If you?ve been a landlord long enough, you know that sooner or later you?re going to have to deal with a difficult tenant. Maybe you have a tenant who refuses to pay his or her rent. Perhaps he is engaging in conduct that threatens to damage your property. It could be that he?s making a nuisance of himself and causing problems for your other tenants. If you have a tenant who has made it impossible for you to continue the landlord/tenant relationship with him, you do have remedies available to you. This article sets forth some of what you can do if you find yourself in this position.
First, you can evict a tenant for non-payment of rent. To do this, you have to go through a process. Start with serving the tenant with a formal notice that the rent is overdue, and that he faces the possibility of eviction if payment is not forthcoming. If you don?t know how to create such a formal notice, there are preprinted forms that comply with all the legal niceties. IF you don?t receive payment within the legally prescribed period, such as within a week, you can begin eviction proceedings based on non-payment of rent. Be forewarned, however, that if you accept even a partial payment of the overdue rent during the eviction process, most jurisdictions will dismiss the action if payment of any amount, even a very small one, is accepted.
Violation of Lease Terms If a tenant hasn’t complied with the terms of the lease they have signed, a landlord is required to provide a written warning detailing the lease clause being violated. The landlord must then allow the tenant time to remedy the problem so that the tenant cannot later claim either ignorance of the lease violation, or that they received no notice of the violation. A judge will generally rule in favor of the landlord if he or she is able to establish that the tenant ignored a prior notice.
Health And safety Issues There are times when tenants may be a health risk to other tenants and even the property. In most cases, a landlord has the right to evict someone who causes health risks to other tenants and the property itself. You will need to provide them with a notice stating the violation and the time they have to correct it, or move out. If they fail to take action, you can start eviction processes. You can even start the process if the tenant corrects their problems, on the basis of health and safety concerns.
Bankruptcy If a tenant files for bankruptcy, an automatic stay stops eviction proceedings until the bankruptcy is resolved or the bankruptcy court lifts the stay and allows the eviction to proceed. Lifting a stay in any circumstance may require a motion to be brought before the bankruptcy court.
Sometimes when a landlord commences an eviction action, the tenant may have counterclaims. For instance, the tenant may claim inadequate maintenance of the leasehold or some other violation of the lease agreement. IN said case, the tenant might ask the court to halt the eviction proceedings, or for a substantial decrease in the monthly rent. That?s why it?s always a good idea to keep any records of tenants? complaints, and of steps taken by the landlord to remedy them. Take note that if the landlord has in fact kept such records including those of actions taken to remedy the tenant?s complaints, he can thus negate a tenant?s claim that despite repeated attempts to complain about the problem, the landlord took no action.
Trials you must make sure you have all your paperwork together before you go to court. You don’t want to find out that there is something missing, when its too late. Unless you are very familiar with all the rules and regulation of your states rental laws, hiring a lawyer who is up to date on this, will be a plus. This article should give you a good grasp on what exactly it is that you need to do in order to begin the eviction process on one of your tenants.
Layla Vanderbilt is the content coordinator for a leading property management solution review website which connects people with the leading property management tools.
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