Investor · Saint Louis, MO · Member since 2016 · 43 posts · 5 votes
Greeting all and Investors
So this is kinda new to me since I've never needed to evict a long term tenant and I'm not sure on what exactly to do. I have a 2bd/2 bathroom house in a growing and thriving comunitiy. I've owned it for years and been renting it to a 65 year old women with her two adult children (go figure). They have been great besides the senior is slightly messy but have paid their rent on times since day one with rent increases. The senior uses her Social Security money and her children uses their income to mostly pay the utilities and food.
The problem is that her husband (they never got divorced but separated) has been paying the rent by check since day one. Recently the husband has passed away from cancer and his bank account is locked due to other family members who unauthorizedly used the account. Now the account is locked till time being.
Now I'm stuck in a bubble. They are great tenants but is their another way than evicting them? Should I just pay her out and start over? What to do.
Since you have a history with them, you could work out a payment plan or do reduced payments until the bank account gets unlocked again and they can access the money. However, these types of processes can take months if not years to settle. You may have to wait for a probate case, feuding family members, etc. I wouldn't hold my breath on this.
If they can not afford the rent without his contributions, it would probably be best to just let them out of their lease and encourage them to find a place they can afford with their income. I wouldn't evict them, but I would go ahead and give them a deadline to find a new place that they can afford.