I thought you'd get a kick out of this. I bought a building late last year and am stuck with a few bad tenants. This guy is paying (or not paying) :) $650 for 725 square feet - in Denver! I can't get 'em out 'til August.

I get an e-mail from him on the 31st saying that He's be paying his rent on the 10th. It's due on the first. I write back and tell him, in a nice way, how it is. He writes back a nice response.

At 6:00 AM on 6/2 I post him with a 3-day notice. I then received this response. I love it!

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Jeff,

Similar to my tenant that texted me "stop bothering me" ... she just didn't call me a bully but when the Marshall banged on her door to give her the court papers (date of court) she called up and complained that "my people are rude and scared her kid by banging on the door". I said "uh, that's the city marshall, not my employee - he's serving you papers".

If you are in a time/money position to get rid of this bad tenant and replace with a better tenant quickly, then a 3-day notice with no leniency a good way to force them out of the unit.

It amazes me when tenants gamble with late payments of rent or partial payments. There is no defense for this and it can cause them to lose their home.

Stick to your guns. Basically just stop talking to him and hand it over to your lawyer.

No one ever said this job would be easy. Well, some did, but they were lying.

The sooner you move past this, the sooner better things will come into your life.

RR, you nailed it. And here in Denver, one of the tightest and most expensive rental markets in the country, it is foolhardy for a tenant to go to eviction. No one will rent to them.

This is an elegant 11-unit building that I am extensively renovating. I'm pumping a lot of money into it.

Every turnover costs me $8 - 10K. But I don't hesitate for a millisecond when it comes to ejecting a bad tenants. It's rare, though. I did that in bad economic times and good. You have to maintain a standard. Doing otherwise puts the tenant in control. And we know how that goes.

This clown thought he could tell me when he was going to maybe get around to paying rent, thinking that his excuses would carry water.

Hmmm, I think I may have taken that turn in the road where I'm no longer phased by anything tenants may dream up to say.

I wonder what that means....

Glad to hear you are doing nice turnovers, I bet some new teni will appreciate your work.

Good question. Usually I zing 'em. This time I just pasted the appropriate section of the lease and added the text below. I am usually much more creative than this and tend to enjoy battling. By the way, the subject line of his e-mail was "inappropriate behavior of landlord."

My tepid response:

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"You agreed to pay the rent on the first, but you didn't. I then asserted my rights to begin the process of getting that rent. That's the way it works.

Your behavior and your e-mail are inappropriate.

Go Jeff!

And bully for you! (He says with a British accent)

You rich landlords in Co. Taking everyone's recreational pot money. He said he'd pay ya in a couple o weeks. You greedy people don't trust nobody. There outta be a law. And when Bernie gets elected you alls are gonna be sooo sorry. ;-)

sounds like your doing your job. Sounds like your enjoying your job. Keep up the good work.

We let the sheriff handle-- do our talking now. Why get the hassle. Rents due --- give the notice to pay than start your process. Our county just started electronic dispos -- file on Wednesday posted on door Friday. Loving it. Cost 20.00 more but resident pays the file fee.

Always trying to blame someone else for WHAT they aren't doing.....

I believe this is why certain tenants seek out private landlords (over corporations); they feel that dealing with a private landlord may "buy" them more time in terms of late/NO rent.

Because, unfortunately, it often does.

When it doesn't work out the way they wish, the landlord is suddenly "harassing" them. I don't think 99 percent of these folks even know what true harassment is.

Thank you for all of your comments. I appreciate them!

You guys made some excellent points. I am firm with the tenants, tough when I have to be, but fair, responsive, and go out of my way to quickly fix problems while continually upgrading the appearance and functionality of my buildings.

Yes Jeff; that is often the irony of all of this. We also respond very quickly to repair requests; if not the same day, the very next day. Yet there will be some tenants who think nothing of tossing every excuse they can come up with for not paying rent.

Being a mean bully means you are doing your job and ensuring they tenant/landlord relationship is evident.

Jeff,

Ya big meanie!

Who do you think you are! Wanting people to pay their rent, clean up after themselves, turn their music down at night.… I'll bet you even want them to put the trash in the dumpster and park in the right spots!

Good, one, Brad!

Well, I referred this dude to my eviction lawyer this morning. It takes roughly three weeks to get someone gone here in Denver.

I can't image a guy not being able to come up with $675 in rent.

The downside to this is that it's an unplanned vacancy. I am already in the midst of renovating 2 units this month and 2 more next month. Lots of money going out. But bad tenants have to go...

Thank you, Salernitana. I appreciate your kind words and your well-written response.

It sounds as though you take this business seriously as well. I bet you run a tight ship.

I would have filed sooner, but today was the earliest legally possible.

The eviction paperwork has already been filed with the court, and the tenant will be served today. The case will be heard on June 13th - fast! I don't have to go to court.

I'll let you know how it goes. I will also post the response from the tenant. I bet it will be colorful!

Thanks again.

You go Jeff (you ol' bully)!

The first time I was told "you're a mean, evil landlord"---I came here and posted, wondering "am I really that mean"??

Several responses from these great people here assured me that I must have been "doing something right and managing my business correctly" by making them comply or evict!

I will always remember that.

Let's not forget the lesson to be learned from this troublesome tenant - how did he get past your screening process?

Our application asks if tenant has ever gone to court, been evicted, felony, etc.

And our background checks verifies this.

Hi Jeff.

I only respond to requests or if I have new information to impart. There's nothing in the excerpt you shared that requires any type of response from me. It's just hot air. Any response is going to get me sucked into the resident's agenda(drama) If it was face to face it'd be time to turn around and walk away. Lots more details of course but being a LL is not a sport, nor a race, Nor EVER a time to get even which is usually revenge. Justice is OUR responsibility. The issue is not my reputation or even my behavior. The issue is that the lessee is simply experiencing the consequences of a default on a contract of which he is entirely aware. We LLs are wading into waters many others don't risk. We already know this. Get a tight legal lease. Get your applicants info, call all references, past landlords,and former employers. Site paragraphs in the lease in all discussions. Commit nothing to VM, email or written, or in front of witnesses. You made the statement "my tepid response". Nope. In fact all u did was get led into the resident's agenda. We all learn. I would have done two things differently. A. Dear_______ Late payment of rent is allowed according to clause ___ of your lease dated _____ on the conditions of (restating the conditions and fees and consequences) B. I would ignore the lawyer part. Tenants Lawyers have unknowingly been my best buddies. Having convinced their clients - my tenants that there is no issue to take on and that my lease is indeed legal and unassailable. Not so sure about yours? I think Mr Landlord can solve that for a small fee.

when they advise me they have an attorney i send them an email with my name, address and phone number for their "attorney" so he/she can reach me most easily. occasionally an attorney will call looking to be bossy but i learned many years ago to simply ask them if they represent the party they are referencing and they will have to say no...they do NOT have a retainer and are NOT their attorney of record. i politely advise them that they may call me when they do truly represent the tenant. folks with prepaid legal plans are the worst offenders in this regard...those lawyers DO NOT represent them

ONE MORE reason why i only offer month to month rentals...when they ask me why i tell them dead-pan, point blank "that's so if you turn out to be a pain in my arse or a deek i can toss you easier".

on the way in, as you're tossing them the keys, they're all your best friend. they tell you their hobbies are yard work and cleaning floors and baseboards. we all know that those are few and far between.

The tenant (who was served yesterday with a summons) wrote this morning and said that he was reminding me that he'd be paying the rent on the 10th. :)

I wrote back and told, basically that he didn't owe anything at this point.

His response: "This dose not mean that I can't not reinstate my lease. I will send you the rent plus late fees owed via certified mail. This is my notice to you of compliance. I will see you in court. Thank you."

Geez! Now I'm having flashbacks about a tenant who decided that the '5 day grace period' on rent due on the 1st meant she could pay it on the 5th. We went round and round with her waiting till the last minute to pay me and then ended up with her getting mad and paying it later and later challenging me to try to collect the late fees. It was a real mess.

I learned that the new Rental Agreement should read, "NO grace period, rent is due on the 1st, period." I've had no problems with anyone since that new clause.

The worst part is that the tenant and I got into an e-mail shouting match about everything from late rent, to problems with the house, parking, guests, pets, noise, family tragedies, etc. Everything was discussed back and forth ad-nauseum. I still have those emails and I read them sometimes to remind me to NOT get so involved trying to be fair or helpful and to just lay out the rules, calmly and stick to my guns without retorts, or threats, or discussions.

Life is easier now. I send short, terse, notices and then just don't respond further, even though I'm really itching to tell them what I think.

Gotta remind myself this is a business, not a friendship. In fact I just had to tell one of my families that very thing. They understood and the 'visitors' who were going to come to live with them 'indefinitely' until their immigration papers came through, are now barely here.

keep us posted jeff...this guy needs a good lesson in presumed entitlement and it's consequences. this guy seems like he will definitely file a response to your eviction. out of curiousity, how much does an uncontested eviction cost in colorado?

i know of no state in which the existing leases don't survive a sale. a lease is what the lawyers call an "estate". the issues arising from yearly lease are to many to be worth it if they can be avoided.

few things are as satisfying in this business as telling a PITA tenant that they are terminated.

Good posts, Mike and Sorta Blond. Thanks. You both made excellent points. I usually do 6-month leases. I inherited this clown.

Hey Jeff, when I first started reading this story, my first thoughts were of President Teddy Roosevelt exclaiming, "Bully! Bully!", whenever he was excited. Well, "Bully!" for you!

On my part, I cut to the chase and really save myself quite a bit of potential rental headache when I pose this question (and it's affirmatively filled out) on my rental application: