Eviction & PM conflict

[Michell P.]

Hey all, 

Question on how you would handle this - 

We have a HUD tenant who is 2 months behind on rent. Had to pull teeth with the PM at the end of November to find out what was going on, and he finally ended up posting a 72 hour notice on 12/2. So now they are late for November & December - they're supposed to pay half of their rent while HUD pays the other half.

So, when we first talked to the PM he said they had mailed a $100 money order, but that appears to be false.  He said they were going to court for disability and were going to pay us then, but that seems to be false.  He said he'd be willing to file after the 72 hours were up, and now that the 72 hours are up, he refuses, and instead says we should put together a payment plan with them before going to court so we can show we tried working with them.  

He's now saying that b/c these tenants are 2 women with an infant and a 2 year old, the judge will most likely let them stay maybe up to another month to give them a chance to find somewhere else to live, and during that time, they'll be withholding rent, so it's in our benefit to wait and see if we can't get them to pay.  

I've never gone through eviction court before, but the advice here seems to usually be "72 hours and you're out."  

So, what do you think? Is getting a payment plan a good idea, or are we just being strung along by both the PM & tenant?  (And we're letting the PM go at the end of this month, 30 day notice is up in less than 2 weeks - probably part of the problem :/ )