In every other real estate transaction, I can recall in my entire life, the closing is stalled until any outstanding issues are finalized.

Am I trying to see if the person actually works there....trying to verify salary....whether they are an outstanding employee???

If the landlord-tenant law for your jurisdiction allows it, add a clause to your rental agreement such as this:PAYMENTS.All payments made by Tenant to Landlord after the tenancy commences, no matter how designated by Tenant, will be applied as follows: first, to any outstanding amounts due for damages/repairs, utilities etc.; second, to any outstanding service charges or fees from prior months; third, to any rent outstanding from prior months; fourth, to any service charges or fees due in the current month; and lastly to the current month’s rent.As to whether or not you can lock the person out of the storage unit and/or seize the contents, be very careful.

If they offer to pay, only take full payment for rent and for outstanding water.

Joining the local RE Groups are outstanding when it comes to networking.Once again..Welcome to BPAntonio Coleman "Signing Off" 

 Thank you all for the outstanding feedback.  

We still have 9% outstanding rent for May, which is actually a slight improvement over April, even though everyone seemed to think May would see some of the worst rent collection.

It is also a market with outstanding historical appreciation.  

Make sure you itemize the expenses (clean up, outstanding rent) and send that to the tenants within the timeline required by your state.Someone mentioned getting a PM, I don't think that would have prevented this. 

All of his money except for application fees was refunded in a cashier's check, and he signed a document that itemized the returned funds, stated no money was outstanding on either side, and that the lease was void.