All Forum Posts by: William Edmondson

Dante,

I just bought my triplex this past December and inherited a tenant that I lived next door to for 2 months before I evicted him for non-payment. Here is my experience:

I am very sociable and outgoing, He was very friendly, almost too friendly. I built a good relationship with him and he kept his place extremely clean, however as the weeks passed after I got ownership, he just never paid the rent. He kept saying he was going to pay this weekend, pay next Monday, etc. Never came. Pretty soon I just had to evict him and get him out, finally just found a new tenant but I lost two months rent because I was trying to be nice and let him catch up.

Lesson learned: Be understanding and friendly to these people but know you're running a business and the rent comes first before your friendship to them. You have bills to pay just like they do.

Brandon,

Thanks for taking the time to respond to my post. I've been following your screening guide and it's helped immensely, especially with weeding out people just kicking the tires and wasting your time.

I've put in my ad that there is a small application fee and that usually weeds out people that I wouldnt want in there anyway and also communicates that there are only good tenants in the nearby units. I'll often waive the fee anyway to make them feel like I gave them something of value.

I'll need to join my local landlord association. I didn't know those existed! Thanks!

https://www.sparkrent.com/app/tenant-screening/

I wonder when it will actually go live, I've been looking for an easy to use online tenant screening service that won't charge me an arm and a leg. Who knows what Sparkrent will actually charge though.

What does everyone else use for their tenant screening checks? I'm looking to check credit, criminal history, and evictions.

I just left court for eviction yesterday in DeKalb county, Georgia and the way the judge explained it is that you CANNOT keep the check, cash, money order, whatever or your case will be dismissed.

You have to return it. I don't know for sure if you can give it to the court, I think that is something the tenant has to do.

There was a landlord who was there and the tenant wasn't even there to defend themselves and he lost his case because he casually mentioned the tenant owed him a couple thousand dollars after a partial payment he received.

Joel,

Thanks so much, your responses are always incredibly detailed and informative.

He has told me he will be out by the 27th which is the required date (obviously his word means nothing to me.)

Is there a way to file a lien against his person which will show on his credit report?

All I can hope for is assume his credit isn't already trashed and this will make it very hard for him to get any credit. He always wants to pay cash for rent from the previous landlord's information, which leads me to believe he doesn't actively use a bank account.

After speaking with him last night, I think he believes that if he moves out on time and leaves the place in excellent shape, he won't owe me anything. Which I'm fine letting him believe until he is out and the locks are changed. I don't want to risk confronting him and he loses it and trashes the apartment or something.

I just won my case to have my tenant evicted. I am in DeKalb County, Georgia. I won a judgement for $1360 and he has to vacate in 7 days.

I've heard of people saying garnish the wages, but he works for himself doing contracting jobs (I inherited the tenant).

What is the best way to collect on the judgement or at least make his life difficult if he doesn't pay it? Can I file a lien against him that will stop him from getting a loan if he applies for one? What would happen if I hired a collection agency? I want to at least make it difficult for him.

Thanks so much.

Speaking as someone who does industrial electrical systems engineering that provides documents exactly as you have described, this would be a large amount of work.

The one line diagram, panel schedule, grounding, lighting and outlet plan, fixture schedule, and panel locations would all be separate drawings taking anywhere from 20-40 hours of work a piece depending on how readily available the needed information is.

We have whole teams of people who work to produce drawings like these and we charge clients $60-100/hr for just the design and engineering consulting (drawing creation). This doesn't include the actual installation.

Obviously I'm not doing commercial work, but I can send you an example of these drawings on a larger scale so you can get a general taste for what you may expect to get. (Expect smaller cable sizes and a smaller scope for commercial work.)

Send me a message if you're interested.

Rick and everyone,

Thank you so much for the helpful replies, I let him know that business is business and he gave me no choice. He seems accepting. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks again!

Long story short, state is Georgia, the tenant is a month behind on his rent and I gave a 5-day pay or quit which gave until 31st, he hasn't paid or quit. I filed on the 31st at the courthouse and I'm sure he will be served anytime between today and Wednesday.

He doesn't know I filed, should I communicate that he needs to find another place to live? Should I talk to him at all? I know not to accept partial payments of any kind. At this point I just want him gone. I have his one month rent worth of deposit money. He hasn't demonstrated any destructive tendencies.

How should I proceed? Just let the marshal do the work? Give him a heads up that I'm pursuing an eviction in the hopes he moves out sooner? (I already have a prospective new tenant).

Thank you for all of your help, BP!

Dawn and Joel,

Thank you for the excellent advice. I'll just have to be stern. I sent him a message telling him that I would not be renewing his lease and that I will be giving him a pay or quit notice if I do not have the rent + late fees in full by this Friday. I called the DeKalb Magistrate court clerk and he explained the process to me and it's exactly like Joel explained. Thanks again!