Tenant could not pay rent anymore (lease, eviction, rental, deposit)

[MyCD999]

This is in NC. Mother and daughter signed contract jointly. Mother lives another state, daughter lives at the unit. The daughter says mother is sick and maybe dying and she could not pay rest of the months' rents fully. What options LL had?

[Triggerman6]

What does the Lease say?

[brrabbit]

Before you let her run into significant debt, give her a 1 month notice to pay rent in full, or vacate the property. If the girl wants, she can find herself a roommate. Or she can apply for Section 8 if she can qualify. Otherwise, you are not a charity to subsidize her. And you mortgage holder bank ain't going to go easy on you.

[tworent]

Evict them that is the only thing you need to know if they do not pay, as for sick and maybe dying not your problem.

[parentologist]

tell her you're going to evict, and then do it. She needs to move back home to be with her sick mother.

[eok]

Be friendly and polite. Tell her you will help her move to be with her mother, but she has to leave your place clean. Tell her if she's out within 5 days, you will give her a full deposit refund, if she leaves the place clean.

Whatever else you do, don't let her stay when she's not paying rent. You have no way to know if she's telling the truth. She will end up leaving angry, and owing you a lot of money. It's better if she leaves on good terms, with the place clean, ASAP. You can accomplish that by being friendly and generous, but making sure to not let her stay beyond her move out date. Use the deposit refund as leverage, to convince her to hurry and move.

These days rentals are going like hotcakes. Raise the rent for the next tenant. That will cover your loss from helping her move out and giving her a full deposit refund.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Start eviction process immediatdly. Whatever forms and time line required by your state.

There is no reason to leave a tenant in place who can't afford to pay rent.

Because so many people lie when they want to move out, don't accept excuses and don't give her a few months of free rent expecting gratitude in return. She's not paying. It doesn't really matter why. Get her out as quickly as possible. ( and no, don't help her pack and move boxes. Let her call her friends for help. You didn't adopt her and she is not your responsibility )

[brrabbit]

I would add, that sick or dying (maybe, or maybe not), her mother is on the lease and should get a copy of eviction papers and demand for paying a balance and named on the law suite too. Even if she's gone (let the good Lord send her good health and long life, obviously), her estate would still be liable for the rent.

And maybe she's not that sick and not dying at all, and would be surprised to know that her little daughter used her as an excuse.

[AZ Manager]

I've been ignoring this one hoping someone would chime in and mention that even after death the lease is legally binding to the estate and you can go after it for damages, very few states have exceptions to this and I couldn't find it in NC. Start the eviction process with notices to all tenants and get the ball rolling. Sounds like your tenant is trying to sucker you into letting them stay rent free by telling you they can't pay but not offering any solutions, like breaking the lease and moving.

[rodentraiser]

Depending on how your state handles evictions, my guess is to check the contract and see how soon you can start the process of eviction. If you want to give her one more month, that's up to you. But I'd start the eviction process as soon as possible, because in many cases, it can take months to get a person evicted and that's all money you're losing when you could be renting the place out. On top of that, most people who get evicted get mad and damage their rental, so you may well have repairs to make which may also be costly.

If you're rental is a business to you, then you have to run it like a business.