All Forum Posts by: AJ Pryor

By what mechanism is their credit score affected - if a small claim is filed or a collection agency involved? As of now, I haven't notified any official body, so I don't see how their credit score would be aware.

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We acquired a 4BR SFH in 2019 used as student housing. There were existing tenants and a lease in place - the lease had some issues (such as being rented to individuals instead of as one amount and with no parental guarantor tied to the agreement). For one tenant, the mother typically paid the rent. When COVID hit, she contacted us indicating financial hardships, at which point we agreed to allow for a rent deferral whereby we would forgive all late fees provided that the amount was paid in full by the end of the lease, which was July 15th. We conducted a move out inspection the first week of July, and the tenants vacated on the 15th. I had contacted the tenant regarding the rent that was unpaid and have received no response, and they are not returning calls. The total amount of past-due rent is approximately $2k.

What reasonable actions, if any, can be taken here? The amount is in the range where a small claims suit may not make sense but enough to hurt, plus I gather the courts are tending to side with tenants on these matters if they are open at all. It's frustrating because this was a middle-ground arrangement intended to be empathetic with the plight of the person, but I have mortgages to pay, etc. Is this a lesson to be learned that people will take you for a fool, and I should have engaged eviction proceedings immediately? Hoping to get some advice and learn how to handle better now and in the future.

Thanks Sue for the fantastic response

I've recently purchased a couple of 4BR SFH in a college town and am trying to decide how to structure the leases upon renewal. The current leases (which I inherited from the prior owner), are separate agreements with each tenant. Some of the tenants are students that pay rent either via student loans or their parents. I'd like some advice on whether to pursue a joint-and-several agreement going forward with a single lease/rent amount containing all tenants versus continuing to lease to individuals. Considerations I have so far are:

- Co-signers - should I check and require a parent or similar co-signer for each tenant without sufficient independent income? How would that work with a single lease, multiple co-signers? 8 parties on a lease seems like a coordination headache

- Should I consider available student loans as sufficient income for rental without a co-signer (perhaps by requiring a bank statement with >6mo of liquidity for rent)?

- Many students graduate/leave in the middle of the year (winter/summer semester). How should I handle early termination? Should I always sign an annual lease and allow for subleasing, include an early termination fee, or something else?
Individual leases would seem to help with the last point, but create a nightmare where each BR is out of sync (sounds terrible). I’ve also heard that individual leases can yield slightly higher rental rates, but obviously involve more headache. What do you all think?

Note this is specific to student housing. I understand for a more traditional rental a single lease is almost always preferable.

Thanks for the thoughtful post Richard (and others). You also nailed the scenario -- the tenant ended up paying with ~2 days remaining on the PoQ notice. 

I had been pretty well convinced that joint-and-several was the way to go, but your comments give me pause. These are college rentals, and thus they do bring differences (e.g. often tenants do not have jobs).

"The four tenants most likely, are depending on others ( their parents) to cover the rent."

When you do go through with individual leases, do you require a cosigner for cases where the tenant has insufficient income?

I recently purchased a 4BR rental property in a college town in the state of Georgia and took over an existing lease that ends in July of this year. The lease is a separate agreement for each tenant such that each has their own agreement for 1/4 of the total rent. This is a headache, and once the lease expires I'll put a new one with all four names responsible for a single amount of rent, but for now I am stuck with individuals.

One of the tenants has not paid rent for the month. I've served a Pay or Quit and will now move forward with the formal eviction process. I have a double problem, as upon reviewing the lease documents turned over at closing I discovered that there are only 3 signatures, and naturally the tenant who has not paid is the one missing. There was apparently a previous roommate, some drama, and this was the replacement tenant. This person did pay rent for one month (though late, piece-by-piece)

I'm not sure what the best path is forward for the remainder of the lease and am looking for suggestions. What I've thought so far is I could:

1) Advertise and fill the BR on my own with either a month-to-month lease or a shortened term that coincides with the end of the existing leases

2) Offer the other 3 tenants the opportunity to find a new roommate, but if they choose to do so require that they cover the missing rent until they find another roommate. This presumably could be done by a secondary agreement. The idea here is that people like to, well, like their roommates and they probably prefer to pick, but I'm concerned if I just leave an open time window I'll end up in the same position, just further down the road and out of pocket.

3) Indicate to the remaining tenants that they must cover the missing rent. Given the terms of the agreement, I don't think this is an option.

And, again, the fact that the lease is missing this person's signature makes me fear I have no legal foothold here. A painful lesson to learn going forward -- but can somebody provide insight into what my options may be?