Accepting a partial rent payment and giving a 5 day pay or quit

[Mark Akins]

I live in Arizona and have accepted a partial payment from my tenant. I accepted the partial payment on the 8th of April (which was already late)and he agreed to pay the rest on the 17th of April. I agreed to this. It is now the 18th of April and I still have not received the second half. All this communication was done through text messaging. No paper agreements were signed. Am I able to give the tenant a 5 day pay or quit notice today or do I take the loss and wait till next month to start the eviction process if he does not pay on time again?

[Andrew Kerr]

Hi @Mark Akins I will add the caveat that I don't know the laws in your state. But all the times I went to court and saw other landlords get their evictions denied, the two biggest reasons were 1) not delivering proper notice and 2) accepting partial rent. 

My mentor taught me very early on to not accept partial rent, its all or nothing. If they don't have it, deliver notice and they have till the end of the notice period to pay. If the don't pay, file eviction. Then if you want, they can pay the whole rent and filing costs to stop eviction if they do it before the court date. 

I would talk with a local lawyer that does evictions (don't go with a normal run of the mill real estate lawyer, get one that does evictions all day long). Get their advice.