Renter didn't pay rent last month~no lease~moved out...?

Question

We (actually my husband) rented out a house for a "friend of a friend". He and his 2 teenagers needed somewhere to live. Rented him the house starting last october, $350/month, with no lease. My hubby gave him 2 months rent FREE until he got back on his feet.
In Aug. he called my cell and left a voicemail stating they were moving out.
In Sept. my hubby went there and the guy still had stuff in the house, plus like 5 JUNK CARS on the property!
I drove by last week and the junk cars are still on the property.
On Oct. 9th, this week he wrote us a check for $350, and on the MEMO it says "August rent, last month of residence, final payment.
What about Sept. rent?? Wouldn't he have to pay it, if he still had stuff in there along with the cars on property? We KNOW he was still there in Sept., because the dog was tied up on the porch. He's stating he didn't live there, he shouldn't have to pay rent.
So without a lease, or we screwed out of Sept. rent?
What to do with cars?

I know, should have written a lease, hubby didn't agree with me.
I also scanned and printed the check this morning before depositing. Dated: Oct. 9, 07...memo says Aug. rent. So, there is little bit of proof he was behind on rent.

I will go there today, if it is unlocked. He never gave us the keys back either.
Then I will let you know what I see.

Answer 1

Without a lease it's a month-to-month tenancy. State law will apply as far as termination notice requirements go but in general the law requires WRITTEN notice of intent to terminate the tenancy. The voicemail he left means nothing.

The only written notice you have is the memo on the check. Since you received that in October the notice would generally become effective on December 1st -- notice must generally span one full rental period so unless rent was due on the 9th it carries to the first of the following month. This assumes that state law mandates 30 days notice. Most do but a few are as little as 15 or as much as 60. Adjust for your local laws.

So, in general, this toad owes you rent through the end of November, 2007. Good luck collecting on it, but you have a strong case for Small Claims Court. The fact that his dog and other personal property were still at the place bolsters your claim that he was still "occupying" the residence, even if he wasn't sleeping there.

As far as any property is concerned, you generally must send written notice to his last know address giving him 30 days to claim any abandoned property. After the 30 days expires, you can generally dispose of the property as you see fit.

Special rules generally apply to abandoned vehicles. Any towing company can fill you in on that for free.

Answer 2

Document, Document, Document. This will be the only way you will get anything out of him. Do you still have his check? If not, when you finally get to court take all documents of his payments. This will show the judge, that though he didn't have a lease agreement you were in a "verbal" agreement with rent. The only thing that might stand in your way is did you stipulate how long he was going to stay there? That will be a question, so make sure you have a good answer. Take pictures of the property now with the junk cars, worse case you might get him for damages of the property which then just have the cars towed for free with a junk car removal. You CAN charge him for damages of the property.

Take this as a lesson learned and always get a lease no matter what.. Good luck to you and hope you get your money!

Answer 3

Bet you won't do the no lease thing again. Live and learn. You should file now in small claims court for damages (ie car removal). You are likely up the creek with out a rent agreement and given that you accpeted a check that he wrote final payment on. Never take a check that says that unless you counter it by writing taken with reservations on it. In the past our office policy has been if you write final payment, we will ask you to make out a new check. I think you may do best to cut your loss, clean up the place and rent again with a good lease (and a ref check on the new tenant). The truth is all landlords have one or two tenants that they look back at and say "this is when I learned...". Don't be to hard on your DH-his heart was in the right place. One thing I would advise in addition to the lease for the next person is that you do a walk through of the place with a quick check sheet. We have this with all tenants and it simply is a list of roooms and appliances-take a look around, ask them to make note of any problems, both of you sign off on it and it gets stapled to the lease. Good luck.

Answer 4

If you get this straightened out with her, start charging a late fee (5%?) for any month you don't received her check by the 3rd of the month. If her rent is, say $500 a month, she would owe $525 if you don't receive it by the 3rd. Or, I had one perpetually late renter that I charged a daily $5 fee if I didn't receive the rent on time. He changed from being an average of 15 days late ($75 late fee) to paying on time always.

Answer 5

Jane dough is sounds bad for you. Doesn't pay to try to help friends with money. A business transaction should be handled as a business transaction. So you're out the Sept rent and you will have to pay to have the cars towed away.
What you could do is see if you can find a place that will take them for parts and maybe it won't cost you so much.

Answer 6

Even if you had documentation to move forward in the courts, it will probably cost you more to recover the outstanding rent and/or for the cost of removing the "junk" cars. You call the cars junk, but the key is the license plates....if the plates are valid, then you may have to play the game of notification to the owner of record before taking steps to having them removed.

If the cars do not have valid license plates, then you better get them removed off the property or you as property owners may face ticketing by the municipalities housing department.

Answer 7

You don't need a lease. Rentals without one are treated as month to month.

You should be able to handle this in small claims court. You will get the rent, any damages (photograph them) and any expense involved with towing his cars away.

I personally would try to get Octobers rent too, as you coudl not rent it because of the condition of the property and the personal property left.

Answer 8

Is this a legally rented house? Are you claiming the rent on your taxes etc? I am not making nay claims, I just know some people do not. IF YOU ARE, then you can proceed trying to recoup some money for clean up and rent. Take pictures of everything.

The cars. Have them towed by a salvage guy. They will usually pay YOU to take them. This will help recoup some rent.

Save nothing. Throw everything in the garbage. Hopefully the jerk left something of value to him that he wants back.

Treat it as a lesson learned

Answer 9

I would expect that you wont get much out of this other than a lesson learned that no good deed goes unpunished. If you take him to court you will win but good luck getting paid. Best thing to do, bit the bullet, clean up the place, rent it out and dont give deals to friends of friends. Unfortunately there are alot of users out there.

Answer 10

Yeah, you're screwed out of the rent. You can sue him for the cost of removal and cleaning of the place, since he left property there, but rent is out the window.