Can I make the tenant pay the $150 court fee to file eviction?

[Greg Gaudet]

Alooooooooooooha 

I self manage. I enjoy doing it, I rent to section 8 tenants and love the kind of cash flow my units produce; I think my favorite part of self-managing is that every time I visit my properties I am reminded of how absolutely amazing my life is and how bad I could have it. 

Anyway, I've been going through the Hawaii landlord-tenant handbook, googling, searching BP, etc. and haven't been able to find the answer to this. 

I have not had to evict a tenant yet, and that's really the only thing I'm dreading to deal with as a PM. Hopefully my thorough vetting of tenants will keep my evictions to a minimum. But as I'm seeing now even after the most thorough application process it's possible to get a bad apple. 

From what I've found, you can hold the tenant liable for all court costs if you win the suit and they are evicted (not sure how often we actually end up collecting, but we can try, right!). But what about when a landlord files for eviction, and then the tenant pays the past due rent, either before the court date or at the court date, allowing them to stay and continue their tenancy. It seems to me that the tenant should reimburse the landlord for the $150 fee that the court charges (in Maui, at least) to file the eviction suit and probably any additional court costs and lawyers fees as well.. but I haven't been able to confirm this. Does anyone know? I know there's only maybe 50 people on BP on the island of Maui, so how does it work in your state? 

Thanks for your input! Hopefully this tenant will just pay his late rent so I can focus on the other deal I have under contract lol But I want to figure this out anyway just for future reference and just know what to expect. 

[Aaron W.]

In Texas according to my attorney it would be a deduction and not a mishandling of deposit funds which is taken very seriously in Texas and most states.  If you start the eviction process and he/she cures the default by paying in full before the eviction is finalized they are still liable for you being out the money to start the process.

I hope this helps and good luck.