knocking on door for rent... repeatidly?

Question

I have a problem tenant (I have talked about in a previous post). Can I knock on her door every day to ask for the rent payment?

I have already given her a 60 day notice to vacate because her lease has ended. She got very upset and has not paid $200 of Septembers rent yet. If she does not pay rent for October I am going to give her a 14 day notice to pay rent or quite. However, in the mean time, I want to knock on her door everyday when I get out of work to ask her to pay the $200. Is this legal?

Thomas S. · Answer

Forget about the fact that you may be harassing a tenant. More importantly you are wasting your time hounding them with the expectation they will pay.

Evict them.

Bryan O. · Answer

@Katherine Rossell just follow your eviction process. Provide the notice, file the eviction, and be done. No need to harass them daily, just follow the process that exists for your area.

Justin Fox · Answer

Ever read about that landlord that was shot and killed over a $30 water bill?  If you feel it necessary, text her everyday instead.  Since you took partial payment I would wait until October as well.  On the 1st tell her that October's rent is due in full plus the 200 from September and whatever late fees incurred.  If she doesn't pay, post notice and then move on to eviction if needed.

Penny Clark · Answer

@Katherine Rossel, Learn the laws in your state so you know your rights as a landlord and those of your tenant. If you live in a tenant friendly state, daily visits to ask for rent might be seen as harassment by the court. In the future, if a tenant doesn't pay, issue the three day or notice required by your state. The tenant will know you mean business and will budget accordingly to make sure rent is the first bill they pay.

Good luck!

Katherine Rossell · Answer

@Tom S. It is interesting to hear about your own experience. I honestly think I could have prevented this if I approached her differently when we inherited her from the seller we purchased the building from.

Court went well today. The judge said she needed to pay $1300 plus her December rent into the court by December 1 and then we will take it from there. I am hopeful she will not have the money by then so they can order a Writ of Possession.

Oh and on a side note she told my lawyer he was harassing her when he went over to give her a notice for us to inspect her apartment for the damages she told me about on Sunday.  :)

Tom S. · Answer

@Katherine Rossell  Wow - sorry to hear and good luck with the court hearing!  Please let us know how it goes.  I ask because I've had just a few issues over the years: probably 150 different tenants over 15 years (some places are rented to college students, 5 per year, turning over every 2 years).  Of the 200, I've luckily only had to complete one eviction start to finish.  She never showed for the court hearings and the whole process took about 3 months.

3 others beyond that, they did owed me substantial money after move out, I took them to small claims court and won all three times and received judgments.  The eviction will come with a judgment automatically.  Of those 4 judgments, two are paying monthly, one owned property and I attached a lien to it, and one tenant I found out was in jail ! :(

Good luck

- Tom

Katherine Rossell · Answer

@Tom S. Thanks for checking in! Tomorrow is our rent escrow hearing in court. This tenant is proving to be a huge thorn in my side and trying to take digs at us. I am continuing to remind myself that I am learning throughout this whole process. Essentially I offered her $1300 plus waving all of her back rent which is $1600 if she packed up and left within two weeks. She did not take the offer. The Sheriff attempted to serve her 6 times, and on the last time he went to her work and she refused to take the notice. Then my lawyer field for a tack order through the court. The day before court (Today) my lawyer called me apologizing because he used a outdated summons. He said that if she shows up in court the judge will probably continue with the escrow hearing, however if she doesn't we will have to serve her again and then get a new court date.

This story gets deeper!

Three weeks after we closed on the house, our apartment 2 tenants (who are great by the way) said that once the apartment 1 tenants moved out (we had the seller to that before closing because they were disgusting) cockroaches started to infiltrate their apartment. We got them some gel stuff which they said has been working. Then two days before this tenant starting flipping out on us because we are "discriminating" against her because we are asking her to pay her rent on time she told us of a roof leak and a plumbing problem. We had a plumber go out the next day and my partner who is in construction put new tin on the roof where there was damage within three weeks. We never went into her apartment at this time to inspect the leak because she was sending us in my opinion threatening tex messages. We should have let her know that we had repaired the roof but I didn't contact her because we were going through this eviction process. On Sunday two days before the court date, she sends me text messages with pictures of cockroaches in her kitchen and the water damaged roof in the kitchen she said that if it rains or snows hard the roof is going to cave in and endanger her family. Then she said that her daughters roof had started leaking also.

I really have learned so much though this process and I am crossing my fingers that she will show up in court tomorrow and she will not have the money needed for the rent escrow court. I also hope that the judge will see that we have responding quickly to all maintenance complaints. I could not respond to her cockroaches because I just found out about them two days before court.

Tom S. · Answer

@Katherine Rossell  Hi Katherine - just curious how this situation turned out?

Thanks,

Tom

Chris T. · Answer

@Katherine Rossell

I know it feels personal but this is a business, and you need to make a business decision.

Keep it as professional as you can. If both parties escalate it, it could get ugly. Let your eviction attorney handle it from here.

Katherine Rossell · Answer

I thought that in my state we couldn't file an eviction notice if the tenant paid partial rent. But, I just got off the phone with my lawyer and he said that we could. That is exactly what I will do.

knocking on door for rent... repeatidly?

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