I say hit them hard and hit them fast.   When headed into a lawsuit with tenant, you need to hit them hard and hit them fast.  Case in point.

In October of 2017, I filed an eviction lawsuit based for non-payment of rent for a property in Pinellas Park, Florida.  The story was this:  Back in 2015, two women that lived in the same neighborhood were friends.  Friend number one had financial problems and was in foreclosure.  Friend  number two was being transferred out of state by her job.  You guessed it, friend number one (the lady with financial problems) convinced friend number two to let her rent friend number two’s house.

Two years later, friend number two loses her job and wants to move back into her own house.  Unbelievably, friend number one refuses to move out and claims that she is buying the house.  Friend number two came to me in tears.  No job and no place to live.  I filed a quick eviction in the County Court.  Thankfully friend number one (the crazy tenant) filed an answer containing a rambling bunch of nonsense and the eviction lawsuit was quickly decided in favor of my client.

After the eviction, the crazy tenant convinced another lawyer to sue friend number two in the Circuit Court claiming that she was actually buying the house, not renting, and that she wanted the money refunded if friend number two wasn’t going to sell her the house.  No kidding.

The crazy tenant that lost her own house in foreclosure filed a lawsuit saying that my client had breached an agreement to sell her another house.  Because the crazy tenant’s claim for refund was not alleged as an issue in the original County Court eviction case, I raised the compulsory counterclaim rule as a defense and got the Circuit Court to dismiss the frivolous lawsuit at the first hearing.  It was a slam dunk.

The other lawyer walked out of the courthouse with her head spinning.   Also, when my client got back into her own house, it was an absolute mess.  It looked like the crazy tenant had not cleaned the house in two years.  It was filthy.

The lesson here is simple.  Never rent to friends.  When headed into a lawsuit with a tenant, hit them hard, hit them fast, and hire a lawyer that knows what he is doing.