I sometimes run into landlords and property managers who want to dictate the court schedule by filing the eviction complaint themselves. Their plan is to file the eviction complaint as soon as possible in order to get the earliest court date. From there, I will come in and represent them at the hearing. Usually landlords are in a hurry because they were not in a hurry when they should have been. They should have been in a hurry to post the 3 day eviction notice for nonpayment of rent, but they bought the tenant’s story that money would be coming soon. And then they bought the story two or three more times. Now, the landlord can’t wait any longer and needs to get the eviction court process started yesterday.
If the landlord has put his rental property under the name of an LLC, a Limited Liability Company, the owner of the LLC (usually the landlord) or a member of the LLC cannot file an eviction complaint with the court on behalf of the LLC. Doing so constitutes the unauthorized practice of law, and an attorney cannot come into the picture later, represent the LLC at the hearing, and save the day. The attorney must file the eviction complaint at the very start. The landlord cannot file the eviction complaint on behalf of the LLC. If the landlord does, the eviction action must be dismissed, and the landlord must start all over by having the attorney file the new eviction case. This was the holding in Sheridan Mobile Village, Inc. v. Larsen, 78 Ohio App.3d 203 (4th Dist. 1992). The tenth district court of appeals approvingly cited Sheridan in Geiger v. King, 158 Ohio App.3d 288 (10th Dist. 2004).
Landlords cannot take matters into their hands and file an eviction complaint on behalf of an LLC that owns the rental property. If they do, they will cost themselves additional time and money.