Landlords-advice re evicting a tenant

[Vacation Lover]

We are currently renting out our former home and the tenant is consistently late with the rent; he has already bounced 2 checks since he moved in 4 months ago. His lease runs out at the end of April. We do not plan to renew the lease, and will probably put the house up for sale.

He has not paid February's rent and I'm considering starting the eviction process now instead of waiting until the end of April. (We had originally planned to notify him of our intention not to renew when he paid his March rent, which would give him 2 months notice, if he paid on time.) Two reasons I'm considering starting the eviction process now: I am sick of chasing him down for the rent and if we can get him out early, it will give us more time to get the house ready for sale during the "prime" selling season this spring.

My question is: is it worth it to go ahead and try to evict now, or easier to just wait 2 more months until the lease is up? He paid upfront the last months rent and a deposit (equal to 1 month rent). We live in South Carolina, if that makes a difference. Any suggestions? I'm kicking myself for letting this guy move in despite poor credit; the former tenants also had poor credit, but they were good tenants. Shouldn't have taken a chance on him!

 

[bettymae1121]

I am by no means an expert, but everything I've heard about evictions is that it can take months for it to actually happen of the tennant fights it.

It may pay to find a local real estate lawyer that is good with tennancy issues and see what he/she thinks. Even if you have to pay for the consult, it could be money well spent if it keeps you from making the wrong move.

 

[Tiggerish]

I would start the eviction immediately. There is no guarantee the tenant will actually move out at the end of the lease and if he doesn't move, you would still have to go through the eviction process. The longer you wait, the more money you are losing and the more time the tenant has to inflict damage on your property.

 

[NHdisneylover]

Check the laws in yoru state (a simple google search should pull them up). we evicted tenants last year and Iwished we had started the process sooner. They were not simply late--they were not payingg (either nothing or only about 20% of the rent at most the first couple of months they pulled this). I found in our state that they had to have not paid (or been short) to be evcited. Being late paying was not a reason we could sue to evict. It WAS a hassle and required about 3 months from start to finish and they trashed the house even more than they had as they were leaving in anger Based on only our expereince, if you are eventually seein gthe rent and you are only looking at afw months difference I think you are better off to hang in there and deal with the hassle of chasin him down for rent over teh hassle of an eviction.

 

[dd50]

Check the tenant/landlord laws in your state.

 

[3boymthr]

Check the laws in yoru state (a simple google search should pull them up). we evicted tenants last year and Iwished we had started the process sooner. They were not simply late--they were not payingg (either nothing or only about 20% of the rent at most the first couple of months they pulled this). I found in our state that they had to have not paid (or been short) to be evcited. Being late paying was not a reason we could sue to evict. It WAS a hassle and required about 3 months from start to finish and they trashed the house even more than they had as they were leaving in anger Based on only our expereince, if you are eventually seein gthe rent and you are only looking at afw months difference I think you are better off to hang in there and deal with the hassle of chasin him down for rent over teh hassle of an eviction.

We don't rent but my ILs are professional property managers - they own 50 units.

In some (most?) states late payment is not cause for eviction unless it's written into the lease and even then you may not be able to evict.

Plus, sad to say it may cost you a lot of money to evict. In some states official documents sent thru the courts have to be sent with x number of days of notice and they have y number of days to get caught up and you may have to pay to have the sheriff come out to serve the documents. Even then for MIL it has taken up to a year to get someone evicted.

You may be better off just notifying him now that he has until the end of the lease to get out. Even then he may not get out right away.

 

[lisabarr]

A better solution is to offer him cash to move. Will likely get him to move faster and will help keep your home in good condition. Much cheaper than a lawyer and eviction process and will usually work everytime.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

A better solution is to offer him cash to move. Will likely get him to move faster and will help keep your home in good condition. Much cheaper than a lawyer and eviction process and will usually work everytime.

We did this was our last tenants. Our lawyer advised us to do this. He said having him go to court costs us $300 an hour and the judge might side with the tenants etc. All I can say is good ridance to them even though it meant losing some money. Our tenant is in NJ and we live in NY. They moved to FL and it didnt work out and she had the nerve to write my dh a letter asking him if he knew of any houses for rent in that area where our rental property is in NJ.

 

[akcire]

A better solution is to offer him cash to move. Will likely get him to move faster and will help keep your home in good condition. Much cheaper than a lawyer and eviction process and will usually work everytime.

My husband and I own some rental and have effectively used this method on multiple occasions.

Our next door neighbors did not sell their home 4 years ago, because they priced it insanely high.

Then they did a rent to own situation with really nice people, who asked them to lower the purchase price to something that would appraise (they refused) and the rent to own people moved.

Then they rented the house to some felons--not kidding we later learned they were professional identity thief's (state and feds kept raiding the house). This family had a revolving door of members sometimes with as many as 5 adults and 11 children, plus a whole zoo full of pets. It was ridiculous.

Old neighbor rings my doorbell one day and wants to know how to go about evicting--current tenants had not paid rent in 3 months. I told him to offer them money to leave. He told me I was nuts, and he would never reward people for their poor behavior, I told him it was a business decision. That said, it took him nearly 8 months (plus legal fees) to evict the tenants, so 11 months without rent. When owner finally got into the house it was TRASHED, it cost our neighbor $20,000 to get the house back to a 'sellable' state, and now it has been listed and vacant for nearly one year. He did admit to me recently that he should have just paid them to leave.

It does suck to give someone money to go, but you have to weigh your down side potential.

 

[RachaelA]

At least put a 3 day notice on the door, maybe it'll scare him into paying.

 

[deerhart]

also there is a HUGE difference between an unlawful detainer suit and a rent and possession suit (even though you can do an unlawful detainer as part of your rent and possession suit).

By making an unlawful detainer claim, you can usually speed up the entire process. The unlawful detainer would come into effect after the lease has terminated

As such where we are, you have to give 30-60 days notice that the person is in violation and needs to leave (depending on if there is a lease or not, what type of lease it is - term or month to month etc). Then after the deadline and they have not left, you can file an action. Usually it will take at least another 30 days to get into court. If the tenant chooses to fight the action, an attorney can easily delay the case for at least another 30 days or more. Even after you have gotten a judgment, you would not be able to act on that judgment for another 10-15 days.

 

[coloradodaisy]

If he's been late but his lease runs out in April I think I would just keep chasing him for the money and let it run it's course through April, that's only a couple months and eviction could easily take that long. Also the eviction process will cost you money and you risk pissing him off which could result in damage to the property. If you really really really want him out right now then go with the paying him thing. Otherwise I would let it ride.

 

[Vacation Lover]

Thanks for the info and the new ideas. I had a feeling it wouldn't be worth it to try to evict when the lease is up so soon. It hadn't occurred to me to pay him to leave. I could tell him that we are putting the house up for sale at the end of the lease, but if he can get out by the end of March, we will "forgive" the February rent. The last month's rent has been paid up front, and, assuming the house is in order, he can still get his deposit back.

 

[Evi]

I would check in with a lawyer. It may be in your favor to give him advance notice that you will not be renewing his lease and that you will need the unit available on x day (make it as soon as his lease is over) In legal terms you'd be giving him more then 30 days notice and he will no longer be tied to a lease so it would be easier to evict him if he doesn't' go willingly. But try to keep it friendly you can always say your planning to move back in whatever truth be told what you do once the place is empty is up to you. But you don't want him to just sit around or ruin your property because he gets mad.

 

[Shreggor]

A better solution is to offer him cash to move. Will likely get him to move faster and will help keep your home in good condition. Much cheaper than a lawyer and eviction process and will usually work everytime.

My landlord did this with the last sketchy tenants who we had to get rid of in our building. Works like a charm.

 

[4Seasons]

Remember EVERY state has different procedures and you MUST go by the ones your state has:
http://www.rentlaw.com/eviction/sceviction.htm

I could tell you the landlord/tenant law for the state of Maryland backwards and forwards. We've been landlords for 22 years and own multiple units.
Not following the letter of the law could hinder your legal rights and make you prone to a counter suit. We are in the process as we speak with one of our tenants, I had to go to court on Monday.

 

[surfergirl602]

Kind of on the opposite end here, but all the rental places around here will usually only allow two pets. We have five. Three dogs, two cats. We found a house that we really liked and we offered the owner an extra pet deposit in cash. We got the house!

 

[C.Ann]

My brother went through this with my mom's townhouse.. It took almost a year to get these people out - even after they were served by the Sheriff's Dept.

The place was a mess (the townhouse was only 2 years old) and everything had to be repaired or replaced - right down to all of the wall-to-wall carpeting.. After that lovely experience, it was put up for sale.. Personally, I would never get involved with renting out a property to someone - I've seen this type of thing happen far too often..

Hope you have better luck - and faster results - than my brother did..

 

[Vacation Lover]

Well, he still hasn't paid February's rent. He's giving me the runaround (He's out of town, left the rent in the newspaper box last week, I checked and it wasn't there, his girlfriend accidentally picked it up when she was checking his mail...blah blah blah...)

Anyway, last week I told him that we needed to free up some cash and would be putting the house up for sale when his lease ran out in April. I then told him that we'd give him a break on his rent if he could get out by the end of March. When we spoke yesterday, he said he was trying to be out by the end of March; I told him to write his check for $500 less than the Feb rent and we'd notify the agent to put the sign up on April 1st. I'm planning to drop a letter in the mail with the above information so we have something documented.

Thanks for all of the help!

 

[DVC-Don]

We had a tenant that we started eviction proceedings on 3 times for late payment and they'd always pay up the day of the hearing so the judge would dismiss the case. They knew how to work the system just as good as our lawyer. Sold the house when they moved out and got out of the landlord business. The cat they were not supposed to have ruined all the screens and carpets.