Advise needed - to terminate a lease or not

[Jehanzeb Beg]

I have a tenant who’s lease is going expire on May 31st. They are a family of husband , wife and brother in law. I wanted to renew or keep them month to month but needed to clarify few points to them for harmony of the relationship. I tried calling the guy and he keeps avoiding me. I called his brother in law who also lives with him (they split rent). He wants to stay there and I clarified my points on paying rent on time (they have been late by a day or two in the past 2-3 months) or notify me if they re going to be late.

He mentioned he has paid his half to the other guy before last day of the month every month. So I tell him to talk to the other guy and let me know what his plans are (whether he’s also interested in staying) and to call me back. No call back yet. 2 days since. I have called him couple of times in the past few weeks but he seems to be avoiding me. I just want to clarify to him that communication needs to be fixed here and I won’t be raising rents if they want to stay. No call backs.

Should I leave a letter in their mailbox or their door that I will be terminating the lease at the end of term as precaution measure anyways? Or I guess what’s my best next step here?

[Greg Scott]

I would NEVER terminate a resident for this reason.

What does your lease say?  Typically mine say rent us due on the first and considered late on the 5th at which time we send them a notice to pay or quit and charge them a late fee. If they don't pay within 10 days we start the eviction process.

We have some residents that pay early to avoid any chance of a late fee.  We have some residents that always pay between the 1st and the 5th.  We also have some residents that always pay about the 10th of the month, paying in-full including the late fee.  These people typically pay quite a bit more per year than other residents but continue to pay.  As long as we don't have to get to the point where we are starting the eviction process we are fine.  The easiest path is to follow the process outlined in your lease. 

Again, if they are steady payers, I would never non-renew simply because payment arrives on the 2nd every month.