Two tenants, one lease, and one tenant not paying

[Mark Campo]

Hi all,

I have a unit with essentially two tenants. They are both on the lease. One tenant has been paying me $400 (half the rent) consistently. The other tenant (non-paying) has not paid in four months. I threatened an eviction (to both of them), and now the non-paying tenant paid the current month and an extra two hundred dollars. This non-paying tenant has agreed to continue to pay an extra 200 dollars a month until the arrears are caught up.

Since I was getting half the rent, I didn't want to waste the time and money going through an eviction. Anyone think I should have immediately gone for eviction when I only received half the rent the first month?

On a side note, the non-paying tenant has been in the house for 17 years (well before I bought the property), and she has special needs children. Also, I did inform the paying tenant that if I evicted, I would renovate the unit and reduce his rent and allow him to stay if he helped me get the non-paying tenant out (none of that was in writing except here on bigger pockets - lol).

Thoughts?