First cash for keys eviction story

[Adam Roberts]

Team - I had to go through the unfortunate activity of releasing a tenant this past week and figured I'd post the story to share with others. Feel free to critique or add more story-telling.

Tenant (4 plex) was late paying rent in both Sept and Oct, missing late payments for both months, but coming clean on everything in Nov (late). She was advised that she breached contract as well in Sept when I found 2 dogs in the apartment, and that I would allow her to sign a new lease once she paid a pet deposit. She agreed, but never paid by agreed date. The last and final day for December rent rolls around and she calls to say that she "lost her job due to downsizing at her company, and will not be able to pay Dec rent until Dec 20, OR potentially Jan if her family can't come thru". Red flags all over the place.

My reaction: After careful deliberation with my partner, I called the tenant to advise that the relationship was not working, and that I wanted to move forward with an eviction. I stated that I would avoid executing a formal eviction if she moved out by Dec 31 at midnight and exchanged the keys for security deposit. I did this verbally and then through a written agreement. She was not happy since it's the holidays, and she pleaded that she could actually still afford the rent, etc etc. Ultimately, she agrees to our agreement (written agreement with terms on how we handled the cash-for-keys), and actually moved out on Dec 15. I sent her a notice of lease termination asking for her concurrence which she responded to.

In lieu of paying me pro-rated rent for the 15 days of Dec, she responded to a written agreement for me to keep her security deposit, which was about half of 1 months rent (I did this after inspecting the property.....).

Unfortunately I had to do this around the holidays, but with her job loss I saw it going in a bad direction. I already had granted amnesty in other months. Good news is she left the unit in relatively great shape, however I will be out a few hundred to do a make-ready. All-in-all, not bad.

How have others handled similar situation?