What is the longest youve gone with out rent?

Question

Now this might be a hard question for some people to answer honestly, because of course we are all perfect landlords who file as soon as our tenants are late.  :)

I was really pushing it, as of yesterday I had a tenant who still owed me the majority of Februarys rent, as well as March and Aprils...but they got me February and Marches rent. So they were 3 months behind just about.

Whats the longest youve let your tenant slide?

Joel Owens · Answer

I don't let it go past that month. Otherwise you have what is referred to as a snowballing effect.

Example those who file bankruptcy maybe only 10% finish the plan and get discharged 3 to 5 years later. The rest gets dismissed sometime during filing or the repayment plan.

The reason is simple. If they cannot pay a regular mortgage payment then they sure can't sustain long term monthly mortgage payment and BK payment on top of that.

Same with a renter. If you have late fees and it goes past that month then next months is due. They keep paying partial and partial and before you know it they are thousands behind in rent or worse. Then you go to court and the judge might say you have agreed to a repayment plan structure even though nothing official in writing as you have accepted partial payments as rent.

Levi T. · Answer

We have one right now that is working the system good. We are stepping into month 4. The tenant is an inherited tenant. He's in a batch of about 7 units we just got recently.The following month the tenant in question did not pay rents, so we started the eviction process... he managed to kick it out for another month with a sob story to the judge, that got kicked out to a trial, and then we had to start the case over due to a clerical error on the summons. We terminated the lease in writing after that one, and refiled. We have a new hearing next month. Its laughable... he keeps going to court asking the judge to give him more time, but he never pays rent, not one dime, even his old LL said he never got rent for January... The man has not paid rent for almost 5 months and is still kicking. Hopefully the judge puts an end to his shenanigans here shortly.It is by far one of the longest cases I have seen us have, tho I remember this one case I watched back in my early years in the court room. The husband got put into a looney bin, which means you can't stand trial for eviction till you are mentally sane.. wife and kid was still living in this landlords unit without paying rent... 2 years later... yeah, that's scary!

Mindy Jensen · Answer

I saw this question and thought it was from a brand new landlord. Honestly, @Russell Brazil , I'm shocked it was from you. You give very pragmatic, frank advice in the forums. (One of the main reasons I asked you to be a moderator is your fairness.)

I really like this thread, because it shows everyone makes mistakes, and also how tough it is when it's actually YOU in the situation.

Anyone can type out "You need to evict the moment they don't pay!" but it's a lot more difficult in actual practice. Especially when it's a long term tenant or there are small children involved. Who wants to be that guy who kicked the kids out of their home? They already have it tough...

From your post, it looks like they fell behind up to 3 months in rent and are now 29 days late with April. So in two days, they will again be two months behind. I would wait until May 2, then ask them if they'd like to be let out of their lease. I don't think you'd be working with them if they were awful tenants. Give them until the end of the week, May 6, to be out of the house without filing for eviction, then follow up.

I'm sure it's really tough to be in this position. You want to be helpful, but they've shown you that they are past helping and moving into charity.

Good luck!

Dean H. · Answer

@John D.

John I'm a man of few words,

NO PAY= NO STAY

LOL

John D. · Answer

"If you can't pay, you can't stay!!!"

Greg H. · Answer

I have gone a month a few times and it has never worked out in my favor.  Especially with lower $$$ rentals($500-700) , once the amount due reaches $1000 it might as well be $1 million because they are never going to be able to pay

Sam Shueh · Answer

The writing is all over the place you will have trouble soon.

Peter B. · Answer

I pull the eviction trigger pretty quick so tops 60 days. Probably not that long though.

My folks on the other hand have a couple long term habitual late payers that go 3 months in the winter but get caught up every year come tax time and when they get back to work.  They get their late fee and they are long term tenants so they let it slide.

Peter

What is the longest youve gone with out rent?

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