Tenant owes money at move out...

[Bradley Johnson]

Hey guys,

First post here, and new listener of the podcast. I own a rental condominium in San Diego, and have had a long term tenant stay there since July 2018.  He paid always on time in 2018, until he renewed his lease with me this year.  Since then, he's been 4-8 weeks late on rent for 9 months now, and has only been able to make periodic payments of $400-$800 at a time.  Currently he owes 1.5 months rent, and his lease ends about 60 days from now.  I don't have high expectations of him being able to pay off the remainder before his move out...or him having much funds to move out in general.  I probably should have gone through with eviction in the Spring, but now since it's so close to move out, I've decided to just try and collect as much as possible before move out.

Any advice for this situation?  If I don't do an eviction and get a judgement, do I still have power in small claims court to try and get a lien against him for any delinquent rent?  Has anyone had any success with payment plans which allow him to back pay the dues even after move out?  My biggest goal is to ensure he's out of the property so I can find a new renter, so I don't want to do anything to risk that scenario.