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If you are in the rental business, sooner or later, you are going to have a tenant who inexplicably stops paying rent. They may give you the run around with stories about why they can’t pay and promises of a full payment plus late fees just around the corner. Or, they may simply ignore your phone calls and refuse to answer the door if you show up in person to try to collect rent. Bottom line is, when it comes to this point, these tenants will need to be served with a three day notice to vacate to initiate the eviction process.
While you may be frustrated and tempted to take measures into your own hands, it is very important to follow the legal procedure for removing a non-paying tenant from your property. Specifically, the law expressly forbids you from doing the following:
Removing or Changing Locks
In no way is it legal for you to remove the locks, or put new locks on the property to “lock out†your tenant. It doesn’t matter if they are months behind on their rent, have totally trashed the house and are in violation of every provision in the lease. They are legally protected against a “lock out” and can take you to court to regain entry.
Furthermore, cute tricks like removing the front door are also clearly illegal.
Utility Shut-offs
You may not shut off the water, gas or electricity in an attempt to force your tenants to move out. Again, your tenants, however far behind in rent they are, can seek legal recourse against you for this action and can collect hefty fines against you.
Taking Tenant’s Property
You may not harass your tenant into moving out. This would include illegally entering the rental unit and taking their property. Only under very specific circumstances (abandonment) is a landlord allowed to remove a tenant’s property.
Physical Removal
Only the legal authority (usually the sheriff’s office or their agents) can remove a tenant after a writ of possession is obtained from the court and the legal waiting time has elapsed. This means that you can’t hire your own help to physically move out a tenant.
While the above list describes the major things that you, as a landlord, cannot do to get a tenant to move out, it is not all inclusive. Any number of other creative strategies to harass or compel a tenant to move out are also illegal.
The only legal way to remove a tenant from your property is to go through the legal eviction process. Yes, it costs money and yes it takes time. Remember that you can deduct the unpaid rent for the period that your tenant remains in the property during the eviction process from their security deposit.
The best thing that you can do to minimize your losses is to be firm with the rental due date and promptly post 3 day notices when your tenants have not delivered rent on time. This will ensure the fastest possible repossession of your property should you need to file for an eviction.
Until my next post,
James
P.S. Want to access our Secret Property Management Tips and Tricks course? For a very limited time, you can download it free.
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Whether you have a property manager or you are managing your rental units yourself, it is critical that all of your prospective tenants are adequately prescreened. The amount of money you will save in the long run by doing due diligence ahead of time is well worth the extra effort and time spent upfront.
Most of us have been burned occasionally by bad tenants who don’t pay rent on time, bounce checks to us, and ultimately have to be evicted. While prescreening doesn’t guarantee that you won’t have to evict a tenant, it does make it much less likely.
Even if you have to wait a few weeks longer to get your house rented in order to find qualified tenants… make the sacrifice! It’s easy to be tempted to take the first person willing to pay the rent that you’re asking for, but this is a mistake. They need to qualify to occupy your property.
Every city is a little bit different in terms of the time it takes to file the paperwork for eviction, get a court date, and finally, if necessary, get the sheriff to remove the non-paying tenant. But one thing is for sure: it takes time, usually weeks, sometimes months, to get the matter fully resolved.
And, of course, the type of tenant who stops paying you rent, usually doesn’t leave your property in the best condition when you finally succeed in evicting them. You may be stuck with thousands of dollars in repair costs, which of course means that your property will be un-rentable for longer, further adding to your losses.
So, when you add up the lawyer fees, court costs, months of lost rent, repairs, and personal stress – taking a little extra time and care to get your property rented to a fully qualified tenant is a no-brainer. Only rent to fully qualified, prescreened tenants!
Until my next post,
James
P.S. We have a comprehensive tenant screening and management system for our Real Estate Investor Bronze Members on the Real Estate Investor Wiki as well as in a variety of real estate course downloads included for bronze members. Plus, if you need additional help with consulting for your business that is also included free for our Real Estate Investor Bronze Members. Sign up now as a bronze member to immediately access these training materials.
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