What is a reasonable amount of time to wait for tenant contact?

Question

I read a post earlier about a landlord who had a formerly good tenant go bad. They had no contact for an extended period of time, and then when they went to the property, found it abandoned.

What do you consider to be a normal amount of time to wait for a formerly good tenant to return your call?

Say you had them for 2+ years, and all of a sudden they don't pay and you can't reach them. They could be on vacation or have a family emergency. 2+ years of ontime payments buys you a little leeway in my book. But is leeway one week? Two?

Thomas S. · Answer

I do not care what their reason is there are no acceptable excuses for borrowing my money without permission. Good bad or indifferent all tenants are treated the same. Children are allowed leeway not adults/tenants. There is a business process that must be followed to protect your assets.

If a tenant does not inform me in advance that rent will not be paid on time and I am forced to contact them I expect a call back within 24 hours.

If I do not hear from them in that time it would then be 3 days past due and I file the initial eviction paper work. Time is essential to the operation of your business. If they at some point call and everything is explainable I withdraw the paper work and they pay all my costs if any.

If  they are a very good tenant I will apologise and explain my reasoning for filing but the reality is the tenant would owe me an apology for the inconvieance they put me through.

Business always comes first, apologies later if necessary but not for late payments. Rent payment is a tenants primary concern in life ahead of all else, paying late is inexcusable.

Lynn McGeein · Answer

This time of year, you'd want to check asap in case they turned off the power.  2+ years buys them leeway to call you or email and say, Sorry, family emergency, the rent won't get to you until the 10th, and you might waive the late payment because they've been such good tenants.  It does not buy them leeway to not pay and not communicate.

Marcus Hendren · Answer

I'm with Chuong on this one. In all seriousness and excusing any ego, I would find it weird if I didn't get a call back after 24 hours. If you self-manage and make yourself available 24 hours a day, quid pro quo should exist for your tenant as well.

Chuong Pham · Answer

If they do not pay within 5 days and did not make contact i would not hesitate to stop by and check up on the tenant. I do not wait any longer than 1 week. This is to prevent any prolong vacancy. If tenant go on vacation they should still know to pay their rent.

Deanna McCormick · Answer

If rent goes unpaid, and put notices out for late rent, and by the 5th day..a  pay or quit notice, if all is ignored and still sitting on the door where we posted, .. we do a well check on the apartment if we've seen notices not picked up. This basically lets us know Yup they've skipped.

Then we try calling and tracking them down.. and proceed with what ever we need to do to secure the apartment and regain possession.

Ryan Murdock · Answer

If they are in a unit that is susceptible to freezing if abandoned you may want to at least drive by and see what's going on. This is obviously more of a risk in a SFH than an apartment.

I include language in my lease that obligates the tenant to notify us if they will be away from the unit for longer than 7 days. This is so we are aware of an empty unit in the middle of winter and so we're not hauling their furniture out after thinking they've abandoned the place as they pull in the driveway returning from their vacation. That can get a little awkward...

Sid Leibowitz · Answer

I agree with Lynn

Mindy Jensen · Answer

With the advent of cell phones, I guess them not responding within 24 hours of my call would be more because they're trying to avoid me than anything else.

Thanks!

What is a reasonable amount of time to wait for tenant contact?

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