evict a bad tenant (Penn: lease, eviction, credit report)

[XRiteMA98]

OK, this is a message for the landlords of this forum. I have this guy who didn;t pay the rent in Jan because he said they had car problems they need to fix. From Aug to Dec he's always been late few days also so getting payment from them is like pulling teeth.

I lectured to them about how one needs to honor their commitements and about how banks do not fogive anybody and I offered that they pay Jan's rent in 6 installements from Feb on thinking that by Aug, when their lease is up, he'd be finished paying the 6 installments and I won;t renew their contracts.

Here comes February. He did not pay. He said that somebody highjacked their bank account and these things take 90 days to be investigated by the banks, so consequently he does not have any money.
I said to him I'm sorry. I was more lenient than any landlord I know but I am forced to evict you. Which I will. Honestly. Please any of you landlords out there, tell me if I am wrong.

Also I have this questions for you. I have this contract I downloaded from a website that says: waiwer of notice: the tenants waives his the right to receive a notice of default from the landlord unless such notice is required by state or local reguation.

What the heck does it mean? I read the law and it seems that under PA law I am required to give them 30 days notice in winter time to vacate premises or pay but does this above paragraph entitles me to file a complaint now if I want? ANy opinion is highly appreciated. I'm tired of being a landlord. It's consumes me emotionally and all I want now is to get rid of thespe people and sell the damn property. Needless to say me tenants are in their late 20s and are my two houses dwn the street neighbor's kids. That's why I rented to them but now they pulled me into this nightmare.

Please help. Thank you.

[ClementHeart]

Originally Posted by XRiteMA98

OK, this is a message for the landlords of this forum. I have this guy who didn;t pay the rent in Jan because he said they had car problems they need to fix. From Aug to Dec he's always been late few days also so getting payment from them is like pulling teeth.

I lectured to them about how one needs to honor their commitements and about how banks do not fogive anybody and I offered that they pay Jan's rent in 6 installements from Feb on thinking that by Aug, when their lease is up, he'd be finished paying the 6 installments and I won;t renew their contracts.

Here comes February. He did not pay. He said that somebody highjacked their bank account and these things take 90 days to be investigated by the banks, so consequently he does not have any money.
I said to him I'm sorry. I was more lenient than any landlord I know but I am forced to evict you. Which I will. Honestly. Please any of you landlords out there, tell me if I am wrong.

Also I have this questions for you. I have this contract I downloaded from a website that says: waiwer of notice: the tenants waives his the right to receive a notice of default from the landlord unless such notice is required by state or local reguation.

What the heck does it mean? I read the law and it seems that under PA law I am required to give them 30 days notice in winter time to vacate premises or pay but does this above paragraph entitles me to file a complaint now if I want? ANy opinion is highly appreciated. I'm tired of being a landlord. It's consumes me emotionally and all I want now is to get rid of thespe people and sell the damn property. Needless to say me tenants are in their late 20s and are my two houses dwn the street neighbor's kids. That's why I rented to them but now they pulled me into this nightmare.

Please help. Thank you.

To cover yourself. You need to give him a written notice and go to the local magistrate. Once it hits the point of going to court. He will be give up to 30 days from the court date to move. He is legally still liable for the rent owed up through the date of the hearing. Then if you do have to forcibly evict in which the place is padlocked, by law you must keep his belongings for 20 days (might be 20 business days) and give him opportunity to pick them up. After that you are free and clear. If you go to your local magistrate, they can give you more detailed and clearer guidelines. You may not lock him out without the court order or you can be sued for doing a self-help eviction which is illegal in the state of Pennsylvania.
I hope this was of some help.

[Retiredcoach]

Have you yet served your tenants with a three day pay now/ quit notice? This is generally your first step to starting the process. After you have sent your registered letter to your tenant(s) with this notice, you will then be ready to start your paper trail with the magistrate. The eviction process is often a time consuming/ money losing undertaking for the landlord. It often gets to the point where many landlords will offer to fore go any overdue rent just to get the deadbeat tenants out of your rental. Others opt to maintain the hard line- taking the full route to eviction and reporting nonpayment to the credit bureau.

Being a landlord myself for nearly 30 years, I have been very fortunate to have needed to start the eviction process just once. The key is to understand that being a landlord requires that you need to treat this task as a business person first. Renting a property is not a charitable undertaking- it is to be a business. The lease is a contract that is written by/for the landlord, and it is your responsibility to make certain that you do not make "exceptions" to the terms. If , for example, the rent is due on the first, and you allow the tenant to pay on the 15th without penalty, the tenant will continue to test your "flexible rent due date". Hang in there, we all have made these same mistakes at one time, or another. Learn by your mistakes, and try to remember, that the long-term effort of being a landlord is often well worth the occasional frustrations. Good luck!

[Herodotus]

Renting to people you know is usually not the way to go. I also tell new tenants all the time, to be up front if they run into money issues. If it's deep into the lease, and they've been good tenants, we'll usually let them out of the lease if they agree to move, and don't drag their feet. If they are uncooperative, take them to court. They'll realize their mistake when they try to rent somewhere else, and the eviction shows up on their credit report. I basically black flag any application that comes back with an eviction within the last 10 years. If anyone is a tenant, and has a legit gripe against their landlord, take it to court. Refusing to pay rent without initiating legal proceedings will come back to bite you in the butt. If you're trying to rent from me, I won't want to hear your sob story. You better have some documentation to back it up.

[Hopes]

About the Waiver of Notice, you can't waive notice in Pennsylvania.

[TRO Z]

You 100% can waive the 30 day notice. In your lease it must clearly state that by signing this agreement tenant agrees to give up certain rights-----and I highly recommend you put it in CAPS AND BOLD That the tenant agrees to waive their 10 day notice to quit----which in turn allows you to file eviction immediately. That just saved you $200 in attorney costs right there, so that's all the free advice I offer today

Get a stronger lease agreement and learn the procedure of eviction, or situations like this could cost you 3 to 4 months of non payments and headaches. Good Luck

[WILWRadio]

Unleash a horde of roaches into the place when they are not present and I can guarantee that they will want to flee the place ASAP.

[Hopes]

Trust TRO Z's advice. When it comes to landlord stuff, I assure you he knows what he's talking about more than I do.

[XRiteMA98]

Thanks. I did send the notice two days ago and I also taped it on the garage door. I read this somewhere. I can;t even tell you the emails this guys sent me. Like, oh, why are you doing this to us, even banks wouldn;t evict you if you don;t pay morgtages for two months. You don;t understand our situation. We are good people.

I replied to them: we have a legal contract, you didn;t pay for two months, I don;t trust your promises. I will apply the law.

So yes, I have documentation. Deep in my heart I feel sorry for them because they have small kids, but then I tell myself those kids are not my responsability. The parents are adults, the grandma lives down the street, they have families, friends... if they don;t understand how to behave it is not my responsability to teach them. I am a foreigner in this country and in 19 years I've been here I rented and I owned and I never skipped a payment. Why do these people take things so easily? And mind you their salaries were more than 3 timex the rent and they had god credit. So honestly I don;t know what the heck happened.

Thanks for the reply. I didn;t know about that waive the right to notice, but I decided to be safe and follow the known path. If they don;t pay I'll file the complaint.

As for cockroaches no freaking way. I know somebody who has one as pet. They have a bunch of them in a glass tank @ Science Center. I shiver just to think about it