Hi,

Someone I know is being summoned to court for an eviction hearing. This is the situation as I know it.

He lives in the New Orleans area. As many of you may know, Hurricane Katrina caused a lot of damage in that area. The apartment he has been renting received some water. The last time I saw his apartment, mold was ~3-4 ft up all the walls. For 1.5 to 2 months he attempted to contact the real estate agent responsible for handling the apartments, but it took a while before they were reached. From what I understand, they finally agreed to repair/replace the damage caused by the hurricane to the apartment itself. A time was scheduled, but they never came to do the repairs. I believe this was in November or December, about 3 months after the hurricane. They claimed they stopped by a few times to attempt to do the repairs but no one was home. I do not believe he was ever notified, as he works long hours at a restaurant. After speaking with the real estate agent, he was told they would not do the repairs until he paid his rent, however he did not want to pay as they would not repair the apartment. A few days later he sends the rental check for the past few months to the real estate agent; a couple of days after that he receives a summons to court. A formal eviction notice was never issued and there inability, or lack of willingness, to contact tenats after the storm for repairs is inexcusable. What recourse is available to him. Can he sue them? All he actually wants is to have them fix the apartment and have it end right there. The rent has already been sent, even thou the landlords have not taken care of their responsibilities for the last few months. Any suggestions or advice would be helpful.

Thanks for your time.

If he has received a summons then court action is in the works, it may have even been started prior to them getting paid.

They will need to go to the hearing, with all the receipts where they paid the back rents.

Now there are a lot of other isues going on down there at this time, One is that the Feds have not released a new approved flood map where people will be able to buy flood insurance. In many areas they are being told not to rebuild because if flood insurance is not available they may not allow people to rebuild there. Many people are moving inito areas where the government may latter force them to leave again.

Most investors are not going to do any improvements until they know if the property will be able to be used. Also many did not have flood insurance and can not afford to make improvements, so even those that want to fix things can't afford to. Next those that had insurance may still have to wait months to get the money.

Thanks for the information, I'll take it into account while I try to find out more about this.