Tenant Not Paying Last Month Rent

[Jill Keller]

My tenant is not paying her last months rent. Her lease is set to expire in 2 weeks. I have sent and documented the 2 notices I sent her. She mostly avoids my calls/texts and then responds saying she will pay. She initiated the payment but it failed due to insufficient funds in her account - pretty sure this was an act to show she was paying to buy a few more days. She has since blocked my phone number so I can't reach her. Pretty sure she has no intention of paying. I do have her security deposit but I will have to pay some amount out of pocket because I'm pretty sure she's not going to clean the unit. I was wondering if there's anything I can do at this point or whether there's just a risk with this and I'm going to have to bear the loss? Is it worth it to pursue legal action? Is there anything I can do that is FREE but effective to get it on her record? Is it legal to contact her future property owner?

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @Jill Keller:

This is part of Landlording.

My policy is to start the eviction process. They'll move out before I can get into court, but at least I'm demonstrating that I take it seriously and that I won't play games and let them stay longer.

Once they move out, apply the deposit and send the Tenant a bill for the unpaid amount with a demand for payment in full within 15 days. If they don't pay, send them to collections. You'll probably never collect, but at least it sits on their credit and may hurt them in the future. You never know. I had a Tenant in collections for five years and then he paid the full amount because he wanted to clean up his credit and buy a house.

Don't take it personal and don't stew over how to get revenge. Treat it as a business transaction. Learn from your mistake and consider charging a higher deposit (or last month and deposit) for Tenants that are higher risk.