Advice needed and appreciate

[Jenny Wall]

Hi All 

I would like to get some advices to how to handle the situation of tenant not paying last month's rent . I have a lease that is going to be ended this month . The lease clearly stated that tenant can't use security deposit for last month's rent . I went into the house yesterday and found out it is a messed there . There are some damages too. I guess the tenant knows he won't get his security deposit back so he has decided he is not going to pay this month's rent. Do I just let it go and do nothing and hopefully he will be out by end of the month when the lease ends? I have served him the termination notice by the end of May . It seems no point to try to evict him since the lease is ending soon . But maybe there are reasons out there that I haven't thought about it and still need to serve him 3 days pay or vacate notice ? 

Also , anyone out there knows any rent collection agency that can help to report the tenant's rent delinquency ? I don't care if I get the rent , I just want him to face the consequences. 

Thanks in advance 

[Nathan Gesner]

@Jenny Wall this is all-too-common and very frustrating. Tenants know they won't get their deposit back and that it will take you a while to evict so they simply refuse to pay the last month of rent. 

Personally, I start the eviction process when a tenant is 10 days late on rent (I'm planning to shorten that to 5 days). What you really don't want is for them to not pay rent in June and then fail to move out in July. Then you won't be able to evict them until the end of July which means you'll lose two months of rent, plus the cleaning and repairs. Start the process. If they move out, you can always stop the process or you can still go to court and seek a judgment for cleaning and repairs (depending on how your court system works).

I agree with sending them to collections. You will almost never receive any money but sometimes you get lucky. At a minimum, it sits on their credit report and warns other Landlords or lenders. As a private individual, you may need to get a court judgment before sending them to collections. Just contact a few collection agencies to see what is required. Ask about their processes, fees, and success rate.