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I am renting my condo unit in DC to a tenant who is two months behind in rent and the deposit. He is unresponsive and seems to want to cheat the government to get housing assistance money and has yet to pay me the back rent. What can I do? I need assistance!!!
Contact an attorney. There are very specific laws regarding these issues. The laws and procedures vary tremendously from state to state. And it can be a long process.
What does your lease state? Does it have a paragraph stating that there will be late charge plus you will give certain number of days before you ask them to leave, etc?
I would write a former letter, hand deliver, USPS certified mail or posted in the door of the condo stating that you will take action (eviction) and list things that will effect the tenant who will be evicted. Major thing will be serious damages to the evicted tenants credit.
Then if they don't pay still, you take out an eviction order, takes about 2 weeks, and you go to your house with the police officers and evict them.
If you did your lease right, you could sue them to receive back-rent and time loss for not having a tenant.
Good luck, but you should of done this the first 10 days of the late rent.
I hope you are able to come to a quick resolution. I can tell you that DC's landlord tenant laws are very pro-tenant. Not to scare you, but in DC it can take several months (even as long as a year) to get an unpaying renter evicted. I sincerely hope you can get this bum out of there and a paying tenant in quickly.
BTW...how is it that the tenant is behind on the deposit? Isn't that something you collected prior to the tenant moving in?
The tenant asked to pay the deposit within the first month. I agreed, and listed it as an item in the lease to be paid by 05 October 2010. He has not made a payment since the inital payment in September.
I had a similar situation in another state, and I can't stress how important it is for you to get a court date set and get the person out. You have to remember the time it is going to take, and there is really nothing you can do to legally evict him with a court ordered eviction, so this person might just 'squat' in your condo. You might need to sign over power-of-attorney to a friend/relative and let that person act on your behalf. I did that also. Good luck.
Yes...get a court date as soon as possible. DC is known for giving the tenant several chances to make good on the rent. Meanwhile the landlord gets stuck footing the bill. Don't delay any further. It's almost the new year and this bum is getting a free ride on your dime. Heck...even if he/she were having problems with finding work at the very least they can communicate that or just evacuate the property so you can get a paying tenant in there stat.
Perhaps I am being obtuse, but if you are overseas, are you even sure the tenant is living in the unit? It is possible they have already moved out (or never moved in), in which case your leverage is significantly minimized. In such a situation, you would be able to sue for back rent but you wouldn't be able to physically evict them.
It would be wise in the future to invest in a property manager who can handle this while you are away.
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