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You don't say what state you are in and landlord/tenant laws differ drastically from state to state. You really need to speak with a real estate attorney or read online the laws for your state.
From what I can tell, you had a tenant that signed a lease for a particular price..let's say $1000/mo. He brought in someone else to help pay and that person is paying $500/mo. You are accepting those funds. You REALLY need to find out where you stand since you keep accepting money for rent from one of the occupants.
1) partial payments on the lease still don't meet the terms of the lease. For all intents and purposes, the Leaseholder has not been fulfilling his part of the lease for months, so
2) that's grounds for eviction, absent any agreement by you to accept the reduced funds as payment in full for the month. Just because you accepted a partial payment doesn't mean your forgave the rest of the money due.
3) Since the lease term has run out, the leaseholder has a responsibility to either vacate or renew (if that's an available option) in a timely manner. Absent one of those two events,
4) You have the option of evicting the tenant. Most locales will allow you to begin with a "demand notice to quit" the premises, which is usually just a certified letter to the tenant to leave within 72 hours and puts them on notice of an eviction if they don't leave in accourdance with the lease term. If they don't leave, then
5) You will have to proceed with an eviction. Generally, you'll file the papers with the local municipal court, and they will be served on your tenant. There's typically a lot of details involved with the time frame of notification and the time for the tenant to respond ... which can be as short as the end of the 72 hour notice or as long as the next interval of the lease, which would be monthly. In some states, the laws favor a leaseholder in this area and they can conceivably drag out their departure for as long as 3 months. But,
6) at the conclusion of the eviction process term, you will have the right to enter your property and physically remove all of the tenant's possessions, change the locks, and reclaim quiet enjoyment of your place. This is typically done with a sherrif's deputy present to ensure the peacefull conduct of the events ... you may not use physical force or violence to accomplish your task. (but that doesn't mean you can't enter the premises in a time frame when you know the tenant is away from the place). In some localities, the sherrif's deputy will assist the eviction by removing the tenant from the premises, if need be, while you go about your tasks.
You'd rarely need a lawyer to assist you with the process. The forms are generally simple to fill out, and the courts recognize that you have a right to quiet enjoyment of your property if a tenant fails to keep their end of the contract or leave at the end of the term.
Nothing prevents the tenant from leaving the place in a shambles, or sticking you with unpaid utility bills that will have to be brought current in order to maintain services at the premises ... I've been there with $1,000 unpaid water bills, and even higher electricity/gas bills. Nothing stops you from suing the tenant for those bills, but with this type of tenant ... it's pretty rare they have the assets to recover. At least you'll have your property to get back into a cash flow ....
1) partial payments on the lease still don't meet the terms of the lease. For all intents and purposes, the Leaseholder has not been fulfilling his part of the lease for months, so
2) that's grounds for eviction, absent any agreement by you to accept the reduced funds as payment in full for the month. Just because you accepted a partial payment doesn't mean your forgave the rest of the money due.
Again, things differ from state to state and sometimes even within the state down to the locale. Here in my area, yes, there would still be grounds for eviction, but once that process has started and the tenant has been served, if the landlord accepts any funds you have to start from square one.
hi guys, i hope i can get some legal advice or at least some advice.
I have a two tenants living in my property. One of the tenants has not paid his rent for the last three months ( this is the one that sign the lease) and the other one has been paying his half ( this one is not in the lease at all).
My question is this, his lease ended this month. He has been giving notices to leave the premises (the tenant that signed the contract but has not paid) but he refuses to leave.
the tenant that has been paying wants to stay in the property and start a new lease, my question is this, can i change the locks of the house since his contract has ended? what can i do to kick the guy that refuses to pay out of the house? please help i am going crazy with this.
See an attorney -- a specialist -- and let the attorney handle it, expediently and diligently. Good luck.
I would offer to help find the tenant a new place to stay, pay for a moving van and hope the tenant will go along with it. It will be cheaper and less hassle to go that route.
hi guys, thank you for all your replies, to give an update i went to court and filled out all paper work and finally the tenant was evicted and left the property. Now i learned my lesson and as soon as the new tenant does not pay the first month i am serving an eviction notice. Now does anyone know how can i put the eviction in the other tenant's credit, i don't want him to do the same thing he did to me to someone else.
Sue the tenant. Small Claims Court. No more diffifcult than an eviction. Then you get a judgement which can be recorded. That is a public record that follows the tenant for years. You may even get paid if the tenant ever needs to get a mortgage or even some jobs.
I know it can be done, although I've never done it personally. I'll ask my property manager and let you know if there is a way to have it done without joining one of the services.
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They are out!!!!!
