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Any suggestions or personal experience would be greatly appreciated.
Start here and read this. North Carolina General Assembly - General Statutes - Chapter 42: Landlord and Tenant.
Once your familiar with your rights AND responsibilities and how the system works (including the correct terminology) list out the action steps and follow them through as prescribed by law. Also makes sure you are familiar with the court's opinion and decissions on these matters. This is important because even lawyers can have different opionion on what a law means and it really comes down to how the judges have been interpreting them.
Also take note of any items about notices you must provide and in wahat mammer to ensure you can file a claim according to the law. As much as we know the tenant musyt do certain things and failure ontheir part can mean they have no recourse, so goes for landlords as well. of you must serve a certain notice in a certain manner in a certain timeframe, you must do it or you could end up having any claims tossed.
You will have two items for a claim. The first is any rent owed based on how your state laws and the court rule on things like notice of termination, time epriods, and mitigation. The seond will be any damages that are covered under recoverable monies owed. You will need to decide if you doing them individualy or consolidated.
Karma... very very scary thing & it is not a hoax either... especially God's will.
I lived through seeing many examples of it.
Time = money and the burden of proof of guilt lies with you.
And when it is month to month, many states a LL can only charge that month if he actually "lives there".... if he can proof he does not live there for the month...
You state that he's been a good tenant for 2+ years.
He came to you telling you that he simply can't afford it and needs to jump ship before sinking.
You messed up by not requiring a security deposit.
I'd say cut your losses and move on DEPENDING on the condition of the property.
Remember, having a tenant leave on good terms is a heck of a lot better than finding out a disgruntled tenant dumped concrete down every drain in the house, planted termites and left meat in an unplugged fridge.
Maybe try and work out a deal. Tell him if he can come up with $500 you will call it even. If you are going to spend time and money trying to get it back anyway this may be the easier course of action.
All great advice. Rookie LL lessons certainly learned and mistakes will not be made again.
At the moment I have the Complaint, Summons and Cash resting in a file at my desk. All I need to do is walk it a block to the courthouse, 11th floor. The tenant is gainfully employed and still living at the rental property.
If I file today I know he will be served before he skips out. If I wait I'm certain I will not see a dime.
You state that he's been a good tenant for 2+ years.
He came to you telling you that he simply can't afford it and needs to jump ship before sinking.
You messed up by not requiring a security deposit.
I'd say cut your losses and move on DEPENDING on the condition of the property.
Remember, having a tenant leave on good terms is a heck of a lot better than finding out a disgruntled tenant dumped concrete down every drain in the house, planted termites and left meat in an unplugged fridge.
I second this.
Really, is it worth your time and trouble.
just re paint and re rent.
problem solved.
all this for 1000 dollars, seems hardly worth it to me.
I will add that the tenant did not voluntarily come to me to give me notice.
I sent him an email after a few days of the rent being late and several days later he sent me an reply stating that he is moving out and not going to pay. That was a few days ago.
This was not an amicable conversation. But still better than a middle of the night exit.
One thing to consider is that if you do get a judgment against him. It will stay on his credit report for years, 7 I think it is, perhaps longer. So even if he can't pay it currently, he will have ongoing motivation for years in the future to pay you so he can get it removed from his credit report.
I sent him an email after a few days of the rent being late and several days later he sent me an reply stating that he is moving out and not going to pay. That was a few days ago.
.
Well, that does change the nature of the thing then.
Personally, I'd send him a pay-or-quit notice. Also if you can, start to file for eviction (Get others here to help you with that, luckily I have zero experience with this).
You want to get the ball moving in case the tenant decides to stick around and see how long they can get by without paying.
I guess to boil it down, the plan is to go full steam ahead with an eviction for non-payment, hoping to motivate the person to GTFO fo'real, but not actually going through with the actual eviction.
Well, that changes the whole dynamics (really would have been nice to have had that info from the start). You need to act and act according to the law for an eviction based on non-payment of the rent. You really have no idea exactly what the person's intentions are. They may not move which means you just delayed the eviction process. So, act to protect your interest. You can always cancell any legal process if you wish, but by not acting to protect your interest all your doing is giving them a freebie to ********* over longer if they so choose.
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