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TomB

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We have this tenant that just doesn`t have his finances under control. Rent is always late, sometimes by more than 2 weeks. This month, he has paid only 25% of the rent. We have issued his 3rd, 10 day notice to pay up or move. Story this time is that it`s slower than usual at work (commission sales), and he is waiting for his tax return and then all will be caught up and then for next month he will pay some of the rent early (a first). So he is asking for a delay on the deadline while he awaits his tax return. A consideration for us is that there are only 2 more months until his lease ends. After that, we go to weekly summer rentals. If we boot this guy, we may not get a renter soon enough for April 1 - June 1 and will lose rental income anyway. If we keep the current guy, then he may come through in time. The decision then is to hold on and hope the current guy gets the tax return and makes good on his promise to pay or to get him out and take our chances with finding a new, short term tenant until June.

My gut tells me that `waiting for the tax return` is just another stall even though he has contacted us and asked for our patience and it will be settled up very soon. The deadline for him to pay is tomorrow and then he has to be gone by Monday, unless we give him a reprieve.

Also, if we boot him early and don`t find a new tenant, can we sue him for the loss of income or do we forgo that when we kick him out early?

Comments anyone? (greatly appreciated).
 

JimWhitelaw

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You don`t mention what province you are in and that makes a difference on the specific action you should take. However, speaking generally, the problem is that since he "is always late", you have trained him that it`s OK to be late. His story is irrelevant, the rent is late, period. Take the steps you need to in order to either re-educate him or get him out and get someone in who can pay. Getting serious about evicting might be the re-education he needs, but probably not.
 

invst4profit

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I agree you should get rid of the guy ASAP. Highly unlikely he will change as it appears you have trained him it is OK to not pay rent on time. LLs should never accept excuses for not paying rent on time as it simply justifies poor money management practices on the part of tenants and reinforces there belief that paying rent on time is of lesser importance than other financial obligations.
Sad to say but often LLs are responsible for teaching tenants the importance of good money management.
No money no roof, fairly basic principal.

Keep in mind retraining is much more difficult than initial training of new tenants.

In the end it will be less of a risk finding a new tenant than staying with present tenant.
 

TomB

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QUOTE (invst4profit @ Mar 25 2010, 07:53 AM) "........it appears you have trained him it is OK to not pay rent on time. LLs should never accept excuses for not paying rent on time as it simply justifies poor money management practices on the part of tenants and reinforces there belief that paying rent on time is of lesser importance than other financial obligations.
Sad to say but often LLs are responsible for teaching tenants the importance of good money management.
No money no roof, fairly basic principal.

Keep in mind retraining is much more difficult than initial training of new tenants.

In the end it will be less of a risk finding a new tenant than staying with present tenant.


Good points except situations are rarely as black and white as this. We didn`t train him - he came this way & to suggest it is our fault is a bit much. He was late the first month (November) and we gave him the 10 day notice to pay or get out. Every time he gets this notice, he pays before the deadline which cancels the eviction. He does it again, and we give him another 10 days - he pays and eviction is cancelled. We don`t cancel the eviction - it`s the law in B.C. that says the eviction is cancelled if they pay up in time. But in the end he always paid on time.

One option we had after 3 late rent payments is to issue a 30 day notice to terminate the lease because of repeated late rent payments. So our earliest opportunity to boot him would have been Feb. 1. No problem for us to do that but we could shoot ourselves in the foot and be stuck with a vacant property as finding renters between November - May in this location is very, very difficult. Not to mention that we can only offer the place for rent until May 30. Not an easy thing to find a tenant with these limitations. So we have tolerated this current tenant because he eventually gets caught up & we have an occupied unit instead of a vacant one. So 2 more months of this guy`s lease and we are rid of him then anyway. He has paid up for now as well.
 

dsmandato

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QUOTE (TomB @ Mar 25 2010, 04:25 PM) Good points except situations are rarely as black and white as this. We didn`t train him - he came this way & to suggest it is our fault is a bit much. He was late the first month (November) and we gave him the 10 day notice to pay or get out. Every time he gets this notice, he pays before the deadline which cancels the eviction. He does it again, and we give him another 10 days - he pays and eviction is cancelled. We don`t cancel the eviction - it`s the law in B.C. that says the eviction is cancelled if they pay up in time. But in the end he always paid on time.

One option we had after 3 late rent payments is to issue a 30 day notice to terminate the lease because of repeated late rent payments. So our earliest opportunity to boot him would have been Feb. 1. No problem for us to do that but we could shoot ourselves in the foot and be stuck with a vacant property as finding renters between November - May in this location is very, very difficult. Not to mention that we can only offer the place for rent until May 30. Not an easy thing to find a tenant with these limitations. So we have tolerated this current tenant because he eventually gets caught up & we have an occupied unit instead of a vacant one. So 2 more months of this guy`s lease and we are rid of him then anyway. He has paid up for now as well.


Tom, perhaps consider a late payment charge. Every time he`s late he pays $50 or $100 penalty. Just another further incentive to get the tenant to pay on time. Sometimes it`s better to have a suite empty for two months than spending the time and getting frustrated month after month having to chase the rent. What is your time worth?
 

invst4profit

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Sorry should not have assumed it was your training. After the third late did you tell him one more and he would be evicted or at any point did you read him the riot act.
I have all too often dealt with LLs that have similar problems and follow the board policy on notifications but never actually confronted the tenant with the ramifications of there actions. Often a strong verbal arm twisting does wonders.

Hopefully when his next LL calls for a reference check you will be candid about his payment history.
 

VicChung

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QUOTE (invst4profit @ Mar 25 2010, 07:42 PM) Sorry should not have assumed it was your training. After the third late did you tell him one more and he would be evicted or at any point did you read him the riot act.
I have all too often dealt with LLs that have similar problems and follow the board policy on notifications but never actually confronted the tenant with the ramifications of there actions. Often a strong verbal arm twisting does wonders.

Hopefully when his next LL calls for a reference check you will be candid about his payment history.

I would normally issue a notice of eviction the first day the rent is late. Then, start the eviction process within 24 hours if rent is not paid. Be prepared to carry things through. The problem with tenants like that is that once they get away with this kind of behavior, it becomes worst every month that goes by.

I like the late payment charges. I normally set mine pretty high at $200/day. When they sign the lease agreement, I read over the main points of the contract and make it clear that for every late day, it will cost them $200 a day.

In your case, there are only two months left. You might want to still issue a notice and see if that makes a difference and threaten court action. Tell them how it is going to affect their credit and their rental history in Canada.
 

wealthyboomer

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QUOTE (VicChung @ Mar 25 2010, 11:40 PM) I would normally issue a notice of eviction the first day the rent is late. Then, start the eviction process within 24 hours if rent is not paid. Be prepared to carry things through. The problem with tenants like that is that once they get away with this kind of behavior, it becomes worst every month that goes by.

I like the late payment charges. I normally set mine pretty high at $200/day. When they sign the lease agreement, I read over the main points of the contract and make it clear that for every late day, it will cost them $200 a day.

In your case, there are only two months left. You might want to still issue a notice and see if that makes a difference and threaten court action. Tell them how it is going to affect their credit and their rental history in Canada.

I`ve previously witnessed judges that would through out your $200/day fee in court, as it bares no rational relationship to any actual damages. It is way to high, and could also be classified as illegal under the criminal code section s.347
 

TomB

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Well, I don`t know what province you are in but in B.C. you cannot begin any process until you serve the 10 day notice to pay or leave. The tenant then has 10 days and you must wait for that time to pass! It will be longer than 10 days depending on how you serve that notice as well. (Mail - considered served after 5th day, so count 10 days from then). After the 10th day, you can then get a writ of possession if the tenant doesn`t voluntarily leave. If the tenant still doesn`t leave then you have to find a baliff, go to the Supreme Court to get the okay to send the baliff in. That`s how an eviction works in B.C.

As far as charging $200/day for late rent - again, that is a no-no in B.C. The residential tenancy branch can overrule you easily on that one and their decision takes precedence over whatever your lease says. The rule is this in B.C. and Alberta as well: You cannot charge the tenant more in late fees than it has cost you and you must be able to back that up with receipts, or bank statements, etc. If your lease allows you to charge that much, the B.C. gov will say "not so fast ,,,, give the guy back his money".




QUOTE (VicChung @ Mar 25 2010, 10:40 PM) I would normally issue a notice of eviction the first day the rent is late. Then, start the eviction process within 24 hours if rent is not paid. Be prepared to carry things through. The problem with tenants like that is that once they get away with this kind of behavior, it becomes worst every month that goes by.

I like the late payment charges. I normally set mine pretty high at $200/day. When they sign the lease agreement, I read over the main points of the contract and make it clear that for every late day, it will cost them $200 a day.

In your case, there are only two months left. You might want to still issue a notice and see if that makes a difference and threaten court action. Tell them how it is going to affect their credit and their rental history in Canada.
 

Nir

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definitely not worth your headaches and effort to keep him. sadly, you should evict asap. GL!
 

Bill

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As many others commented, it usually doesn't get better when tenants are consistently and constantly late. You really have to take action and understand that you are better off either asking the tenant to leave or going through the eviction process and finding tenants who are less problematic. It will make you sleep easier later!
 

Rickson9

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[quote user=TomB] Good points except situations are rarely as black and white as this. We didn't train him - he came this way & to suggest it is our fault is a bit much.




If you didn't train him, the least you did was to reinforce his belief that it is OK to be late on rent.



Best regards.
 

dplummer

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Cut your losses & send him packing. Not worth the agravation. Unless you want to be a nice guy & give him a free place to live for the next 2 months & consider that your good will gesture to start the New Year.What ever decision you make you'll have to live with it with out complaining.



Doug
 

RandyDalton

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Hi,



Sounds like you know the lay of the land quite well and have been doing everything above board. Keep it up.



Others bring up good points about the value of time. However you also have to consider the value of time to find another tenant for the next couple of months. It sounds like you have a plan in place and as long as he keeps paying within the 10 day grace period why not keep it that way for a couple more months. But after that, stick to your plan. And if he ever misses payment before the end of the 10 day grace period, evict immediately, do not wait, do not pass go, go directly to the appropriate body and start the eviction.



Just my two cents worth.



Regards...Randy D.
 
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