Advice needed: Help with tenant who is not paying rent
I’m hoping someone here can help me. We inherited a tenant when we bought our brownstone and while he has never been super on-time with his rent, he’s been an easy tenant and gets us the money eventually. At this point, he owes us 4 and a half months rent, which he agreed to pay…
I’m hoping someone here can help me.
We inherited a tenant when we bought our brownstone and while he has never been super on-time with his rent, he’s been an easy tenant and gets us the money eventually.
At this point, he owes us 4 and a half months rent, which he agreed to pay us today, but since he’s not responding to my emails and texts, my hopes of getting the money are slim.
Full disclosure: he’s currently without a lease, which is probably a terrible idea, but we’re a little disorganized.
If he doesn’t pay, what can I do? Searching the interwebs only yields tenants-rights stuff, nothing for small landlords like me who are stuck with a slacker.
Can I tell him he has to move out? When he doesn’t, what’s my next course of action? We really need the money he owes us, so I’m not really interested in incurring more fees, but I’m sure this will end up costing me more…
Help!
farkas — you want to take every step, including any letter you write, by the book. You don’t want little procedural steps to set you back. Consult with an attorney, use the attorney’s preferred form for a letter like this, deliver it in exactly the manner your lawyer says, and keep good copies and notes on everything.
Go to a professional landlord tenant attorney. Have them send the notice to get the ball rolling. It’s not expensive, you have Stern & Stern at 32 Court Street and Koeppel & Steckler at 44 Court St. They won’t hold your hand and listen to your life story, but this is what they do every day. I use Robert Koeppel (718-858-5727) it is relatively cheap.
@kiki17: we’ve already done that. I’ve been sending him emails since late March saying “you are this far behind, you last paid us this much. Please let us know when we can expect payment of any kind. If you need to work out a schedule, let’s talk about it.” We’ve been down this road before with him. He was paying off 5 months rent in weekly increments through the end of last year.
The amount of lost sleep and aggravation this is causing me is mind blowing. The amount of money I’m going to have to spend getting him out and then renovating his apartment (again, we inherited him as a tenant), is wildly depressing.
Thanks for your comments. Not to sound like a baby, but this just sucks.
I’m giving him a move out letter today. Anyone have a template for that?
I had a similar problem, but was hesitant to hire an attorney. I would print out a letter to him, including the dates that he has missed payments (and if you have the info, the dates you received late rent), and tally up the total. Tell him he has until the end of the month to pay the total, you’d be happy to work out a payment plan. Tell him if he doesn’t pay, you’ll have no choice but to start eviction proceedings. I did this to my tenant and he paid up to avoid being kicked out. Meanwhile read the info on housing court in the previous comment.
If he still doesn’t pay, call a lawyer.
Yes, get a LL-tenant attorney and start the legal process immediately.
Bklynite – yea the best would be to get him to voluntarily move out but from my experience a tenant like this will promise whatever but he won’t move unless he’s forced to. Playing nice will just delay things and the tenant will skip out with even more rent.
Lease or not – he owes you 4.5 months rent, that’s a bit more than being the odd few days late. As bk said, get yourself an Attorney and consider yourself lucky if he just leaves.
You should consult an attorney. Probably best if you can get the tenant to voluntarily move out – and forgiving some back rent may be the easiest way to persuade him to move and avoid legal expenses.
From http://www.nyc.gov/html/hpd/html/owners/faqs-for-res-owners.shtml
The only legal way a building owner may evict a nonpaying tenant who refuses to move voluntarily is through a nonpayment eviction proceeding in Housing Court. Owners must obtain a judgment of possession and “warrant” directing the sheriff or marshal to evict the tenant.
For further information on Housing Court, call the Citywide Task Force on Housing Court at (212) 982-5512, open Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.