I made a big mistake, a lapse in judgement.
I allowed a tenant to move in without the first months rent.
She paid the deposit to the property manager, then I met her at a local resturaunt to have her sign the agreement…she didnt have a check on her, it was a last minute meeting, saving me the 50 mile trip to the property.
I told her to just pay the rent on time, and gave her the key.
She hasn’t paid, and she is not answering her phone.
This is my question:
Can I give her a 3 day notice to vacate, instead of a 3 day notice to pay or quit?
I dont even want to give her the option to pay…I just want her out of there.
With a 3 day notice to vacate, I have to specify what the violations are…they would be:
Failure to pay the first months rent as agreed
Failure to communicate to Landlord regarding payment
Would this work, or do I need to go with the 3 day notice to pay or quit, since it involves rent, do I have to give her the option of curing the violation by paying it??
You MUST follow the law for your state. What kind of notice does you state require/allow? Here in Ohio, we post a 3-day notice to vacate and we do NOT have to accept any late rent.
I think I will play it safe and give the 3 day notice to pay or quit…this gives her 3 days to pay with cash or money order.
One more thing…
I never understood the bottom portion of the notice that is the “Proof of Service” section…Does this section get filled out BEFORE serving it, or do you simply keep a copy with that section filled out?
The section appears to, of neccessity, be filled out AFTER the serving takes place.
But if you dont fill it out, then there is no date on the form…???
Also you need to check out your local eviction laws for time frame added to the 3 day notice to vacate because of where payment is due.
An example is, I live in Broward County Florida (ft lauderdale) and I have rental properties in Palm Bch, (next county north of me) and since my company payment address is in Broward County i have to give them 5 additional business days to vacate before I can process the paperwork with the courts. So a 3 day to vacate if dropped off on say Mon Jan 7th would give the tenant till Wed the 16th to pay me. So 3 days now turns into 10 days which suck really.
YOu need to check out if it is legal to mail the notice. In Fl I can just post it on the door. I have to sign it and it states no one was home at time of service and I mark the box…along with the time I serve notice…
I know it sucks to have deadbeat tenants. I am in process of evicting 2 tenants now, i just evicted one on DEc 22, I was very happy that day when the kids had no where to live for XMAS because parents are irrespoinsible…
I might as well give you this lesson for free, since you will need it in the future.
It is a very common scam for tenants to show up for the signing, fill out all the contrats, sign everything, hand you the rent money, and only then tell you that they don’t have the money for deposits and will pay the deposit “on Friday”.
You must be mentally prepared for it, becasue the natural reaction, after you’ver gotten that far, is to go ahead and hand them the keys and hope for the best.
When you fill out contracts, you do everything except for your signature. You do not sign until after you have all the funds.
You must have yourself braced and ready, so if they try the “don’t have the deposit for a couple of days”, you are mentally prepared to pick up all of your paperwork and tell them to give you call when they have all the money.
Then you find another tenant, because that group are cheats and liars and are going to be endless trouble. You have to get out of the building undamaged, so be polite and do not tell them at that time that you won’t be renting to them. Just tell them to call you when they have the money and you get out of there.
The tenant actually paid, my wife found the rent in my PO box today as I was at the apartment looking for her, so I will charge her a late fee and go from there.