Rent Payment excuses

[Steve Cribb]

Hello, I have rented out a Single family home on Jan 1st 2024, tenant was brought in by an agent and setup lease as well.

The tenant profile was not so great, but it was empty for more than 3 months and I reluctantly rented it out.

Since then, tenant was paying rent, but on 5th of every month after couple of followups.

Last month they pushed it to 15th asking they were hit by sickness, family emergencies and BS, I said its only one time pass and they paid it on 15th.

Now August 1st is upcoming, they are requesting for a call setup to chat, not sure whats that abt, but I presume to buy time.

BF and GF signed the lease, it appears things not working out well between them, only lady is  answering emails/chats/calls. Home is also kind of mess ..with weed smoking in the house and dog poo in backyard not cleaning up after and so forth.

How to proceed here ? If they ask for more time in August ?

Is it advisable to start legal process to evict them ? i guess am gonna incur lot of costs.

Any inputs are much appreciated.

[Mark Fries]

Evict immediately.  You have already given too much time.

[Gregory Schwartz]

This is an all-too-common mistake: a rental sits vacant, less-than-desirable tenants are approved, and then those tenants don't pay and cause issues.

You have to rip the bandaid off and ask them to leave.

This may sound harsh, but it's not entirely the tenant's fault. Consider this analogy: if a payday loan company offers a $5000 loan to someone and then charges them 30% interest, we would consider it predatory. Clearly, those people can't afford that loan, so why was it even offered to them?

As landlords, if we allow tenants into our properties who aren't qualified, we need to take responsibility for that decision.

[Chris Seveney]

@Steve Cribb

Excuses don’t matter - you no pay you no stay.

It’s that simple

[Karen Wanamarta]

@Steve Cribb you need to send them a 14 day notice to cure. Your attorney should have one or you can find a form online. Make sure you send it by certified mail. Unless you want to do the eviction yourself, hiring an eviction attorney can be expensive. How many months do they have left on the lease? How much of a security deposit do you have? Feel free to reach out with questions. Depending on the county the property is in I could recommend you an attorney. 

[Ned J.]

Start the eviction.

No pay, no stay.... no excuses. 

[Theresa Harris]

You can probably still find tenants for Sept, but why not ask them if they want out of the lease?  You could also offer to let them pay rent on the 1st and 15th, but stress that it MUST be paid on the 1st and 15th of each month-no grace period.  Otherwise, start giving them notice and tell them you are tired of excuses that they need to pay the rent on time or move.

[Cecilia Hagan]

Bummer about these residents! I own a couple of rentals and also manage properties for other investors, so I understand how frustrating this can be.

Although easier said than done, we start the eviction process as early as possible when rent is late. Even if it's the first time. The process and timeline can vary by state, so make sure to check your lease agreement and local property codes for specifics. While it’s not a pleasant task, initiating the eviction process can often prompt the tenant to catch up on payments to avoid further action. Many times, this approach has helped us avoid having to follow through with the eviction altogether because they will pay when they start receiving the required notices.

Consistently sticking to the process also helps save time and energy by reducing the need to address delinquent payments on a case-by-case basis and lets the residents know what they can expect if they do not pay on time.

Best of luck, and I hope this situation improves soon!

[John Williams]

This may end up being expensive, but consider it your education/tuition. This is a great case study for folks on the fence about hiring a professional property manager. 

[Madri Koppe]

I agree with others. You need to begin the eviction process and follow through. I’d take this as a lesson learned and put more emphasis on the tenant screening process moving forward. Best of luck!

[Jasmine Vida]

Not sure what the laws are there but in Florida on the 5th day we have to send them a 3 day pay or quit notice before filing an eviction. I have a tenant who did not have a great profile either but was a mom so I gave her a chance. She has paid me late every month and I have to send her a 3 day notice every month and she pays on the last day of the notice every time. Luckily for me her lease ends next month so hopefully she will vacate at the end with no issues. 

[Adam Bartomeo]

DON'T LISTENT TO THE KNUCLEHEADS ON HERE SAYING EVICT NOW! They are WRONG!

From what I am understanding the tenants are ALL caught up but have been late and you are speculating on what your phone call will be, and speculating about evicting. Big deal... they have been late... Collections is a big part of land lording, get use to it. You can't evict someone for being late AND you shouldn't. Collections is about finding away to get the tenants to pay as much as possible, as soon as possible.

The first problem is that you had a vacant property for 3 months... this is clearly a pricing issue where you were too high. The risks of getting bad tenants goes up dramatically when you price too high. Now, that you waited for a bad tenant and you signed a lease with them, you are going to have to deal with the ramifications.

You should start the eviction process a few days after they didn't pay. This is normally in the form of a 3-day notice. This allows you to react quickly if things go sideways with the tenant.

[Drew Sygit]

@Steve Cribb to be successful, landlords need to set boundaries.

Many tenants, especially desperate ones, try to make their problems their landlord's problems.

As a PMC, we try to be reasonable, as "life happens" and "tenants are tenants for a reason", meaning they don't plan well and live paycheck to paycheck.

Part of our being reasonable though, involves deadlines and we AUTOMATICALLY start the eviction process so a tenant knows this. 

Otherwise, you will hear excuse after excuse and the next thing you know, they haven't paid squat in 3-6 months - or longer if you let them.

Starting the eviction process right away tells the tenant they have a deadline.

By the way, if the 2 rommates are not getting along and NOT taking care of the rental, then let them out of their lease early. It'll be less expensive/quicker then evicting them!