Advise for a non-responsive tenant

[Ross Miller]

I recently purchased a 6 unit apartment building and I was inheriting a tenant who cannot be reached.  He is rarely at the apartment building and does not take phone calls or e-mails.  When I took over the property I mailed him a notice of the ownership change and the new information to send the rent.  I posted the same note on his door.  He has either not seen the note or just doesn't care and he keeps mailing his rent to the previous owner....but he is still paying rent.  I sent him an additional note about this and taped that to his door as well.  Nothing has changed.

I want to be 100% sure he sees the note, but I want to make sure I'm doing it within the law of Ohio.  My first idea was to change the locks with a message to contact me for the key.  I will post a notice to his door and mail him a letter with my intentions to do so 2 weeks beforehand.  I wanted to post here to get other ideas or to see if my plan is the best for this situation.

I appreciate the advise!

[Nathan Gesner]

I would start by telling the previous Landlord to reject any mailings from your tenant. If he gets something in the mail, have him mark it "RETURN TO SENDER" and send it back. Then give your tenant one final chance:

DEAR TENANT,

I AM YOUR NEW LANDLORD. YOU ARE OBLIGATED TO PAY RENT TO ME, NOT THE FORMER LANDLORD. THE FORMER LANDLORD WILL NOT ACCEPT RENT PAYMENTS ON MY BEHALF SO YOU NEED TO SEND YOUR PAYMENT DIRECTLY TO ME.

IF RENT IS NOT RECEIVED BY ME IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LEASE, I WILL INITIATE EVICTION.

I EXPECT YOU TO CALL, TEXT, OR EMAIL ME WITHIN 72 HOURS ACKNOWLEDGING RECEIPT OF THIS NOTICE. FAILURE TO RESPOND MAY BE GROUNDS FOR EVICTION.

My lease is very clear that tenants must be responsive to my communications and keep their contact information updated with me or it may be grounds for termination. I'm available to them 24/7, they better be available to me.