Trying to get a tenant out?

[Cory Lucas]

Hey all, I have a tenant that I would like out of one of my units. I’m still fairly fresh at the landlord game as I’m just now coming up on owning my first one for a year.

So I’m going to be going by the unit today to give him a 5 day and a 30 day notice for late rent payment, which was at the advice of my lawyer to give both notices at the same time. Late payments has been a chronic issue since I bought the property. He was an inherited tenant. He usually ends up paying, but I’m to the point where I am done chasing him for it and he doesn’t exactly keep the property up all that well either.

My question to you all is of course with everything I’ve been reading evictions sound like a nightmare right now. So I was going to put forth a cash for keys offer to him, but I’m wondering strategy wise do I make it a one time offer to him or could that possibly backfire?

Thanks in advance for any and all help!

[Greg Scott]

Cory:

I suppose it depends on your definition of "problem tenant".  Again, I'd prefer every tenant pay their bill when due.  But if you have a tenant always pay their bills and late fees before they reach court proceedings, is that a bad thing?  We had one resident that always paid on the 20th of the month and just included the extra $50 late fees.  He knew he was paying an extra $600/year because of it, he just couldn't get himself to pay on time (and he could afford to.)

Regarding delivery of notices, that will depend on your local laws.   Where we are, I was able to deliver via email, although I always followed up with dropping into USPS too.  I would be very surprised if US Mail does not count as notification, but then you may experience delays. You should be able to google guidelines for your state.

Good luck.