Can't evict during pandemic? There may be a window for you!

[Charles Bradford]

Managing rental properties has certainly had it's challenges during COVID-19.  While evictions are still frozen in many areas of the country, income is down while ongoing maintenance costs continue.  To top it off, city inspectors in our area thought it would be a great time to cite property owners for minor exterior repairs like chipping paint and loose brick on exteriors.

Like most landlords with a mid size portfolio, we do financial verification and background checks on all tenants.  But with many tenants out of work or simply home more, no matter how good they looked on paper, we've developed a few "problem children" tenants.  You know the type?  They're the ones the other tenants complain about, don't even try to pay partial rent, and call in maintenance requests for common sense items. 

Our leases allow us to evict for excessive police calls, drug and criminal activity, and several other things other than delinquent rent.  However, an eviction is still an eviction.  

One morning several weeks ago I was reviewing a tenant file and realized his lease had expired.  Our lease provides that if we don't get them resigned prior to expiration, the lease automatically converts to month-to-month.  I called our attorney and asked what would happen if we simply decided not to renew their lease.  He said as long as we don't use the word eviction or cite the reason, we should be clear.  I sent a registered letter to the tenant simply stating that our Board of Directors had reviewed all leases at their regular meeting and decided not to renew his lease.  We gave them 30 days to move out.

It worked!  Not once, but 4 times now I've sent certified mail to tenants explaining their lease wasn't being renewed.  One grumbled a bit, but the others simply moved out without incident.  No courts.  No issues.  If you're in one of those areas with a moratorium on evictions, check with your attorney.  And, should the eviction restriction be reinstated with our new President, you may have a window to fly through!  Happy Landlording!

[Chuck H.]

Originally posted by @Charles Bradford:

Steve -- That's the beauty of this.  Unless the tenant challenges you, you don't go to court.  "Not renewing your lease" happens frequently when you want the property vacant to remodel and raise the rent substantially.  It also happens when properties change ownership. Sure, if a tenant wants to go against your desires, it's on them to contact counsel and/or take you to court.  But thus far, in our state, it's not considered an eviction at all and we don't report it as such.

Isn't that the problem though? Tenants challenging eviction? Great that your tenants are leaving willingly, but they could not and you'll need to evict them.