I have a tenant that hasn’t paid the rent all month been making excuses said she was getting the money from some agency and didn’t then promised to move on her own and didn’t.
What is the best and fastest way to get her out? I have heard about paying them to leave on thier own but is this legally binding and does it work? What if I pay them and they don’t leave can I legally change the locks?
I understand you can change the locks but have to give them a key withing 24hrs if the ask. Has anyone tried this? Do most tenants know the law and ask for the key?
Any advice appreciated!
In most, if not all, states it is illegal to either change the locks to lock someone out or to shut off their utilities to try to “convince” them to leave. That will land you in more trouble in court if you go that route.
What are the LL/tenant laws in your state regarding evictions? If you don’t know, you’re WAY behind the power curve. With information being freely available on the internet, you have to at least make the assumption the tenant might know a thing or two about LL/tenant laws. Some areas also have tenant groups dedicated to tenant rights and defending them against the big bad landlord.
Do some quick searching on your own and figure out what your state’s timelines are for eviction. You might be surprised to find the times are short and you could get to court soon.
If you want to pay someone to steal from you (which is what they are currently doing), that’s up to you, but you shouldn’t give them crap until their stuff is out.
If you’re saying that this tenant hasn’t paid October rent, the YOU have made a big mistake by not evicting them a month ago. You can’t pay your bills with excuses or promises, therefore you should not take excuses or promises in lieu of the rent.
The simple answer to your question is to EVICT them TODAY!!! It is absolutely imperative that you do the eviction properly, so if you aren’t 100% sure about the process, hire a lawyer that is experienced with evictions to help you (at least with the first one).
If you have any hope of being in the rental business in a serious way, do NOT pay the tenants to leave. As Justin said, you are simply paying them to steal from you. Tenants talk. If you pay tenants to leave, soon every deadbeat tenant in town will want to be YOUR tenant, because they know that NONE of your rules mean anything and if they rip you off - YOU’LL PAY THEM. Moreover, once the word gets around, all of your tenants will know that when they want to leave, they should just stop paying the rent. Not only will they live rent-free for the last couple of months, you’ll then pay them on top of that!!!
So, my suggestion is to start the eviction process immediately!
Good Luck,
Mike
Thanks for all the replies. That is a good point about tenants talking to one another and spreading it around that they can not pay and then get paid to leave. I didn’t think about that. I was just trying to look for the fastest way to get them out. I have another lady the wants to move in asap so I want to get this one out fast!
I would like to charge 2 months security deposit to ensure that I am covered the next time…hopefully there won’t be one but… This is a low income property and I dont know if I would be able to get new tenants to cough up the extra months securtiy deposit since most of them don’t have much money anyway. Anyone had any luck with this?
Once again, what does your state laws say about how much you can hold in a security deposit? Some states set a limit. Some states list it as a “reasonable amount.” That would be subject to a judge’s interpretation of the law.
You are right though about making it too expensive for some people. Typically these people are not savers. If they had more money, or better used what they did have, they’d be buying homes (most of the time). If you make the amount too high, you’ll limit your potential tenant pool…and people may not want to pay the extra deposit to get into your place when they can move somewhere else and pay 1 mo. deposit.