Collecting Rent
Have a problem with how to handle a delinquent tenant who I’ve posted about before. Basically, as of today, he still owes me July and August rent (about $4,400). For a while he was non-communicative, but lately he has been communicating and making rough plans to pay me. The problem is he breaks every one…
Have a problem with how to handle a delinquent tenant who I’ve posted about before. Basically, as of today, he still owes me July and August rent (about $4,400). For a while he was non-communicative, but lately he has been communicating and making rough plans to pay me. The problem is he breaks every one of these promises and still hasn’t paid. His lease ends on September 15. He has made references to him honoring it and moving out. He has not come right out and said I’m leaving, but has alluded to looking for another place. I have also managed to get inside the unit, and he has not taken very good care of it. The damage done is definitely greater than the security deposit. I feel like this guy is walking all over me, and am at the point where I am seriously thinking about having my lawyer write a 72 hour demand letter for the $4,400 he owes me for July and August rent. Ok or terrible idea?
Rather than ask what’s wrong with you, I think it’s more productive to affirm Donatella’s basic point, that people very rarely walk all over you unless you’ve given them permission to do so. In addition to screening your prospective tenants better, it sounds like a good idea to rethink your communication strategy with your next tenant.
It’s a power relationship. The expectations you lay out as a landlord, explicit or implicit, are what you’ll receive in return from the tenant. A lot of people who aren’t comfortable with power get into trouble because they assume that all nice people will operate with a common sense of what’s right or appropriate, and that no further communication is necessary. Instead of clearly defining what they want and what will happen if they don’t get it, they wait for the other person to act, create an implicit expectation on the tenant’s part that there’s room to move here, and then get offended or judgmental when they find out that the tenant has different values, can’t read their mind, or was looking for an opening to exploit.
It sounds like you expected this tenant to follow some rules like pay on time and take care of the place, but that your expectations and consequences weren’t laid out clearly, and so he took advantage. He should have known from day one that if his rent is X days late it costs X amount, and that if he gets X months behind, you go to court. You should begin your relationship with these expectations clearly set and the consequences clearly communicated, so that all you have to do is follow through on what you said would happen at the beginning.
This book has an excellent blow-by-blow for clear and professional communication between landlord and tenant.
http://www.amazon.com/Landlording-Handymanual-Scrupulous-Landladies-Themselves/dp/0932956300/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282196608&sr=1-7
Get him out of there. What’s going on with YOU???? Get your money, don’t renew the lease, get an attorney for a consultation now. It is your property. YOu are in charge.
If you don’t figure out this situration you will have the tenants walking all over you situation again and again.
Here are the rules. You take care of the place. Tenant pays you. The rules get broken, you go to tenant/landlord court immediately. What is wrong with you????????
I mean, this is certainly the downside of being a landlord. Ultimately to continue negotiating with someone who is unreliable and untrustworthy seems counterproductive. Believe me, I’ve tried everything to work it out amicably with the guy. I don’t think anything other than a letter from the courts is going to make it real to him. The person above me, who said to make sure you screen your renters is 100% correct. Triple screen them. I took a chance on someone I shouldn’t have because of the horrible rental market last summer. Landlords, don’t take any chances and don’t give anyone the benefit of the doubt. Not in this city.
Go with your attorney’s advice and try to collect. But I’d keep it in perspective – you sign up for a certain amount of risk being a landlord. You hope he pays up and moves out by the lease end without a huge struggle. A worse scenario is he drags out the process in court and doesn’t leave and doesn’t pay for many more months, with the clock running on legal fees. If you can get him out sooner rather than later without losing more than you’re already owed, you might wanna count your blessings.
Thanks for the advice everyone. I actually just got back from the lawyers office. I’m going to go after him. There seems to be nothing else to do at this point.
Talk to an attorney. It sounds to me like he has no intention of paying you ever, and he plans to stay as long as he can.
I don’t know the details of the legal process, but FYI in addition to all of the above, you can file a holdover case to begin eviction proceedings. You need to do all of this ASAP. It takes months to evict someone. (Don’t just lock him out or anything like that — then you’d be in trouble.)
also i am not an attorney. you should speak to one.
Write letter now, then file .. you want to make him understand the consequences if he doesn’t pay you before he leaves… also make sure to take extensive photos of the damage he has done to the apartment. if you had previous photo that would be even better.
it is a long difficult process to win against a tenant in housing court so it may not be worth the $4000 so you can cut a deal with him to let him leave without a penalty if he leaves september 15 and just loses his security deposit. It sucks when you have a bad tenant. Next time make sure to do a thorough check.
Ok. So it is better to file against him now? I was worried that going after him legally might keep him from actually vacating on 9/15.