Real Estate Investor · Minneapolis, MN · Member since 2008 · 37 posts · 7 votes
Spoke with tenant's father. His daughter, the tenant, is over 30 and having a mental health crisis involving multiple personality disorder. I have not had any direct communication with her, but rent is now 7 days late. Father says this has happened twice before at different apartments, both ending in eviction, which he wants to avoid.
He says she won’t return to the apartment, but he'll pay this month's rent. That's great, but the bigger question is how to end this lease cleanly and legally.
Tenant is on month-to-month lease requiring 2 months' notice.
Any suggestions on how to proceed?
For example, I could send tenant notice today that her lease will not be renewed and will terminate. Does that make sense? Other ideas?
Investor · Clairemont, CA · Member since 2011 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes
1y
I'd start there, at worst this means you can file for eviction if she disagrees with this and Dad doesn't keep paying. But I would also offer her the ability to accept moving out before Aug 1st with no penalty, if she agrees then your noticing requirement is a moot point since she chose to accept your early termination offer. The other question is does Dad have legal ability to make decisions right now? If so then he can accept the early termination offer...
A friend has a sister that is schizophrenic and has had issues like this off and on over the years. The challenge often is she's not bad enough to get a permanent conservatorship, and legally is 'of sound mind' most of the time. So when she's off for a bit the best they can do is mitigate damage and try to help get her back into a right mind set again so she can function. So keep that in mind to work with Dad, but know he may not legally be able to solve all your issues.
If you give notice and never hear from her, but Aug 1 all her stuff is gone then document the condition and note the unit as abandoned and move ahead. It is probably never an issue, but if she challenges it later you have proof that you served notice and before the notice was up her stuff was moved out which you took to mean she abandoned the unit.