Tenant not paying rent - signed COVID hardship - San Jose
Hello forum members,
I'd want some advice. I've a rental in San Jose where the tenant/s has stopped paying rent.
Here is a chronology of events:
Original lease had 2 tenants (joint lease)
August- One tenant A pays half rent and the other B doesn't even respond.
September- Tenants have a disagreement and send a flurry of text messages asking us to intervene (we do not).
In mid September, we consult lawyers and send notice to perform or quit along with a hardship form.
We later realized that tenant A's boyfriend assaulted tenant B. This caused tenant B to file a police report and also get a restraining order on A and boyfriend (restraining order expired end of September). Apparently Tenant A and boyfriend were arrested.
Late September - Tenant B sends us police notices as evidence. Tenant B moves out a few days later.Tenant A signs hardship form and gives us 2 paystubs for 2 weeks in August claiming they didn't work the other 2 weeks due to Covid.
October - Tenant A signs lease amendment taking over full responsibility for the house.
Rent status: We haven't received rent for 2.5 months.
Our lease agreement did not seem to have an explicit clause that would deem the tenant A's behavior unlawful. We've something along the lines of "Tenant shall comply with any and all laws, ordinances, rules and orders of any and all governmental or quasi-governmental authorities affecting the cleanliness, use, occupancy and preservation of the Premises. "
So I am unsure if I missed an opportunity to evict this tenant before sending them the hardship form. Since the tenant already signed the covid hardship form, what are my options at this point?
I can understand if the tenant is suffering from hardship but when I spoke with them last week there seems to be no inclination to pay - not even the 25% rent. Tenant fully understands Covid protections that are in place. They supplied us with paystubs as part of Covid hardship but I can't judge whether it's real hardship or not since the tenant supplied only 2 paystubs.
While I sympathize with the tenant, how do I get them to pay at least 25%? I don't want to sound vindictive but I am committed to taking them to small claims court in January should I not receive full rent. I followed some of the discussion in this thread but there hasn't been an update from the OP who was in a similar situation.
My wife's talked with 2 lawyers and both have suggested there isn't much that can be done other than serve the tenant with the Perform or quit covenant (with the hardship form) which we did in September.
I would love to hear from fellow forum members on what we can do at this point. I'd also want to learn about missed opportunities so that I do not repeat mistakes again. fwiw, most of my rentals are managed by PMs. This and another SFH we manage ourselves.
Thanks,