Conditional Orders of Dismissals as Lease Enforcement Tools

[Gabe R. Gonzalez]

I'm not sure if many people are aware of the use of a conditional order of dismissal to crack down on lease violations. My experience is that some residents don't respond to lease violation letters and their behavior continues to affect neighbors. When I run into this issue, a decision has to be made. Is the lease violation so severe, and their behavior impacting the enjoyment of my other tenants, that we want the tenant out? Will the legal fees we incur for the eviction be less than flipping a unit and losing the neighboring tenant? 

In Michigan this process usually begins with a trail of letters documenting non-compliance, then the lawyer drafts and mails the 30-day notice if non-compliance continues. It's not until after the tenant receives the notice that I can really feel their attitude out - either they come into my office and tell me all the ways in which they will change their behavior or they double down and continue to be non-compliant. 

There haven't been many tenants to push back on a COD that I've presented to them. Many tenancies have been saved using this route, including those of adjacent neighbors who brought the issue of non-compliance on the part of their neighbor to my attention. Here's the other thing, you can file the affidavit of non-compliance and get them out should they breach the agreement. If the COD was not accepted by the tenant or their counsel, then you should have made peace with the fact that you were willing to see this tenant evicted when you filed the notice. 

If you have a tenant that continues to exhibit problem behaviors and have an argument of material non-compliance, but have hope that the problem can be resolved, then eviction with the goal of ending in a mutual agreement (COD) may be the best outcome for both parties. 

I feel like it's better to reduce unit turn-over costs and attempt to keep neighbors happy with this route. There have been many leases lost because of neighbors being loud, smoking pot, etc. Otherwise you're out two tenants and stuck with turning costs for two units you may have otherwise renewed. 
 

Does anyone have any experience or alternatives (suing for non-performance) to non-compliant tenants who affect other tenants?