help me!!!!! i need advice!!!

I housed tenants, who were friends, in my home for 5 1/2
months only charging them for 4 months. I only recieved
2 months rent and was never paid over $3000 that I
loaned to the tenants for moving expenses, food, utilities,
destroyed room renovations, cell phone, ect. One of the
tenants has been in rehab for the last month and hit my 4
year old daughter. His wife continued to live here for a
month and never paid what she had arranged with us to
pay 3 different times. I sold the tenants tv and xbox for
$600 to pay my utilities thinking that I would never retain
the money owed for rent ect. I am now being threatened
with criminal charges by the tenants father for what he
calls theft, for selling his son's items. The tenants have all
moved out and I am now getting these threats by the
father in another state. I want to pursue a small claims
court claim to reclaim money owed to me. I also fear for
myself getting criminal charges for the sale of his items,
and wonder if I should charge him with assalt for pushing
my 4yr old daughter.

[OHlandlord]

Wow, you made some mistakes here I'm afraid. First, NEVER rent to friends or family. It never turns out well. Often the LL won't get paid and the tenants think they can slide on it because the LL is a friend. IT works out this way very frequently.

Second, you had no right to sell any of their belongings, no matter how much they owed you. The proper course of action would have been to serve them with the appropriate Pay or Quit notice for your state, then to file for eviction if they didn't pay what they owed you. Once evicted, you could file in small claims (or other appropriate court) for a judgment against them. This won't necessarily make them pay, but it will appear on their credit report for anyone to see. This would make it difficult for them to find new housing (the eviction) or to finance new items (cars, houses, large ticket items, RTO places, etc.). You could be liable for stealing and selling their items. This is illegal conversion of their property. Had they left the items and abandoned the unit, and had you thereafter stored them for a proper amount of time (usually 30 days) without their attempt to retrieve them, then you could possibly have sold them to regain some money (again, depending on your state laws).

Third is the court issues. You may file against them in small claims court to get a judgment of what they owe you. (File against everyone who lived there.) You would need to have him served in his new state. He would have to return to your state for the hearing or lose by forfeit. You probably have several years to file against him depending on the statute of limitations for contracts in your state. He could file criminal charges against you for the theft and illegal conversion of his property. Again, he would have to return to your state and county to do this. (How likely is he to return?) After a period of time, the police may question why he has taken so long to report this (surely he would have noticed the theft long ago.) If the assault was over a month ago, the police may or may not choose to take a report on it now. Again, the police may question why you took so long to report this.

good advice!!