Two tenants, one lease, and one tenant not paying

[Mark Campo]

Hi all,

I have a unit with essentially two tenants. They are both on the lease. One tenant has been paying me $400 (half the rent) consistently. The other tenant (non-paying) has not paid in four months. I threatened an eviction (to both of them), and now the non-paying tenant paid the current month and an extra two hundred dollars. This non-paying tenant has agreed to continue to pay an extra 200 dollars a month until the arrears are caught up.

Since I was getting half the rent, I didn't want to waste the time and money going through an eviction. Anyone think I should have immediately gone for eviction when I only received half the rent the first month?

On a side note, the non-paying tenant has been in the house for 17 years (well before I bought the property), and she has special needs children. Also, I did inform the paying tenant that if I evicted, I would renovate the unit and reduce his rent and allow him to stay if he helped me get the non-paying tenant out (none of that was in writing except here on bigger pockets - lol).

Thoughts?

[Kevin Sobilo]

@Mark Campo, why do you have 2 tenants on one lease and have them paying separately?  If I have tenants who choose to live together they can be on a lease together but they are together and individually liable for the entire rent. Who pays how much isn't my issue.

If I evict, they both get evicted. If I need to collect, I collect from whomever I can force to pay. It doesn't matter who has been paying.

If these are not people who choose to live together then why not rent by the room and give each tenant their own lease and treat them entirely separate?