Structuring Repayment of Damages

[Katie Jewell]

We have a tenant that is accepting the letter we sent outlining the extensive damages she did. We did it legally and sent an itemized invoice with receipts and she is willing to pay us back over a period of years. We want to write up a promissory note relating to this. Does anyone have anything they have used as a template for this type of situation that acknowledges the debt is due to damages and accepts responsibility and is legal in Ohio?

[Nathan Gesner]

Years? Good luck with that. When tenants want to set up a payment plan, three months is my standard. On rare occasions I've been willing to stretch it to six months.

If your tenant wants to stretch it out more than six months, I would tell her to go apply for a personal loan at the bank, pay you in full, and then she can make monthly payments on her bank loan.