Tenant won’t vacate due to health issues

[Mallory Guerrero]

We have a tenant occupied property in Detroit that is coming up on the end of the lease with the current tenant. The elderly tenant has been struggling health wise the last year and has been struggling to make her rent payment. She is now late and needs to get out by February 1st. She is stating that she won’t be out by the 1st of the month. She no longer has a job and is on disability. Has anyone dealt with health issues with a tenant? Insight?

[Leroy K. Williams]

I would suggest a different approach. if you have a tenant who paid regularly in the past and is now facing hardship it may be a good idea to help them locate temporary assistance such as the State Emergency Relief Program https://www.michigan.gov/mdhhs...   You have to remember that in order to evict you have to stand in front of a judge and if you build a reputation in the 36th district court as a heartless landlord you will likely draw the ire of judges who can become sympathetic to your tenant(s) in the future. 

Running a good rental business sometimes requires that you NOT throw out the baby with the bath water meaning sometimes its better to stand with people who have a track record of paying you but run into financial or health issues.