Why Getting The Right Tenant Initially is Far Better than Evicting a Bad One Later

[Andy Sabisch]

Well, wanted to share our experience of evicting a tenant . . . and share some painful lessons.

We use Zillow Rental Manager to post vacancies and have used their Background Check to evaluate potential tenants. Well, in hindsight and doing some research, that is no longer our approach. We received an application and the report looked fine . . . no evictions, no criminal issues, credit score was acceptable – just what you want in a tenant no? The first month rent was paid before move in and the second month is where the issues began. We received a message from the wife through our rental management portal that the rent would be late because the husband was serving a 30-day jail sentence . . . but she assured us that the rent would be fully paid up as well as the third month by the end of the second month. She asked for us to be understanding as she had two small kids and there was our second mistake (first was relying on Zillow’s report) – we failed to treat the rental as a business and let emotion come into play. As cold as it might sound, we should have told her that we felt badly for her but the rent was due on the 3rd and the lease clearly states when eviction action would be taken, i.e., on the 10th. We allowed things to slip and of course the second- and third-month payments were not made as promised because they had other bills that needed to be paid when he was released.

So, on the 10th of the third month, we invoked the legal action clause and in PA, they have 10 days to cure or it goes to the magistrate. On the 10th with no payment, we filed with the magistrate. On the 18th, he pays the outstanding rent and late charge which stops the legal clock. Do you think we received payment for the following month as required? Of course not and this time we filed with the magistrate on the 20th of the month. We had the hearing and the magistrate ruled that we were entitled to take possession (an eviction) of the property. We thought this was the end of the story but we found out that in PA (maybe other states as well), the tenant can contest the ruling to the Court of Common Pleas and request a formal hearing. In the interim the tenant is required to deposit the rent in an escrow account with the court with a caveat. He claimed poverty as he was working a seasonable job, so the court allowed him to make weekly payments to cover the rent.

The court was backed up so a hearing date was not set at the time, and we were told it could be up to 60 days – all the while he was in the property and we were not getting a dime. We engaged our attorney and paid him a retainer to assist with the mess. He monitored the escrow payments and when the tenant failed to meet the court ordered payment plan, he went to the court and had the agreement nullified and a possession ordered issued. It went to the magistrate we had been before to have the constable serve the tenant with the eviction order. Well, the tenant has clearly done this before (and we confirmed this later based on a search of the court records) because he had filed a complaint with the judiciary review board claiming the magistrate was friends with us and ruled against him for that reason. We did not know the magistrate but as a result, the magistrate had to transfer the eviction order to another magistrate to serve the eviction resulting in more time passing with no action. We were not informed of this change of venue, and it took our attorney to find out where it was. The new magistrate took 2 weeks to get the papers to the constable and at this point, we are still waiting for the tenant to be served.

So, they have been living in our property that we have to make payments on and have only given us a security deposit and three months of rent for 8 months being in there. What lessons did we learn?

1) Do not rely on the legal system to get a problem tenant out – there are professional deadbeat tenants that know how to play the system and in most cases, the legal system is completely inept and will fail to support you.

2) Do not rely on the background checks offered by sites such as Zillow or even some of the rent management portals. We found out that criminal cases and evictions do not always tie to an SSN and searches come up clean. In our case, had we simply done a Google search, we would not have rented to this induvial as the first hit brought up a picture of him in handcuffs at his booking for theft by taking among other charges. Use Google, the sex offender’s registry and the court sites of your county / state as they will give you what you need to make a more informed decision. In this case there were 6 criminal records in the court database.

3) Keep your rental strictly business. The minute you deviate from your lease, you are doomed. At times it is painful to tell a tenant they are facing eviction but emotion will cause you more problems than you can imagine. The old saying “Give then an inch and they take a mile” comes to mind.

4) If it takes more showings to get the right tenant, take the time because Lesson #1 above will come back to haunt you otherwise.

5) Tighten up your lease to make it iron clad in your favor. Make sure it is legal in your area but short is better and ensure you get ALL tenants over 18 to sign it before handing them the keys.

6) If you do not have a solid real estate attorney that deals with LANDLORD rights, find one. You want to be able to call and get through when an issue comes up and not start looking at that point.

7) Here is s simple litmus test . . . ask the potential tenant for the name and phone number of their current landlord. If they say they have been living in their parent basement or will not give you that information, you have your answer. You may not call and follow-up but if they will not give you that information, in 99% of the time you have your answer.

Sorry for the long post but wanted to help others avoid the pain we have experienced over the past months!

[Jim Johnson]

Good reminder that tenant placement is really where most of the risk is decided.

A lot of owners focus on filling the vacancy quickly, but the downstream cost of a bad placement can dwarf a month or two of lost rent — especially once legal timelines, court delays, and attorney costs enter the picture.

One thing many owners eventually add to their process is layered screening, not just one report. That can include:

• Independent court record searches
• Verifying landlord history (preferably the prior landlord, not just the current one)
• Looking at payment patterns, not just credit score
• Basic open-source searches to catch things automated reports might miss

And your point about process discipline is important. Once late payments start getting exceptions or promises replace the lease terms, it becomes harder to reset expectations.

It’s a tough lesson, but posts like this are helpful because they show how much the front-end screening decision affects everything that follows.