Tenant moving but no last month paid

[Robert D.]

hey all, i have a scenario that may be playing out here with me soon. atleast gotta prepare if and when right.

ok i have this tenant for 15 months. is moving out by the end of august. has not paid for august yet stating he is in financial problems.
say he moves out and i still havnt gotten paid,
is court my only recourse? i still have his deposit. any ideas will be appreciated, thx

[Mickey Harrison]

I was in a situation like that before. This may sound harsh but, I in formed the tenant that if rent was not paid they would be evicted. The tenant all of a sudden pulled out a butt load of cash and said "i'm moving in 2 weeks can i pay for the 2 weeks and that's it?" I told him no you can pay for the month (and me deciding to be nice) said "On the day i take back the house I'll prorate you the rent back." he left 3 weeks later (i would have lost a week of rent) and i prorated 1 week to him.

In your situation if you don't feel you want to evict him. Yes the deposit is normally kept but it would prob depend on what the lease says. In my lease it says that the deposit can't be used as rent payment. That's why whenever someone is late I instantly start eviction if it looks like I'm not going to get paid.

Also something to consider. What happens if he doesn't leave at the end of the month? You start the eviction process (which can take 2 weeks - a month where I'm at) and now you've lost 2 months rent.

Don't get me wrong I'm not a fan of evictions but i've been nice and screwed over in the past. So now when someone doesn't pay I just play it by the rules. Just remember once the tenant is served eviction papers they have time to pay you the rent and then you can stop the eviction process. But by starting it early on it lets them know this is a business and we're all grown ups