Non Payment No Comms

[Stewart J berry]

Question about how to rectify a situation with my tenant. He has been my tenant for 3 years in a Milwaukee duplex lower. In the last year he started being consistently late on rent. he always squared up  by the end of the month typically. However he has bounced so many checks that my bank will no longer deposit them. He refuses to do ZELLE or Cashiers checks. he has gotten multiple 5 days to pay or vacate notices in the calendar year. recently he has not paid rent for October and November and has not answered a text, call or email, since October 10th. So one Month with no communication, two months no rent. he received a final notice to pay or vacate with threat of unlawful detainer lawsuit. still nothing. WTF do I do? Just open the suit and hope for the best? For context we did not renew a lease, he is month to month as of this past June 2025. I'd wanted to just keep him because I just had my first child and don't really want to do a reno right now which the apartment does kinda need. Kind of a devil you know vs the one you don't type of thing but I cant afford to have rent not being paid especially being completely left in the dark. I'm pretty reasonable and willing to work with people but what do you do if they just don't talk to you?

[Jill F.]

If a tenant won't communicate with you, you evict them.