Five-Day Notice to Non Compliant Tenant
I have a tenant who's been very difficult for the past several months especially when it comes to communicating with us regarding late rent payments etc. She's been a long-standing tenant who was grandfathered in from the previous owner. Anyway, for the past couple of years, when came around to notifying about her lease renewal and rent increase, she always managed to complain about repairs/issues we've supposedly neglected to fix in her apartment. At this point she says that she will not renew her lease for another year until the repairs have been fixed for which we have addressed every time. Now mind you, this is a person that never calls and reports these issues throughout the year but manages to address them around the time of her lease renewal and rent increase.
Back in March of this year, she was notified (through DocuSign) once again about her lease renewal and rent increase. The letter also mentioned that if we don't hear from her by a certain date, we will assume that the lease will not be renewed for another year. We've also tried giving her the same letter in person but have been unsuccessful. Her lease expired as of June 30th and rent was paid up until then as well.
Regarding her rent payments, they have been very stagnant...possibly every two to three months. She makes her rent payments through PayPal, so there's no way to prevent her from sending these payments. We’ve tried giving five-day notices, but this has been rather challenging needless to say. She's ignored our calls and doesn’t answer her door. We've tried sending her texting messages with the same results.
At this point, we've consulted with an attorney, and they said that the five-day notice must be given to her in person before we can give a thirty-day notice to vacate the premise. These steps must be followed before we can begin the eviction process. It's been almost a month now and I'm still trying to give her this five-day notice. I'm stumped… Does anyone have any other suggestions? I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance.
Post it on the door and take a photo, and send a copy certified mail from post office. Your attorney can advise if that's acceptable or check your state statutes.
Are you sure you need to hand her the 5-day notice? Is that a local requirement?
In most places, taping the notice to the door will suffice. We sometimes send a copy via email. For a more difficult tenant, we might also send it USPS. If the resident appears litigious, we've even used certified mail.
On another note, turn off your PayPal. If you ever need to evict someone, this could blow up any future evictions. When you accept a partial payment (even automatically) it terminates any eviction proceedings you have with that resident.
Agreed with @Greg Scott on turning off your PayPal. You could report your tenant to the credit bureau for non-payment of rent. Make sure she understands that this will damage her credit and make it harder for her to rent or buy in the future. Also, I would suggest offering her cash for keys to get her out ASAP. If that doesn't work keep working with your attorney to follow all the proper eviction procedures.
As @Paul De Luca said above, have you tried offering cash for keys? You could always attempt that as you are already a month over when her lease ended, could potentially get her out if the price is right. I would assume you don't want to waste anymore of your time at this point.
If not, you will have to follow the guidelines in your state through your local attorney.
Thanks everyone for your quick responses but Cash for Keys could be a lot more expensive than eviction, am I wrong?
#3 1031 Exchanges Contributor
- Investor
- Las Vegas, NV
Depends on the state. Could be cheaper or more expensive. Some state and eviction might take 2 months. Multiply that by your rent and that’s the cost of eviction, plus and extra make ready. I’m philosophically against cash for keys and luckily live in a state where it’s never been necessary. But your market may vary.
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@Regina Bailey if you are in the Chicago area, then you will need to do things a bit differently. First, turn off Pay Pal immediately. Like do not allow this method or any other method of electronic payment. Secondly, think very carefully about giving a five day and then trying to evict based on that. It sounds like this tenant will pay, which means you will file and pay legal fees... and then the tenant can just pay which invalidates the entire thing.
Finally, you will need to give a 60 day or even potentially a 120 day if this tenant is in the city. You didn't give a location so I can't be more specific, but this is super important. You can no longer give a 30 day notice to a tenant in Cook County. In th County itself, it is 60 days. In the city it is 60 and then goes up from there depending on the length of tenancy.
