Four siblings inherit a $700k rental home, but the youngest brother unilaterally evicts the 16-year tenant, who then maliciously complies with a court order that costs them $150k: 'His 3 siblings split the proceeds and he got nothing'

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Jun 28, 2025 10:00 AM EDT

A loyal tenant is worth more than your mortgage. My husband and I bought an apartment a few years back—a real fixer upper—that we now live in. Soon, we'll have to move for one reason or another, and now we're faced with the dilemma of becoming landlords or cutting our losses. The biggest fear, for me, is getting stuck with a bad renter. A renter who destroys the kitchen tile, lets their cat piddle in the corners of the carpet, and pours bacon grease straight down the drain is a landlord's worst nightmare. So when a homeowner finds a long-standing, loyal tenant, you better hold on tight and thank your lucky stars for that person, because they're paying your mortgage!

The family in this next story inherited multiple properties from their father's estate but only one of them had a long-time tenant living there. Hoping to liquidate the home for their own personal gain, one of the four siblings took it upon himself to be make the worst decisions possible on behalf of his siblings. Because after a month of rough-housing, aggressing, and intimidating their once-loyal tenant, this 16-year ally turned quickly into their worst nightmare, costing them $150k in the process.

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    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • "All modifications must be restored to the original."
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  • My family and I moved into a house in 2008 - 5 bedrooms, 3,200 sq ft, $1,600 a month. It was a decent price in 2008, and the rent stayed the same for many years. Since I'm reasonably handy, I would fix things
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  • myself rather than bother an old man. I lived there so long that I also made quite a few upgrades. In 2024, the owner passed away, and his son inherited the property. A
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  • week later, he gave notice of intent to inspect the property. During the inspection, he kept trying to open drawers and look through my belongings, which isn't legally allowed, and was rude when I
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  • stopped him. As he left, he handed me a notice that my rent was increasing to $4,000 monthly, about $1,000 over market value. I would have paid higher rent if it had been reasonable, but I wasn't paying that much.
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  • My month-to-month lease was worded to require three months' notice to raise the rent. I pointed out this fact, then gave him notice that I would be moving out at the end of that three months.
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  • A few days later, I was served with an eviction notice. The month-to-month lease also required three months' notice to evict me without cause, so he tried evicting me with cause. He claimed I had made "unauthorized
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  • modifications" to the house and cited the back door with a dog door installed. I still had the original door in the garage and the previous owner's
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  • permission, so it was neither unauthorized nor a modification. Regardless, the judge decided I needed to move out within 30 days, or he would grant the eviction. Additionally, he explicitly ordered that all modifications be restored to the original.
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  • This is where the malicious compliance comes in, and I'm sure you already see this coming. All the "Smart House" additions I made were removed. The tool shed in the yard was removed. The pond was
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  • filled in. Closet organizers were torn out. Garage organizers were removed. The updated appliances were replaced with basic models. Every update I made was removed, and then I moved out.
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  • He sued me for removing everything. His lawyer cited a law that says any changes to the property become part of the property, and it's illegal to remove them when vacating the property. However, my lawyer
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  • pointed out the order from the previous judge, stating, "All modifications must be restored to the original." I provided receipts for all the things I had removed, proving I had added them and was required to
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  • remove them. I won the case, and he had to pay my legal fees. A few months later, I got a call from his sister. Some of my mail had not been forwarded, and she wanted to
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  • ensure I got it. We had a short conversation about the entire ordeal. She told me the house was actually inherited by four siblings. Her brother had lied to everyone.
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  • First, he had raised the rent, knowing I would move out. He already had a deal to sell the house to one of those big rental companies. He told his siblings the house had negative equity and nobody would get
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  • anything from the sale. In reality, the house was paid off and worth about $700,000. They had made an offer on the house, which included all the stuff I
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  • later removed. He couldn't afford to replace everything, so they took him to court over the sale. Since all four siblings were listed as owners, all were named in the lawsuit, which is how they learned the truth.
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  • In the end, the house sold for $550,000. In exchange for not pressing fraud charges against him, his three siblings split the proceeds, and he got nothing.
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  • Edit: A lot of people asked the same questions. Rather than respond to them individually, I will post them here. Q. How did everything happen so fast after the landlord dd?
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  • A. I guess my wording wasn't clear. don't actually know when he d d. I only talked to the guy once or twice a year. This all started about a week after I was notified of his death in
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  • February of 2024. I moved out in early June. We went to court over the removals in September, and I spoke with his sister in December. Everything I posted happened over the span of nearly a year.
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  • Q. Why did I rent for 17 years instead of buying a house? A. I moved into the house during my divorce in 2008. Buying a house during a divorce is not easy. I chose this house because it was large enough for me and three kids and close to their schools. By the time they moved out, I was set in my ways. I planned to buy another place at some point but was in no rush.
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  • Q. How did his siblings not know what he was up to? A. I don't know. Everything involving me was my firsthand experience. Everything that happened after that was secondhand information I got from his sister. I can't confirm what she told me; I can only share what she said.
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  • Q. Why did I do so many upgrades in a rental? A. I wasn't tearing out walls or replacing floors. Everything I did was reversible and done to make my life easier. Also, the landlord was retired, never raised the rent, and always gave permission. Even though I was renting, it was my home.
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  • Q. Why did the judge only give me 30 days to move out? A. The eviction process didn't happen overnight. I thought this was obvious, but some people seem confused. From the point that I gave him three months' notice to seeing a judge, nearly two months had passed. There is a timed process that has to be followed.
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  • Q. How did I remove everything so quickly? A. None of the stuff was difficult to remove. The pond was not a small lake. It was a small 300-gallon hole in the backyard with a few goldfish and plants. It took us about three hours
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  • to drain and fill it in. The shed was sold to someone who took it away on a flatbed. Organizers were modular. Appliances are simple to replace. The most time-consuming was replacing all the smart plugs with standard outlets and smart bulbs with regular bulbs.
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  • Q. How are we supposed to believe you had all those receipts? A. I've been self-employed for 29 years. I keep every receipt because Uncle Sam doesn't mess around when it comes time for an audit. Most receipts come to my email, but I also have a portable receipt scanner for everything else.
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  • Q. How would anyone believe the house had negative equity? A. Again, I can't speak for them, but I can share a personal anecdote. My mother died in 2022. While settling her estate, we discovered that she had a reverse mortgage. Essentially,
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  • a company loaned her money with no mortgage payments. In return, they had to be paid back if she d d or tried to sell the house. The house wasn't worth enough to pay them off,
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  • so we let them take it. Reverse mortgages are prevalent and often predatory. I don't know if he told them this, but it's not far-fetched to believe a house has negative equity.
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  • bedwithoutsheets ⚫ I'm glad he got what was coming to him in the end (although some jail time on top wouldn't be unwelcome to the story) but I hope that 30 day eviction didn't seriously f you up, op! I know how hard that can be
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