Renter threatening to sue

[destin04]

You said that you used a Realtor? Did they serve as your landlord and property manager? From your post I don't think they must have since the rent was paid to you. Did you use Texas Real Estate Commision forms? All of that information is very plain and laid out in those leases. Everything is enforcable by law. You don't have a thing to worry about.

[atxcio]

It's terrible to say this, but you should never rent to someone with bad credit. Never, never, never. I know that probably excludes some good folks with problems that are not all their fault, but I would say let an apartment complex deal with them. As an individual landlord, we don't always have the infrastructure or personal fortitude to force people to pay and abide by the rules. It's natural to be lax on late fees, deposits, etc... you don't want to be the bad guy/gal. If it were your full time job to make sure people paid on time, maybe... but for a side-business, like one rental property, it's not worth the emotional investment. So find renters that are prolific on-time payers -- basically, people with stellar credit. Or leave the place empty.

Seems like you'll be keeping the deposit -- and I believe you can definitely put it on their credit. But they probably don't care about that. You may want to pay the small fee to join something like the National Tenant Network (despite the name, it's really for landlords) National Tenant Network .. Lots of good info there on the entire process.

Personally, I'd probably keep the deposit and write off the rest. While their lawsuit threat is probably an empty one, it wouldn't be worth the time or hassle. Be glad that you didn't have to evict them, and that they didn't try to sue you for something that happened on the property. Believe me, it can get much worse than someone just trashing your house a bit.

[NOTAM]

no, i dont agree with "never renting to someone with bad credit". i am an Emergency Room Registered Nurse and have a good income (can make over 80K a year if i put in a little overtime) but my credit ain't the best due to exhusband who ran up some credit cards etc (which i have had to work on getting paid off). i have PLENTY of income to pay my rent. i have no problem making my rent every month on time for my large 4bedroom house that i rent for just me alone. because of my credit, i doubt i would qualify for a mortgage, so i am stuck renting. if folks didnt rent to me, because of my credit, i would be homeless for gods sake!
and by the way, i rent from a large property management company in the area.
oh and by the way, i have good written references from every place i have ever rented. i even have "dog references"-previous landlords writing specific letters about how my dogs never caused any problems or damage or noise complaints etc.

Originally Posted by atxcio

It's terrible to say this, but you should never rent to someone with bad credit. Never, never, never. I know that probably excludes some good folks with problems that are not all their fault, but I would say let an apartment complex deal with them. As an individual landlord, we don't always have the infrastructure or personal fortitude to force people to pay and abide by the rules. It's natural to be lax on late fees, deposits, etc... you don't want to be the bad guy/gal. If it were your full time job to make sure people paid on time, maybe... but for a side-business, like one rental property, it's not worth the emotional investment. So find renters that are prolific on-time payers -- basically, people with stellar credit. Or leave the place empty.

Seems like you'll be keeping the deposit -- and I believe you can definitely put it on their credit. But they probably don't care about that. You may want to pay the small fee to join something like the National Tenant Network (despite the name, it's really for landlords) National Tenant Network .. Lots of good info there on the entire process.

Personally, I'd probably keep the deposit and write off the rest. While their lawsuit threat is probably an empty one, it wouldn't be worth the time or hassle. Be glad that you didn't have to evict them, and that they didn't try to sue you for something that happened on the property. Believe me, it can get much worse than someone just trashing your house a bit.

[padcrasher]

No you cannot charge past date late fees. It's too late for that. That should have been resolved the Month that they were late. You cannot even sue for unpaid late fees only unpaid rent. Valid repairs can be taken off the deposit that's it.

I've been to the Justice of the Peace numerous times over the years. I speak from experience.

[notaloandloard]

WOw thanks so much for all of the responses! We did not go thru a management company, they just paid us directly, and we definitely should have told them to pay the late fees when they finally paid us the rent each month. They did have very bad credit, as a matter of fact when they started looking for a new place to rent (after asking us to owner finance to sell to them!), they were turned down several times. My husband figured it was his responsibility to pay the late fees and felt he should not have to 'babysit' and ask for it, he knew he was late.

Padcrasher - there is a section in our lease about the return of the deposit and what can be deducted and the first item in it is late fees, so I have to disagree with you on your response, I went by what I could deduct under that section as far as what I calculated when doing his final deposit deductions. It also specifies last month rent, which he didn't pay either, along with a bunch of other things.

I just wanted to know if anyone thought he might have a chance to win in court, I can see by the responses that we would actually have a better chance if we counter sued, which we definitely will if we get sued. It's been over two weeks and I haven't heard anything from him - yet - so who knows...

The only reason we rented to them in the first place was because we really didn't want to lose our new home, basically we were desperate. We would have evicted them but were in a jam, I needed that payment to continue keeping the house.

If anyone knows of anyone looking for a house in the Plano please send them to this link for my house :

Single Family Home - 1144 Pleasanton Drive, Plano, TX, 75094 - Realtor.com

Thanks again everyone!

Notalandlord

[jamesandveybe]

Originally Posted by notaloandloard

I want to add, also, that we told him the first month he paid his rent that he hadn't paid the pet deposit, he said he would but never did, so that is another reason my husband never bothered to tell him to pay his late fees, we figured we would just deduct it. Are we obligated to tell him we were charging all of the late fees even tho it is in the lease?

OK, so the situation as I understand it is this: You had a written lease that was not fulfilled, the renters are gone and their deposit paid is going toward damage, cleaning, etc. The question is whether or not that lease contained verbage toward the late fees and pet deposit. If you only told them about those, and they didn't sign in agreement to them, you won't get any.

Let them sue, then you countersue. Bring your photos of before and after they moved, work to repair/clean/etc. and tell the judge about it. If they are merely suing for their deposit, your evidence should quiet that action. If, however, they claim the home was already in sad condition when they moved in, they might go for emotions and cry about how you never fixed anything. Good luck. Court is a gamble, regardless of how well prepared you are.

I have read the thread and do not agree with posters about renting to those with poor credit. I had poor credit through no fault of my own, and went around that by paying for the lease in advance. I had the cash, just not the credit. For most landlords, bad credit equals no lease, cash or not, but that legally discriminates against those whose credit is not their fault and yet have the cash to pay for their lease up front. Yes, it happens. However, I had no pets.

[NOTAM]

no way...i have had ZERO problems getting rental homes with not so great credit!!!!!!!!!! i have rented from very fancy condominium complexes to this 4 bedroom house in a nice subdivision. and no, they are not even private owners. they are corporations so yes they had to run credit checks etc!!!!!!!!!!!!!
maybe all these companies who have "cleared" me for renting, regardless of credit report score, simply because i am an RN and our "reputation", or my proof of income??????????? i dont get it. i have NEVER had to do anything out of the ordinary, paying in advance or whatever! just the routine, first months and a deposit, and pet fee.

Originally Posted by jamesandveybe

OK, so the situation as I understand it is this: You had a written lease that was not fulfilled, the renters are gone and their deposit paid is going toward damage, cleaning, etc. The question is whether or not that lease contained verbage toward the late fees and pet deposit. If you only told them about those, and they didn't sign in agreement to them, you won't get any.

Let them sue, then you countersue. Bring your photos of before and after they moved, work to repair/clean/etc. and tell the judge about it. If they are merely suing for their deposit, your evidence should quiet that action. If, however, they claim the home was already in sad condition when they moved in, they might go for emotions and cry about how you never fixed anything. Good luck. Court is a gamble, regardless of how well prepared you are.

I have read the thread and do not agree with posters about renting to those with poor credit. I had poor credit through no fault of my own, and went around that by paying for the lease in advance. I had the cash, just not the credit. For most landlords, bad credit equals no lease, cash or not, but that legally discriminates against those whose credit is not their fault and yet have the cash to pay for their lease up front. Yes, it happens. However, I had no pets.

[notaloandloard]

By the way, just a quick note, this guy has horrible horrible credit, he was a realtor that apparently didn't plan very well. We hoped since we were giving him a chance by renting him the house he would do right by us, but he didn't, everything was by his terms. He ruined our upstairs bathroom (one of them), and the ceiling below it, but would not let us in the house to fix it so we had to fix it after they finally moved out - delaying possible sales of the house while fixing and cleaning it up.

I do not, however, believe that all people with bad credit out there are bad renters, he is just a bad guy.

[padcrasher]

Texas is very particular about what can and cannot be in a lease. Just because you have past date late fees tied up to the deposit doesn't mean that's a valid stipulation.

The minute you take a payment (even a partial payment) from the renter, Texas considers that renter up-to-date. You cannot go back prior to that date and collect for more fees/rent later on.

They way the law works is the only chance you have of collecting late fees are from the Month that they are due. Once you take a later rent payment, the slate is clean.

[jimboburnsy]

Originally Posted by notaloandloard

Hi All,

I have a situation here and am not sure what to do. We rented our house in December to get out of it into a new house (hated our neighborhood). We had a lease drawn up (did this thru our realtors), and explained to the renter that we did not want to rent at all but were forced to and would only rent for six months. At the end of six months we had a clause in our agreement to offer the house to our renter to purchase or, if he chose not to, to begin listing it on June 20th. He could not purchase it due to bad credit so we started the listing process. During the six months he lived in the house he was late four times. He never paid any late fees when he paid. Twice I had to call him to find out where our rent was (due on the 20th, but the 28th he still hadn't paid). He also never paid the pet deposit and never got the required renter's insurance that is stated on our lease. When we relisted our house he went against the agreement and did not leave the house during the showings and also cancelled a few of our showings. When they finally moved out the house was a gross mess and required a TON of cleanup and fixing up as well. Also, he never paid the last month pro-rated rent.

When I sent him the letter regarding his deposit, I deducted money for the cleaning fee, money for the yard maintenance fee, all fees that we had to spend to fix the house up. We had to have the inside almost entirely repainted because they messed up the walls so bad and they caused a leak in the house upstairs that we had to pay to fix. Anyway, since he never paid the late fees, I deducted the $50 for the initial day plus the $10 a day per day up to $30 days ($300) that it states in my lease I could deduct because he was late. I never would have done that but quite honestly he was terribly difficult and didn't cooperate with us at all on the showings, per our lease, plus I had to pay the mortgage late because I knew he would always be late.

Anyway, I received a nasty email from him indicating that if we were being very unethical in deducting teh $10 per day and that we never mentioned that we would do it when he paid the rent. He also said he considered the rent to be PIF when he gave it to my husband because my husband never indicated he would have to pay the late fees. He said he would take us to small claims court if we didn't come back with a better number and solution.

I said we weren't changing anything and that when I spoke to him about it I told him we were charging late fees, but only for three months instead of four that he technically owed us for, and that he needed to look at his lease to see what the fees were.

Could he win in small claims court if he takes us there even though our lease spells out in no uncertain terms that we can do that? Just wondering if I need to worry about this at all.

He was a terrible renter, always had excuses for everything, and we are just glad to get him out of our house and finally have had the house fixed (we had to re-sheetrock and repaint the ceiling where he messed it up so bad), so we can sell it.

I want to add, also, that we told him the first month he paid his rent that he hadn't paid the pet deposit, he said he would but never did, so that is another reason my husband never bothered to tell him to pay his late fees, we figured we would just deduct it. Are we obligated to tell him we were charging all of the late fees even tho it is in the lease?

Thanks!

Notalandlord!

It sounds to me like you are in the saddle. Was your lease notarized? Witnessed? Did you take pictures of any damage to your property? Did you keep receipts for any repairs? Keeping his deposit does not sound un-ethical at all from what is described above. If anyone is not operating in good faith, it is the lessee.

It is certainly a stretch that this guy would have any sort of claim against you and he is probably trying to scare you into reimbursing him. As one of the posters above mentioned, don't give an inch. You may be able to leverage him by threat of a reporting him to the credit bureaus. However, if you decide that you want to stay out of court and settle for some token amount, get any agreement you make in writing and have it witnessed. I hate how litigious people are.