Inheriting and dealing with terrible tenants

[Ashley B.]

I closed on my first property, a SFH, at the end of last summer. I made repairs/improvements, defined my qualifications, thoroughly screened tenants, stuck to my guns, and got a good tenant in the fall. He pays rent on time, is low maintenance and passed the first home inspection with flying colors. I just closed on a 4-plex on Friday with D tenants that has been mismanaged for the last 20 years to put it nicely. The tenants' "Rental Agreements" are a 1.5 page document that states their name, family members, SS #'s, previous landlords, rent and deposit amount, that rent must be paid on time starting the day the contract is signed, that if they don't pay they need to evict themselves, that if they want to move they need to give 30 days notice, that if landlord wants them out they get an eviction letter, no loud parties and no pets (which has been violated). I knew going in that dealing with these tenants was going to be extremely tough and I've been mentally preparing myself for it for the past 4 weeks. The only reason I bought the property is because all tenants were on month-to-month leases, hence I could make changes within 30 days, making them a short term problem. However, now I see why many investors want multifamily properties delivered vacant at closing. Nevertheless, I didn't want 4 vacant units since 3 need a complete rehab so I thought I'd take it one tenant/unit at a time and move on to the next unit once I got the previous one rehabbed and rented. One tenant was 2 months behind in rent and had a clogged sink during the inspection that he didn't want to report because he was behind in rent so I determined that he's the first to go. I gave him a 30 day Notice to Quit right after closing on Friday. He called me on Saturday and had no clue what I gave him or what it meant. We had a nice, friendly conversation where I explained it to him but said nothing about him not paying rent on time or being behind with the previous landlord and not once did he ever ask if that was the issue. He said he was hurt that I wasn't giving him the option to sign a new lease like that the other tenants and I told him it was strictly a business decision. He asked if I had any other vacancies and I said no. Didn't phase him why I was not giving him the option to sign a new month-to-month Rental Agreement. A couple of hours later I got a call from Tenant B - single mom with 2 young kids who parks on the grass right by the front door which gets her about 10 feet closer to the door than if she just parked on the street like normal people do. I had a feeling I'd be dealing with an entitled tenant who was going to play the single mom card and boy, was I right. The entire phone conversation she was swearing and yelling at her kids and dropping the f-bomb in every sentence. She started the conversation with the fact that she's a single mom who has kids and she doesn't know what to do. She's apparently never seen a standard lease before in her life because she had no idea what quiet hours meant or what quiet enjoyment meant. She said she didn't understand any of the language and doesn't have time to look through that much paperwork. I gave her 49 days notice of not renewing her month-to-month Rental Agreement and gave her the option of signing a new month-to-month Rental Agreement with market rent ($150 increase) hoping she'd leave. She's saying 49 days is not near enough time to find a second job or find a new place to live because she has kids. Three of the four tenants have all known each other for many years and she kept saying that they are all "freakin' out" over this and have no idea what to do. There's one other tenant that I'm hoping will leave that I haven't heard from yet. I gave them the option of signing a new month-to-month Rental Agreement increasing their rent from $650/month (although they've been getting away with paying $625/month for the last 5 years) to $715/month and gave them 33 days notice to either sign or vacate. I wanted to give them a minimum of 45 days notice but these tenants refused to sign my Estoppel Agreement during the due diligence phase, have trashed their apartment in the last 5 years and are one month behind in rent so I decided on 33 days notice vs. 63 days notice. At this point I'm regretting just not giving both Tenants B and C 30-60 days notice to vacate with no option to sign a new month-to-month Rental Agreement. I feel bad turning their lives upside down in such a short period of time but I've given them more than the minimum notice required by the law. They have no respect for the property and had no respect for the previous landlord. I treat this as a business and realize that my tenants will make or break it. I listened compassionately, spoke professionally and stood my ground but it's definitely been eating at me over the last 24 hours. Am I handling this correctly? Any and all advice or support would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!