Holder vs Non-payment Eviction

[Sam Tato]

Hi all. I have a tenant that hasn’t paid for March. The tenant has been behind the past couple months, but has managed to pay late. Communication the first time was great, now she is not responding, the trend is downhill. Details: - She is month-to-month and has been there over year, but less than 2 years - unit is in city of buffalo There are two paths forward far as I know: 1) Provide proper late and demand for rent notices - hope to get paid in order to stop the eviction process 2) Provide notice of termination and move forward with a holdover eviction if she doesn’t pay Problems: - Option 1 gets me possibly paid this month, but she is behind and will likely be forever behind, more and more. Seems like a non-payment treadmill. - Option 2 is cutting my losses early, but might not be paid at all for 6+ months since she has no incentive to do so. I’m leaning towards option two and just biting the bullet early with a notice of termination, then evicting on holdover if she stays. Any advice would be massively appreciated!

[Melissa Gambrell]

Ah, that makes sense. Always frustrating when situations like that come up. I usually try to collect something if possible. Without knowing the tenant’s exact situation, I would lean toward serving a non-payment of rent notice rather than going straight to termination.

At the end of the day, if you serve a non-payment notice and a judgment is entered and she still doesn’t pay, you can proceed with the eviction. If she does pay, at least you’ve recovered some of the back rent.

If a tenant completely goes silent, I also recommend doing a vacancy check and notifying them that one will be conducted. A lot of times that alone will prompt a response. And in some cases, they may have already moved out without notice, which could save you from legal fees that might not be necessary.