Tenant W/O lease Refuses to leave

[Chris Reyes]

Hello BP,

One of my friend and her husband have a big dilemma. They own a rental property and have decided to sell the property in the next couple of months. They need time to get it ready to sell it but the renters refuse to leave. 

The 30 day notice has already been issued. However, they refuse to acknowledge it. 

After digging for more information on the issue, she proceeded to tell me that one of the tenants has prior evictions on their record and that they did it to just help them out. 

I told her about filing an official eviction with the courts to continue the legal process with evicting the tenants. 

I also suggested doing what ive done in the past, which is pay the tenant to leave and has worked for me the One time i had to do it. My fear is that they know how to "work the system", and find a way to screw them over even more. 

My questions are:

1) How long does the eviction process typically take if they go that route? 

2) What are the best ways to protect themselves if they try to pay them to leave, and have you had personal success with this route?

3) Should she ask how much it would take for them to leave, or low-ball it and then come up with some type of compromise? 

Thank you in advance for your replays!

[Mike McCarthy]

Your friend needs to take control of the situation.

1) make sure the 30-day notice was done in accordance with the lease (if there is one) and state laws. If they haven’t acknowledged, post to the door and take a pic. You don’t want them saying ‘we weren’t notified’

2) talk to a lawyer now. Most will do a complimentary review. At day 31, get the lawyer on it.

3) don’t try to do eviction yourself the first time. Especially with a professional tenant. Too many things to go wrong.

4) timeframe depends on the state. Some are 2-3 weeks. Some are months and months. Ask the lawyer.

Good luck! Be firm and don’t let the tenants run the show.