A landlord is charged with a felony after deputies say she attacked a tenant for being late on his rent.
“She just walks right through the door. No knocking. No nothing,” Chris Coviello said.
Coviello rents a home in Holiday from Wannetta Taylor. He said he was not expecting her company a few days ago when she showed up unannounced at night.
“She started letting my animals out. She started moving my pictures off the wall,” Coviello said.
Coviello is not making excuses for not paying rent on time.
“She says well I’m moving in and you’re moving out today and I said it doesn’t work that way,” Coviello said.
He said the landlord moved a frame to the front porch and then attacked him.
“I picked up the picture. I turn(ed) around to hang it back up on the wall and she punched me in the back,” he said.
Coviello said they had both agreed he was moving out by February 17th, which is why he did not understand why she took matters into her own hands.
“When I stood in front of the door so she couldn’t get back into the residence, she pushed me into this wall, hit me again, and then swung the door into me,” he said.
Deputies said the landlord should have gone to court and filed a petition for eviction instead of taking it upon herself to kick him out.
“Get information online or a simple phone call (from) this landlord could have helped alleviate any type of angry situation,” Sgt. Chris Thomas, with the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office, said.
Coviello plans to rent somewhere else, briefly, before buying a home.
“Renting it could be bad for either side you know what I mean. It is what it is. They agreed…I agreed to move out and all of a sudden that happened,” Coviello said.
Taylor is charged with Burglary Residence with Simple Battery/Assault.
