Happy Thanksgiving Week In The USA!
Where does the time go? Suddenly we are in the holiday season. With that we celebrate a very American holiday this coming week. Thursday is Thanksgiving and Friday is unofficially labeled Black Friday. On Thursday we feast with family. Friday used to be the biggest shopping day of the year. Before on-line shopping became a thing. Now Friday is a day celebrated in many different ways.
We want you to know that our office staff will be rewarded with Thursday and Friday off work this coming week. Our customer service mailboxes will remain opened and monitored for emergency requests. Our 24/7 maintenance will also still be functioning. We do want our team to have the ability to enjoy the holiday while continuing to serve your tenant's needs and protecting your properties.
Eviction Diversion Meets With Few Participants
Challenges continue in possession cases in certain courts across Indiana. Are these Judges following the lead of the Indiana Supreme Court? The Supreme Court ordered an eviction diversion program be started effective November 1. Using federal funding, the local court is required to advise tenants and landlords at the first hearing of any possession (eviction) case about the mediation program.
This program facilitates landlords and tenants sitting down at a table and working out their differences. And the landlord committing to not take further legal action for 90 days after the facilitation.
Tenants think this is a great idea. So do all of their advocates. Housing providers are not surprised to see that in the first week of this program there were only 8 cases (of 331 requested by tenants) where a housing provider or their representative agreed to participate.
The majority of all possession filings are simply cases where the tenant is refusing to make any payments. Or have disappeared. If a tenant will communicate with us, and make regular payments, we give them a pretty long rope. I confirmed this week with our attorney that is exactly what she is also seeing. Housing providers and their representatives do not wish to evict people. It is the very last step. Why would anyone agree to a mediation after the tenant fails to make payments or communicate for months?
The concern now is the tenant lawyers are asking the Supreme Court to make this facilitation mandatory. In our opinion, this would amount to an over-step of authority and not acceptable in a State we still believe to be a reasonable place to do business.
Happy Holidays!
WILMOTH Team | 
