Bad Tenants

[DrFaroohk]

After moving in with her new beau, my mom decided to rent her house out. Now she's got an awful drug-dealing shitbird of a tenant, and she can't get her out. She's violated pretty much every part of the lease, and the way the laws work around here it's still going to cost an arm and a leg and take forever to get the girl out - especially since she's going to jail soon. Going to jail = can't get to court = can't move out of her house = my mom is stuck with it.

[Flyndaran]

That's not quite right. Trials happen all the time without one of the parties.
If that's what a lawyer said, then she needs to talk to a better one.

[linguist]

besides which, depending on the terms of the lease, incarceration can be viewed as abandonment. i know the standard leases around here have that clause. if your mom's lease has a similar clause, and she's not out by the time she goes to jail, your mom is within her rights to confiscate everything she finds in the house as payment toward whatever may be owed for damages and back rent. then she can still take her to court for whatever the difference is.