All Forum Posts by: Doug Hadley

TENANT IS GONE!!!  We did the walkthrough with the agent yesterday.  The lady moved out yesterday and has moved back in with her family.  They left the property in pretty good shape.  The letter from my lawyer did the trick.  The lease agreement clearly stated that non-payment was grounds for not only eviction but also she would be responsible for all future rent due through the terms of the lease ($15,950).  She mentioned to her agent that "they got me".  

Thank you everyone that responded with advice, it's been a huge learning experience and we are so glad to have a site like biggerpockets.com to help us through this adventure/business.

She is her own lawyer, and I would agree with that.

She has stopped responding to my texts.  She is now 2 days past the due date of the pet deposit.  I will be serving her notice tonight and then file for eviction in a few days.  I can't believe she wants to push it this far, but she must think her lawyer is better than mine or that I won't go to the expense of filing the suit.

Listen to @Jon Holdman the sooner the tenants realize that you are serious about collecting rent the less trouble you will have.  I'm going through a difficult tenant right now that has a boyfriend staying in the house and refused to notify or release his information to us.  She was in the house 8 days before I started receiving calls from the neighbors.  I immediately called her and have been on her since that time.  She refuses to give me his information, but I'm in the process of a settlement to get her out of the house.  I can't imagine how much of a pain it would be if I had waited.  It's a great lesson for me to go through.

@William Hochstedler 

The neighbors have already seen suspicious activity.  Drug deals happening right on the street.  They were able to take a few fuzzy pictures that wouldn't hold up in court, but enough to prove to me that something improper was happening at my house.  The deals happen so quickly calling the cops may not be as fruitful unless they were able to search the house.

@Paul Ewing 

Paul, I did tell the other agent that I would be returning the deposit after her and I did a walkthrough with the Inventory Checklist.

@Jerry W. 

Deal is in the works.  On the phone with the agent right now.  Hoping for a settlement today.

@Shelly Swanzy @Brian Ortins @Steve Babiak @Matthew Paul @Jerry W. 

The guy has no car, doesn't work, I doubt he is receiving any mail.  He's a Crackhead.  He has only been seen driver the tenant's ex-husband's truck.  We've never seen him arrive or leave in any other car.

We may have a settlement in the making.  We got a call from her agent last night that she was tired of being watched and was interested in leaving if we would release her from the contract and return her deposit.  I spoke with my lawyer last night and he said that this might be the quickest best outcome.  I could file for eviction and go to court, but you never have the guarantee of victory at court.  Reaching a settlement that would get them out of the house so I could pursue a better tenant seems to be my best option.  It may cost me some money either way I go, but the settlement route seems to give me the quickest closure on this mess.

Unfortunately it will just mean that this problem will just move to another landlord's property and become his/her headache.

@Natalie Brown 

Tell me more about your drug use stipulation.  I need to add that to my contract.  Although my issue at the moment is not with the tenant but rather the tenant's boyfriend that she will not provide me his information.  So I'm unable to do a background search on who he is.  Appears to be dealing drugs from the house.  They happen so quickly that not sure calling the cops will help much because the deal has occurred and the buyer is gone.  Less than 1 minute.

@Beau Blinder 

You have been helpful and it's always comforting to speak with other landlords and get ideas of how more seasoned owners deal with difficult tenants.  We'll get better by going through this, just not much fun.  Quite time consuming.