Tenant Is Not Paying (Southern California)

[Wesley Kuo]

Greetings BP family,

I anticipate my amateur story will bring harsh criticism, but I really need some help before the situation snowballs into catastrophe. Here it is:

One of the tenants in my duplex rental in Whittier, California is not paying rent for November.  I have been reminding the tenant via messages that the rent is due. Yet even with the tenant's promise to pay rent with the late charge, the rent is not received as of the 11th day of the month.

I am not sure what I should do next. A 3 day notice? The California Rental Agreement does not really elaborate on what comes after the late charge if tenant still does not pay rent.

Thank you all.

Wesley

[Brendon Woirhaye]

Don't worry about it.  California is "tenant friendly", but the law is on your side here and the process to get rid of the bad tenant works.  Eviction is a skill you need to learn as a landlord.

Don't continue to badger them trying to collect the rent, just issue them a 3 day notice.  The notice may be enough to let them know you mean business and they cannot continue to play non payment games with you.

Review the California law here relating to the process.  NoLo has a page explaining the process in California (nolo eviction process).  You can probably find forms online.  If you do the notice yourself, some things to keep in mind:

- List ALL tenants occupying the property, not just the one who normally pays the rent

- Demand ONLY the rent due.  If you tack on late fees on this, the court will throw it out and you will have to start over.

- Make sure you state where the tenant can pay the rent in a reasonable time frame. 

- Serve it properly.  Read up on this, but you need to either hand the notice to the tenant, someone in the tenant's house, or post it on their door.  If you didn't hand it to a tenant specifically, follow up with a copy in the mail.  

For more complex evictions in Whittier (well, one), we've used Brian Heckmann from Pasadena.  http://www.landlordevict.com/.  My brother has used him before as well.  It might be worthwhile to either consult with him (for a fee) or have him take care of the whole process for your first one.