All Forum Posts by: Wesley W.

@Matthew Masoud and @Michele Fischer summed it up nicely.

Hopefully they are on a MTM and you can issue a notice to terminate.  If not, excersize "happy clause" and offer for them to break lease without penalty.  Couch this as a customer service gesture, not due to an issue or negligence on your part.

Another solution to this problem in the future would be to move to a MTM contract.  I wrote about it recently here.

Credit unions should be able to do this at no cost to you.  Banks are becoming increasly inflexible with many parts of their policies that are alienating their customers, I find.  Unless there is a local/state requirement for doing so, I would put all the SDs into a single account for efficiency's sake - and just keep an accurate accounting of that the balance is for each tenant.  In my annual rent increase letters, I state what their balance will be once they deposit the additional SD to match the increase.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this person does not belong to the identity that she held out to you.  This will be an expensive lesson for you, but you should learn from it.  I would contact a lawyer directly.  I think working with a third party "eviction company" is another mistake and just throwing good money (and time) after bad.  I think you may be able to do a "John & Jane Doe and all other oocupants" eviction depending on your jurisdiction, but consult your attorney.

What city/state is this?

I agree with @Dan H..  Even though the cash for keys might be a smarter business decision, you are reinforcing this kind of behavior within the tenant pool.  Not just for these individuals, but for all the others they brag to on social media about the bonus they got for not paying their rent.  As a whole, I think this hurts the industry as a whole.  I would not do it, on principle.  I understand I am in the minority.

On a side note, kinda funny that CT has legislation for a MINIMUM payoff to someone who has willfully breached a signed and executed legal contract.  Gotta love it.

Take your hard-earned money and invest it where it's treated better.

 I would strongly recommend moving to a MTM contract.  I wrote about it recently here.

This is a good crutch for folks that do not like confrontation or whom are still getting their landlord sea legs.  If you are the owner, they will go to you expecting a definitive answer to every request they have, and they know who exactly to blame if it doesn't go their way. 

If you are the PM (I would represent yourself as a partner in the business, instead) it gives you a chance to mull over their request, do research, seek advice and formulate a response instead of being pressured into a snap response as the sole "shot-caller".  It also conditions tenants that they will not get an immediate answer to anything unclear or outside the contract.  And when you decide against granting their request, you can blame it on your "business partner" to defer their ire.

Very pitchy.  What are you trying to sell us?

 100%

If they are asking you to lower the rent and you acquiesce, then you just trained them that everything in the contract is negotiable.  be prepared for a negotiation on everything if you accept this party as a tenant.  As others have said, if your unit is in line with the market, hold firm and don't panic.  Oftentimes, in the past, when I have gotten worried and lowered the rent, it just attracted lower-quality applicants, not "bargain shoppers."