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?

[Thomas S.]

Difficult to advise on how you should handle this situation since I do not know your management style. You also do not state how long he has been a tenant. What I suspect however from your post is that you have trained him to pay rent when he feels like it rather when it is due.

This is how you should be training tenants and how I would deal with this tenant. The first time he did not pay full rent on the 1st I would send him a letter indicating that my policy is to not tolerate late payment and that going forward full rent is expected by midnight on the 1st. Late fees would apply if not paid in full by the 5th.

 The second time he was late I would issue a pay or quit notice on the 2nd and send along a letter indicating that if he is late again I will be evicting him for consistent late payments. Late fees would apply is rent was not paid in full by the 5th.

If he was late a 3rd time I would issue the pay or quit on the 2nd and send a letter indicating that I would be evicting him. I would in addition inform him that if he paid in full rent owing immediately I would drop the eviction and allow him to leave at the end of the month without penalty.

It would be up to the tenant to then decide if he wanted to be evicted or leave voluntarily. If he paid the rent, including any late fees and agreed to leave I would get it in writing and drop the eviction the day he leaves.  

In your situation now I would be beginning the eviction for either non payment of fees, assuming your state regs allow it, and for continually paying late. You could also offer to release him from his lease if he pays and agrees to leave. Regardless he would not be remaining if he was my tenant. It is time he had a real landlord that can teach him a life lesson.