My tenants can't find a new rental to move into

[Todd Markey]

I am going to sell a rental SFH and have notified my tenants. They have been on a month-to-month lease and have already stayed past the 45 days I gave them to vacate. They want to move to another part of town but despite having applied at many places, they haven't been accepted, apparently due to low credit scores. I know I'm legally allowed to kick them out onto the street, but I really don't want to do that. Does anyone have ideas about how to help them get a place? Has anyone else had this happen? I suppose if I threaten that I will evict them on a certain day, it would give them the motivation to apply for places less desirable that they may be qualified for. They have been very good tenants for me, so I'm hesitant to do something like that.

[Jim K.]

@Todd Markey

Hel-LO, it's time for them to GO! They rented month-to-month from you. Did they need more of a wake-up call that sooner or later they would have to leave?

Sit them down and have a talk. Explain that they're holding you up and costing you money. You didn't put that bad credit on them. They have to take responsibility for their credit decisions, and just because they didn't realize that this was one of the consequences in their risk calculation to screw their creditors, that doesn't make it any less real. Likewise, the fact that they didn't properly realize how good they had it with you for so long isn't your problem. Make a new deadline, and stick to it. Don't mention eviction, but after that, you start the eviction process and you keep going until they leave. This is where all the carefully repressed disgust inside you for people who do things like not pay their bills on time, choose to rent instead of own because they can't be bothered with taking responsibility for their own housing, and live pretending that they don't have their neck stretched under someone else's jackboot should be allowed to bubble up and come to the fore.

I bend over backwards for my tenants. When it's time for things to change, it's their turn to bend over backwards for me. And if they don't want to bend, if they don't realize that my solicitude and kindness to them in the past was a choice, not the only way I know how to live and deal with people, not a weakness to exploit, then they get a less pleasant and accommodating landlord in their lives. And once the forbidden door to the forbidden room is open, it's not my problem if they're surprised by what they find in there.