Non-paying and non-responsive tenant

[Kamyar K.]

Hi everyone,

I've recently purchased a fourplex in Oakland, one vacant unit, three tenant occupied. We closed recently. So October is the first official month of me being a landlord. We got one section 8 tenant who eventually paid, one tenant that paid on time, but one tenant that's been problematic. Let me tell you the story.

On the first of the month, I got a text message from her with something to the effect of unfortunately I don't have rent until Thursday next week. I said okay, I am going to accommodate this request, and added a new charge for her for October rent in RentRedi and put the due date for this Friday. I said this on Sunday October 5th. Welp, no response. Nothing. She actually didn't pay at all this week. No response. I texted her on Saturday, hey it's Saturday the 11th, I still don't have any rent from you. Nothing. I called today. No response. I left a voicemail saying if I don't hear back by tomorrow at 5pm, I will file an eviction notice, and asked her to call me.

So this is where I'm at. Isn't that amazing? First month of being a landlord and I'm already dealing with a non-payer. Just awesome. So I'm posting this question here to gather help from the community. As a first time landlord, I'm new to all of this, and I want to make sure I do everything legally and professionally. At the same time I want to be helpful and caring to my tenant to the degree possible without adverse financial consequences. This is a small business after all with small margins, and I can't really afford a non-payer. Mortgage payments and everything else really add up fast.

Please help me out. Do you recommend a legal firm or website or app for handling the 3 day notice? Did I act too quickly, or was I right in setting up a firm boundary? I don't want this to become a game of her pushing me around and seeing how much she can postpone rent. I get that life happens, and financial hardship can happen to anyone. But if that was the case, I need the tenant to clearly tell me this and maybe we can work out a solution together that works for both side. But this isn't really possible if the tenant is checked out. So I feel like that's left me no choice.

I was going to go LDA Pro Legal https://ldaprolegal.com/ and ask one of their paralegals to write me the notice and also use their service to serve it to the tenant. All in all it will cost only 250, a small price to pay to make it clear that I am firm about running this business, we all have to follow the rules, and I can't just bend them without any reason. I hate that it had to start off like this, but if she doesn't respond or pay by tomorrow, I am at a loss as to what to do aside from serving the notice.

If you have any site or app or firm or anything like that that offers eviction services in Oakland CA, please share with me. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Drew Sygit]

@Kamyar K. welcome to the challenges of dealing with Class C tenants!

Guessing you bought a Class C property due to the S8 tenant in place.

It is very common for existing tenants to "test" the new owner/PMC to see what they will be allowed to get away with. 

Be prepared for the commonly used excuses of,
1) "I had a lease with previous owner, but not with you, so I don't owe you any rent". WRONG! Leases transfer.
2) "The previous owner promised x repair" or, "changed my rent due date" or, "gave me a credit for this month", etc. IF IT'S NOT IN WRITING, IT NEVER HAPPENED!

Newbies constantly assume, to their detriment, that all tenants are honest all the time:( 

WRONG: tenants are only nice until you tell them "no"! 
- Also, do NOT forget, desperate people will do & say desperate things!

BEST ADVICE: assume tenants are LYING until they prove otherwise!

We send out eviction notices ASAP, no matter what the tenant excuse is. This starts the eviction process and YOU will lose money if you don't do this as all you are doing is allowing the tenant to potentially stay longer for free.

DM us if you'd like to chat for 30 minutes and help you out a bit more:)