QUESTION
I am a landlord. Tonight my case was dismissed due to the fact that I was required to be represented by a lawyer.
Asked on Oct 28th, 2014 on Civil Litigation - West Virginia
More details to this question:
I have been a landlord since 2008. When I evict tenants I don't hire a lawyer to represent myself---I do it myself with the magistrates. But tonight, my case was dismissed, because the lawyer of my tenant told the magistrate that I should have hired myself a lawyer because the lease the tenant signed was under my LLC name---but not under my name as a sole owner of that LLC listed as the plaintiff. The magistrate agreed to my tenant's lawyer--thus my case was dismissed tonight. Can you kindly explain as to why I was required to get me a lawyer this time??? my first time!
1 ANSWER
An llc is a separate legal entity. You don't own the property and are not the landlord; rather you own the llc which owns the property and it is the landlord. As a non-lawyer, you are allowed to act as your own attorney, but not to practice law by representing anyone or anything else, such as the llc. If you bought 100% of the stock of IBM, it would still be a separate entity, even though you owned it, and would still require a lawyer to represent it. This is probably the first time anyone picked up on the problem in your eviction cases and raised it with the judge.
Answered on Oct 28th, 2014 at 2:12 PM