All Forum Posts by: Damon Duperre

Definitely don't evict him. If he is on month to month just don't renew his lease. He can't fight that. If you try to evict him a judge might say that since you accepted partial payment one time that is like giving him permission to keep making partial payments. If you try to evict him and he is willing to fight it all the way even if you end up winning he can then appeal it and it could take several months to get him out and you can be sure he wont pay any rent during those months.

Hey David Kenny, you don't really have to tell them no. Just don't tell them yes.  I don't know about Georgia but in Texas the law says if a landlord does not contact an applicant within 1 week after they turn in the application then that means they were officially rejected. A lot of landlords I know have a hard time saying no so they just don't call them back.

I can't say what you should do but I would not even consider renting to her. One account in collection would be enough for me. A divorce doesn't hurt your credit. Not paying your bills does. Also from my experience it seems like the very worst tenant applicants usually seem like they would be the best. Good tenants don't put much effort into making it seem like they would be good tenants but terrible tenants put a lot of effort into it. They often seem like the best ones at first.

Ditto.

I am sure there are all kinds of different reasons why but a lot of times it is that they don't want you coming inside the house to make the repairs so they put off reporting it until a convenient time for them.

I wouldn't call the police at all. I agree with Fred Heller. It might just be a personal issue between the two also. Stay out of it.

But if you decide not to stay out of it then check it out for yourself rather than take one tenants word for it.

Even if the one tenant is selling drugs it won't do you any good if the cops come and tear the place up and then take them to jail so they can't pay the rent.

My lease says that if they don't do it I can have it done and charge them for it as "added rent". Nobody has challenged it in court so I don't know for sure how enforceable it is.

Decide if you want to allow pets or not and stick by your decision. Perry Ivy is absolutely correct. I would offer to let them out of their lease without actually threatening to evict them and if they don't then start trying to figure out how you can prove they violated the lease in case they try to fight it when you evict them. I can't stress enough that you shouldn't threaten to evict them though. If and when you are ready and able to do it just do it.

Personally I allow dogs but my lease says no pets without my written permission and I judge each one on a case by case basis after meeting the dogs. I can't think of a single tenant I have had that didn't have at least one dog. But if you have decided no pet's you should stick by it.

If you decide to evict them than just know that the odds are they will move out without fighting it but if they do fight it you better be able to prove the lease violation. I can only speak for Texas but here the only eviction you can count on winning is one where you can prove non-payment of rent. Anything else COULD go either way in court especially if there is a jury. My lease says no jury trials but I don't know for sure how enforceable that is because nobody has tried to use a jury with me. 

Loosing an eviction case in court is not a pleasant thing. I did it once and don't plan on doing it again.

I agree with Shelly F.  You want to have every adult 18 years old or over on the lease after passing an application process. In my opinion this is especially true in this case because you know that even though he apologized he knew better than to do that. While it is possible that he is just stupid it is more likely that he is probably trying to see how far he can push you. You did the right thing by letting him know that you have boundary's but I think you should make him pass an application screening and put him on the lease.

Would you let somebody you didn't check out yourself borrow thousands of dollars, or hundreds of thousands of dollars?   Probably not.  So why let them "borrow" your house?

I don't think anybody was trying to give you a hard time. I think they were giving you honest advice. I could be wrong. Don't feel bad if somebody tells you something you did was stupid especially if it was stupid. I have done things that are so stupid nobody here will ever hear about them. That doesn't mean that everything I do is stupid. I bet everybody here has a story or two they won't talk about.