Our topic today is the unfortunate subject of how to deal with bad tenants and when to evict them. If you have owned rental property for a long time and you’ve never had to evict someone, consider yourself lucky. It’s something no one wants to do, but it is part of the business and you need to be prepared for it.
Things happen that can make eviction inevitable. Sometimes people lose their jobs or something happens in their financial lives and suddenly they can’t pay their rent. You may also elect to evict when you have a bad tenant in your property; someone who is disrespectful to the other tenants, isn’t following the requirements of the rental contract, or is disruptive to the complex or the neighborhood.
It’s important to be consistent with how you deal with tenants. When your tenants know that rent is due on the first of the month and they have a grace period to pay up until the fifth, you need to require payment by the fifth. If it’s not received on the fifth, we charge a late fee the next day. If there is no immediate response and the rent still isn’t caught up, it’s our practice to issue a Three Day Notice to Perform. This puts tenants on notice that if they don’t pay right away, the eviction process will start immediately.
You have to stay consistent because tenants respect it and respond to it. They won’t bend the rules if they know what the consequences will be. If someone we rent to isn’t able to pay, we wish them the best and we want to help, but our first priority is to protect your asset.
As professionals, we know how to deal with this but we don’t have to deal with it too often. That’s because we do a great job of screening tenants up front. That’s the best way to avoid evictions. However, when these situations do occur, we are ready to act.
Dealing with bad tenants is one great reason to hire a professional property management company. If you’re doing it yourself, one non-paying tenant should be enough to encourage you to reconsider. Contact us at MV Properties if you have any questions about eviction, or if you need some help with a bad tenant who is living in your rental property.