Bank account got frozen and cannot pay rent?!

[Wen Guo]

Dear BP people I'll need your help on this- I just purchased a rental, the tenant came with it. He works in hospital as nurse and seems to be a nice guy, he does has a bankruptcy history (home got foreclosed a few years ago). When this very first month rent is due, he told me his bank account got frozen just the day before, he has half of the rent in cash for me, and the other half as a check for me to deposit later when the bank issue gets resolved. What should I do, should I trust him? Should I charge late fee? Should I be worrying? Big thanks everyone in advance!!!

[Stephen E.]

I had a tenant claim his bank account was frozen due to identity theft. He wanted to pay his rent late as a result. We talked about it and during the conversation he said he could borrow money from the bank and that would cost him. So he in effect he really could pay his rent. A bit frustrating but he had not been late before so I gave him 3 days or so to get it together. If I had been hard nosed I would have given him an eviction notice then and there. Afterwards all his rent was on time so it worked out.

However this is not a tenant you have a prior relationship with. You have just bought the property and the tenant's first response to you as a new landlord is that you only get half the rent, with the rest to come at some hazy future date. You have no payment history and the tenant is either in trouble and genuinely cannot pay rent, or is trying it on and looking to establish a relationship in which late rent payments are OK. I would give him an eviction notice. They come with a set number of days to pay. The forms are usually simple and you can fill them in yourself.  If he does not pay I would go ahead and get an eviction attorney to file. You can always stop if there is compelling evidence to do so. But I think this person is trying it on and if you let them they will keep doing so.