I need tenant to move out.

[Liz F]

My tenant Lulu called me couple months ago to tell me she was moving out. Lulu has been there for one year so the lease term was no problem. I sent her a move out checklist. The end of the month came and Lulu showed no signs of being ready, she asked for another month. I said yes. During that time a prior tenant who is moving back into town wants to rent the house. Lulu told me that was moving on the 7th(tomorrow), but I just drove by and there is no way. Lulu always pays the rent (courtesy of the mother-in-law who is a delightful lady who I wish adopted all my tenants).
What can I do to make Lulu move? Can I refuse the rent? What to do?
My prospective tenant is as close to ideal so I do not want to loose him. He wants to move on the 25th, of course I have to clean, paint, would like to replace flooring, etc.

I appreciate any suggestions.

[Curt Davis]

Lets face it guys, most people who rent from investors are usually people with bad credit and are usually living pay check to pay check. You cant actually expect them to pay another full months rent if they stayed 1 extra day past the first. Even if you were to try to pursue getting that money it shows that you are hard up for the money and people like this do not care about their credit.

My suggestion to get someone out is a bit more extreme. You can either call the utility company and ask them to turn of the power or just pay your contractor to go over to the home when they are not there and cut the power line or pull the fuse. Renters have no idea on how to fix issues like this. Once they get home and realize there is no power they will leave.