Tenant wont give phone number?

[Bob Romano]

My tenants phone has been working fine until the first month he took residence. Since then he has been consistently late by a few weeks for the rent.  Now I call it and it goes right to vm. I went to the house to tell him this and he said" his phone is being fixed and he had to send it out for repair" . well 3 weeks later , it still does not work. Now who waits 3 weeks for their phone to be repaired? I keep trying to call his wife's phone, she never answers' either. I sent him an email yesterday stating I need a new contact number and have not heard back yet. What would you guys do?

[Alicia M.]

I agree with @Thomas S. also @Bob Romano is Cozy the only way your tenants can pay rent or your preferred way? Did you screen this tenant prior to, because in your original statement you said "up until they moved in"? Lastly, he's not trying to be a responsible tenant, he knows how to "play" the system. He doesn't really have the money to pay on the 5th but he doesn't want to get that late fee, so he pays on the 4th knowing it takes 4/5days to process the payment, AND knowing it will come back NSF, so it automatically sets it up so he's behind in his payment when it bounces. He's calculated and he will just get further behind. thats just my opinion :)

[Michael Ablan]

@Bob Romano  Unfortunately you can't require him to have a phone.  However, you CAN require him to pay his rent on time.  Explain to him that you will be doing so the next time he is late, and if he's late then file the eviction and see it through.  He is trying to walk over you.  Don't let him.

[Jacob Villalobos]

EVICT!

[Robert Fornwalt]

I've been told there is no such thing as a bad tenant just bad landlords. put your foot down do what you have to do and move on. learn from this and have a plan to never let it happen again.

[Steve Graves]

You're working way to hard to get what is due to you. I've been through this before so I started posting 3 Day Pay or Quit Notices the day after they were late. Solved the problem and now they even pay rent in advance sometimes.

[Irving Keighley]

i would send the 5 day notice to or vacate place it in mailbox.

U have to start documentation now this way if u have to evict tenant u show courts how many times u had to send notices to pay

This helps on ur end

Nip it in the butt now 

[Stephen A Binion]

@Bob Romano. His phone isn’t broken it is off for non payment.

Post a 3 day notice and get the lawyer warming up in the bull pen. His at bat is coming soon.

I see an eviction coming soon.

[Douglas Petrie]

@Mike G.  @Bob Romano

I agree with everyone here, start the eviction process.  The tenant is not all of a sudden become responsive. make sure to keep a record of all communications.  

[Shiva Bhaskar]

Talk to your attorney, prepare pay or quite notice, and get this resolved. The guy is either lying about the phone (most likely) or he cannot pay for it to be fixed, in which case he can't pay the rent. I would get a local landlord attorney involved, and take care of this ASAP. Maybe you get lucky and he pays, but if not, cut losses and move on. 

[Charles Kao]

@Bob Romano

Who cares if his phone works? He can't call you for complaints and repairs now and you should be evicting him for late payments. Not sure if your area allows it but habitual late payments is cause for eviction in my lease. My lease also states they must notify us of current contact information.