My tenant Lulu called me couple months ago to tell me she was moving out. Lulu has been there for one year so the lease term was no problem. I sent her a move out checklist. The end of the month came and Lulu showed no signs of being ready, she asked for another month. I said yes. During that time a prior tenant who is moving back into town wants to rent the house. Lulu told me that was moving on the 7th(tomorrow), but I just drove by and there is no way. Lulu always pays the rent (courtesy of the mother-in-law who is a delightful lady who I wish adopted all my tenants).
What can I do to make Lulu move? Can I refuse the rent? What to do?
My prospective tenant is as close to ideal so I do not want to loose him. He wants to move on the 25th, of course I have to clean, paint, would like to replace flooring, etc.
If you're on month-to-month, send a termination notice that complies with local law and your lease. I doubt you can force her out by the 25th, though. If she refuses to move, you'll have to do an eviction.
I was in a similar situation where I needed a tenant to move out of my house on short notice. I offered to pay the last month's rent if he complied. He did. No problems.
I think this is a case where the carrot may work better than a stick.
If you go immediately to the stick, you could piss her off and then there is zero chance of her being gone quickly enough.
The bottom line is, you know that you have a great tenant waiting to move in. I think most would agree that this is worth a free month to the existing one.
Thank you both for your responses. After checking the rules I realize that there was not enough time to make her leave the hard way, so I offered a few incentives. If she moved by the 12th: 1) I would not charge the prorated rent for May 2) Would process her security deposit in 5 days as opposed to the 30 days I am allowed, and 3) She did not have to have the carpet professionally cleaned as is required in the lease. Then I called the mother-in-law and I appealed to her, once again she came to the rescue and had them moved by the 14th.
My new tenant is in place and I could not be happier, he is the only tenant that actually leaves the place better than before, if you can believe that.
Thanks again.
She wasn't out by the 12th, which was your deal. So, are you keeping her prorated May rent? I would!
Furthermore, if a tenant moves out on or after the 1st of a month, they don't owe prorated rent, they owe THE ENTIRE MONTH'S RENT. If you want to be successful in this business, you must learn to follow the lease and you certainly can't pay people to steal from you!
i'm with mike on this one. while the end result you wanted was achieved, you let her live there for free AND had to go against your lease (of which you wrote).
Lets face it guys, most people who rent from investors are usually people with bad credit and are usually living pay check to pay check. You cant actually expect them to pay another full months rent if they stayed 1 extra day past the first. Even if you were to try to pursue getting that money it shows that you are hard up for the money and people like this do not care about their credit.
My suggestion to get someone out is a bit more extreme. You can either call the utility company and ask them to turn of the power or just pay your contractor to go over to the home when they are not there and cut the power line or pull the fuse. Renters have no idea on how to fix issues like this. Once they get home and realize there is no power they will leave.
Edited: 06/26/2010 at 08:23AM
Curt Davis, buyMemphisnow.com E-Mail: crtdavis@gmail.com Telephone: 901-881-0552 Website:http://www.buymemphisnow.com Full Service Real Estate Investing in Memphis TN
It's a business. Going after someone that voids the contract is not showing that would be 'hard up for the money', but would be simply going after what is legally and rightfully theirs.
I expect my tenants to follow the leases and agreements in place as they expect me to as well.
My suggestion to get someone out is a bit more extreme. You can either call the utility company and ask them to turn of the power or just pay your contractor to go over to the home when they are not there and cut the power line or pull the fuse. Renters have no idea on how to fix issues like this. Once they get home and realize there is no power they will leave.
That is some of the WORST advice I've ever seen posted on BP! Doing a self-help eviction is BLATANTLY illegal just about everywhere. Cutting your own live power line is not only a colossally stupid idea, but EXTREMELY DANGEROUS and expensive.
In addition, collecting money that is legally yours does not show that you are "hard up for the money", it shows that you expect the tenant to abide by their agreements.
Those that can - do. Those that can't - guru (consult)!
Oh geeze. Why not just hire Gino to give them a tune up until they leave? :roll: I live in a pro landlord area and I couldn't get away with this kind of reckless endangerment - nor would I ethically want to. You're opening yourself up to ridiculous liabilities with taking this course of action. Not to mention if you do it wrong - you die, literally or at least burn your house down and when it's investigated (and it will be) and your insurance company finds evidence of arson (and they will) you're not only going to get your claim denied, you will be liable for the damage you did to the tenants contents and endangering their lives. I've personally investigated dozens of electrical fires and yes we know when you're screwing with the electrical system and yes I've denied hundreds of thousands of dollars in claims when I know I'm being fed a line of b.s.
Secondly, this thread is about renting a house. I've yet to pay electric on a single rental house and anyone who's owned a single rental property for any amount of time can explain why.
Thirdly, Lulu's a good tenant! She's paid the rent on time for a year so clearly she's a decent person (or at least the mother in law is - how they get it, as long as it's legal, isn't your concern). You don't cut her power and make an enemy of her. You go to the house, thank her for being such a good tenant (you wouldn't believe how many landlord DON'T do this with their best tenants) then explain the situation to her. Tell her how much it's going to cost you per month if the house sits empty. Tell her someone really wants to rent the house and they're waiting for it. Get a realistic move out date from her and find out what has to happen to make it a reality - or find a way for her to stay. Tenants live their lives day to day and day to day things change. Her need to move may have altered completely. If she stays and the mother in law keeps paying - well then you haven't lost anything except the costs associated with cleaning, repairing and painting it for a new tenant.
In the end I charged her for 8 days, (she got 6 free days), she paid for the carpet cleaning and I did process her security deposit in 5 days. She left the place clean and some minor damage such as picture holes on the wall. If I had charged her rent for the full month I was afraid she would stay until the end of the month.
After she left I dropped paint, laminate flooring for living room/Dining rm, new water heater and my new tenant did all the work at no charge. Please know that I never ever let tenants do any work, he is the exception because he is very skilled. Overall I lost some money with Lulu but I saved labor costs of preparing the place.
Thank you all for you input and different perspectives.
My tenants get and pay for their own electricity, gas, water, etc...
Here it's on a person's name, not a property. And yes, I've shown properties with no utilities turned on with few problems as long as it isn't a section 8 inspection.
May 06 '09, 03:07 AM
