining us today. Brad is primarily if
Speaker 4: I understand a real estate practice you owned, is that correct?
Speaker 5: That is right, John, I am a real estate attorney.
Speaker 5: I do both transactions and disputes involving real estate. So
Speaker 5: on the transactions I help people buy and sell both
Speaker 5: residential and commercial real estate. And I also do landlord
Speaker 5: tenant work for both the landlord and the tenant. And
Speaker 5: when it comes to disputes, you know, if there's any
Speaker 5: kind of dispute between a purchase contract or between the
Speaker 5: landlord and the tenant, or a mechanics lean or a foreclosure,
Speaker 5: I do that as well. So not a lot of
Speaker 5: real estate attorneys will do both sides, both transactions and litigation,
Speaker 5: but I do cool.
Speaker 4: So that kind of sets the stage for today. So
Speaker 4: your role is to pick up the phone and give
Speaker 4: us a call. Our telephone number here is three oh
Speaker 4: three seven one three eight two five five. We are
Speaker 4: here to help. If you've been scammed, if you've been tricked,
Speaker 4: if you've been deceived by somebody. We are here to
Speaker 4: solve problems, take complaints, answer questions. We are here to
Speaker 4: help you, and that could be with a vehicle, your home,
Speaker 4: your job, your house, your real estate, your car accidents,
Speaker 4: just about anything and everything that comes up. We're gonna
Speaker 4: cover a lot of ground today. So if you have
Speaker 4: a question that might be particularly suited for Brad, definitely
Speaker 4: get on the line and give us a call today
Speaker 4: because we're gonna we're gonna go through a number of
Speaker 4: real estate issues, but we would like to focus on
Speaker 4: your immediate needs as much as we can. We also,
Speaker 4: yesterday a tiptoed into a couple cases with Dimitri and
Speaker 4: we're going to follow up on both of those today,
Speaker 4: one of which was dealing with a restraining order for
Speaker 4: a young lady that had an apartment in Denver, and
Speaker 4: we're gonna we're gonna do a deep dive into that.
Speaker 4: We're also going to have a revisit on our Lukukaracha
Speaker 4: issue a little later in the morning as well. Most
Speaker 4: of you guys heard that we had an infestation of
Speaker 4: cockroaches in an apartment that a young lady called us about.
Speaker 4: We've got to follow up on that as well. Right now,
Speaker 4: we're going to start out by going immediately to the phones.
Speaker 4: We've got Billy waiting. Billy, what's going on. You've got
Speaker 4: a warranty issue on your truck?
Speaker 6: Yes, sir, I sure do.
Speaker 4: Tell us about it.
Speaker 6: So in January of this year, I bought into endurance warranty.
Speaker 4: What is an endurance warranty?
Speaker 6: So it's an aftermarket automotive warranty service, okay, urinety for
Speaker 6: breakdowns and whatever. They cover certain parts of the drive
Speaker 6: train and other components.
Speaker 4: Okay, Now, how did you How did you decide to
Speaker 4: buy that warranty? Was that just a solicitation you received
Speaker 4: or did you look them up? Or how did you
Speaker 4: come with it?
Speaker 6: I was a customer with them previously, okay, So I
Speaker 6: decided to go back with them because my first round
Speaker 6: with them I had no problems.
Speaker 4: Okay, So tell me about what's going on.
Speaker 7: Okay.
Speaker 6: So I bought into this contract back in January. I
Speaker 6: just purchased a well it knew to me twenty eleven
Speaker 6: one fifty okay. So I bought into it to protect
Speaker 6: my investment and in back on the eighteenth of this month,
Speaker 6: I suffered a catastrophic failure of an engine component that
Speaker 6: was covered under the warrant.
Speaker 4: Okay? Which component?
Speaker 6: It was a terrible So the turbo blew up and
Speaker 6: it sent metal fragments into the intake menifold, which in
Speaker 6: turn gets down to the engine, chose up bearings, it rings,
Speaker 6: all kinds of bands destroys the engine. But when I
Speaker 6: filed my claim, they denied.
Speaker 2: My claim for the.
Speaker 6: Coverage for a technicality that they had didn't take any
Speaker 6: steps to rectify on their behalf.
Speaker 4: What was the technicality?
Speaker 6: So when I signed for the contract, they asked me
Speaker 6: what the mileage well of the vehicle was, and at
Speaker 6: the time I didn't have the actual miles because I
Speaker 6: didn't I hadn't taken delivery of the truck yet. So
Speaker 6: I gave him the best estimate of what I remember,
Speaker 6: and I was only five hundred and fifty three miles.
Speaker 4: High or low of the low, okay.
Speaker 6: So they gave me a one hundred thousand mile warranty which
Speaker 6: covered me to I think it was only two hundred
Speaker 6: and ninety six thousand miles, so I'm below that to
Speaker 6: ninety six. But they denied my claim because they said
Speaker 6: I didn't call back in the alloted amount of time
Speaker 6: with the actual miles, and with that being said, nobody
Speaker 6: ever contacting me within that thirty days to say we're
Speaker 6: missing information. If you want to keep the contract.
Speaker 4: Billy, do you have the contract where it says you
Speaker 4: have to follow up and call them back.
Speaker 6: I don't right in front of me.
Speaker 4: Did they point out to you what provision they were
Speaker 4: relying on to catch Not.
Speaker 6: That I remember with the initial conversation.
Speaker 4: So, just to recap, you bought a truck that had
Speaker 4: one hundred and ninety six thousand miles on it as
Speaker 4: a twenty eleven f one fifty. And how many miles
Speaker 4: have you put on it since you bought it?
Speaker 6: So it's got about two hundred and four thousand on
Speaker 6: it now.
Speaker 4: Okay, so not that many new miles and the turbo
Speaker 4: takes a dump on you.
Speaker 8: Yes, sir, Billy.
Speaker 9: Did you buy this warranty through the dealer where you
Speaker 9: bought the truck or just a completely unrelated transaction?
Speaker 6: No, it was a third party dealer. Yeah, so I
Speaker 6: purchased the truck, called the company signed up for it.
Speaker 4: Again, how much did you the warranty, Billy?
Speaker 6: So? I believe it was like one hundred and fifty
Speaker 6: seven one hundred and fifty eight dollars a month?
Speaker 4: A month?
Speaker 9: Yes, and when did you What was the month and
Speaker 9: year you bought the warranty?
Speaker 2: January of twenty five.
Speaker 9: Hey, uh, I've read a bunch of these now. And
Speaker 9: some of these warranties have a certain period where you
Speaker 9: can cancel the warranty. If you look through your contract
Speaker 9: to see if there's a cancelation provision, uh that that
Speaker 9: that you can at least use to escape your your
Speaker 9: ongoing monthly obligation under this warrancy.
Speaker 6: Well, yeah there is, and I have taken steps to
Speaker 6: cancel them, but he doesn't want to as of this
Speaker 6: month because they had no intentions. So my complaint is
Speaker 6: that they continue to take my money right or a
Speaker 6: contract that they knew was void.
Speaker 4: Well, I think you've got a lot of issues going
Speaker 4: on here.
Speaker 7: Why was it void?
Speaker 4: Because this particular no, they're saying that he voided the
Speaker 4: contract by not calling back with the actual okay, the
Speaker 4: whole thing. But I would suggest that they waive that
Speaker 4: that you know, objection by continuing to take the payments
Speaker 4: on it. You know, I mean, as a hypertechnical excuse, Listen,
Speaker 4: here's the deal on all these warranties and and you
Speaker 4: know your things like oh, I can't even think of
Speaker 4: the word right now, but you're the thing that pays
Speaker 4: off your balance if you get in an accident. All
Speaker 4: the gap insured gap insurance all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 4: We deal with that all the time. Here's here's the
Speaker 4: reality of these contracts. They want you to never be
Speaker 4: able to follow a claim successfully. That's their goal. I
Speaker 4: mean they set out with that in mind. There's no
Speaker 4: part of their business model that is really built around
Speaker 4: paying claims that the payment of a claim is an anomaly.
Speaker 4: So if they can get you on a technicality, and
Speaker 4: for gap insurance, one of the ones that we run
Speaker 4: into all the time is like you didn't strictly follow
Speaker 4: the rules to put us on notice following the accident.
Speaker 4: You know, you've only got X number of days to
Speaker 4: call in and fax in with three copies of this,
Speaker 4: and you know, and sometimes are clients have cars that
Speaker 4: are in tow yards and the papers are wadded up
Speaker 4: in an envelope and they're in the glove box and
Speaker 4: they don't have access to it, or it gets totaled
Speaker 4: and it's sitting on you know, coparts or something up
Speaker 4: in Brighton and they can't get access to the paperwork,
Speaker 4: so they don't even know what the steps are to
Speaker 4: comply with it. And personally, I think those things are
Speaker 4: just almost criminal. I mean, the number of times we
Speaker 4: hear about people that successfully have something major paid for,
Speaker 4: like a warranty on a turbo that dumps your entire engine.
Speaker 4: I mean, is your whole engine needing to be replaced
Speaker 4: or rebuilt? Yes, sir, yeah, I mean, now you know,
Speaker 4: three hundred thousand mile forward is you know, nearing the
Speaker 4: end of life anyway and most people's eyes, but that's
Speaker 4: still going to be a huge repair for you. And
Speaker 4: so really the answer to your question, Billy is going
Speaker 4: to come down to taking a very hard look at
Speaker 4: that contract and what provisions they're relying upon, and if
Speaker 4: they don't have it spelled out in there, that you
Speaker 4: have an absolute duty to call them back and give
Speaker 4: them the actual knowledge or some kind of milage certification
Speaker 4: after a certain point. I mean, it's going to take
Speaker 4: some hard looking at that contract and also some hard
Speaker 4: legal research to really see if them continuing to take
Speaker 4: your money is going to be considered a waiver of
Speaker 4: that or if there's any way to enforce the contract.
Speaker 4: What do you think about it, Brad, Yeah, I do.
Speaker 5: Pardon me, I do see that warranty issue is putting
Speaker 5: a lot of conditions. For example, we have a car
Speaker 5: in our family that had a rap put on it,
Speaker 5: but as a condition of the warranty, for the continued
Speaker 5: durability of the rap, you had to go and have
Speaker 5: it inspected by them once a year. I mean, that's
Speaker 5: just a little unrealistic, and nobody's going to do that.
Speaker 5: So when it comes time to actually make a claim,
Speaker 5: you know, they're going to point to that kind of
Speaker 5: ridiculous condition.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, if you had just complied with the deal,
Speaker 4: we would have found the problem in this never would
Speaker 4: have happened, you know. So these kind of.
Speaker 5: Things may be disputable in a court as a matter
Speaker 5: of law. You know, perhaps the black and white language
Speaker 5: of the warranty agreement is not enforceable as written so
Speaker 5: strictly in favor of the warranty issuer. So but you
Speaker 5: don't know until you look at the case law on
Speaker 5: that topic and get in front of a judge sometimes right.
Speaker 9: Well, not only that, but I have even more bad
Speaker 9: news for Brad. I've read a fair number of these
Speaker 9: extended warranties for used cars now everything, and by the way,
Speaker 9: no one has ever gotten paid a dollar, which is
Speaker 9: why I read these contracts, and every single one of
Speaker 9: them has a mandatory arbitration provision, so he won't even
Speaker 9: be able to take them to court. And as you know,
Speaker 9: arbitration is going to be not only tremendously expensive compared
Speaker 9: to what it costs to sue somebody in court, but
Speaker 9: the arbitrator is hired by the defendant and they are
Speaker 9: betrayeder nose that if he wants, if he wants to
Speaker 9: continue to receive these cases, he or she better not
Speaker 9: rule too many times against the respondent.
Speaker 4: Yeah, hey, Billy, I'm gonna put you on hold and
Speaker 4: see if Kelly can get your information. I'd like you
Speaker 4: to try to get that contract to us so that
Speaker 4: we can take a look. And we're happy to look
Speaker 4: it over and see if there's any you know, anything
Speaker 4: there that that we think is newsworthy or something in
Speaker 4: an effort to try to help you out. Okay, we're
Speaker 4: going to thank you. We're going to go to a
Speaker 4: break right now, and we'll be right back.
Speaker 10: Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing
Speaker 10: dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content.
Speaker 10: Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation. In comparison,
Speaker 10: call Compass insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens
Speaker 10: of insurance companies. Find Out Now three O three seven
Speaker 10: seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer
Speaker 10: when you choose Frank durand the real estate man to
Speaker 10: list your home with Remax Alliance three all three nine
Speaker 10: two zero sixteen twenty two.
Speaker 4: Good morning, this is John Fuller with the Troubleshooter Network.
Speaker 4: We are back and moving along here. Hopefully we get
Speaker 4: that contract in here. You know, Dimitri brought up a
Speaker 4: really good point, and that's that most of these consumer
Speaker 4: contracts have you know, arbitration provisions, and those are just
Speaker 4: horrible from the consumer standpoint. But there's so little negotiability
Speaker 4: that you have in those. And the reason why they're
Speaker 4: bad and the reason why you should always be, you know,
Speaker 4: worried about arbitration provisions and contracts. It's not truly designed
Speaker 4: to be a less costly, more efficient way to get
Speaker 4: to dispute resolution. What it is is designed to be
Speaker 4: an impediment to you airing your grievance. Okay, if they
Speaker 4: make the cost of entry too expensive, if you have
Speaker 4: to hire an American arbitration association you know neutral or
Speaker 4: mediator or arbitrator or whatever the person is called, and
Speaker 4: that person is ten thousand dollars to hear your dispute
Speaker 4: over a one thousand dollars warranty. You're not gonna do it.
Speaker 4: And that's exactly the point of putting that provision in there.
Speaker 4: It's not at all to help you. It's to be
Speaker 4: an impediment to you having any avenue to go and
Speaker 4: air your grievance.
Speaker 7: Hey, John, not only that one. Is it one arbira
Speaker 7: or a panel of three?
Speaker 4: It work, It could go either way. Sometimes they'll just
Speaker 4: say to a single arbiter, it's all contract. So it's
Speaker 4: what's in the contract, okay. And so I've seen them
Speaker 4: where they say we'll do it to a single arbiter.
Speaker 4: I've seen it to where they say we'll do it
Speaker 4: to a panel of three, where we pick one, you
Speaker 4: pick one, and then those two will pick the third,
Speaker 4: which I mean then you're paying for three of them.
Speaker 4: It really gets expensive because these aren't judges. You know,
Speaker 4: you think about going down to court and following a
Speaker 4: small claims matter for fifty bucks or whatever whatever the
Speaker 4: cost is of doing that, and you get a jury
Speaker 4: for free in court, and you know it's this is
Speaker 4: pay court, this is you know this is court for money,
Speaker 4: and you have to pay to get in the door,
Speaker 4: and then you know, and then if you really just
Speaker 4: knock one out of the park many times, at the
Speaker 4: end of arbitration, you then seek to enforce that award
Speaker 4: and you've got to almost relitigate the whole dang thing
Speaker 4: in court all over again.
Speaker 7: And John, does the winner get to have his costs
Speaker 7: reimbursed by the losers?
Speaker 9: Sometimes every one of these contracts that I've read has
Speaker 9: the arbitration provision, and each of those provisions has a
Speaker 9: cost shifting provision, every single one. Right, So if our
Speaker 9: caller here loses, which he probably will based on inexperience, yeah,
Speaker 9: he's going to get stuck with god knows how many
Speaker 9: thousands of dollars of the insurance comp or the warranty
Speaker 9: company's costs.
Speaker 4: So just think about it. Maybe the cost of that
Speaker 4: new engine is what ten grand, fifteen grand? Maybe I
Speaker 4: don't know what the cost is. I didn't get enough detail.
Speaker 4: It maybe a diesel and it's more money, but I
Speaker 4: mean it's not cheap. Let's call it ten grand. If
Speaker 4: you go into that and just getting in the door
Speaker 4: and representing yourself and all that stuff, you've probably got
Speaker 4: another ten or fifteen thousand dollars of paying the arbitrators
Speaker 4: to get up to be able to even air your grievance.
Speaker 4: If you know that at the end of the day,
Speaker 4: if you lose, you've got to pay. You've already paid
Speaker 4: your ten to fifteen for the arbitration process. You're already
Speaker 4: out ten to fifteen on your truck that's sitting in
Speaker 4: the backyard dead because you can't afford to fix it.
Speaker 4: And now you've got an award of the other guy's cost.
Speaker 4: You know, you're out forty forty five thousand dollars on
Speaker 4: this warranty all because you didn't call them with the
Speaker 4: accurate knowledge within five hundred miles of You know, that
Speaker 4: is absolutely ridiculous on a truck that had one hundred
Speaker 4: and ninety six thousand miles on it. I mean, I
Speaker 4: can't even believe that, you know, really and truly, is
Speaker 4: anybody truly trying to warrant a truck with two hundred
Speaker 4: thousand miles on it? They sold that without ever having
Speaker 4: any intention of paying a claim ever, and you know
Speaker 4: they'll never call.
Speaker 7: You can't prove that, right, You can't prove that.
Speaker 4: But you know that the character shows that, you know,
Speaker 4: let's see all these claims that you've paid, and they're like, well,
Speaker 4: we paid for a battery for Joe, and it's like, well, yes,
Speaker 4: but when the three thousand dollars turbo took a crap
Speaker 4: and it shelled his entire motor. You can't line up
Speaker 4: a whole list of witnesses here that say, yeah, I've
Speaker 4: got a brand new engine out in the parking lot
Speaker 4: right now that Endurance or whoever paid for. I mean,
Speaker 4: you know, maybe once in a blue moon, somebody's their
Speaker 4: feet just perfectly held to the fire, and they can
Speaker 4: force them to do that, but the reality is that
Speaker 4: their business model is set up with no intention of
Speaker 4: paying those claims. So we've got a couple of callers
Speaker 4: lined up. We're going to take another quick break and
Speaker 4: then we'll be right back. Meryl, you're up next. We'll
Speaker 4: be right back on the Troubleshooter Network.
Speaker 10: Go with a sure thing Denver's Best Roofer Excel Roofing
Speaker 10: dot com.
Speaker 11: You don't pay a cent until you're content.
Speaker 10: Time for an insurance checkup, free no obligation comparison call
Speaker 10: Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of
Speaker 10: insurance companies find out now three O three seven to
Speaker 10: seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer
Speaker 10: when you choose Frank durand the real estate man dot
Speaker 10: Com to list your home with Remax Alliance three three
Speaker 10: nine two zero sixteen twenty two.
Speaker 4: All right, welcome back, John Fuller here on the Troubleshooter Network.
Speaker 4: We are moving right along here. The way to get
Speaker 4: a hold of us in the studio here is to
Speaker 4: give us a call at three oho three seven one
Speaker 4: three eighty two five five. We encourage you to do that.
Speaker 4: This is a show where we're here to help you.
Speaker 4: So if you've been scammed, you've been the victim of
Speaker 4: any of these crazy things that are going on out
Speaker 4: there in the world, or you've got a contractor or
Speaker 4: an employment issue, anything like that that we can help
Speaker 4: you with, give us a call. We're here to help
Speaker 4: you today. In the studio, we have a full house.
Speaker 4: We have myself and Brad O'Brien, both attorneys here in
Speaker 4: the community here to help out. And we also have
Speaker 4: a full assortment of deputies including Deputy Bo, Deputy Doc
Speaker 4: and Deputy Dimitri. So we have a full house. And
Speaker 4: when you combine the experience of all you know, five
Speaker 4: of the people in here. You're talking a lot of
Speaker 4: years of experience in a lot of different areas that
Speaker 4: we can bring to the table in helping you work
Speaker 4: through these issues.
Speaker 7: Can say something John, yea, not only.
Speaker 4: I have more years of experience than others, what would.
Speaker 7: Really help you?
Speaker 12: Know?
Speaker 7: We encourage people to call before the problem arises. If
Speaker 7: you're going into a contract, if you're going to hire somebody,
Speaker 7: if you have any lingering doubts about what's going to happen,
Speaker 7: call us before so that we can give you some
Speaker 7: advice on how to prevent the issue rather than solving
Speaker 7: it after the fact. And we do a big service
Speaker 7: by that.
Speaker 4: And with Doc in particular, you can talk about the
Speaker 4: pregnancy before you actually get pregnant. So that has the
Speaker 4: added benefit of being able to kind of, you know,
Speaker 4: foresee what the future might.
Speaker 7: Hold any sex questions. I'm happy to.
Speaker 4: Help our resident expert, Merrill. You've been holding with an
Speaker 4: issue on car insurance. What's going on, Meryl?
Speaker 13: Hi? So I have been I've been insured with Skycoper
Speaker 13: sixteen years.
Speaker 2: For my car and we canceled.
Speaker 13: The insurance on December twenty fourth of twenty.
Speaker 2: Twenty five, and I went with all State so that
Speaker 2: I could bundle my home and my car because Geico
Speaker 2: became cost prohibitive. It was underwritten by Travelers. And then
Speaker 2: I went on and was with USAA. So my issue,
Speaker 2: John is Gico has never canceled my policy.
Speaker 13: And they kept sending me a deck page insurance cards,
Speaker 13: and right before they were going to take.
Speaker 2: Out over seven hundred dollars on.
Speaker 13: April twenty six, I.
Speaker 2: Caught that and my agent at all State, we did
Speaker 2: a three way call with them.
Speaker 13: And they said, sorry, we can only back cancel thirty days.
Speaker 2: I'm not using the correct verbage, but we.
Speaker 13: Can only backdate the cancelation thirty days to the twenty
Speaker 13: fourth of March.
Speaker 4: Meryl, when you originally canceled that back in December. Did
Speaker 4: you do that in writing?
Speaker 13: We did it on the phone.
Speaker 2: But I had a confirmation number because.
Speaker 13: I just be court reporter. I'm kind of a note taker,
Speaker 13: and I said I need a confirmation number. So they
Speaker 13: said the confirmation number is your policy number and today's
Speaker 13: date twelve twenty four.
Speaker 2: But it never got canceled, and the right hand never
Speaker 2: knew what the left hand was doing.
Speaker 4: And is that confirmation number not give you some point
Speaker 4: of reference that you did the cancelation?
Speaker 13: We just have emails.
Speaker 4: I mean, that's what I'm saying. Are they claiming that
Speaker 4: you didn't cancel it? And you say, oh, but I
Speaker 4: have a cancelation confirmation and right, what's going on there?
Speaker 13: So I said, let me talk to your boss?
Speaker 2: Well may I talked to your boss's boss.
Speaker 13: And so Michael Bays is my agent.
Speaker 2: With b YS with All State, And as.
Speaker 13: Of yesterday, I finally said, Okay, I guess I'm going
Speaker 13: to walk away unless I you know, or go to
Speaker 13: the insurance Commission. I loved GLICO, but I just can't
Speaker 13: seem to extricate myself from them. And there's there's something
Speaker 13: wrong with this.
Speaker 7: GARYL.
Speaker 6: Meryl.
Speaker 9: Here's something I don't understand about what you told us.
Speaker 9: Do they deny that you canceled in December?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 9: And did you give them the cancelation confirmation number?
Speaker 13: Yes?
Speaker 6: I did?
Speaker 9: And what was their response to that cancelation confirmation numbers?
Speaker 13: Responses You're going to have to talk to one of
Speaker 13: our higher ups in management because we can only go
Speaker 13: back thirty days from today, which.
Speaker 2: The day that we were talking to them.
Speaker 4: Was the twenty fourth, So are they billing you seven
Speaker 4: hundred a month or how what is the payment frequency?
Speaker 13: They said, we will give you back seven dollars and
Speaker 13: fifty cents.
Speaker 9: Wait, what about that payment? That was the seven hundred
Speaker 9: dollars payment you just mentioned. What was that all about?
Speaker 9: Did they already would draw that payment from your accountant?
Speaker 13: That was them saying a second, I'm looking at my
Speaker 13: I'm looking at my phone. The email that came in
Speaker 13: yesterday from my agent.
Speaker 9: Well, wait a minute, your agent works for an entirely
Speaker 9: different company.
Speaker 13: Your agent truly has for All State, and we've had
Speaker 13: three way calls with them, with his assistant, and when
Speaker 13: we spoke to Geico, they always say, okay, we understand,
Speaker 13: but we can only go back thirty days. And we're
Speaker 13: saying she canceled.
Speaker 6: It on Christmas Eve, right, So.
Speaker 13: It's a confusing story.
Speaker 4: Back. So here's here's a couple of here's a couple
Speaker 4: of points. Okay. Number one, I always hate when people
Speaker 4: say I call my agent and my agent said this,
Speaker 4: and my agent said that, especially when it comes to
Speaker 4: problems and claims and stuff like that. Agents, You know,
Speaker 4: agents are just that, they're just an agent. They are
Speaker 4: a better word really usually a salesperson, and and that's
Speaker 4: their job is to sell you new products and and
Speaker 4: to keep to keep selling you new products, and to
Speaker 4: make you happy with what you bought. But when it
Speaker 4: comes to the use of that policy things that are
Speaker 4: actually important, like claims, they're really not involved in the process.
Speaker 4: Even when they tell you all we were there with you,
Speaker 4: we're going to help you there, they're no more help
Speaker 4: than your neighbor really calling in. I mean, they may
Speaker 4: be a little better than your neighbor, depending on who
Speaker 4: your neighbor is, But but they don't have any control
Speaker 4: over the process. They don't have any influence over the
Speaker 4: adjuster's decisions. They certainly don't have any impact on how
Speaker 4: third party claims and stuff are handled. Like certainly an
Speaker 4: agent would never be able to call up and say,
Speaker 4: don't pay a claim, or you know, you can't deny
Speaker 4: this claim, you need to approve it and all of
Speaker 4: a sudden get an insurance company to change course and
Speaker 4: go in a different direction. That's just not something an
Speaker 4: agent has the power to do. So with that being said,
Speaker 4: I appreciate that your agent is trying to help, but
Speaker 4: I don't know that they're going to help you really
Speaker 4: be able to resolve this, or at least they're not
Speaker 4: going to have any credibility in this conversation. With respect
Speaker 4: to Geico, You've got two things going on. You do
Speaker 4: have a confirmation number, and you do have a series
Speaker 4: of emails, and that becomes important. And you said the
Speaker 4: key words. I think that hold the solution, and that's
Speaker 4: going to be the insurance Commission because whether Geico can
Speaker 4: go back thirty days or not, if we've got an
Speaker 4: issue of them overcharging you and claiming some proceed hurdle
Speaker 4: that prohibits them from giving you back money, that is
Speaker 4: something that the consumer, you know, the Insurance Commissioner of
Speaker 4: Colorado is uniquely you know, sensitive to and I think
Speaker 4: in particular, if you've got the documentation and the ability
Speaker 4: to go back and say I documented, I have confirmation,
Speaker 4: this is what happened and on this date and everything else,
Speaker 4: it doesn't matter who your new agent is, you're going
Speaker 4: to find that the insurance commission is very open to
Speaker 4: that complaint and very open to trying to help you out.
Speaker 4: So that would be my suggestion.
Speaker 14: I do have a.
Speaker 13: Paper trail, you know, I value thought it was important.
Speaker 13: But is that the Colorado What is the name of
Speaker 13: the commission?
Speaker 4: What's the insurance Commission? I think you can find them
Speaker 4: under the.
Speaker 7: If you just go it's the Colorado of dot gov.
Speaker 15: Ye.
Speaker 7: There should be a list of places to go to.
Speaker 4: Right. The DORA, I think is the overall umbrella agency,
Speaker 4: the Department of Regulatory Agencies, But they fall under DORA
Speaker 4: and they're their own independent commission and they have a
Speaker 4: consumer hotline number that that you can bring this issue to.
Speaker 4: And whenever we've had issues like that in the past
Speaker 4: where we've actually had to, you know, hold a client's
Speaker 4: hand and go speak to the Insurance Commission, they have
Speaker 4: been very open to helping and very influential. Their calls
Speaker 4: seem to get returned from the insurance companies, sometimes better
Speaker 4: than even my calls, if you can imagine that.
Speaker 15: But that would be amazing.
Speaker 4: It is to me as well. But Meryl, that would
Speaker 4: be my suggestion, Brad, anything else that you can think
Speaker 4: of on your end.
Speaker 5: No, I mean my own experience, can you okay my
Speaker 5: own experience. I wouldn't expect calling to retroactively cancel insurance
Speaker 5: to have any any retroactive effect at all. Usually in
Speaker 5: my experience, they just cancel it as of that day, right,
Speaker 5: So going back a month seems to be you know,
Speaker 5: I'd be a good thing if you can even go
Speaker 5: back that far.
Speaker 4: Yeah, But her issue is she canceled it at on
Speaker 4: Christmas and just noticed the other day that they were
Speaker 4: fixing a take of payment. And they're saying, well, we
Speaker 4: never got the cancelation.
Speaker 13: And so I showed a since then before they were
Speaker 13: going to take out a draft. They've sent me another
Speaker 13: deck page. They've sent me cards a recent email, which
Speaker 13: I'm not going to do from All States and just
Speaker 13: send them a copy of your deck page from all State. Obviously,
Speaker 13: I can't deal.
Speaker 2: With Geico because it's impossible, so I will go to
Speaker 2: the insurance Commission.
Speaker 4: I think when you do that, I think the deck
Speaker 4: page from all State is helpful in the sense that
Speaker 4: it shows that you went out purchased insurance, you know,
Speaker 4: for that insurable interest with a different company. I mean,
Speaker 4: why would anybody.
Speaker 13: And I was able to extricate myself from USAA because
Speaker 13: I switched from USAA and Guyico to All States. No
Speaker 13: problem with USAA whatsoever. Cannot extricate myself from guy Code.
Speaker 2: They don't want to let me go, Carolyn.
Speaker 4: I think you've got enough of a paper trail that
Speaker 4: you're going to be This is going to be a
Speaker 4: pretty easy issue for you. You to get squared away.
Speaker 4: So thank you very much for the call. We'll be
Speaker 4: right back. This is the Troubleshooter Network. Thank you.
Speaker 10: Go with a sure thing Denver's best roofer Excel Roofing
Speaker 10: dot com.
Speaker 11: You don't pay a cent until you're content.
Speaker 10: Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation in comparison,
Speaker 10: call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens
Speaker 10: of insurance companies find out now three O three seven
Speaker 10: to seven to one help. You'll think you're his only
Speaker 10: customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man
Speaker 10: dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three
Speaker 10: oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.
Speaker 2: You don't have.
Speaker 1: Running just as fast as we can shoot. It's gonna help.
Speaker 1: Come man.
Speaker 3: This is the Troubleshooter Show. Now Tom Martine.
Speaker 4: Hey, good afternoon. John Fuller here filling in for Tom
Speaker 4: Martino and the Troubleshooter Network. We are rocking and rolling here.
Speaker 4: So here's the Troubleshooter Network. We are We're here for you.
Speaker 4: We're here to solve problems, take complaints, answer questions. We
Speaker 4: can only do that when you pick up the phone
Speaker 4: and give us a call at three O three seven
Speaker 4: one three eight two five five. We have in the
Speaker 4: house today three of our illustrious deputies. We have Deputy Bow,
Speaker 4: Deputy Doc and Deputy Dimitri Uh. They are here ready
Speaker 4: for deployment UH to help with your problems. So give
Speaker 4: us a call and we will get them dutifully assigned
Speaker 4: to your case so that we can we can fix
Speaker 4: your problems and help you out with your issues. And
Speaker 4: you know, we're also here to get advice and so
Speaker 4: if you have problems that are related to insurance, or
Speaker 4: accidents or real estate. Today we're lucky enough to have
Speaker 4: Brad O'Brien in the house. And Brad is a real
Speaker 4: estate attorney here in town and he is a veritable
Speaker 4: expert on all things with contracting, anything to do with
Speaker 4: real estate easement. You know, landlord tenant situations, contracts a
Speaker 4: whole nine yards. So you know, hey, he's here for you.
Speaker 4: Give us a call. We'd be happy to take your
Speaker 4: issue on and see what we can get accomplished. We
Speaker 4: have a couple of follow up issues that we wanted
Speaker 4: to get into today, both of which were discussed yesterday.
Speaker 4: One in particular we're going to start with is the
Speaker 4: young lady that called in with a cockroach situation, and
Speaker 4: Dimitri was the lucky recipient of that case, and we
Speaker 4: gave her some advice and Dimitri, I'll turn it over
Speaker 4: to you. What's the follow up?
Speaker 9: Well, John, you may recall that yesterday Lisa called Lisa.
Speaker 9: Her name is Lisa with a Y, and she said
Speaker 9: that she recently signed a lease to rent an apartment
Speaker 9: and for her and her little baby daughter, whom we
Speaker 9: heard in the background, and before moving in, she entered
Speaker 9: the apartment and she observed two cockroaches, one of which
Speaker 9: was dead. That was very alarming, as it would be
Speaker 9: for me. And she discussed the matter with some of
Speaker 9: the other tenets, and it turns out the apartment complex
Speaker 9: is allegedly overrun with cockroaches and the apartment complex praised
Speaker 9: for cockroaches every couple of weeks. But understandably, Lisa would
Speaker 9: like to get out of this lease without incurring any
Speaker 9: penalties for actually breaking the lease. And what was even
Speaker 9: more interesting is shortly after that call, we had a
Speaker 9: cockroach expert call in yes, and he said something I
Speaker 9: didn't expect, which is, in addition to these being revolting,
Speaker 9: filthy creatures, he said that both their droppings and their
Speaker 9: molted skin, when little baby children are exposed to these
Speaker 9: two products of cockroaches, they actually could develop asthma, which
Speaker 9: sounds like a very serious lifelong condition. So that just
Speaker 9: added even more weight to Lisa's desire to get the
Speaker 9: heck out of there without being penalized for it. So
Speaker 9: the way we left it is we did not mention
Speaker 9: the name of the apartment complex, and we left it
Speaker 9: as Lisa is going to contact them again while they're
Speaker 9: mulling over her request to cancel the Lise and say, hey, look,
Speaker 9: I need to call back to the Tom Martino Troubleshooter
Speaker 9: show tomorrow to give them an update on this matter,
Speaker 9: and they can do it with or without mentioning your
Speaker 9: apartment complex name. So Lisa emailed me early this morning
Speaker 9: and here's what she says. She said, Hey, after that,
Speaker 9: they did give me my money back every dime I paid.
Speaker 9: I just wanted to give you guys an update from
Speaker 9: yesterday and I didn't have to negotiate any further so anyway,
Speaker 9: so it sounds like the Looku Karasha problem turned out
Speaker 9: pretty well for Lisa. But man, this is the second
Speaker 9: cockroach called we've had in about three and a half weeks. John,
Speaker 9: they're out there.
Speaker 4: That's fantastic, Glad, I mean, that's just awesome that that
Speaker 4: just makes you know, it just makes sense because and
Speaker 4: I'm glad Brad's here because we wanted to talk about this,
Speaker 4: but I mean it almost just goes right down the
Speaker 4: list under the warranty of habitability. I mean, what, really,
Speaker 4: what rights does a tenant have when they you know,
Speaker 4: clearly you don't know that you're going to have a
Speaker 4: cockroach infestation as you're signing the leaves and as you're
Speaker 4: paying over your money and they talk to the keys
Speaker 4: and you go walk in for the first time and
Speaker 4: oh my god, we have this problem. And that's the
Speaker 4: first time you're put on notice of a vermin problem.
Speaker 4: I mean, yes, the warranty of habitability, you know, talks
Speaker 4: about reasonable efforts to mitigate things like that, but maybe
Speaker 4: you can just talk to that a little bit. What
Speaker 4: are the landlord's responsibilities and what rights do tenants have
Speaker 4: under that circumstance.
Speaker 5: Well, cockroaches and other vermin passed or insects do fall
Speaker 5: under the warrantyef habitability, And the warranty of habitability doesn't
Speaker 5: say that these cannot exist, right. What it says is
Speaker 5: that the landlord has to take reasonable, appropriate extermination measures
Speaker 5: in response to a complaint of these things. So the
Speaker 5: landlord under the statute has seventy two hours to commence
Speaker 5: remedial measures in response to a notice of cockroaches, and
Speaker 5: so that would be starting to spray and exterminate and
Speaker 5: to continued with reasonable extermination measures until it's resolved.
Speaker 4: So in the law, one of the things we always
Speaker 4: deal with is this debate about what's reasonable. So this
Speaker 4: young lady said that they were spraying like every two weeks,
Speaker 4: and yet the entire building was just infested with these things.
Speaker 4: They're in the televisions and the refrigerators, in the cabinets,
Speaker 4: thousands and thousands of these stupid roads. Just like, at
Speaker 4: what point does you know, at what point do the
Speaker 4: tenants get to say your efforts aren't reasonable.
Speaker 5: Yeah, the statute does not provide a hard deadline for
Speaker 5: when the problem has to be fixed. The warranty habitability problem.
Speaker 5: It's a question of fact to be determined by ultimately
Speaker 5: a judge. But if you can convince a judge that
Speaker 5: all these reasonable measures have been taken, or the measures
Speaker 5: haven't been reasonable, then at some point a judge will
Speaker 5: grant a termination of the lease. And so you can
Speaker 5: use that statute, that warranty of habitability statute, to get
Speaker 5: an early termination of your lease.
Speaker 4: So if you were advising a landlord that owned a
Speaker 4: property and this was kind of going on, I mean,
Speaker 4: is there some risk that if one tenant successfully goes
Speaker 4: to court and receives an order in validating your lease,
Speaker 4: that you could have a mass exodus from all of
Speaker 4: your tenants. That would make you advise that landlord that
Speaker 4: he needs to let this person out before it goes
Speaker 4: that far. That's common sense that a.
Speaker 5: Landlord ought to get the problem fixed because they're in
Speaker 5: practically speaking a lot of trouble financially from lost rent
Speaker 5: and from having to be in court by not resolving
Speaker 5: the underlying cockrutch problem.
Speaker 4: So then you know, so your advice would be, this
Speaker 4: is the kind of situation that needs to get made
Speaker 4: to go away. I mean that that's good advice, but
Speaker 4: at the same time, it doesn't really rectify the situation.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think the point that we took from
Speaker 4: this expert that called yesterday is that there are really
Speaker 4: really effective means that we know about today that can
Speaker 4: eliminate this problem. What in two weeks did he say?
Speaker 9: I think he said several months, they spray a couple
Speaker 9: of things.
Speaker 4: One well it was it was bait stationed. It wasn't spray,
Speaker 4: it was bait stations that he said in a couple
Speaker 4: of weeks could have an enormous effect, and within a
Speaker 4: couple months would have because the problem knocked out John.
Speaker 9: He said that you would observe the cockroaches began to
Speaker 9: die out and mass with, you know, after a couple
Speaker 9: of weeks, and it will be several months until they're
Speaker 9: gone because there's another chemical he applies which sterilizes. It's
Speaker 9: like birth control for cockroaches, right.
Speaker 4: Right, So I guess the question is and we'll pick
Speaker 4: it up on the other side of the break, But
Speaker 4: the question is, like, as from your perspective as a
Speaker 4: guy that's advising these landlords, like when they're contemplating, you know,
Speaker 4: good solution that's going to cost a lot more money
Speaker 4: and solution that may just barely qualify as something reasonable
Speaker 4: under the statute. How do you sometimes, you know, thread
Speaker 4: that needle with your clients to help inspire landlords to
Speaker 4: make a good decision. So we'll address that right when
Speaker 4: we get back on the other side of the break.
Speaker 4: So hang on, we'll be right back.
Speaker 10: Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing
Speaker 10: dot com.
Speaker 11: You don't pay us, seton until you're content.
Speaker 10: Time for an insurance check up free no obligation comparison
Speaker 10: call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens
Speaker 10: of insurance companies find out now three all three seven
Speaker 10: to seven to one.
Speaker 4: Help.
Speaker 10: You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank
Speaker 10: durand the real estate Man dot com to list your
Speaker 10: home with Remax Alliance three three nine two zero sixteen
Speaker 10: twenty two.
Speaker 4: All right, all right, all right, John Fuller coming back
Speaker 4: on the Troubleshooter Network. It is we're moving rapidly forward. Here.
Speaker 4: We have in the house today Brad O'Brien. Brad's a
Speaker 4: real estate attorney, and we left the last segment talking
Speaker 4: about a landlord tenant situation where a caller called in
Speaker 4: and we had a cockroach infestation and we were happy
Speaker 4: to report that we were able to help the young
Speaker 4: lady get out of her lease. And that kind of
Speaker 4: rolled over into a conversation about, you know, in Brad's
Speaker 4: role as an advisor to landlords, you know, we had
Speaker 4: an expert that called in and said, look, there is
Speaker 4: a way to get rid of this problem once and
Speaker 4: for all, and and and it's more expensive than repeatedly spraying.
Speaker 4: That spraying is just the cheapest way out. And so
Speaker 4: my question was, you know, where do you draw the
Speaker 4: line and how do you advise a landlord between paying
Speaker 4: a little more and actually solving the problem and paying
Speaker 4: less but being able to maybe minimally establish that they
Speaker 4: made reasonable efforts on a on a situation like that.
Speaker 5: Well, for good business practice, I think a landlord really
Speaker 5: wants to get their property in habitable condition, free of
Speaker 5: cockroaches another vermin, and paying a little bit more in
Speaker 5: extermination is probably the way to go, because if they
Speaker 5: land in court on a warranty of habitability claim in
Speaker 5: defending that the cost of being in court is so
Speaker 5: much more than what we're talking key about as far
Speaker 5: as a better and more effective extermination. So I you know,
Speaker 5: I try to keep my clients out of court, and
Speaker 5: so I think this has a practical resolution more than
Speaker 5: a legal resolution, which is just fix the underlying problem
Speaker 5: so that the place is habitable and you have a
Speaker 5: good reputation.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that's always good advice, but it's not always.
Speaker 4: You know, let's say, the ones that we hear about
Speaker 4: are the ones where people are not behaving properly and
Speaker 4: problems are not being taken care of. We don't ever
Speaker 4: get calls. It's like, I just want to tell you
Speaker 4: that my landlord is the best guy in the world,
Speaker 4: and I have the best situation and the best apartment.
Speaker 4: I mean, those are not the ones that we hear about.
Speaker 4: So but anyway, we do appreciate Lissa's you know, landlord
Speaker 4: addressing the issuation or the situation and letting her out
Speaker 4: of it. And you know, as always, we appreciate that call.
Speaker 4: You were going to follow up.
Speaker 5: Yeah, the are required to provide alternative housing for up
Speaker 5: to sixty days until the habitability condition is rectified, and
Speaker 5: that would get expensive.
Speaker 4: That's a hotel. It has to be within a certain distance. Now,
Speaker 4: what can invoke that.
Speaker 5: If the place is uninhabitable, then landlord is required under
Speaker 5: this statute to provide alternative housing. That's roughly and it's
Speaker 5: got to have a kitchen too.
Speaker 4: But does that have to get decided by a court
Speaker 4: or I mean who decides if it's uninhabitable.
Speaker 5: If the landlord doesn't offer it, then they can get
Speaker 5: taken to court, and if they lose on that, they'll
Speaker 5: have to pay attorney fees.
Speaker 4: But I mean practically, if I go into my landlord's
Speaker 4: office and say, hey, I think i've got item number
Speaker 4: three here, whatever it may be that makes it uninhabitable,
Speaker 4: the warranty of habitability says, you know that that's not acceptable.
Speaker 4: I want you to put me up in a hotel.
Speaker 4: I mean, at some point there's got to be a
Speaker 4: reasonableness standard applied to that too. A tenant just can't
Speaker 4: walk in and say I want a hotel, right right.
Speaker 5: It's if a condition makes it uninhabitable for health and safety.
Speaker 5: For example, if they're going to exterminate and it is
Speaker 5: something where people should not be around, and maybe that's
Speaker 5: a twenty four hour where you no habitation, Okay, that's
Speaker 5: what's one night hotel for example.
Speaker 4: Now if it's if it's something like.
Speaker 5: Mold where you've got to be ripping out walls and
Speaker 5: taking out the flooring, okay, and that's a three week project.
Speaker 4: Okay, that's three weeks at hotel. I guess my issue
Speaker 4: is like, who decides that it's it actually is a
Speaker 4: habitability issue.
Speaker 5: Well, if the parties don't figure it out themselves, then
Speaker 5: then it goes to court and that's where.
Speaker 4: The court will decide.
Speaker 5: And somebody's going to win big and somebody's going to
Speaker 5: lose big, and so it's not doesn't make sense to
Speaker 5: let the court decide it.
Speaker 4: How long would it take somebody to get into a
Speaker 4: court if they had I mean, let's say you go
Speaker 4: in and say, look, the heat's not working, right, I
Speaker 4: mean that that would be an obvious breach of the
Speaker 4: warranty of habitability. It's it's right there on the deal
Speaker 4: and the landlord says, yeah, I think it is working. Okay,
Speaker 4: so we have a dispute. If that tenant wanted to
Speaker 4: take that landlord to court over that issue, how long
Speaker 4: would it take and what would that process look like?
Speaker 4: It's not quick.
Speaker 5: It's not like there's an expedited procedure just for this
Speaker 5: type of a case, so it could be three to
Speaker 5: six weeks to get that resolved in court.
Speaker 4: Right, So in the meantime, you know, you could be
Speaker 4: sitting there without heat for right.
Speaker 5: But if it's when I get calls about mold or
Speaker 5: something that's a health and safety concern, you know, my
Speaker 5: first response is, you know, this is more than the
Speaker 5: legal issue. Is the health and safety issue. And if
Speaker 5: they have a you know, children or babies, you know,
Speaker 5: maybe they shouldn't be in there. It's what I'll tell them,
Speaker 5: Maybe you need to get out of there for your
Speaker 5: health and try to recover the money on the back
Speaker 5: end for when you when you had to be in
Speaker 5: a hotel.
Speaker 4: Gotcha?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 7: Do you tell them to put the rented s crow
Speaker 7: so that they when they go to court, they can say, look,
Speaker 7: I had the money, I wasn't trying to it. That'd
Speaker 7: be a good idea.
Speaker 5: Habitability complaints are totally separate from the rent obligation. Tenants
Speaker 5: have to continue paying rent during the duration of the
Speaker 5: habitability remediation. The only exception is if you gave a
Speaker 5: landlord plenty of written notice and that the steps are
Speaker 5: in the statute and they didn't respond at all, then
Speaker 5: you can go out and get an estimate to do
Speaker 5: the corrective work, whatever that is, from a professional, and
Speaker 5: give that and then give that estimate to the landlord,
Speaker 5: and if they still don't do the work, then you
Speaker 5: can then self help applies. You can the tenant can
Speaker 5: withhold the same amount of amount that the that the
Speaker 5: repair is going to cost from that estimate, and then
Speaker 5: the tenant can do the work and withhold that amount.
Speaker 4: That's a very limited ability to hold back rent. Brad,
Speaker 4: We've got a caller with a landlord tenant question for you,
Speaker 4: So we're going to go to EVA. Now, Eva, what's
Speaker 4: going on with you?
Speaker 16: Oh?
Speaker 13: You guys are real estate attorneys? Could you give an
Speaker 13: update over the radio about what the rule new rules are?
Speaker 13: I have to resign a lease and are there new
Speaker 13: leases available? And I never took a damage deposit their
Speaker 13: security deposit from any of them, and I am below market.
Speaker 13: The main thing is can I raise what amount? Can
Speaker 13: I raise the rent? I am under market on the properties?
Speaker 13: Does it go by market value and then a percentage
Speaker 13: or is it a percentage of what I'm charging under market?
Speaker 5: Well, I would say that is a very loaded question.
Speaker 5: It could take hours to respond to all that. What
Speaker 5: I would say is that the land obviously.
Speaker 4: You're a landlord.
Speaker 5: The landlords laws have changed drastically in the last five years.
Speaker 5: There's a lot of updates. I would I would I
Speaker 5: think it's practical for a landlord once a year uh
Speaker 5: to have an attorney review their their lease form and
Speaker 5: make sure it's up to date with the law. I
Speaker 5: will say there is no such thing in Colorado as
Speaker 5: a standard lease form. So that's one of your questions.
Speaker 5: As far as raising the rent, you know, you can
Speaker 5: raise it to whatever the market is. The only limitations
Speaker 5: are that a lendlor cannot raise the rent more than
Speaker 5: once in any rolling twelve month period. But it's not
Speaker 5: like you know in New York City where they're where
Speaker 5: they're I don't know if there still are but rent caps.
Speaker 5: We don't have rent caps in rent well, unless it's
Speaker 5: a rent, unless it's a income restricted property. But that's
Speaker 5: that's a totally separate thing.
Speaker 4: I'm talking.
Speaker 5: We're just talking at market rentals here. There's no no
Speaker 5: rental caps. Now, you cannot rent. You cannot raise the
Speaker 5: rent on somebody in retaliation for like a habitability complaint
Speaker 5: that they made. You know, if somebody's at two thousand
Speaker 5: a month, and then they complained about cock croaches. You
Speaker 5: can't jack up to four thousand. That's re retaliation. That
Speaker 5: will get you in trouble and you'll lose and have
Speaker 5: to be attorney fews on.
Speaker 4: That got it, all, right, Eva? Anything else from.
Speaker 13: You, not that I could think of, But so, yeah,
Speaker 13: I thought there might be a standard new lease with
Speaker 13: the new rules, but he's saying there's not.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Unfortunately there's not a set standard form out there.
Speaker 4: So hey, Eva, we appreciate the call. Good luck. If
Speaker 4: you need to get a hold of Brad O'Brien and
Speaker 4: ask more direct questions, you can do so at olslaw
Speaker 4: dot com or seven two oh three seven oh seven
Speaker 4: three eight eight. We are going to go to a
Speaker 4: break right now. We'll be right back. Charles is up
Speaker 4: on the line and we'll we'll keep rocking along.
Speaker 10: Go with a sure thing Denver's best roofer Excel roofing
Speaker 10: dot com. You don't pay a cent until your content
Speaker 10: time for an insurance check up. No obligation in comparison,
Speaker 10: call compass insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens
Speaker 10: of insurance companies find out now three all three seven
Speaker 10: seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer
Speaker 10: when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot
Speaker 10: com to list your home with Remax Alliance three all
Speaker 10: three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.
Speaker 4: Hey, good afternoon, John Fuller here on the Troubleshooter Network.
Speaker 4: So we are rocking and rolling here with Brad O'Brien
Speaker 4: in the house, and we're talking about real estate law
Speaker 4: and its applicability to all sorts of circumstances like landlord,
Speaker 4: tenant and real estate contracts and stuff like that. So
Speaker 4: if you have an issue like that, now would be
Speaker 4: a really good time to get on the phone and
Speaker 4: give us a call and get some advice from a
Speaker 4: true expert in that field. The way to contact us
Speaker 4: is best on the phone at three O three seven
Speaker 4: one three eight two five five. And we're here for
Speaker 4: every other kind of problem that you have as well.
Speaker 4: So if you've been ripped off, cheated, taking advantage of
Speaker 4: by somebody, we are here to help, So give us
Speaker 4: a call. We've got a couple open lines right now.
Speaker 4: We're going to go to Charles on the line, who
Speaker 4: has an issue about renting rooms out in his home. Charles,
Speaker 4: how you doing today?
Speaker 14: Pretty good?
Speaker 4: Not too bad? Thank you. So what do you got
Speaker 4: going on? You're thinking about renting out part of your
Speaker 4: house or yeah?
Speaker 16: With all the property chactes going up in Middleton, yeah,
Speaker 16: I need little help, you know what I mean?
Speaker 4: So do you have just rooms in your house or
Speaker 4: do you got a part?
Speaker 16: I got a I love them Loandon. It's real, real
Speaker 16: large house, but it's there's a room, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 16: I'm gonna h on the other side of the house,
Speaker 16: like the bath in a room just rented out and
Speaker 16: find out if I had to getting a professional type
Speaker 16: of leaf contract.
Speaker 4: Okay, so this would be in your home while you're
Speaker 4: living there. Really just the kind of a roommate situation, right.
Speaker 16: Kind of right along, Really, get have of a friend
Speaker 16: here all the time. Out want somebody that works, you know,
Speaker 16: I don't want a companion that do you know works
Speaker 16: something ow you know?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I understand, Brad. What advice would you give Charles
Speaker 4: here about things to look out for and problems to avoid?
Speaker 5: Well, I've definitely helped people who are landlords by defaults.
Speaker 5: You know, they're not in the business, but they want
Speaker 5: to rent out a room in their house.
Speaker 4: Hey, Charles, can you do me a favor and turn
Speaker 4: that radio down in the background.
Speaker 16: There's no radio room.
Speaker 4: Do you have us on a speaker or something or
Speaker 4: okay better, yes, sir, much better, Thank you? Okay, go ahead.
Speaker 5: And when you're renting out rooms in the house that
Speaker 5: you live in, your lease is gonna go into some
Speaker 5: things that normally you wouldn't have in the lease, like
Speaker 5: specifically what rooms in the house are they allowed to
Speaker 5: use to live in, Where can they keep their things
Speaker 5: for storage? Practically speaking, how are you going to share
Speaker 5: the kitchen that sort of thing, you know, And and
Speaker 5: you're gonna.
Speaker 4: Have some rules too.
Speaker 5: Sometimes we that's where most landlers don't have to give rules.
Speaker 5: But if you're gonna have a co habitation situation, you're
Speaker 5: probably gonna want attached to your lease some some just
Speaker 5: basic rules like okay.
Speaker 4: We're smoking, is going to be outside, where you're.
Speaker 5: Gonna park your car, those kind of things that are
Speaker 5: not at the level of the lease itself, but just
Speaker 5: co living type of.
Speaker 16: There's plenty of room around here park your car. There's
Speaker 16: no problems there.
Speaker 9: How about like you know, prohibition or at least the
Speaker 9: limit on animals.
Speaker 4: Yes, most leases.
Speaker 16: I have a few and that's enough.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean right, you should have something in there
Speaker 5: about pats and how many. Now, the nice thing if
Speaker 5: you're a landlord and you're renting out your own home,
Speaker 5: then there are then you get some relief from some
Speaker 5: of the tenant protections that are out there. So for example,
Speaker 5: emotional support animals. You can actually, to my understanding, deny
Speaker 5: that if if you live there, you know, because maybe
Speaker 5: you have an allergy to pets. And so if you're
Speaker 5: a small landlord, I think it's under four units, then
Speaker 5: you don't have to you don't have to comply with that,
Speaker 5: you know, allowing your tenant to have an emotional support animal,
Speaker 5: bread animals.
Speaker 9: What about background checks? You know, especially in a situation
Speaker 9: where somebody is going to rent the room that's going
Speaker 9: to be a low price situation. There might be a
Speaker 9: reason that the person needs a low priced housing opportunity.
Speaker 9: And how does our call or protect themselves from moving
Speaker 9: in with a with a convicted violent felon, or a
Speaker 9: sex offender, or a drug dealer, or just some general
Speaker 9: scumbag who's going to be make the landlord's life miserable.
Speaker 5: Well, I do recommend that landlords screen their prospective tenants,
Speaker 5: and there are services out there.
Speaker 4: You just pay a certain.
Speaker 5: Amount of money, maybe it's forty dollars to have a
Speaker 5: background checked on them, and that should include a criminal check.
Speaker 4: Now the law has changed, you cannot.
Speaker 5: Use their credit score against them, and you probably shouldn't
Speaker 5: even check their credit because then then you'll have it
Speaker 5: and they might accuse you of having use it against them.
Speaker 16: And what.
Speaker 4: You As far as as far as income contract.
Speaker 16: Do you have a lead section in your office?
Speaker 5: All my leases that I prepare for landlords are customed
Speaker 5: to their situations. I don't have one, just a handout,
Speaker 5: And there's no such thing in Colorado's as a custom
Speaker 5: lease form. I was gonna say, when you're looking at
Speaker 5: their income, the law changed very recently, so you can
Speaker 5: only verify they have double the amount of the monthly
Speaker 5: rent as income. You can't say you got to have
Speaker 5: five times in the month monthly rent is income.
Speaker 4: No, you can only look at and verify that they
Speaker 4: have double.
Speaker 16: Yeah, I'm afraid to have attle squatter, you know what
Speaker 16: I mean?
Speaker 4: Yeah? For sure. Hey, Charles, how long has it been
Speaker 4: since how long has it been since you had somebody
Speaker 4: living in the house? With you.
Speaker 16: I bought the house back in three years ago.
Speaker 4: Okay, just me, just you, okay, yeah.
Speaker 16: Well you know it's a four bedroom house because some
Speaker 16: of these bedrooms are a little small. The one. There's
Speaker 16: two large ones, you know, the one I would rent out.
Speaker 4: Be careful, hey, Brad comes up with the lease. If
Speaker 4: he just starts with like a lease you find on
Speaker 4: the internet or something, and then comes to you, do
Speaker 4: you take those and kind of custom tailor them to
Speaker 4: his needs? Is that something he could reach out to
Speaker 4: you about.
Speaker 5: Yes, many times, I actually don't give a landlord a
Speaker 5: new lease. I take theirs that they're already using or
Speaker 5: that they recently found, and just make sure that it
Speaker 5: meets the standards.
Speaker 16: Like in the library. Can I get one? Perhaps somebody
Speaker 16: told me that.
Speaker 5: I mean, you can google and find standard lease forms
Speaker 5: out there, not standard, but least forms from various services
Speaker 5: out there, but they may or may not be tailored
Speaker 5: to Colorado because we have specific requirements here, so I.
Speaker 4: Can look at it. I think the point is, Charles,
Speaker 4: that you know, there's a lot of places you can
Speaker 4: find sample leases out there, Okay, and they'll give you
Speaker 4: a start. But we're telling you that most of those samples,
Speaker 4: you know, there's probably some aspect of it that is
Speaker 4: not good or really not in your favor, and that
Speaker 4: you know, somebody like Brad can look at and say, well,
Speaker 4: here's something to think about, Charles. Maybe we could add
Speaker 4: this or take this out and better protect you and stuff.
Speaker 4: And that small amount of money that you would have
Speaker 4: to pay to get that would give you the protection
Speaker 4: that would pay dividends down the road.
Speaker 16: And so do you have a phone number? I could
Speaker 16: call you out?
Speaker 4: You bet. His number is seven to two oh three
Speaker 4: seven zero three seven zero seven three eight eight eight, Yes, sir,
Speaker 4: you can also again his name is Brad O'Brien.
Speaker 16: And I was gonna say, uh, yeah, it's kind of
Speaker 16: hard to find a roommate old disease staff in the classified.
Speaker 16: That's all gone.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's that's kind of gone by the wayside. So
Speaker 4: all right, Charles, I'll.
Speaker 16: Have to check it out and call you man there
Speaker 16: get get a you know, generic lease.
Speaker 4: All right, Well, best of luck to you, Charles. We
Speaker 4: appreciate you calling in today to definitely give Brad a
Speaker 4: call and get a good lease for your purposes. All right,
Speaker 4: have a good day. We're gonna go to another break
Speaker 4: here and then coming back from the break, we're gonna
Speaker 4: we're gonna shift gears a little bit. We are going
Speaker 4: to revisit a an existing case with Dimitri here, and
Speaker 4: then we've got a couple of other things on the horizon. Uh,
Speaker 4: we're gonna go to break.
Speaker 10: Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing
Speaker 10: dot com.
Speaker 11: You don't pay a cent until you're content.
Speaker 10: Time for an insurance checkup free no obligation comparison call
Speaker 10: Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of
Speaker 10: insurance companies find out now three all three seven seven
Speaker 10: to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when
Speaker 10: you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com
Speaker 10: to list your home with Remax Alliance three all three
Speaker 10: nine two zero sixteen twenty two.
Speaker 4: Hey, good afternoon, John Fuller here on the Troubleshooter Network.
Speaker 4: We are sneaking up on the twelve o'clock hour. We're
Speaker 4: here talking today with Brad O'Brien, Brad to real estate
Speaker 4: attorney and and longtime supporter of the show, and we've
Speaker 4: talked about some different landlord tenant issues and stuff you know,
Speaker 4: just addressing the caller that was just on the line
Speaker 4: and stuff. I mean, you know, really and truly, the
Speaker 4: idea of an elderly person opening up their home to
Speaker 4: a roommate or tenant, no matter the property tax situation,
Speaker 4: that is really really risky for you to do. And
Speaker 4: you don't have to look too far to see all
Speaker 4: the horror stories that can come as a result of
Speaker 4: letting somebody in. There are literally people that study just
Speaker 4: how to take advantage of people in these situations and
Speaker 4: how to move in, and the horror stories are just terrible.
Speaker 4: And so you know, I really I appreciate the caller,
Speaker 4: you know, the desire to offset some of the increased
Speaker 4: property taxes, I get it, but man, that really needs
Speaker 4: to be just your last, you know, the last thing
Speaker 4: that you do to kind of offset that, because the
Speaker 4: risk is really really great that something bad can happen
Speaker 4: from that. So I'd encourage the caller to be very
Speaker 4: very careful, you know, maybe get somebody else to help
Speaker 4: you in the screening process. Definitely check every reference that
Speaker 4: you can possibly check on the person to just make
Speaker 4: sure that you're not taking undue risk and you don't
Speaker 4: end up with one of those bad situations, and even
Speaker 4: then it still can happen. So it's dangerous. Would you
Speaker 4: agree or yes?
Speaker 5: Whenever you're going to let somebody rent a room in
Speaker 5: your house that you live in, there's a security risk there.
Speaker 5: You know, they could get into your financial information, right,
Speaker 5: go go in parts of the house, and they're not
Speaker 5: supposed to. It's almost safer to move out, get it
Speaker 5: and then rent out the former home all but the
Speaker 5: whole home, right, just so they're not living with them.
Speaker 5: And I would say that it is so expensive to
Speaker 5: be a landlord now that if you're renting out a
Speaker 5: room for five hundred dollars a month, the yeah, and
Speaker 5: they don't pay the rent. Okay, the first time you
Speaker 5: go into court, you could have five thousand attorney fees
Speaker 5: if you hire an attorney to collect on them or
Speaker 5: to evict.
Speaker 4: So it's us a whole year's worth of potential rent
Speaker 4: gets sucked up in one incident of having to go
Speaker 4: to court and try to enforce that deal, and then
Speaker 4: there's no really coming back from that. I mean, it's
Speaker 4: not like the court just waves its magic wand and
Speaker 4: everybody goes home and it's just koumbai.
Speaker 6: Ay.
Speaker 4: After that that becomes a toxic environment and almost never
Speaker 4: is over at that point.
Speaker 5: So Penny Lisas say that if you win against the
Speaker 5: tenant in court, then well, actually, if it's usually a
Speaker 5: two way attorney attorney feed provision that whoever wins gets
Speaker 5: their attorney fees paid by the loser.
Speaker 10: Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing
Speaker 10: dot com.
Speaker 11: You don't pay a cent until you're content.
Speaker 10: Time for an insurance check up free no obligation comparison
Speaker 10: call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens
Speaker 10: of insurance companies find out now three O three seven
Speaker 10: to seven to one.
Speaker 6: Help.
Speaker 10: You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank
Speaker 10: durand the real estate Man dot com to list your
Speaker 10: home with Remax Aliance three all three nine two zero
Speaker 10: sixteen twenty two.
Speaker 1: Yeah, d new neat advice.
Speaker 13: Who you don't have?
Speaker 1: Come running just as fast as we can. Shooter's gonna help.
Speaker 3: Come man, It's the Troubleshooter Show Now, Tom Martino, Good afternoon.
Speaker 4: This is John Fuller filling in for Tom Martino and
Speaker 4: the Troubleshooter Network. We are here rocking and rolling this
Speaker 4: afternoon dealing with your problems, taking complaint, solving problems, answering questions.
Speaker 4: We are here for you. Our telephone number is three
Speaker 4: three seven one three eight two five five. Would encourage
Speaker 4: you to call with any issues you have. If you've
Speaker 4: been cheated, you've been taking advantage of UH. We handle
Speaker 4: just about everything that you could come up with today.
Speaker 4: In particular, we have an expert in how house with
Speaker 4: mister Brad O'Brien. Brad is a real estate attorney. He
Speaker 4: is with his own O'Brien Legal services. You can reach
Speaker 4: them at olslaw dot com. On the telephone, that number
Speaker 4: is seven two oh three seven oh seven three eight
Speaker 4: eight and we're here for you, so give us a call.
Speaker 4: We've got a couple of open lines and we'd be
Speaker 4: happy to go to your call right away. The reason
Speaker 4: I brought up that the bad guys were looking for
Speaker 4: me or I got this scam text and stuff, is
Speaker 4: because there are so many scams out there right now.
Speaker 4: There are so many scams. It's unbelievable that we have this,
Speaker 4: just this onslaught of people trying to cheat people every
Speaker 4: single day. And so I heard on the news this
Speaker 4: morning that in Colorado the scammers stole two hundred and
Speaker 4: forty three million dollars from Colorado residents alone last year.
Speaker 9: And that's that's just what we know of, because I
Speaker 9: think that many people are too embarrassed to admit that
Speaker 9: they got scammed, so they don't report, they don't tell anybody.
Speaker 4: They just live with that shame.
Speaker 6: Oh.
Speaker 4: I think you're absolutely right, John.
Speaker 7: If you look on YouTube occasionally, you can see somebody
Speaker 7: that send the picture of one of these scam rooms
Speaker 7: in India, and it's literally one hundred people sitting in
Speaker 7: the desk of the computer in their little booths that
Speaker 7: do nothing but try and scam Americans. I mean literally
Speaker 7: one hundred plus people doing nothing. But that's only one site.
Speaker 7: It's incredible how large it is. But let me say
Speaker 7: something since I do a lot of this stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 7: Number one, most companies will not send you an email
Speaker 7: if they want to get in touch with you. They
Speaker 7: first of any government agency does not use emails or calls.
Speaker 7: They will send you a letter in the mail.
Speaker 4: On letterhead, including an express too, including.
Speaker 7: Express told especially for you. But seriously, if you get
Speaker 7: a call from the I R, S, FBI, Medicare, social Security,
Speaker 7: it's a fake. They want to get in touch with you,
Speaker 7: they will mail you it in a letter that's that's secure.
Speaker 7: And the second thing is when you look at the
Speaker 7: I R L if you have, they call it on
Speaker 7: where the email is coming from. If it doesn't say
Speaker 7: company dot com or if there's anything that's different, if
Speaker 7: it's a company one two three dot com or company
Speaker 7: X dot com or company with W at the end,
Speaker 7: it's a fake.
Speaker 4: Yeah, But you can't even really rely on that dot
Speaker 4: because like this express toole one that I'm looking at,
Speaker 4: the website that's on this text is h T T
Speaker 4: P S slash slash expresstole dot com. I'm just being
Speaker 4: they spoof these real websites and put this little, you know,
Speaker 4: garbage on the end that takes you to a different place.
Speaker 4: But if you're not savvy and you look at it,
Speaker 4: you're like, well, I mean, if it said, you know,
Speaker 4: we're ascammer dot com, I maybe wouldn't go to it.
Speaker 4: But this one says express toole all right.
Speaker 7: I'm not saying that's so, I'm just saying if it
Speaker 7: has an extra leteral number, right, you know, it's a fake. Yeah,
Speaker 7: it doesn't think they're the ones that are normal.
Speaker 4: I think the rule is, like you said, nobody's going
Speaker 4: to text you for this stuff. You're just not going
Speaker 4: to get a text. But I get calls. I mean
Speaker 4: at my office we get calls daily. I'm sure Brad
Speaker 4: you get the same calls and stuff. But I mean
Speaker 4: they call up and it's like, yeah, i'd like to, uh,
Speaker 4: you know, there's new savings to be had for blah
Speaker 4: blah blah. You know, can I get your birthdate? It's like, hell, no, no,
Speaker 4: you can't get the birthdate. But clearly somebody's given up
Speaker 4: their private information or it sounds too enticing, they wouldn't
Speaker 4: do it. So maybe I'm smart enough not to do it.
Speaker 4: But somebody is a lot of people.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 4: The message to the callers out there or to the listeners,
Speaker 4: it's just listen. You've got to protect yourself. You have
Speaker 4: to just assume that anybody that contacts you is most
Speaker 4: likely a scammer. If it's your bank contacting you saying well,
Speaker 4: we've had fraud in house and we're doing an investigation
Speaker 4: and we're gonna need you to go buy a gift
Speaker 4: card or some crap like that and open up another account.
Speaker 4: I mean We've had callers where that exactly has happened.
Speaker 7: What you need what you need to do is if
Speaker 7: you think there's any legitimate thing, you hang you you
Speaker 7: go to their to their legitimate site, to the customer
Speaker 7: service section or says contact us, and you contact them
Speaker 7: and you say did you send this to me?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Call your bank say hey, well, I know what's the
Speaker 4: worst case you You know, you mess up the FBI's
Speaker 4: fraud investigation. Oh darn, you know that's tough.
Speaker 7: I get pull stuff all the time because my son
Speaker 7: uses my other car and it pays. The damn bill
Speaker 7: gets sent to me, and I know it's legitimate because
Speaker 7: they send it.
Speaker 4: No, they send it to me an he on your son.
Speaker 7: No, but they don't text me about it. If they
Speaker 7: send me a letter in the mail that I owe
Speaker 7: the toll, yeah.
Speaker 4: I think they'll do. You know. I get calls all
Speaker 4: the time about Medicare, and I am many many many
Speaker 4: moons away from medicare, many many moons away from Medicare,
Speaker 4: But I get calls all the time, and I think
Speaker 4: it's because in my practice, we deal with Medicare all
Speaker 4: the time, and so there's some way that they see
Speaker 4: that we're at least a representative of people, and we're
Speaker 4: I don't know where they get this information, but I
Speaker 4: mean it's it's not there's never a week that goes
Speaker 4: by that I don't get calls about my Medicare eligibility
Speaker 4: and and whatever.
Speaker 7: And now they look at you and look and you
Speaker 7: look like you're sixty five.
Speaker 4: Maybe that's they're like, if he's not all Medicare, he
Speaker 4: should be. You know, he looks like a guy who
Speaker 4: needs some medicare going on here. So so it's just crazy.
Speaker 4: You know, what do you guys think is the most
Speaker 4: common scam out there? I mean it's tech scams.
Speaker 7: There's no question that ninety percent of it are people
Speaker 7: getting things that there's a glitch in your computer. We
Speaker 7: found a bug. Well from we're from Microsoft Support or
Speaker 7: from Amazon support, that something that's wrong with your computer.
Speaker 7: There's a bug and if you help, if you let
Speaker 7: us into your computer, we'll get rid of the bug.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I would say to the listeners out there, call
Speaker 4: us if you've you know, if you've seen these things,
Speaker 4: I want to hear about the most creative scam that
Speaker 4: you've that you've either avoided or you've heard of somebody
Speaker 4: falling for at least you'll help somebody else recognize that
Speaker 4: you're not alone in getting these and that they are
Speaker 4: truly scams. The number one most financially impactful scam in
Speaker 4: Colorado is investment scams. Really believe that how does that work?
Speaker 4: It's everything from buying gold to bitcoin to you know,
Speaker 4: all of these different things, and people people get lured in.
Speaker 4: They get a phone call saying I've got a screaming
Speaker 4: deal on on gold today. You said you got you know,
Speaker 4: you get calls like that, you go sue them, but
Speaker 4: other people get get scammed on them. But the FBI
Speaker 4: received nearly eight hundred and sixty thousand complaints about investment
Speaker 4: fraud last year. You believe that that's.
Speaker 7: Why you guess that romance scam would be number two.
Speaker 4: Well, tell us about romance scams there, doc, I don't know.
Speaker 7: There are a lot of scams where people have they
Speaker 7: have no self awareness. Right, let me tell the audience.
Speaker 7: If you're fifty or sixty years old man or woman,
Speaker 7: there is no thirty year old model or all rigged
Speaker 7: or special or eight Navy seal that wants to date you.
Speaker 4: Now wait a second, Okay, hold on there. Just a minute,
Speaker 4: big guy, I'll send you a picture of my girlfriend.
Speaker 4: Don ask me mister Belichick about that. He can he
Speaker 4: can get you on the right path. So so tell
Speaker 4: me more about this doctor you have him knocking down
Speaker 4: your doors or you.
Speaker 7: Get a lot of that on the AARP line where
Speaker 7: you get people who get contacted by somebody on Facebook
Speaker 7: or on one of these sites, and they pretend to
Speaker 7: be interested in dating you or falling in love with you,
Speaker 7: and they always ask for money. They never will face
Speaker 7: some of you, they'll never talk to you. There's always
Speaker 7: an impediment to what they're getting together. And there's always
Speaker 7: somebody who is out of the country on or rig
Speaker 7: or in the military, and they will they will never
Speaker 7: ever reveal themselves because it's some twenty year old kid
Speaker 7: in Legos or in the Calcutta that's pretending to be
Speaker 7: the other person.
Speaker 4: Just crazy. Hang on a second, we'll be right back.
Speaker 10: Guys, go with a thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing
Speaker 10: dot com.
Speaker 11: You don't pay a cent until you're content, wait.
Speaker 10: Time for an insurance checkup, free no obligation comparison call
Speaker 10: Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of
Speaker 10: insurance companies.
Speaker 11: Find out now three all three seven seven one help.
Speaker 10: You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank
Speaker 10: durand the real estate Man dot com to list your
Speaker 10: home with Remax Alliance three all three nine two zero
Speaker 10: sixteen twenty two.
Speaker 4: Right should afternoon, John Fuller coming back at you on
Speaker 4: the Troubleshooter Network. We are here to help you solve problems,
Speaker 4: take complaints, answer questions, all of that kind of fun stuff.
Speaker 4: And it all starts with you picking up the phone
Speaker 4: and giving us a call at three three seven one
Speaker 4: three eight two five five. We are here for you.
Speaker 4: So in the studio TODA Day, we have Brad O'Brien.
Speaker 4: Brad as a real estate attorney. He is available when
Speaker 4: he's not in the studio at OLS Law that's o
Speaker 4: lslaw dot com or seven two oh three seven O
Speaker 4: seven three eight eight. Give Brad a call for all
Speaker 4: of your real estate needs. We've got Eva on the
Speaker 4: line that still has a question here. We're going to
Speaker 4: go back to Eva. Eva. Are you still there?
Speaker 2: I am R What is going on?
Speaker 4: Eva?
Speaker 13: Yeah?
Speaker 14: I forgot to ask before there is a renter that
Speaker 14: I have that I never had a lease with Uh huh,
Speaker 14: can you explain the how to handle that?
Speaker 4: Sure? Is that a relative or a non relative?
Speaker 13: Uh? No, not non relative?
Speaker 5: Okay, Well, you're not required to have a lease in
Speaker 5: writing with a tenant. It makes a whole lot of
Speaker 5: sense to have one. But if they if you don't
Speaker 5: have something in writing, then their tendency, whether it's month
Speaker 5: to month or year to year, is typically deemed to
Speaker 5: be how often they pay the rent. So if they
Speaker 5: pay the rent once every month, you might have a
Speaker 5: month to month tennancy. If they pay once a week,
Speaker 5: you might have a week to week tendancy. And those
Speaker 5: have different termination requirements.
Speaker 13: What about a month to month.
Speaker 5: Well, if you have an unwritten month to month lease
Speaker 5: and you want to terminate that, you can on twenty
Speaker 5: one days advance written notice. So if rent is due
Speaker 5: on the first of the month, then you have to
Speaker 5: terminate twenty one days prior to the end of a month,
Speaker 5: so by the tenth of the month, if it's thirty
Speaker 5: one day month. Now, unfortunately, well the laws changed last year.
Speaker 5: As soon as they've been there for one year, then
Speaker 5: you have to give them ninety days notice of terminating
Speaker 5: their tenancy, and you have to have a specific reason
Speaker 5: what's called a just cause, like you want to sell
Speaker 5: or you want to convert it to something else. But actually,
Speaker 5: do you live in the same house or no? Okay,
Speaker 5: if you lived in the same house and you're renting
Speaker 5: out a room, then that ninety day thing doesn't apply.
Speaker 14: But it's ninety days even if they never.
Speaker 13: Had a leave. Yes, and you have to have just costs.
Speaker 4: Okay, why do you want to evictim eva?
Speaker 17: Because they have They've been paying half the price or
Speaker 17: less of what I could get for that house and
Speaker 17: are non negotiable.
Speaker 4: They're non negotiable, right, meaning they just say no when
Speaker 4: you tell them you want to raise the rent.
Speaker 16: Correct So you can raise.
Speaker 5: The rent on them with the sixty days advanced notice,
Speaker 5: So sixty days before the first of some month where
Speaker 5: you want to raise the rent, give them that notice
Speaker 5: that the rent's going up by this amount and it
Speaker 5: will and if they don't pay it, then.
Speaker 4: You can start an eviction proceeding with a ten day
Speaker 4: notice how.
Speaker 13: Much notice if they don't pay the correct amount.
Speaker 5: If a tenant doesn't pay the rent, then by the deadline,
Speaker 5: if you're lead, well, if there's no lease, and it's
Speaker 5: doing the first is doing the first. But some leases
Speaker 5: say there's a five day grace period. If there was
Speaker 5: a grace period, you would wait until that grace period
Speaker 5: is over, and then you would give them.
Speaker 4: A ten day notice.
Speaker 5: After the end of the ten days, if they haven't
Speaker 5: paid the past due rent, then you can file a
Speaker 5: court action for eviction.
Speaker 4: So for either if they've been there more than a year.
Speaker 4: But it's an unwritten month to month lease and she
Speaker 4: wants to raise the rent, she's got to give them
Speaker 4: sixty days notice for that or ninety days notice with
Speaker 4: just cause to just terminate the lease. Is that right? Complicated?
Speaker 5: I actually have to confirm one of those deadlines. The
Speaker 5: most of that is correct.
Speaker 4: I need to look up something real quick. Is there
Speaker 4: another question? While I look at the story of my life?
Speaker 4: Mostly correct? Was there something else? So explain to me
Speaker 4: how that they're non negotiable on this idea of raising
Speaker 4: the rent. Did they just say no, no, thanks, We're
Speaker 4: not going to do that. Fly a kite? I mean,
Speaker 4: tell me how that you're you're the landlord right.
Speaker 9: Right?
Speaker 13: I'm too too kind, I guess, And you know I
Speaker 13: like to work with people. If they can't afford it.
Speaker 13: But with everything raising in you know, real estate taxes
Speaker 13: and everything going up, I can't afford to have them
Speaker 13: ranking that place. That's such a low amount.
Speaker 12: And they are ruining it as far as not taking
Speaker 12: care of the outside. And I believe they are also
Speaker 12: taking in tennis.
Speaker 4: Oh oh no, we can't have that. So is this
Speaker 4: a freestanding like single family home?
Speaker 13: It is?
Speaker 4: Okay? What are you charging?
Speaker 13: Oh? Just about a thousand?
Speaker 4: Oh wow? Where is this house like that? Neighbors? Are
Speaker 4: we talking about? How many rooms?
Speaker 13: Import collins bedroom?
Speaker 9: Oh that's a nice town and a price.
Speaker 4: How long have you been charging them a thousand dollars? Eva?
Speaker 13: Well, only a couple of years before that, it was
Speaker 13: in the nine hundreds.
Speaker 4: They're probably making money by sub by sub lessons.
Speaker 2: Probably are, Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 13: Yeah.
Speaker 9: I guarantee you they're renting those rooms out for nine
Speaker 9: hundred bucks a month in a college town.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 4: And also everything you said a minute ago was correct.
Speaker 5: Sixty days notice to increase the rent when there's no
Speaker 5: written lease, got it, nailed it?
Speaker 18: Okay?
Speaker 4: All right? So does that answer your questions?
Speaker 14: Eva?
Speaker 4: I mean, you just got to toughen up a little
Speaker 4: bit here, and I know you know you can get
Speaker 4: a lot more to rent that place, and you just
Speaker 4: need to put your feet down and give them notice
Speaker 4: and writing that the that the rent is going to
Speaker 4: go up to the market rate, looking figure out what
Speaker 4: market is and and just inform them that you're going
Speaker 4: to raise that rate up and they can either accept
Speaker 4: it or get out on their own. And if not,
Speaker 4: you have the ability to initiate the eviction proceedings. And so, uh,
Speaker 4: let us know how that works out for you, okay, Eva, Oh,
Speaker 4: thank you Eva.
Speaker 7: This is both I have a suggestion.
Speaker 19: I know'll being a landlord myself, sometimes it's kind of
Speaker 19: tough to communicate with people maybe that you've known for
Speaker 19: a long time. You may want to give Brad O'Brien
Speaker 19: a call and have him draft the letter for the
Speaker 19: rent increase, who would have a lot more teeth if
Speaker 19: he will coming from an attorney rather than you meet
Speaker 19: telling the tenant that you mean business, that you're going
Speaker 19: to be raising the rent or hav an eventual move out.
Speaker 4: Do you do that kind of stuff?
Speaker 7: Ray?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 5: And I think that in particular, if if your end
Speaker 5: goal is to get them out, and you think you're
Speaker 5: probably going to be going to court anyway, then have
Speaker 5: me start drafting all these notices because they will be
Speaker 5: exhibiting in the court case. Right, what haven't done done correctly?
Speaker 4: In great advice? Notice the rent increase needs to be
Speaker 4: in writing as well. So, Eva, here's how you get
Speaker 4: a hold of Brad. His number is seven too oho
Speaker 4: three seven oh seven three eight eight, and you can
Speaker 4: find him on the web at olslaw dot com. So
Speaker 4: we'd recommend that you give him a call and protect
Speaker 4: yourself by papering this thing up and doing everything correctly.
Speaker 2: Okay, sounds good, Thank you so much.
Speaker 4: All right, we are coming up on another break here, Frank,
Speaker 4: hang on. We'll get you next with your issue about
Speaker 4: insurance and a motorcycle. Just uh hang on, we'll be
Speaker 4: right back.
Speaker 10: Go with a sure thing Denver's best roofer Excel roofing
Speaker 10: dot com.
Speaker 11: You don't pay a cent until you're content.
Speaker 10: Time for an insurance check up, free, no obligation comparison
Speaker 10: call Compass insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens
Speaker 10: of insurance companies find out now three all three seven
Speaker 10: seven to one.
Speaker 4: Help.
Speaker 10: You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank
Speaker 10: durand the real estate man dot Com to list your
Speaker 10: home with Remax Alliance three all three nine two zero
Speaker 10: sixteen twenty two.
Speaker 4: All right, good afternoon, John Fuller. Here in the Troubleshooter Network,
Speaker 4: we are getting right back to it. We have a
Speaker 4: couple of callers lined up here. Frank, you have an
Speaker 4: issue with motorcycle insurance. What's going on, Frank?
Speaker 20: Oh, actually it's not motorcycle insurance. But what happened is
Speaker 20: my niece shipped a motorcycle from Denver to Grand Junction
Speaker 20: and in transit it got heavily damaged, and they ended up.
Speaker 20: The company that shipped it has Progressive Insurance. Okay, they
Speaker 20: wounded up going back and forth, they got a settlement
Speaker 20: agreed upon of fifty eight hundred dollars. So Progressives tells
Speaker 20: my niece that they'll pay her forty eight hundred, but
Speaker 20: the insurance deductibles one thousand, and she has to get
Speaker 20: it from him, and he said he would venmo or
Speaker 20: Zelle and then come to find out, he called her
Speaker 20: and said, look, I don't have the money. I'm not
Speaker 20: working and I don't have the money to pay it.
Speaker 20: Is it standard for an insurance company to make a
Speaker 20: settlement to total the bike and then not pay the
Speaker 20: whole amount of what they agreed to pay.
Speaker 4: No, it's not that's not how it generally works. The
Speaker 4: only time a deductible normally comes into play is when
Speaker 4: you're making a claim for your own property under like
Speaker 4: a comprehensive claim, where it's like your car or something
Speaker 4: going to the body shop, and you've got to pay
Speaker 4: a deductible when it's a third party. That's no different
Speaker 4: than you and I getting in an accident, Frank and
Speaker 4: my insurance company has to pay your car. They're not
Speaker 4: going to charge me a deductible for that claim. They're
Speaker 4: going to pay the claim out completely. And it just
Speaker 4: doesn't come up at all. So I think I would
Speaker 4: take that up with Progressive and just say, no, thank you,
Speaker 4: we're not playing that game. If you have some deal
Speaker 4: with your insured, that's on your end, but you can't
Speaker 4: shift that over to you to go collect that thousand dollars.
Speaker 20: Well, apparently, I'll talk to her more. But apparently she's
Speaker 20: talked to Progressive or the agent or whoever it is
Speaker 20: that's worked this out, and they said, no, you have
Speaker 20: to get it from him. And so I suggested that
Speaker 20: she get a hold of the real Estate Commission Colorado
Speaker 20: real Estate or insurance Commission and make a complaint because
Speaker 20: that's not the way it should be handled.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, you can definitely do that. They'll take
Speaker 4: your complaint and stuff. But that's just not right. And
Speaker 4: I think if you keep elevating that or escalating it
Speaker 4: to you know, a higher level at Progressive, somebody is gonna,
Speaker 4: you know, is going to say, no, that's not how
Speaker 4: it's supposed to happen. I can't think of any type
Speaker 4: of insurance claim that would require you, the claimant to
Speaker 4: go and seek out some sort of a deductible from
Speaker 4: some third party, even if they had a coinsurance amount
Speaker 4: or something. You know, that's just not how that's just
Speaker 4: not how it works.
Speaker 15: So well, that's good advice.
Speaker 20: I'm going to have her do that and hopefully take
Speaker 20: it up the chain and get it resolved quickly. Obviously
Speaker 20: she saw the complaint. That may take a little longer,
Speaker 20: it may not even have any impact.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean it can. I mean, you just never
Speaker 4: know the thing about the insurance commission is when when
Speaker 4: it has teeth, you know, all you're really hoping that
Speaker 4: you get out of that is a phone call to
Speaker 4: the carrier saying is this really what you guys are
Speaker 4: wanting to do here? And oftentimes to compel them to
Speaker 4: exactly it's just that that call saying we're watching and
Speaker 4: we're aware of this, and is this really how you
Speaker 4: want to play the game? And many times that's all
Speaker 4: it takes to get, you know, to get something to happen.
Speaker 4: With that being said, though, let me tell you, in
Speaker 4: my practice, progressive takes liberties that I take issue with
Speaker 4: on a number of different things, and so it's not
Speaker 4: surprising to me that you're having that issue. But but
Speaker 4: I've generally been able to resolve them just by pushing
Speaker 4: harder and harder and getting people higher up on the
Speaker 4: food chain to deal with it. So that would be
Speaker 4: my suggestion to you.
Speaker 20: Perfect And we're gonna try that for sure, all right,
Speaker 20: and I'll let you know how it works out.
Speaker 4: Hey, dude, do that. I appreciate it, Frank, he's doing better.
Speaker 4: We'll pass that along. Thanks Frank for the call. We
Speaker 4: appreciate it. Keith is on the line with the comment
Speaker 4: about eva situation. Keith, what's going on?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 18: I just wanted to add that if you don't have
Speaker 18: a lease which states a grace period for the for
Speaker 18: the payments of the monthly rental, then the state automatically
Speaker 18: implies a seven day waiting period, so you couldn't file
Speaker 18: the ten day notice until a week after they don't
Speaker 18: pay if she doesn't have a lease.
Speaker 4: Okay, and Brad, would you care to Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 5: I don't agree with that. I know I do know
Speaker 5: the seven day thing you're talking about. Let me first
Speaker 5: say that as soon as they are daylight, you can
Speaker 5: give them a ten day notice. The seven day thing
Speaker 5: you're talking talking about, I expect is right to cure. No,
Speaker 5: the late fee, so you can charge if it's in
Speaker 5: a written lease that that that the landlord can charge
Speaker 5: a late fee, then the late fee can be a
Speaker 5: certain amount.
Speaker 4: Top of my head, I can't say what it is.
Speaker 5: But you cannot assess that late fee until the rent
Speaker 5: has been late for seven days, So you.
Speaker 15: Can get that.
Speaker 5: Uh, you can assess that late fee on the eighth day,
Speaker 5: but but you can you can give the ten day
Speaker 5: notice as soon.
Speaker 4: As they're minute late on the rent. Okay, is that
Speaker 4: is that what you're talking about? The late fee there? Keith, Yes, yes,
Speaker 4: thank you for that. Correction. Okay, cool, Well, thanks for
Speaker 4: the comment. We appreciate the call there, Keith. We're going
Speaker 4: to go to a couple of follow ups here. Bo
Speaker 4: actually had a couple of questions for for Brad today
Speaker 4: on real estate issues. We're going to go ahead and
Speaker 4: deal with those as always. Give us a call. We
Speaker 4: got a couple open lines seven one, three, eight, two
Speaker 4: five five is the number, uh three oh three. Martino
Speaker 4: also works, So give us a call. We'll be glad
Speaker 4: to help you out.
Speaker 6: Bo.
Speaker 4: What is going on with you?
Speaker 19: Yes, And I'd like to just comment to our listeners
Speaker 19: who are landlords, this is a great opportunity for you
Speaker 19: to call in talk to Brad O'Brien and get your
Speaker 19: legal real estate questions answered. It no charge. And Brad,
Speaker 19: I have a question being a landlord. I've been to
Speaker 19: court several times on fictions and the judge issues this
Speaker 19: piece of paper called the writ of restitution. And I
Speaker 19: understand the word writ, but I never really could get
Speaker 19: my brain wrapped around the word restitution. And my question
Speaker 19: is twofold. If I do get the rep when I
Speaker 19: do get the writ of restitution, is this something that
Speaker 19: I can just serve upon the tenant because technically, when
Speaker 19: you use the sheriff, the sheriff is sometimes like a
Speaker 19: month and a half out to execute this writ of restitution.
Speaker 19: And the second part of my question is how long
Speaker 19: does rate of restitution lasts?
Speaker 7: Is it a week, a month, a year?
Speaker 5: So okay, Well, when the only way that a landlord
Speaker 5: can can lawfully evict a tenant is through the court,
Speaker 5: and they go to court and file on an eviction
Speaker 5: action in order to obtain a court order for possession
Speaker 5: of the property, where the court is saying that the
Speaker 5: landlord has legal possession of the premises, the rental premises,
Speaker 5: and the tenant no longer has legal possession, and so
Speaker 5: that is the restitution. So the court is basically giving
Speaker 5: the possession of the premises back to the landlord. That's
Speaker 5: the restitution part of it.
Speaker 6: Now.
Speaker 5: So at the end of a eviction court case, there's
Speaker 5: a trial or a default judgment which ends up in
Speaker 5: this order of possession in favor of the landlord, and
Speaker 5: the next step is the writ of restitution that is
Speaker 5: an order from the court to the county sheriff.
Speaker 4: The actual form of the writs.
Speaker 5: Starts off to the sheriff of whichever county and so
Speaker 5: the only party that execute a written or do something
Speaker 5: about it is the sheriff. Private parties and landlords cannot
Speaker 5: execute writs on their own. That's self help and that's illegal,
Speaker 5: and that'll get you in trouble. So as soon as
Speaker 5: a judge court issues this order of possession in favor
Speaker 5: of the landlord, then there's a two day waiting period
Speaker 5: before the writ can be issued. However, there's a further
Speaker 5: waiting period of ten days after that judgment has entered
Speaker 5: before the sheriff can actually execute the rit Now you
Speaker 5: recognize that there's a problem of some of these county
Speaker 5: sheriffs are kind of backed up and truth sometimes a
Speaker 5: month and a.
Speaker 4: Half, Brad, So can I interrupt here just so we
Speaker 4: can clarify the language. What does execute the writ actually mean?
Speaker 4: Does that mean nailing it on the door? Does that
Speaker 4: mean physically kicking the people out? I mean, what does
Speaker 4: executing it mean?
Speaker 5: When a sheriff executes a red restitution, they are physically
Speaker 5: removing the tenants and their belongings from the premises.
Speaker 4: Okay, and let me clarify. They don't lift a finger
Speaker 4: to do any of that stuff.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 5: The landlord who is doing the eviction is required to
Speaker 5: hire a moving company or to have like five or
Speaker 5: six able bodied movers sufficient to get the move out
Speaker 5: done within one hour, maybe two if it's a bigger house.
Speaker 4: So is that when you just see stuff piled up
Speaker 4: by the curb.
Speaker 5: Right, so the right any the move out, the place
Speaker 5: to put it is next to the right of way
Speaker 5: and that unfortunately, that will get you in trouble if
Speaker 5: you're like an hua community, because that'll get the land
Speaker 5: we're defined so they but normally those things have to
Speaker 5: remain on the curve for twenty four hours before the
Speaker 5: landlord can remove them. There is some protection for the
Speaker 5: landlord for loss of property by following the procedures if
Speaker 5: the if the sheriff is there supervising the execution of
Speaker 5: the red restitution supervising the actional move out, then the
Speaker 5: landlord is protected from a liability.
Speaker 4: For loss of that personal property. Okay, hold that thought.
Speaker 4: We're going to take a real quick break and we'll
Speaker 4: be right back. So thank you.
Speaker 10: Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel roofing
Speaker 10: dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content.
Speaker 10: Time for an insurance checkup free no obligation. In comparison,
Speaker 10: call Compass insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens
Speaker 10: of insurance companies find out now three all three seven
Speaker 10: seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer
Speaker 10: when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot
Speaker 10: com to list your home with Remax Alliance three all
Speaker 10: three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.
Speaker 4: Hey, we're back live in the house. This is John
Speaker 4: Fuller on the Troubleshooter Network and we are working through
Speaker 4: Bo's questions and all things about what not to do
Speaker 4: on evictions and stuff. And it sounds like there's so
Speaker 4: much more to it than I ever had an idea,
Speaker 4: and so I'm going to turn it back over to
Speaker 4: bow here or what. So it sounds like a crazy
Speaker 4: process here where I mean, how many times does it
Speaker 4: actually go down to where you're having to get the sheriff.
Speaker 4: It seems like people would want to get their stuff
Speaker 4: out and not have it end up on the curb.
Speaker 4: I mean, does this happen a lot in your practice? Yeah,
Speaker 4: most tenants.
Speaker 5: Most tenants will not go to the bitter end of
Speaker 5: the sheriff process because nobody wants their stuff to be
Speaker 5: put out on the curb, right, so when they know
Speaker 5: it's close, they'll they'll finally go. But there are some
Speaker 5: dead enders out there who go to the better end
Speaker 5: and their stuff's out of the curb. I don't know why,
Speaker 5: but but that's it's expensive for landlord to take it
Speaker 5: that far because then they have to hire movers.
Speaker 4: They got to pay the sheriff feed to actually do that.
Speaker 7: It's happened to me twice.
Speaker 19: And about this rider restitution, Brad, I would like, you're right,
Speaker 19: it's a it's a device that goes directly to the sheriff.
Speaker 19: But I'd like to have the ability to present the
Speaker 19: ridd restitution pay or to the tenant to know that,
Speaker 19: I mean business, you need to get out, because the
Speaker 19: last couple of experiences I have they have not I
Speaker 19: mean just.
Speaker 4: As a.
Speaker 19: Warning that they need to move their stuff out. And
Speaker 19: in Denver, for a landlord, it's pretty difficult to do
Speaker 19: the eviction all the way down. Of course, you want
Speaker 19: people to move their stuff out, but the sheriff the
Speaker 19: last time we used it was like a month and
Speaker 19: a half out to just show up to supervise. And
Speaker 19: you're right, they don't lift a thing and they give
Speaker 19: you an hour and a half to two hours tops,
Speaker 19: and if you can't get the move done in that
Speaker 19: time frame, you basically have to start over with the
Speaker 19: eviction process.
Speaker 5: Yeah, most county sheriff's offices don't want you to call
Speaker 5: them until that ten day waiting period to serve a
Speaker 5: writ has actually run, and so you call them on
Speaker 5: day ten or eleven, and then they open the calendar
Speaker 5: and say, okay, three to four weeks out, we have
Speaker 5: an opening to conduct an eviction. And so yeah, there's
Speaker 5: an additional time in there. No, some tenants know about that,
Speaker 5: and they, you know, if they want to game this
Speaker 5: them and get more free rent, they just milk it
Speaker 5: to the bitter end.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So how long does a tenant have to actually
Speaker 4: cure during this process? Like what's the last day that
Speaker 4: they can pay and reset the clock on all this age.
Speaker 5: That was a recent change in the last couple of
Speaker 5: years as well. Now a tenant can cure their unpaid
Speaker 5: rent up until the moment that the judge issues in
Speaker 5: order of possession. Okay, so at that point their right
Speaker 5: to cure has gone.
Speaker 4: So if they come to court with a money order
Speaker 4: or something, they can cure it over and over again
Speaker 4: as long as they want. That's right.
Speaker 9: As part of that cure, do they also have to
Speaker 9: reimburse the landlord for their costs of this eviction or
Speaker 9: is it just the rent that needs to know?
Speaker 5: At this point, there has been no judgment on damages,
Speaker 5: like how much does the rent do and if there's
Speaker 5: any attorney fees involved.
Speaker 4: So eviction cases have two steps. There's two hearings.
Speaker 5: The first hearing is the possession hearing and that normally
Speaker 5: happens ten to fourteen days after the complaint is filed,
Speaker 5: and then based on that outcome, the court would set
Speaker 5: the actual trial on the money part, maybe two to
Speaker 5: three weeks out later, and that's where you can get
Speaker 5: your judgment for order for attorney fees and pass do round.
Speaker 9: So, even if the tenant cures the past due rent
Speaker 9: in the court room, there's still going to be another
Speaker 9: hearing for the damages and costs.
Speaker 5: Yes, landlord could take it to the second part the trial,
Speaker 5: but most landlords aren't going to do that. It's just
Speaker 5: too expensive, doesn't make sense, doesn't ever done that?
Speaker 19: Yeah, the second part you might stay, we have the
Speaker 19: money for the rent.
Speaker 7: They're just they're just beating a dead horse trying to.
Speaker 5: You might spend as much in attorney fees as the
Speaker 5: amount you're trying to recover, and then you.
Speaker 4: May not even be able to recover. Right. Are you
Speaker 4: in county court on these usually?
Speaker 5: Or Yes, you can do evictions in both county court
Speaker 5: and district court, but they're much faster and cheaper in
Speaker 5: county court, which is an expedited process under the rules
Speaker 5: simplified perceise civil procedure.
Speaker 4: But you can actually if the rent.
Speaker 5: Sometimes in the commercial evictions will start in county court
Speaker 5: for possession and then remove it to district court to
Speaker 5: get the money judgment. Because in commercial amount of controversy,
Speaker 5: yeah you can. You can only recover twenty five thousand
Speaker 5: in county court. Right, so if the amount is over,
Speaker 5: you have to go to the district court.
Speaker 4: Got you? But the but the first portion of it
Speaker 4: would still be in county court. It's only when you're
Speaker 4: fighting for the money aspect that the jurisdictional limits come
Speaker 4: into play, right, got you? Cool? Uh, Frank, you have
Speaker 4: another question on your motorcycle shipping issue. What's going on? Frank?
Speaker 20: Well, so she called the supervisor over Progressive and the
Speaker 20: supervisor said that it is a car a commercial cargo policy,
Speaker 20: and that that's the way it's written. But I've never
Speaker 20: heard of an instance where the damaged party has to
Speaker 20: get money from the insured when and they're totaling the bike.
Speaker 20: So I don't understand commercial cargo versus.
Speaker 6: Regular policy.
Speaker 4: Well, so here's a suggestion for you, Frank, and I
Speaker 4: don't know what your situation is. In my practice, we
Speaker 4: frequently have cases where we have disputes among property damage carriers,
Speaker 4: and we sometimes will use our own carrier to file
Speaker 4: a clean and then let that carrier deal with subrogating
Speaker 4: and going to get repaid from the other side. That's
Speaker 4: an option if you want to talk more about that.
Speaker 4: Hang on until the other side of the break. We
Speaker 4: got to cut to a brake right now. Thanks for
Speaker 4: calling Ken, hang on the line as well. We'll get
Speaker 4: your calls as we get back.
Speaker 10: Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel roofing
Speaker 10: dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content.
Speaker 10: Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation. In comparison,
Speaker 10: call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens
Speaker 10: of insurance companies find out now three all three seven
Speaker 10: to seven to one help. You'll think you're his only
Speaker 10: customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man
Speaker 10: dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three
Speaker 10: all three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.
Speaker 1: Yea ripped off news. Didn't need advice, so you don't
Speaker 1: have come running.
Speaker 11: It's just as fast as we can.
Speaker 1: Shooter's gonna help coming.
Speaker 3: This is the Troubleshooter Show now, Tom Martine, Hey.
Speaker 4: Good afternoon. John Fuller here filling in for Tom Martino
Speaker 4: and the Troubleshooter Network. Just to report Tom is doing well.
Speaker 4: He is still in the hospital, but he reports improvement
Speaker 4: every day. I texted him something short and brief and
Speaker 4: it turned into I think thirteen texts this morning in
Speaker 4: about in about ten minutes. So that tells you Tom's
Speaker 4: doing just fine. And we'll be back here in no time.
Speaker 4: So we have been passing along all the well wishes
Speaker 4: and stuff from all the listeners, and we appreciate those.
Speaker 4: So we are here to help you solve problems, take complaints.
Speaker 4: If you've been scammed, if you've been victimized by some
Speaker 4: contractor some company, some insurance company, we are here to
Speaker 4: help you get a hold of us by calling three
Speaker 4: oh three seven one three eight two five five that's
Speaker 4: three O three seven one three talk. You can also
Speaker 4: get to us at uh the three or three Martino,
Speaker 4: So multiple ways to get ahold of us. Call us today.
Speaker 4: We're happy to help. In the studio of today is
Speaker 4: Brad O'Brien with O'Brien Legal Services Bread as a real
Speaker 4: estate attorney with a number of years of experience. We're
Speaker 4: talking today mainly about you know, evictions and what steps
Speaker 4: need to be taken and kind of dealing with some
Speaker 4: horror stories and it's just crazy the requirements that you
Speaker 4: have to go through as a landlord to get somebody
Speaker 4: out of your property. When when something like that happens.
Speaker 4: And so if you've got questions about real estate, your
Speaker 4: rental properties, landlord tenant situations, by all means, get on
Speaker 4: the horn. Now. We've got about an hour to answer
Speaker 4: those questions. But it's a great opportunity to tap into
Speaker 4: brand's expertise and we look for those questions real quick.
Speaker 4: We're going to go to the lines. We have Ken
Speaker 4: with a question about property tax. What is going on
Speaker 4: with you? Ken?
Speaker 15: Yes, I went into Douglas County this morning to pay
Speaker 15: my property taxes. And I realized that yesterday, you know,
Speaker 15: they were due and I couldn't make it. So this
Speaker 15: morning I went in to pay them. It was like
Speaker 15: three hours into the first day, and they charged me.
Speaker 15: They tell me that it's one percent charge. Oh oh,
Speaker 15: they gave me this statue. And I looked up the statue.
Speaker 15: In the eight section, it stipulates if it's received in
Speaker 15: their office within five days, then the date received is
Speaker 15: the do date. And I even spoke to Dave gil
Speaker 15: and he refused to do anythings, said call my legislator.
Speaker 4: Oh that's friendly, Brad. Any advice here.
Speaker 5: I'm not familiar with the statue, but I'm wondering if
Speaker 5: if that's a mail in situation where it's postmark before
Speaker 5: the deadline but then received after the deadline.
Speaker 4: Is that is that how it reads?
Speaker 15: It's it's the statutes three nine dash ten dash one
Speaker 15: oh four point.
Speaker 4: Five three nine dash ten dash one oh four point five.
Speaker 15: Okay, Section eight.
Speaker 4: Okay, I can look it up real quick. Okay, all right,
Speaker 4: so Ken, let's uh, let's give Brad a couple of
Speaker 4: seconds to look that up, and we'll come right back
Speaker 4: and see if we can work through that statute. Okay,
Speaker 4: we have another issue with one of Dimitri's cases that
Speaker 4: we wanted to also get into with Brad. So we're
Speaker 4: going to get a little background on the case from
Speaker 4: Dmitri and then we're going to talk about that at
Speaker 4: some lenk because it's a fascinating issue that has come
Speaker 4: up and there's so many different ways that could go.
Speaker 4: But why don't you give a little bit of background.
Speaker 4: We don't need to go the encyclopedic version of it,
Speaker 4: but just give us a little background on this story
Speaker 4: and we'll go from there.
Speaker 9: John and Brad. A few days ago, lady by the
Speaker 9: name of Haley called us because she and her roommate
Speaker 9: had rented a very expensive apartment downtown and everything went
Speaker 9: well for a while until it no longer was going
Speaker 9: well and they had some kind of a falling out
Speaker 9: the roommate. Apparently, it wasn't very clear from Haley's call
Speaker 9: if the roommate had applied for a protection protection order
Speaker 9: or actually got one. Okay, but that's actually outside the
Speaker 9: scope of what my question was for you yesterday and
Speaker 9: today is for Brad or both of you guys. And
Speaker 9: so the roommate the estranged roommate went to the property
Speaker 9: manager's office at the apartment complex and asked them to
Speaker 9: terminate her.
Speaker 4: Lease, and they did.
Speaker 9: Now that part sounds reasonable to me, But here's the
Speaker 9: part that really bothered me. Now, Haley is stuck with
Speaker 9: a payment for the entire apartment and utilities, and that's
Speaker 9: what the apartment manager had told her. Now, we actually
Speaker 9: called Brad with this a few days ago, and Brad said, oh, yeah, oh,
Speaker 9: you know the leases. You know, you're jointly and severably responsible,
Speaker 9: So she's going to be stuck with it. So that's
Speaker 9: the answer we gave her. But over the next few hours,
Speaker 9: long after the show, it kept bothering me, and it
Speaker 9: took me a while to figure out what I was
Speaker 9: bothered by. I think we made a mistake by looking
Speaker 9: at this issue from the perspective of what does the
Speaker 9: lease say. I think that the perspective should have been
Speaker 9: from the perspective of contractual agreement. And Guys, what I
Speaker 9: came up with in my mind is that before these
Speaker 9: leases were even signed, those three principles had a contract
Speaker 9: among themselves, and that contract to enter into. It's an unwritten,
Speaker 9: unspoken contract. But the contract is this both tenants agree
Speaker 9: to enter into these leases with a property manager contingent
Speaker 9: on each of them entering into this. And so what
Speaker 9: happened at the end is that the principal one, which
Speaker 9: is the landlord, and principal two, which is the estranged roommate,
Speaker 9: got together decided that the roommate is no longer obligated
Speaker 9: to perform her duties under this contract. They, without the
Speaker 9: knowledge or permission of the second the second tenant let
Speaker 9: the first one out of the lease to the financial
Speaker 9: detriment of Hailey. And I said, look, I think in
Speaker 9: my view, the equitable position, the equitable resolution to this
Speaker 9: would be, hey, we let her out, but it shouldn't
Speaker 9: be to Hailey's detriment, and Haley should be allowed to
Speaker 9: pay just her half of the lease all right until
Speaker 9: it runs out, and then they move her out.
Speaker 4: Got it? Yeah, I remember that call. And what I said.
Speaker 5: Is that the tenant who got let out of the
Speaker 5: lease is liable to the remaining tenant only if those
Speaker 5: two tenants had an agreement between each other. And I
Speaker 5: also said that the lease between the tenants and the
Speaker 5: landlord is a is a two way agreement, It's not
Speaker 5: a three way agreement.
Speaker 4: It's a two way agreement.
Speaker 5: You got tenants on one got two tenants on one side,
Speaker 5: and you got a landlord on the other side. And
Speaker 5: nothing in the typical lease has anything between the two
Speaker 5: tenants as far as their duties and obligations to each other.
Speaker 5: So they'd have to have their own separate agreement as
Speaker 5: between the two of them.
Speaker 4: Okay, hold that thought, and let's deal with Kim's issue
Speaker 4: real quick. And then I want to come back to
Speaker 4: that and throw a couple of curve balls in there.
Speaker 4: So what'd you find out on Kim's property texts? Yeah,
Speaker 4: as I suspected.
Speaker 5: The statute he referenced is a talks about when when
Speaker 5: a tax payment is mailed in or sent through a
Speaker 5: common courier like FedEx, and it received, it's received in
Speaker 5: the treasure office after the deadline. Now, this statue talks
Speaker 5: about the situation where there's no postmark.
Speaker 4: So this is a postmark statue.
Speaker 5: If you postmark it by the deadline and the postmark
Speaker 5: shows on the envelope, you're good. But if if somehow
Speaker 5: a postmark is not put on a fixed on that
Speaker 5: envelope and it's received after the deadline, then there's this
Speaker 5: five day grace where if it's received within by May fifth,
Speaker 5: when the deadline was April thirtieth, the Treasure's office will
Speaker 5: be all deemed it on time day six and on.
Speaker 5: They have to use the date of actual receipt as
Speaker 5: the as the date it was received. So so this caller,
Speaker 5: when he walked in the payment a day late, doesn't
Speaker 5: get the benefit of the statute.
Speaker 4: It's just straight late. Yeah, because the statute is only
Speaker 4: late really wouldn't matter. It's just as late. It's only
Speaker 4: for mailing in that get arrives after the deadline. That
Speaker 4: pretty much what they too told you there, Ken, I'm okay?
Speaker 4: Is that pretty much what they told you?
Speaker 15: Well, they told me that he couldn't do anything to
Speaker 15: call my legislator. Yeah, oh, I just think you know,
Speaker 15: three hours and twenty minutes into the first day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that it says.
Speaker 15: The way I read the statue was if it wasn't postmarked,
Speaker 15: if it didn't have a postmark on it, but it
Speaker 15: was received within less than five days, that they need
Speaker 15: to claim the due date as the day it was received.
Speaker 5: No, no, they'll they'll deem it on time if it
Speaker 5: is within five days.
Speaker 4: But that's not you walked in the payment. But that's
Speaker 4: only if it arrives by mail, right, yes, with no postmark.
Speaker 4: So it just happened to not have a postmark, but
Speaker 4: it came in with the mailman. So you should have
Speaker 4: ran down the mailman and tucked it in his bag.
Speaker 4: But when you just walked it in there yourself, you
Speaker 4: couldn't avail yourself of that part of the rule.
Speaker 15: Well, what's the definition of a common carrier? If I
Speaker 15: carried it in there?
Speaker 6: Oh?
Speaker 4: Common?
Speaker 9: A common carrier is a well defined term that would
Speaker 9: be like ups, fed Ex, DHL, flying tigers.
Speaker 4: Are you in the business of carrying people's mail?
Speaker 15: No, No, I'm in the truck and business.
Speaker 9: Oh did you bring this in in your truck in
Speaker 9: the back of your truck?
Speaker 15: And that and that check that I paid them with
Speaker 15: is in a trucking check?
Speaker 4: Well, I don't think the party making the payment really
Speaker 4: invokes the exception to the rule or makes it.
Speaker 5: You know, County treasurers have no flexibility. They have to
Speaker 5: they have if something is a minute late, they are
Speaker 5: required to propose. If they have no flexibility or discretion
Speaker 5: to say oh close enough.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they have to follow the statue. Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 15: Sorry, not the money, it's not the money at all.
Speaker 15: It's just you know, I like I say, we're talking
Speaker 15: three hours and twenty minutes.
Speaker 4: Well it's a day and three hours and twenty minutes.
Speaker 4: I mean, listen, Ken, you're preaching to the choir. I
Speaker 4: wish there was an exception, and that seems close enough
Speaker 4: to me, But the reality is those guys at the
Speaker 4: clerk's office they don't have the legal latitude to make
Speaker 4: an exception. They just don't. I mean, it's not within
Speaker 4: their power to say. That's why they told you to
Speaker 4: go see the legislature, because that's who wrote the laws.
Speaker 4: Once they were written and once they were imposed on them,
Speaker 4: they have no latitude of doing it differently. So I
Speaker 4: wish I had a different answer for you, But I'm sorry.
Speaker 4: Late is late from their perspective, and there's just not
Speaker 4: a heck of a lot that we can do. Thank you,
Speaker 4: Thank you for listening. We appreciate it. All right, So
Speaker 4: now back to Dimitri's call. Actually, we're going to go
Speaker 4: to one real quick break and then we're going to
Speaker 4: come back and dive headfirst into this least situation and
Speaker 4: see if there's a way to four it.
Speaker 10: Out go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel
Speaker 10: Roofing dot com.
Speaker 11: You don't pay a cent until you're content.
Speaker 10: Time for an insurance checkup free, no obligation comparison call
Speaker 10: Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of
Speaker 10: insurance companies find out now three O three seven to
Speaker 10: seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer
Speaker 10: when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot
Speaker 10: com to list your home with Remax Alliance three oh
Speaker 10: three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.
Speaker 4: All right, good afternoon, John Fuller here for the Troubleshooter Network.
Speaker 4: We are having a lovely discussion about a bunch of
Speaker 4: crazy different topics, but nonetheless we're back focused on task here,
Speaker 4: and our task is to help you with all of
Speaker 4: your problems. So, if you've been a live to cheated,
Speaker 4: scammed by somebody, we are here to help you. Give
Speaker 4: us a call it three O three seven one three
Speaker 4: eight two five five. In the studio today we have
Speaker 4: Brad O'Brien who is a real estate attorney with O'Brien
Speaker 4: Legal Services, and Brad has quite a bit of experience
Speaker 4: in dealing with these issues. And so we were talking
Speaker 4: about Dimitri's case before the break and just to recap uh,
Speaker 4: we had two young ladies I believe that were parties
Speaker 4: to a rental contract for an apartment. There was a
Speaker 4: falling out between them. One apparently applied for and maybe
Speaker 4: even secured a restraining order against the other. One approached
Speaker 4: the landlord and was allowed to be let off of
Speaker 4: the lease. And so with that she you know, she
Speaker 4: gave up her right to possess the property, but the
Speaker 4: landlord also gave up the right to go after her
Speaker 4: for non payment of rent or for any damages and
Speaker 4: stuff that might have occurred following that tenancy, and left
Speaker 4: the remaining tenant stuck with the entirety of the obligation
Speaker 4: and the entirety of the responsibility for the you know,
Speaker 4: any damages or whatnot. And so if I understand your position,
Speaker 4: you see no issue with that? Is that? Is that fine?
Speaker 5: The remaining tenant can recover from the tenant who got
Speaker 5: let off only if those two tenants had an agreement
Speaker 5: between them as far as contribution and covering each of
Speaker 5: their How.
Speaker 4: Is there both their joint signatures as responsible parties on
Speaker 4: this lease, not an implied agreement between them to be
Speaker 4: jointly responsible for what damages may flow.
Speaker 5: Well, that that lease agreement where the two tenants sign
Speaker 5: is undoubtedly going to say that the two tenants are
Speaker 5: gently and severally liable for the rent. That means each
Speaker 5: of them is independently responsible for all of the rent. Right,
Speaker 5: Nothing in there is implied to say that that that
Speaker 5: the one tenant that has to reverse the other tenant.
Speaker 4: I know, but they're jointly and severally liable. They probably
Speaker 4: severally applied for you know, the the the apartment or
Speaker 4: the condo or whatever. They both had to fill out
Speaker 4: an application. I mean, it seems to me that and
Speaker 4: and listen, I get why the landlord let them off.
Speaker 4: I mean that same warranty of habitability deals with like
Speaker 4: domestic violence and abuse situations, and it gives a clear
Speaker 4: path to a landlord to say, we're not going to
Speaker 4: force you to go back into an abusive situation. And
Speaker 4: so I understand the landlord letting them off, But I
Speaker 4: don't understand how them letting off one party, a unilateral
Speaker 4: move to let one half of this person get off
Speaker 4: of the lease, doesn't impliedly cancel the whole thing because
Speaker 4: it's a it's a unilateral modification of the agreement without
Speaker 4: the consent of the other party to the contract.
Speaker 5: Well, if both tents are one hundred percent each separately
Speaker 5: liable for the rent from the day one, then the
Speaker 5: landlord letting one of the tenants out does not increase
Speaker 5: the liability on the remaining tenant. The tennis has the
Speaker 5: same liability as they did before.
Speaker 4: But how do they forego their rights as a party
Speaker 4: to that contract not to suffer the effect of a
Speaker 4: unilateral modification. I mean, she didn't get to consent to
Speaker 4: the modification. How how can the landlord do that and
Speaker 4: change that overall position and say I decided to let
Speaker 4: her off, You're responsible for everything now, yeah, I think
Speaker 4: that's the discretion the landlord has. Do you support have
Speaker 4: anything to do with that?
Speaker 5: Well, that's why it makes sense for a tense to
Speaker 5: have a written agreement between the two of them separate
Speaker 5: from the lease that talks about their rights to each other.
Speaker 4: It's a cohabitation agreement which I can prepare so you
Speaker 4: don't feel that joint and several liability under the lease
Speaker 4: gives the one tenant any rights to go after the
Speaker 4: other tenant to.
Speaker 5: Enforce that, I don't think. So maybe there's some case
Speaker 5: law on that. I'm not aware of it, but I
Speaker 5: haven't researched it. Be there, Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 4: It just seems to me that that, And you know,
Speaker 4: I'm not a real estate attorney, but if I were
Speaker 4: playing one on TV, my position would be that I
Speaker 4: understand and even support them letting that tenant out. I
Speaker 4: think the law supports that, but that modification in effect
Speaker 4: is a breach of the overall agreement, and you can't
Speaker 4: do that and impose that modification on the other party
Speaker 4: without her consent to it. Maybe I'm wrong about that,
Speaker 4: but that would be my take on the overall situation.
Speaker 5: If it might be the case where the two tenants,
Speaker 5: before they ever signed the least for the landlord said
Speaker 5: between the two of them, or one of them said, hey,
Speaker 5: will you go on this lease with me, and let's
Speaker 5: READI split at fifty to fifty, that would be an
Speaker 5: independent agreement between the two of them, even if it's
Speaker 5: not in writing, which could be enforceable. So the remaining
Speaker 5: tenant could seek a contribution through a court action against
Speaker 5: the departed tenant for the half that they agreed to expressly,
Speaker 5: but not in writing before the lease was signed.
Speaker 4: So what if that tenant took the position that I
Speaker 4: believe this contract has now been breached and I have
Speaker 4: no remedy but to move out. I can't afford to
Speaker 4: pay the entirety of the rent. I think it's been breached.
Speaker 4: I'm out of here, and the ladlord comes knocking on
Speaker 4: the door. Would that tenant still be able to sue
Speaker 4: the other one for contribution under that?
Speaker 14: Oh?
Speaker 4: Yeah, full agreement. Sure, it's a separate agreement, right, yep.
Speaker 4: What possibility can you imagine that that suing that other
Speaker 4: tenant could be construed as a violation of the restraint order?
Speaker 4: Oh there's a restraining order here? Okay.
Speaker 5: If the restraining order is about physical distance between I
Speaker 5: don't think it restrains someone from suing somebody in court. Well,
Speaker 5: as a matter of fact, that's the exception where if
Speaker 5: there's a restraining order, you can actually be in the
Speaker 5: same room with them, if it's the court room where
Speaker 5: you are required to be appearing.
Speaker 4: But if it says you shall not harass, molest, intimidate,
Speaker 4: or I forget the actual language of the restraining orders,
Speaker 4: could could somebody interpret that as being over that line. No,
Speaker 4: I don't think so.
Speaker 5: I think commencing a court action is not, uh is
Speaker 5: not going to be deemed harassment. I mean, that's why
Speaker 5: they call it legal extortion, because you can extort somebody
Speaker 5: through a court action where you couldn't do it anywhere else.
Speaker 4: Right, you know, that's pretty fascinating. I mean, that's that's
Speaker 4: an interesting case. Is what is the land what is
Speaker 4: the tenet that's staying? Is she doing is she trying
Speaker 4: to get another roommate to help to help that situation,
Speaker 4: or what is she doing here?
Speaker 9: You know, she didn't address that topic specifically, but she
Speaker 9: said the least expiring in June anyway, But she's looking
Speaker 9: down the barrel of a couple of months worth of
Speaker 9: three thousand dollars plus payments, and that's going to put
Speaker 9: her in serious financial straits, you know, especially since she
Speaker 9: needs to rent another apartment and come up with a
Speaker 9: deposit and probably at a higher cost now because she's
Speaker 9: by her she's alone now, right.
Speaker 5: Oh and the restraining order between the two tenants, the
Speaker 5: landlord has no part of that. They're not responsible for
Speaker 5: that happening.
Speaker 4: Absolutely not. But I think the landlord is using that
Speaker 4: as cover to justify them letting her out of the lease.
Speaker 4: And I support that. I mean the warranty of habitability
Speaker 4: Loves in Colorado specifically say yes, you can do that,
Speaker 4: and it's a defense to any challenge to that. So
Speaker 4: I think the landlord is one hundred percent right for
Speaker 4: doing that. So real quickly, we've got a question online
Speaker 4: from or a caller online from Glenn. Glenn, what is
Speaker 4: going on with you?
Speaker 8: You got a quick question? Maybe what is defined as
Speaker 8: an asset that you could come after somebody for?
Speaker 6: Like we've been.
Speaker 8: Talking about their houses, their cars, cash, What about iras
Speaker 8: and a para account? Are those open for?
Speaker 4: That's a great question, but I got to ask you
Speaker 4: a couple questions to give you a good answer. Hang
Speaker 4: on the line here, we'll be right back after this break.
Speaker 10: Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel roofing
Speaker 10: dot com.
Speaker 11: You don't pay a cent until you're content.
Speaker 10: Time for an insurance checkup, free no obligation comparison call
Speaker 10: Compass insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of
Speaker 10: insurance companies find out now three O three, seven to
Speaker 10: seven to one. Help you'll think you're his only customer
Speaker 10: when you choose Frank durand the real estate man dot
Speaker 10: com to list your home with Remax Alliance three three
Speaker 10: nine two zero sixteen twenty.
Speaker 4: Two mm hm, all right, good afternoon, Good afternoon, John
Speaker 4: Fuller here for the Troubleshooter Network. We are getting close
Speaker 4: to the end of this and we are working through
Speaker 4: a whole bunch of other issues. Glenn was on the
Speaker 4: line with a great question and and Glenn, I need
Speaker 4: to know a little bit more information about like where
Speaker 4: would this judgment come from that that you're seeking to
Speaker 4: shield assets from. Are we talking about as a result
Speaker 4: of like a car accident or in a bankruptcy or
Speaker 4: in a contract action? To give me a little bit
Speaker 4: more about the context of your question.
Speaker 8: Yeah, just I'm in the after yesterday. I'm starting to
Speaker 8: kick around the idea of an umbrella policy, et cetera.
Speaker 8: So more from the you know, the auto got you
Speaker 8: insurance aspect of you know, kind of seeing whereas what
Speaker 8: the total you know, the total value I'm at absolutely
Speaker 8: can they come after this huge pair of account you know?
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, that's that's great. Thanks for clearing that up. So,
Speaker 4: so here's basically the way it works. You know, when
Speaker 4: you cause an accident, and when you cause somebody damages,
Speaker 4: you know, ultimately they would have the right to go
Speaker 4: to a jury trial and have a jury decide what
Speaker 4: the totality of those damages are. And let's just say
Speaker 4: that those damages exceeded the amount of insurance that you
Speaker 4: had and for some reason the insurance didn't pony it
Speaker 4: up and you didn't get a settlement, and they're actually
Speaker 4: coming on, you know, and knocking on your door trying
Speaker 4: to collect on this judgment. So at that point, you know,
Speaker 4: there are certain assets that are protected and there are
Speaker 4: those that are not. So so the worst thing to
Speaker 4: have is unencumbered assets of you know, real estate out
Speaker 4: there other than your primary home. There is some some
Speaker 4: homestead protection for your primary home, but it only goes
Speaker 4: up to a certain level. I would probably know what
Speaker 4: that level is. The homestead exemption is two hundred and
Speaker 4: fifty thousand dollars of equity okay if unless you're sixty
Speaker 4: year older or disabled, and three fifty three fifty okay.
Speaker 4: So what that basically means is, if you have a
Speaker 4: million dollar free and clear home, you can you can
Speaker 4: shield up to three hundred and fifty thousand dollars of
Speaker 4: that if you're over that age, but you can't shield
Speaker 4: the balance of it, and so it still can effectively
Speaker 4: result in you having to sell that asset to satisfy
Speaker 4: that judgment. It's just that the first three hundred and
Speaker 4: fifty thousand dollars of that of the proceeds would be
Speaker 4: protected and you would be able to shield those from
Speaker 4: the creditor. As far as other property goes, like tools
Speaker 4: and vehicles and stuff, I mean, there are certain you know,
Speaker 4: most of these exemptions are found in bankruptcy law, but
Speaker 4: they kind of flow over into debt collection laws as well,
Speaker 4: and so there are exemptions safe for tools that you
Speaker 4: use in your feshion and stuff like that. Your retirement
Speaker 4: accounts are largely going to be exempt from collection from
Speaker 4: a creditor. But the better course of action, Glenn, is
Speaker 4: really to to just buy the insurance. I mean, it's
Speaker 4: so cheap to have enough insurance and that umbrella. After
Speaker 4: you have the state minimum or the minimum that they
Speaker 4: require for umbrellas, which for most carriers are like two
Speaker 4: hundred and fifty thousand dollars, that next step of getting
Speaker 4: an umbrella is generally fairly cheap. But again, if you
Speaker 4: heard me say anything yesterday at all, the main reason
Speaker 4: that I have an umbrella is so it opens the
Speaker 4: door to me getting more uninsured coverage to protect me
Speaker 4: and my family. Because all the liability in the world
Speaker 4: only protects you against somebody that you hurt, and the
Speaker 4: more important people to take care of from my perspective
Speaker 4: is myself and my family. And that's where the uninsured
Speaker 4: motorists and the great medical payments coverage and stuff come in.
Speaker 4: And that's just the extra benefit of getting that umbrella
Speaker 4: is it opens the door to the possibility of buying
Speaker 4: that extra uninsured motorist. Does that make sense.
Speaker 8: Pretty much? Yeah, it's good to know. So the umbrella
Speaker 8: for my protection, as you said, that would help cover
Speaker 8: an uninsured motorsors that can have to be added to it.
Speaker 4: Also, so most umbrellas are just an extension of your
Speaker 4: liability coverage. Okay, So the liability is that coverage that
Speaker 4: you have that is solely meant to compensate some other
Speaker 4: person that you cause damages too. It's not generally you know,
Speaker 4: property damage, that's a separate line item that's covered in
Speaker 4: your policy. It's really for you know, the economic and
Speaker 4: non economic damages that flowed from the accident that you caused.
Speaker 4: The state minimum liability is twenty five thousand. That is
Speaker 4: an abysmally low number that I wouldn't recommend that anybody have.
Speaker 4: But as you begin to go the ladder of liability coverage,
Speaker 4: you know they're at a certain point you become eligible
Speaker 4: to buy umbrellas. Most carriers expect you to have two
Speaker 4: fifty to five hundred, meaning two fifty per person and
Speaker 4: up to five hundred per accident before you're allowed to
Speaker 4: buy an umbrella. And that's why umbrellas are pretty cheap,
Speaker 4: because you know ninety percent of accidents, maybe even more
Speaker 4: than that, won't come close to going over that two
Speaker 4: fifty or five hundred thousand dollars threshold. So the likelihood
Speaker 4: that a carrier actually gets tapped for that million dollars
Speaker 4: of liability is fairly low. So it's a pretty cheap
Speaker 4: coverage for them to sell to you. But once you
Speaker 4: get that umbrella policy, you're right, it does not automatically
Speaker 4: impact your your uninsured motorist coverage at all. There are
Speaker 4: no umbrella policies that I'm aware of that automatically extend
Speaker 4: uninsured motorist coverage when they extend your liability limits. That's
Speaker 4: something that requires a separate endorsement or writer they sometimes
Speaker 4: call them. It's just a separate add on provision that
Speaker 4: you have to pay for. But it's not that much.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think in my umbrella, adding the UM
Speaker 4: was maybe another one hundred bucks a year or something.
Speaker 4: Not even that much actually, but it's a lot. It's
Speaker 4: a big umbrella because I've got a really big UM
Speaker 4: policy on my coverage. So make sure when you do that.
Speaker 4: If you listen to Dan yesterday, he told you that
Speaker 4: a number of carriers don't offer those writers, but a
Speaker 4: number of them do, and sometimes it's the specialty lines.
Speaker 4: And if your carrier doesn't offer that additional UM writer,
Speaker 4: find one that does. Call somebody like Dan mahoney that
Speaker 4: can look up all these different carriers and find one
Speaker 4: that offers that for you.
Speaker 8: All right, Glenn, good stuff, thank you.
Speaker 4: All right, thank you for the call. We appreciate it.
Speaker 4: We're going to go to our another break here. We'll
Speaker 4: be right back with more information.
Speaker 10: Go with a sure thing Denver's Best Roofer excel roofing
Speaker 10: dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content,
Speaker 10: leave time for an insurance checkup free no obligation comparison
Speaker 10: call Compass Insurance. Pay too much your coverage at dozens
Speaker 10: of insurance companies find out now three all three, seven
Speaker 10: to seven to one help. You'll think you're his only
Speaker 10: customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate man
Speaker 10: dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three
Speaker 10: oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.
Speaker 4: Shooter Network. We were getting close to the end of
Speaker 4: day and our discussion has turned to car cases and
Speaker 4: values and all that kind of stuff, and I'm going
Speaker 4: to kind of just go off on a little bit
Speaker 4: of a ran about that. Before we get to that,
Speaker 4: I'm going to take the last caller on the line
Speaker 4: that we have here at the moment, which is Jackie.
Speaker 4: That's not to say don't call in if you have
Speaker 4: an issue. Seven one, three, eight two five y five
Speaker 4: is a number area code three oh three. Jackie, you
Speaker 4: have a story on eviction. Tell me what your story is.
Speaker 4: Glad to hear it.
Speaker 21: It's just kind of a funny story about twenty years ago.
Speaker 21: I had to evict somebody from a third floor unit
Speaker 21: in an apartment complex and I don't remember how the
Speaker 21: tenants knew the date that the sheriff was coming out,
Speaker 21: but they let my guys that I was paying for.
Speaker 21: They let my guys take everything down from the third
Speaker 21: floor down to the curb, and then they were waiting
Speaker 21: there at the curb to pick up their stuff.
Speaker 4: Nice. I like it. Yeah, that's kind of like the
Speaker 4: old story about you know, when you're out hunting in
Speaker 4: the woods and this guy shot a big elk way
Speaker 4: back in the woods and stuff, and he's I mean,
Speaker 4: he's so far back and he boomed, the gun goes
Speaker 4: off and he shoots the elk, and next thing you
Speaker 4: hear the game wardens like, game wardens, stop, I need
Speaker 4: to see your license. And he's like, I don't. I
Speaker 4: don't I don't have a license, or I can't find it.
Speaker 4: I don't know where the license is. And he's like, uh,
Speaker 4: you know, we're going to have to drag that elk out.
Speaker 4: It's evidence for you're shooting an elk out of season.
Speaker 4: And a guy like, well, I'm not dragging it out,
Speaker 4: you know, you drag it out, And so the game
Speaker 4: warden drags the elk two miles back to the road
Speaker 4: and everything and all of a sudden, the guy's like, oh, wait,
Speaker 4: here's my license and stuff and he finds it at
Speaker 4: the last minute. That's the same kind of thing there.
Speaker 4: Great Jackie, thanks for sharing that story with us. We
Speaker 4: appreciate it. So here's kind of the thing here. I
Speaker 4: get these calls all the time where people are like, hey,
Speaker 4: you know, I had this accident and I've been treating
Speaker 4: and the insurance company said they wanted to make me
Speaker 4: an offer, and so I've got this offer, and I
Speaker 4: just really don't know if I should accept the offer
Speaker 4: and what I should do. And I'm you know, my
Speaker 4: first question is what happened and find out and everything,
Speaker 4: and then it's it's tell me about the offer, and
Speaker 4: I get something along these lines. The offer is like, Okay,
Speaker 4: we're going to pay you for up to five thousand
Speaker 4: dollars for medical bills that you've incurred up to this date,
Speaker 4: and maybe another five thousand for medical that you you
Speaker 4: might incur for the next ninety days, and then we'll
Speaker 4: give you like a thousand dollars and that'll be it.
Speaker 4: I mean, we're really given till it hurts here. Let
Speaker 4: me just tell you that is not an offer. That's
Speaker 4: not the way the world turns. The medical expenses that
Speaker 4: you incur are entirely the responsibility of the at pop party,
Speaker 4: but they're never going to pay them. You should never
Speaker 4: turn over to the other side the responsibility of negotiating
Speaker 4: and dealing with your medical providers at all. That is
Speaker 4: a bad idea. One of the key things that we
Speaker 4: do is to maximize all of the benefits that you have,
Speaker 4: your medical payments, coverage, your health insurance coverage, and everything else,
Speaker 4: so that those benefits are used in the right order.
Speaker 4: And we tell those at fault parties to sit back
Speaker 4: and wait until the end and then they'll make one
Speaker 4: payment to us for the totality of your damages and
Speaker 4: not ever get into these situations where they get to
Speaker 4: decide what they pay down the road and something like that.
Speaker 4: So if you get an offer that sounds anything like that,
Speaker 4: stop what you're doing at that point and give us
Speaker 4: a call. We can help you work through what exactly
Speaker 4: the insurance company is trying to do to you. So
Speaker 4: that is my two cent rant for the day. Brad,
Speaker 4: thank you for being here. Great information. You know, when
Speaker 4: you need to get a hold of Brad at seven
Speaker 4: two oh three seven oh seven, three, eight eight. As always,
Speaker 4: save all your problems for us. I'll be back to
Speaker 4: talk to you again tomorrow. We'll see you then