Patrick L. is right. Once an eviction is filed the record exists, and will show up on a background check. The tenant can file to have it released if they moved out before the process finalized and show proof to the court (they rarely do this). If they leave you owing any past due rent turn them over to a contingency based collection agency that will immediately place the account on their credit report. This will cost you nothing and have an immediate impact on their record for future landlords. Good looking out for others Mike Franco everyone appreciates that!
Perhaps it takes longer in CA, but here in CO, it takes under a week to start the eviction process. You can complete it in under a month. Admittedly, that doesn't help your bottom line, but it does cause them to have an eviction on their record.
We had one recently. She insisted she had paid the last month's rent when she moved in, despite the lease showing only first month's rent and the security deposit. We even had a discussion about it a month before she was to leave. However, she refused to pay the last month's rent.
On the 5th day of her last month there, I posted a Pay or Quit notice on her door. She moved out a week later, and I withheld the amount of the last month's rent, the cumulative late fees, and the amount needed for repairs. She got nothing back, and actually owed about $35.
If you file the Pay or Quit as soon as the law allows in your state, then follow through with the formal eviction filing, it may result in a court date before they move out. It will show on a background check that they've had an eviction filing. The key is moving fast on the Pay or Quit.
But as you said, it takes about a month. In CO, if they move out before the eviction is complete, will it still show up on their record?
Even if you just file it the eviction will show up on public records. Once filed if the tenant doesn't respond to the court it's generally pretty easy to get them defaulted even if they've already moved out. Depending on your local court fees it will cost you several hundred dollars if you do it all yourself, you just have to decide if it's worth it or not. Generally in the case of the tenants trying to use the security deposit as rent the threat of eviction is enough to get them to pay up unless they're using their rent money as the deposit on the new place.
I'd give them one day to pay and let them know you are going to be filing an eviction that will follow them around everywhere. If they don't pay, file the eviction.
Patrick L. is right. Once an eviction is filed the record exists, and will show up on a background check. The tenant can file to have it released if they moved out before the process finalized and show proof to the court (they rarely do this). If they leave you owing any past due rent turn them over to a contingency based collection agency that will immediately place the account on their credit report. This will cost you nothing and have an immediate impact on their record for future landlords. Good looking out for others Mike Franco everyone appreciates that!
Here's maybe another tack you could take (the alliteration there is fantastic). Instead of filing the eviction, why not wait til after they move and see if there are any items that should be dinged against their security deposit.
If there, then file a small claims court case to get that money. It would be easier to get and then you won't be spending your money on something that may not even be an issue.
After all, if it takes you a month to evict, you may get to the eviction court and the judge may ask if they're paid up. They'll say that they asked you to keep their security deposit as payment and you won't be able to get any eviction on their record - even if there were some damages. Instead the judge would probably ask you to go after those damages in court as technically you do have the premises.
But, bottom line, is if there are no security deposit infractions, then there really is no need to do anything and you will have saved yourself the time and effort of the filing.
But I hate that tenants do have the upper hand in it. Just to make them toe the line a little, you still might want to give them the pay or quit notice to make them think they may have to appear in court. :-)
California Dept. of Consumer Affairs: ADVANCE PAYMENT OF LAST MONTH'S RENT
Many landlords require tenants to pay "last month's rent" at the beginning of the tenancy as part of the security deposit or at the time the security deposit is paid. Whether the tenant can use this amount at the end of the tenancy to pay the last month's rent depends on the language used in the rental agreement or lease.212
Suppose that at the beginning of the tenancy, you gave the landlord a payment for the last month's rent and for the security deposit, and that the lease or rental agreement labels part of this up front payment "last month's rent." In this situation, you have paid the rent for your last month in the rental unit. However, sometimes landlords raise the rent before the last month's rent becomes due. In this situation, can the landlord require you to pay the amount of the increase for the last month?
The law does not provide a clear answer to this question. If your lease or rental agreement labels part of your up front payment "last month's rent," then you have a strong argument that you paid the last month's rent when you moved in. In this situation, the landlord should not be able to require you to pay the amount of the increase for the last month.213 However, if your lease or rental agreement labels part of your up front payment "security for last month's rent," then the landlord has a good argument that you have not actually paid the last month's rent, but have only provided security for it. In this situation, the landlord could require you to pay the amount of the increase for the last month.
For example, say that your rental agreement labeled part of the total deposit that you paid when you moved in "security for last month's rent," or that "last month's rent" is one of the items listed in your rental agreement under the heading "Security." Suppose that your rent was $500 when you moved in and that you paid your landlord $500 as ";security for the last month's rent." Suppose that you also paid your landlord an additional $500 as a security deposit. If the landlord properly raised your rent to $550 while you were living in the rental unit, you can expect to owe the landlord $50 for rent during the last month of your tenancy (that is, the current rent [$550] minus the prepaid amount [$500] equals $50 owed).
If your rental agreement calls your entire up front payment a "security deposit" and does not label any part of it "last month's rent," or "security for last month's rent," then you will have to pay the last month's rent when it comes due. In this situation, you cannot use part of your security deposit to pay the last month's rent. However, you will be entitled to a refund of your security deposit, as explained in the next section