Help with Tenant breaking the lease

[Richard Marques]

Hello Everyone,
I have a tenant and our initial lease was from 08/01/2018 to end of July 2019 with one month deposit.  We extended it until the end of May 2020. However, the tenant didn’t pay the rent on time for this month (November) and sent a text message on Nov 3rd that they are not able to pay and she is going to pay part of it ($500.0/$1700.00) and another $1000.00 on Friday Nov 8th. They never paid the rest of the rent; tried several text messages and phone calls and did not receive a response. Sent her an email on Nov 10th night and let her know that they should evacuate if they are not paying the rent. I also sent an evacuation notice. Then she responded to my email that they are going to evacuate and leave on Sunday Nov 17th.

They violated the lease by not informing me two months in advance that they are going to break the lease with 2 months prior notice.  Also, they violated the lease by not paying the rent for this month nor for the ensuing months until May 2020.

Assuming they will evacuate and leave the property on the 17th, I will be faced with the financial problems and I wanted to get advice on this matter as to how to proceed to recover funds based on this lease.   

Appreciate any input you may have!

Richard

[Colleen F.]

You can't get blood from a stone.  Get the house rent ready and start marketing ASAP.  The deposit can be used to cover unpaid rent.  Be sure to send them an accounting of the deposit minus deductions in the time frame required in your state. You can make it clear that they are responsible for rent until a replacement tenant is found and you can pursue that long term but your best defense against financial problems is to market and rent this place.  Yes you can try to get judgement against them in court but regardless of the state doing that will not help your financial problems in a timely way. Also I would serve a pay or quit notice in case they don't leave as stated.