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Eviction startup gets gig workers to help landlords kick people out

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Re: Eviction startup gets gig workers to help landlords kick people out

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The others just took risks of civil penalties. There are criminal penalties if you evict someone forcible and unlawfully. It’s really not even worth the civil penalties. The tenants can stay on your property longer and even when you do evict them, lawyers love suing landlords on a contingency basis.

Criminal penalties the gig workers would be liable for. I'm sure this startup has hired the best lawyers to make sure that liability doesn't extend to them.

Liability is a civil matter. If I tell a bunch of thugs to harass store owners for money, the cops can come after me.

Re: Eviction startup gets gig workers to help landlords kick people out

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Criminal penalties the gig workers would be liable for. I'm sure this startup has hired the best lawyers to make sure that liability doesn't extend to them.

Liability is a civil matter. If I tell a bunch of thugs to harass store owners for money, the cops can come after me .

But if you tell a bunch of thugs to do a job with ill specified parameters, and they try to solve the problem by harassing store owners, you can blame them for obviously going outside the bounds of intent, right?

You run a legitimate protection business. Of course you wouldn't extort money by breaking store owners' legs. ;)

Setting up a situation where there is risk of breakdown and structuring that situation so if the breakdown happens, all of the responsibility falls on the gig workers who lack the means to defend themselves and none of it falls on the company making all the money is an already understood pathology of the gig economy. Uber has spent so much time, effort, and money trying to convince legislatures and courts that they don't have any employees providing ride services for a reason.

Re: Eviction startup gets gig workers to help landlords kick people out

#83
post #11

Untrained gig workers. Angry tenants. I can't imagine what could go wrong here.

I'd bet their screening process is initially going to be very poor. Meaning that some of the gig workers may be the evictees themselves.

Silver lining: you can get paid to move to another place if you game this correctly.

Re: Eviction startup gets gig workers to help landlords kick people out

#84
post #6

Who in their right mind would work this type of job? I suppose if you were going to get kicked out of your apartment, you might do this. Evicting people can be very dangerous, not to mention depressing.

When I was a landlord and had to evict people, I hired a guy who got a crew of day laborers to actually move everything out. If you evict people legally - at least in my state - you have to schedule a 2 hour window with the police and they are present supervising during the entire process. Also, the eviction process required at least 5 people to be present to actual clean the unit out depending on the size of the hou…

I don't understand why folks are downvoting this comment. It's valid and important information about the legal process of eviction.

Re: Eviction startup gets gig workers to help landlords kick people out

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Liability is a civil matter. If I tell a bunch of thugs to harass store owners for money, the cops can come after me .

But if you tell a bunch of thugs to do a job with ill specified parameters, and they try to solve the problem by harassing store owners, you can blame them for obviously going outside the bounds of intent, right? You run a legitimate protection business. Of course you wouldn't extort money by breaking store owners' legs. ;) Setting up a situation where there is risk of breakdown and structuring that situation so if t…

There is really only one guideline to eviction procedures after you have won the court case - at least in my state. You must wait for someone from the sheriff’s office.

The sheriff is responsible for removing the person. You and your crew that you have hired is responsible for removing items and changing the locks. You aren’t responsible for any damage to personal items or what happens when you put them on the side of the road - where you are legally required to put the items at least for a single tenant house.

Re: Eviction startup gets gig workers to help landlords kick people out

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was a landlord and had to evict people, I hired a guy who got a crew of day laborers to actually move everything out. If you evict people legally - at least in my state - you have to schedule a 2 hour window with the police and they are present supervising during the entire process. Also, the eviction process required at least 5 people to be present to actual clean the unit out depending on the size of the hou…

I don't understand why folks are downvoting this comment. It's valid and important information about the legal process of eviction.

I don’t either. No one is commenting that any thing I’ve posted is factually incorrect.

The company is doing nothing differently except putting hiring day laborers online. Home Depot wasn’t liable when the guy I hired picked up a crew from the parking lot. We waited for someone from the police department to show up - as legally required - and started the cleanup process.

It is up to the landlord to follow the law.

Re: Eviction startup gets gig workers to help landlords kick people out

#87
post #5

This is kinda sick: hire someone desperate to have a job and that job is to evict someone from where they live. How many ways could this possibly go wrong? (And has Fix television optioned this for reality TV yet?)

There's already a series in the UK where sheriffs come to your house to reposes items or evict you. It's brutal but it's their job. I would not be able to do such a job.

"Can't Pay? We'll Take It Away", it's some of the most egregious poverty porn out there. These High Court bailiffs (who are employees of a private company, because of course) show up at people's doorsteps; if it's because of a debt, they demand payment or start taking inventory of items to seize.

So my only knowledge of this part of UK law comes from watching this garbage TV, but what amazes me is how much freedom the officers seem to have with respect to how strict their enforcement actions are. In some cases they only ask for a small amount of the debt and a payment plan to make up the rest, but if the debtor's uncooperative or a bit of a dick, the officers are going to start towing cars and carrying out TVs.

Re: Eviction startup gets gig workers to help landlords kick people out

#88

Maybe someone will create a startup where you can hire another crew of gig workers to fight the landlord's crew and then create some sort of social media platform to stream the fights and make money from it by making the viewers pay to keep the stream online...

it can be called http://yourpersonalarmy.io

Re: Eviction startup gets gig workers to help landlords kick people out

#89
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's already a series in the UK where sheriffs come to your house to reposes items or evict you. It's brutal but it's their job. I would not be able to do such a job.

"Can't Pay? We'll Take It Away", it's some of the most egregious poverty porn out there. These High Court bailiffs (who are employees of a private company, because of course) show up at people's doorsteps; if it's because of a debt, they demand payment or start taking inventory of items to seize. So my only knowledge of this part of UK law comes from watching this garbage TV, but what amazes me is how much freedom th…

>These High Court bailiffs (who are employees of a private company, because of course)

Yeah, about that, how the f*ck is that legal?! How can the government outsource law enforcement to private companies? Corruption?

It feels like the RoboCop of the 80's where OCP owned the Detroit Police Force and were carying out evictions.

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