Property in CA and used Realtor forms for annual lease that expires 6/7/14. Tenant has given notice to vacate 23 days after lease expires, 6/30/14. I have told them that if they activate such an extension it would only be permitted on a per diem rate that is 30% higher than the per diem rate under the lease. Tenant agreed to the extension but now will not allow a landlord inspection of the premises. They also refuse to allow showings of the property to prospective tenants. They also are stating they will not pay last months rent and instructed me to use their security deposit, which is boldy denied in the lease they signed. What are my options?
I'm not sure I would show the house to a prospective tenant with a hostile tenant residing there. The house may not show well and if the current tenant is there during the showing there will be tension or worse. Any good prospective tenant will be turned off by this. Since you do not really know when the home will be available to the new tenant I don't see the benefit.
Treat the current tenant as hostile and begin eviction as soon as possible. Terminate the lease. (In Michigan that requires a 30 day Notice to Quit). Do not use a Demand for Possession that will allow the tenant to stay if they pay the rent owing. If this actually goes to court before the tenant moves the judge may allow the 30% higher rent for the hold over period. If the tenant is collectible you may actually get it.
Evict them now.
Joe Gore
Set up showings in bulk and issue notice to your current tenants for a showing. So basically set up showings for a saturday or something from 3pm-6pm and set up a dozen showing every 15 minutes starting at 3pm. Then a couple days earlier send you tenants official notice that you will be entering the property for the purpose of showing the property according to tstate law and your lease.
@Kyle - have tried to accommodate tenant for inspection request and showings but her blanket response, "I will not show the home while I reside here." Shared the terms of the lease and she responds the same.
For 11 months all was good, but in last 2 weeks, all has gone haywire!
That is what I am saying. Don't request, inform them you are having showings. Provide proper notice, so be redundant, send a letter through the mail, post on their door, call and tell them and send them a texr and e-mail. You have the right to show the property with proper notice as defined by state law and your lease so exercise your rights. have the showing dates out far enough that they will recieve the mailing with 24 hour notice as well as the posting on their door.
As I look again at your original post I see they have not paid either. I would inform them that they have until next friday to pay full rent for June as required or the following monday you will file for eviction and it will not be beneficial for them going forward. You also want to inspect the property in order to assist them in properly repairing any damage and providing any guidance that will allow them to get the most money back from their security deposit. Let them know you want this process to be as easy as possible for all involved and would like to accomodate them but if they refuse to cooperate you are forced into enforcing your legal rights according to state law and the lease.
@Kyle Hipp has it exactly right. You are letting this tenant walk all over you. You do not need their permission to enter your property, you simply need to give proper notice.
Out, out OUT! And pronto. They've already broken the lease & now they're in charge? You might want to re-think that set-up.
I'm not sure I would show the house to a prospective tenant with a hostile tenant residing there. The house may not show well and if the current tenant is there during the showing there will be tension or worse. Any good prospective tenant will be turned off by this. Since you do not really know when the home will be available to the new tenant I don't see the benefit.
Treat the current tenant as hostile and begin eviction as soon as possible. Terminate the lease. (In Michigan that requires a 30 day Notice to Quit). Do not use a Demand for Possession that will allow the tenant to stay if they pay the rent owing. If this actually goes to court before the tenant moves the judge may allow the 30% higher rent for the hold over period. If the tenant is collectible you may actually get it.
Take a dispassionate look at your options.
It seems to me that things went off the tracks when you established that +30% per diem rate. And now instead of a cooperative tenant who would have left on time, you have a fight on your hands.
I haven't been a tenant in 20 years, but I can still understand the thought process. "He is trying to screw me over, is he? Well screw him, let's see how he likes this."
I am frankly wondering what the heck people shouting about eviction are thinking. They're leaving in 49 days. Can you even get an eviction done in that time? I can't, and I live in a pretty landlord-friendly state. All you can do is turn an uncooperative attitude into outright hostility. Ever dealt with Quickcrete in the toilets?
Also, as I read your post, there is no rent overdue. They are telling you they won't pay, but they don't have to until the first of the month, right?
This is a business, not a playground show of dominance. And so I would ignore the chest-thumping advice you will likely get in response to this thread, and work something out with the tenant. You want them gone, they want to be gone, you're more than half-way there.
Yes it is your right to show. Tenant cannot refuse to let you show.
But do you want to show?
I really dislike showing homes for no reason. I do a very thorough pre screen over the phone/email prior to making trips to rentals to avoid wasting time.
If you show this house and the tenant is there I imagine there would be hostility maybe even her standing at the door screaming at you and not letting you in. A potential tenant is obviously going to be turned off by this, not take the house and you just wasted a trip out there.
I think I would offer cash for keys in this situation just to get it over with. It's not always about who is right and who is wrong but rather what will allow you to move on with your business quicker and easier.
Also, as I read your post, there is no rent overdue. They are telling you they won't pay, but they don't have to until the first of the month, right?
Today is June 2nd. They have not paid June's rent. It is overdue.
Today is June 2nd. They have not paid June's rent. It is overdue.
That depends on whether "last months rent" means the rent for last month (which I doubt, as it should have been paid a month ago) or THE last months rent, which is the July rent. And not overdue.
The point remains that he may not have grounds for eviction, and there are many good practical reasons to come up with another solution. Including (most importantly) time, potential damage, and the ability to show the place without a hostile current tenant there.
I don't know how things work where you are, or where he is, but here I can insist on a showing or inspection, with proper notice. I CANNOT insist that the tenant vacate for that showing or inspection.
Eviction is a process. It takes time. The clock starts when the landlord sends either a Demand for Possession or a Notice to Quit. After the appropriate amount of time has passed (this is going to vary by State and sometimes County) the landlord may file for a court date. Cash for keys may be a possibility but, in my experience, that strategy is much more effective when a court date has already been scheduled. If the tenant leaves by whatever means before the court date the landlord can cancel court. If the landlord has waited and relied on the goodwill of the tenant (it doesn't seem that there is much goodwill in this case) they may be disappointed when the tenant changes their mind and they must still file the paperwork to start the clock on the eviction after waiting weeks or (gasp) months.
In response to the previous post: if the tenant has stayed past the term of the lease the landlord has cause to evict.
All, thanks for advice. I am trying to be respectful of a tenant's life, but protect my property and interest.
The interesting thing is that she is a real estate broker so I would guess is trying to use "her talents" to get some free rent. Will enlist the assistance of another broker to get her out. Am sure that this mark on her record will not serve her well professionally or personally.
Again, thanks to all! Very much appreciated.
In response to the previous post: if the tenant has stayed past the term of the lease the landlord has cause to evict.
Which doesn't happen until July. So my point stands.
Original post states lease expires 6/7/14. Tenant stated they agreed to extension but didn't actually since they refuse to pay the 30% holdover rate and did not pay the last month's rent. The tenant cannot and the landlord should not allow any tenant to dictate the terms of an extension unilaterally.
If a 30 day notice is required to terminate a lease that can and should be sent as soon as possible.
I would immediately serve her the required notice to pay or vacate (in Florida its a 3-day notice) and let her know you will proceed with eviction if she doesn't pay June's rent. If she cares anything about her credit I would think she would want to avoid this.
What happens if she decides not to move after her security deposit has been used for June's rent? Then you'll be forced to evict her and have no security deposit to offset your legal fees and lost rent. When you haven't been paid time is not the landlord's friend. Its not "chest thumping" or "showing dominance" as one of the previous posters mentioned, its about being proactive and not cutting a hostile tenant undue slack that can cost you time and money.
Thanks all. Will be taking your advice and getting an attorney to get this settled. Tenant is a licensed CA broker and works for a property management firm in the area, so guess she is trying to use her knowledge and learning's to screw a landlord. Tried to use be accommodating, but she refuses to cooperate. Hopefully with the breach of the lease terms the process will move faster. Thanks to all for the valuable advice!
Wow -- and the tenant works for a local PM? Yikes! Have you pointed out directly what is in their lease re: deposits? Keep us posted how this one turns out!
So if she is now late on the June rent...
...you have to give her a 3 day notice to "fix" that. Let's say you do that tomorrow, June 4th. She gets until Saturday, the 7th. Or maybe Monday the 9th, depending on what CA considers a "day."
After that runs, you give her a 30-day notice to vacate. That takes her to somewhere between July 7th and July 9th. Unless she has lived there a single minute longer than 1 year, in which case she gets 60 days, and she is there until August 8th.
So far, you have been able to do nothing that is going to show up on her credit report, or impact her professionally. So she can stay PAST the date she wants to, with ZERO negative impact to her. Or she can stay and fight, and you go to the next step.
She fails to vacate on July 7th/August 8th. Now you can file a complaint and have it served. Let's say a miracle happens and that service occurs on July 8th/August 9th (haha).
She gets 5 days to respond. It is July 14th or August 14th.
Court date is set. Maybe you are lucky, and it is set within 10 days. It is July 24th, at least, before you are in court.
You win, and get a writ of possession. Now you actually have something that will show up on her credit report. The sheriff is your brother-in-law, and that is served 3 days later. July 28th.
She gets 5 days to vacate. It is August 3rd, at least, or potentially as late as September 4th.
Now you get the place, do all of your turnover stuff, and start showing. You step right to it, and have a tenant in place on August 15th.
But this is all worth it, because you got to add a 30% surcharge for the 23 days past the lease term she wanted to stay.
Looks like chest-thumping to me. Now, if it were me, I would let go of the 8 tenths of 1 percent of the annual rent that is represented by that surcharge, to save the 25% of annual rent that you will lose in this process.
Or, you might consider talking to her, telling her that she can stay the 23 days, and you will waive the surcharge if she cooperates with a reasonable showing schedule.
Of course, she might not be aware of all of this. Its not like she is a real estate agent or a property manager...oh, wait.
But that is just me. By all means, follow other posters' advice to show her who is boss.
If I had an employee working at my PM company and I found out they were doing this to a landlord they would not be working for me anymore!
I understand your point in picking your battles but you have to draw the line somewhere and when a tenant doesn't pay I think immediate action is necessary.
What if he waits and trusts her like you're suggesting and then she decides not to vacate the date she said she would. She hasn't paid rent and now you get to go through the lengthy process you described a month later. Or perhaps she didn't quite save enough money to move in that extra month and needs just one more month and she'll move out in August. And then August comes and she still doesn't move it.
She has already shown herself not to be an honest or honorable person as she has blatantly violated the terms of her lease. Ultimately its a judgment call but this is how landlords get run over by tenants, give an inch, then they need just one more inch, and then another and another.
I had a tenant I cut slack for last month... took a partial payment of $500 mid-month, she requests 2-weeks to pay the balance of $395 the day she paid $500. I granted this. She doesn't pay the balance 5/23, she claims she has cancer (I don't buy it, she's a compulsive liar) and is moving out 6/7. I told her she has 1-week to move (be gone by 6/1) and I'll save on the legal cost and she won't get her credit trashed. 6/1 passes and she's still not out. I filed the eviction today and the Sheriff will have her out by the end of the month.
She claimed she would be out by 6/7 but then that turns into 6/14, and then 6/21 and then 6/28. Ultimately it depends on the tenant but in my experience a bad tenant will end up screwing you.
Thanks all. Will be taking your advice and getting an attorney to get this settled.
To make sure commentators have the correct data:
Her lease expires on 6/7/14 with no legal right to remain. She has breached to covenants of the lease by denying a landlord inspection per the lease, in separate sections. Her rent was due on 6/1 and has not yet been paid so she is default for rent payment. She has been asked nicely over the past month to cooperate, but continues to state the same thing, "I will use my security deposit in lieu of last month's rent, I will not show the property while in it, and I will stay until the end of June."
After trying everything to accommodate her, the strategy is now:
3 Day Notice of Cure Breach in the lease for inspection or Quit
3 Day Notice of Pay or Quit for late peyment
Lease terms are defined that lease expires on 6/7/14 and there is no month to month allowance or extension permitted so she must vacate.
I have 2 prospects waiting for the home that are waiting to place 2x month rent for the security deposit, $3600, plus pay $1800/mth going forward.
All this said, if the current tenant has no place to move to with her family and children, I have given instructions to the attorney to accept an additional security deposit of $1000 cash, a cash payment for the remainder of the month at a 30% increase and a newly signed lease that terminates on 6/30 with no possible opportunity of extension or reversion to a month to month.
Based on her broker and property management experience, as well as concern for her personal credit score which was 760, it is my belief that being served with 2 - 3 Day Notices of Default and that an attorney has been engaged, she will decide to either cure the defaults and move on 6/7, or find the cash, sign a lease for 23 days with payment and then move on the 30th.
Wanted to make sure all had the details plus the facts that as a landlord I feel a responsibility to my tenants and their tenants, hence the opportunity to extend, but also that to get the opportunity they need to be held accountable. Needs to be a mutual relationship. I am not chest thumping, nor being a door mat, but instead giving her the opportunity to make the right decision.
Thanks again to all for your valuable guidance, insight, and honest feedback!
@Rob K. - this thread makes me add the following to the "do not rent" list (in addition to attorneys and landscapers): real estate agents and property managers :) What say you?
I've thought about adding real estate agents. I've never rented to one before and would be very hesitant to do so. If they're "selling the American dream" to people, but don't own a house, It would be like going to see a dentist with a mouth full of rotten teeth. They also get paid so sporadically, it would be like renting to a seasonal landscaper.
I have a property manager for a tenant currently. She works as a leasing agent at a large apartment complex. Excellent tenant.
To the OP, I didn't read every post, but can you serve a notice for non payment of rent AND a termination of tenancy? I've done that. In my state, it's a seven day notice for non payment and 30 days to end the lease. In your case, if you send both, you're letting this person know that they need to pay now in order to stay the full 30 days. Otherwise, you can start eviction after the three days.
This is a common problem with tenants thinking that they can use the security deposit for the last month. They either don't trust that you will return their portion of the deposit, they've damaged the house and know that they won't receive any money, or they're trying to save a new deposit for the place they're moving. In any case, it should be her problem, not yours.