Tenant is in the hospital (sad trombone)

Tenant is in the hospital (sad trombone)

Rental Property Investor · Folsom, CA · Member since 2016 · 140 posts · 70 votes
So, I'm afraid my nice-guy tendencies may soon conflict with running a proper business again. We haven't collected our first month of rent yet and one of our tenants is in the hospital. He's going to have emergency surgery and may be off work for weeks or even months. He's a self-employed handyman and I am rather concerned he won't be able to make rent for long with no income. Maybe he can cover this month's rent, but I'm guessing he's about to be unemployed and crushed with medical bills. He knows he has a big rent hike coming, so we've briefly discussed an exit strategy (before he got sick). But, he's been there more than 20 years and is a bit of a hoarder, so he has a lot of inertia to redirect. I'd like to come up with a win-win, but it'll be hard to make it look like something other than a greedy landlord kicking out his sick tenant. I'm thinking a sort of cash-for-keys scenario. For example, he pays August rent and rents a storage unit. Then, we pay for a fixed amount of moving labor to get everything he wants into there. If he gets it done by the end of the month, we return his full deposit and we'll take care of whatever junk he doesn't want. He can stay with family while he recovers, and then take care of his stuff in storage. The place already needs a full update, so the only extra cost to us is the movers and a dumpster. Seem like a sensible approach? Any other suggestions that can keep everyone happy and on the right side of the law? He's not late on rent yet, but I want to get a strategy or two lined up before we get there.
0Reply
6 views

7 Replies

Jump to latestLatest
  • Property Manager · Chapin, SC · Member since 2014 · 71 posts · 43 votes
    10y

    You can offer all kinds of creative solutions to your problem, but they will only work if he thinks it is is problem.  In other words if he wants to just keep staying there and thinks he can get caught up  on rent you will only have one choice.  Eviction

  • Investor · Clovis, CA · Member since 2015 · 30 posts · 9 votes
    10y

    @Jeremy Brown   You will lose a lot of money if you don't run things like a business.  It sounds to me that you should consider hiring a PM.  

  • Investor · PA · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 602 votes
    10y

    Wait until he's late on rent and then ask him if he will agree to move out. If he agrees, you could offer to move his stuff to a nearby storage unit instead of the landfill. If he does agree or is unresponsive then file court papers.

  • Real Estate Broker · Cleveland Dayton Cincinnati Toledo Columbus & Akron, OH · Member since 2013 · 30k+ posts · 20k+ votes
    10y

    @Jeremy Brown The prudent business decision is to simply evict the tenant.

    If your looking for other solutions then do whatever makes you feel best as none of those decisions have to do with your rental business. Anything other then an eviction is simply philanthropy. Nothing wrong with philanthropy but don't convince yourself that it is anything other than philanthropy.

  • Member since 2016 · 13k+ posts · 12k+ votes
    10y

    Your post shows you have far worse than "nice guy tendencies".

    He owes rent or he gets evicted, you are not operating a half way house or hospice.

    Have him contact his family and deal with his rent or they can pay to move him out. Receiving rent payment is your only issue, stay out of his personal life.

    This is one of the reasons I never rent to anyone that is self employed.

  • Rental Property Investor · Rockford, IL · Member since 2014 · 4k+ posts · 2k+ votes
    10y

    @Jeremy Brown,

    Does he have any insurance that can help keep his rent current while he's laid up?

  • Rental Property Investor · Folsom, CA · Member since 2016 · 140 posts · 70 votes
    10y

    There seems to be some confusion as to what I'm trying to accomplish here. I'm not setting out to help this guy out in every way possible. The way I see it, there are two extremes that could play out:

    Scenario 1: Tenant pays September rent. We discuss his changing life situation. He decides that he won't be able to afford rent anymore and moves out by the end of September and we allow him to break his lease with no penalty. We spend 3 weeks rehabbing and have it rented out by the end of October.

    Scenario 2: Tenant pays September rent. Tenant doesn't pay October rent. I start eviction in October. We give notice, go to court, etc, and get a Writ of Possession late in November. By mid-December, we get him removed. We spend the rest of December through mid-January getting his stuff out and doing the rehab. Late January, we get it rented out again.

    Between the process of eviction and the slowdown due to the holidays, it seems entirely possible that we'd miss out on 3-4 months rent by going with scenario 2, not to mention the expense and hassle of the eviction itself. 

    I don't expect Scenario 1 to happen easily, but if we can have a couple conversations and spend a few bucks to get us close to that scenario, we'll be far better off than if we take a confrontational stance and motivate him to push us all into Scenario 2.

    In any case, we'll get something started tomorrow. I already had plans to stop by for other reasons, so I'll see who's home and make sure they know how to pay September rent. If it seems appropriate, I may do some probing to gauge interest in an early end to the lease.

Join the conversationCreate a free account to reply, vote on answers and follow this thread.