Any landlords dealing with non-paying tenets out there?

Question

Evicting is very expensive. Any other suggestions to motivate him to either pay or move out?

Answer 1

Three day pay or quit did not help? Have a friend attorney send a letter advising that they will be sued and it will go on their record then you will give their account to collection to make sure it will be collected even if it takes 10 years.
Giving the account to collection will not cost you they just take a certain contingency fee. So express what I suggested and see how they will react.

Answer 2

I learned this from a friend and it worked quite well.

Approach the tenant and ask them why they are not paying the rent. Ask if there was some problem or feature they felt needed to be addressed. Such as a loose hand rail; leaking faucet; toilet not flushing; .... Basically you are giving them the idea that you think they are not paying because something is wrong with the rental. Get them to give you a bunch of problems. Make a list of these and have them sign a statement authorizing you to make said repairs.

With the aforementioned suggestions in mind you would do as follows. Block off the stairs where the loose hand rail is located (if there's a door on the stairway place a keyed lock and do not give the tenant a key). Best to be safe until you can properly repair the loose hand rail. Remove the faucet and toilet.

When they ask when you're going to finish the repairs. Tell them you are working on it...

Make their life miserable and they'll leave. But the key here is not to place a repair by date on the agreement. My friend had the dead beats out of his rental inside a month. Of course he was required to perform some extra cleaning and repair work after they were done, but, they they were out and he could get some decent renters.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

I have been both a landlord and a tenant.

Doing things to "make their life miserable" as the other poster (Paul) suggested will get you sued. I know because I settled for almost $9,000 after a crazy landlord did similar things to me. It may also get you arrested. My landlord was. It's a long story, but he wanted my apartment for his mother and had no cause to evict me (I paid my rent, didn't break the rules, etc), so he decided to "make my life miserable" in the hopes that I would leave. In the end, he was the only one who was miserable.

Paul, if your "friend" tried that here, he would be paying for a hotel for his tenants to live in while they had no toilet. And not having a "repair by" date on a repair agreement absolves the landlord of absolutely nothing. Being a landlord does not give you the right to harass and create health hazards.

If someone is not paying their rent, you are spinning your wheels by doing anything other than filing in court for eviction based upon non-payment. Eviction is not expensive. File and be done with it.

Oh, and scaring a tenant into moving based upon fake "14 day notices" could get you sued also. A judge could agree that it was a self-help eviction and give the tenants posession of the apartment again. It never ceases to amaze me how many scummy people there are who have no shame about trying to get around the law. You think you are being slick, but you're not.

Do it the right way. File, take the tenant to court and get legal posession of the apartment. The longer you wait, the more money they will owe. It is in your best interests to file sooner rather than later.

You can always file in small claims for the owed rent after they are out. If the tenants have jobs, you may be able to have their wages garnished.

Answer 4

Go knock on your tenant's door or call them and nicely tell them that you have a mortgage to pay and you rely on that rent. Then say, "I'd like to get the check now." If they can't come up with it and can't make a promise as to when they can give it to you within a couple of days, tell them you will have to start eviction proceedings. Then, you can personally hand them a "14 Day Notice to Quit and Deliver Up the Premises." You can google those words and come up with many options. Then, they have officially been notified that within 14 days, they have to pay or get out. Many tenants will take that notice very seriously and either pay or get out. Some other losers know the system well and will milk it for all it's worth. After 14 days, if they still don't pay or get out, go to Housing Court and start the eviction proceedings. It will be well worth any cost and effort to get rid of these dead-beats! Then, you can always take them to small claims court later to collect the unpaid rent. Presumably, they won't show up at court if they don't care about paying their rent. But at least, you'll get a judgement that can go on their credit record. When you do interview future prospective tenants, always ask them how their credit is. I usually get an honest answer to that question because they know we can do a credit check to find out anyway (but a credit check is too expensive). If they say "it's not so good", keep looking for somebody who says "it's excellent!" Good luck to you! =)

Answer 5

I had same problem with my condo. Go file a case at the county court. This won't cost you much. The court will send your tenant a summon. if you pay about $ 10.00 more, County sheriff will hand deliver the paper. In most of case , this will scare the tenant to pay or move out if they can. In case they have no-money and no place to go, they will stay your place long as they can for free. Do this fast as you can. It takes time for court to work for you. You don't need lawyer for this. It costs less than you think, and all cost will be tax deductible. Real cost will be your lost rent. Good luck !

Answer 6

Ours is - he's raising our rent, when we can barely afford what we are paying now. If we give him any money, we will have nothing toward moving. If we give what we have to a new landlord, we will get bad credit reports from the old landlord - think about what renters have to go through - it's not cheap for them either.

Answer 7

do not know where you live but in my area it cost about 100 to file in court and another 35 for sheriff service, which you can recapture at hearing only legal way to remove is eviction

Answer 8

If you resort to any of the methods "proverbs" suggests you won't have to worry about evicting them, they will evict you when they sue you for everything and win!

It's a cruel, cruel world!

Answer 9

Don't want no trrouble. Didn't mean to cause more trouble. Sorry. Good luck to you. I feel for you. :0)