my irst experience .. rent owed .. what to do?

Rehabbing, Fix and Flip, Rental Properties
1

HI.
I am new into the rental business probably making mistakes right and left :). This is my situation. I was silly enough to let my renters continue living in teh house for few months due to his financial difficulties (they owe me now arround $3.5k) … .yes … I was silly. The have been in the last months paying me $200 extra a month to try to catch up. The situation is now that they divorced, my legal tenant (the wife) left teh house, the husband stays in the house. The husband has agreed to proceed with his $200 to cover the 1/2 of teh $3.5K they owed me … so I am considering continue renting to him. The issue is what legal recourse I have against her … she abandoned my house without even telling me (she was my tenant) … I have her phone number and work address. Can I take this to small claim court? Or simply sign some type of legal payment agreement/contract with each of them? Or I lost my money ? I have no idea how to proceed. I appreciate any guidance on this.

Should I put

2

Did she have a lease or was she month-to-month?

The problem that I see is that yhou never enforced any rules and it may be hard to do so now…

Keith

3

Keith: Thansk for the reply. What rules did I skip? (at least to know for next time). I sent couple of late payment letters, etc … that’s all. Thanks

4

Rule #1 NEVER RENT TO A TENANT THAT YOUR NOT GOING TO ENFORCE THE RULES ON.WHAT RULES? YOUR LEASE IS YOUR SET OF RULES .FOLLOW IT OR GIVE UP.

5

Surely you had rules in the lease/contract that said how much rent, when rent is due, when rent is late, how the deposit is to be handled, under what circumstances the lease can be broken, etc., etc.

When you didn’t stringently enforce the rules the day rent was late, they recognized an “easy mark” and took advantage of you. Are you holding HER deposit? Did she give it to you? If so, I would get him under contract with arrears payment worked into the first X number of payments (until you get your money back from him) and get a new security deposit from HIM.