A class C tenant at the beginning of her 12th month of a 1 year lease calls on January 2nd and gives a 30 day notice to move when her lease ends on January 31st. This tenant also says rent for January will be late but will be paid on the 11th. I tell the tenant that is not acceptable and you will get a P/Q notice with late fees added on January 7th if not paid by then.

Then the tenant offers an alternative to paying January rent on the 11th. 'Use the security deposit (paid at lease signing) as my last months rent'. Again I tell her, that is not acceptable either, since rent and security deposits are two totally different things. Tenant then asks, "Will I get my deposit back when I move ?" I replied,...if you abide by the terms of your lease and pay January rent by the due date,...the odds are good you will get your deposit back. This phone call ends with the tenant saying 'rent would be paid on the January 11th'.

On January 8th, I posted a P/Q notice on the tenant's door and the next day, the tenant calls me back and is now pissed off that I actually did what I said I was going to do.

January 11th rolls around and no rent has been paid. I tried calling this tenant to tell her what may happen next at 8:00 a.m. Tuesday -January 16th. Of course, she did not answer my call or return my voice mail.

I guess my only question here is this: would you file eviction on a tenant who claims to be in the process of moving out? The deposit she most likely would have gotten back, is now going to be used to evict her.

Barbara,

For the last 11 months, this lady has been a great tenant! Her rent was mostly paid on the 1st and if she was going to be late, she would always call first and pay the late fees.

But something strange happens inside a tenant's mind during their last month of tenancy. It is like all of the rules they have followed so far, need to change since they are moving out. She told me (On Jan.2nd) she had a found another house for much less rent and it was only 3 blocks away. I have that feeling that my January rent got paid to another LL as a deposit.

"Do you expect to get property back in decent condition?"

Razorback,

Lisa (FL)

I explain to the tenants when they are moving in - scratch that, I explain to the tenant BEFORE they even apply that the deposit is NOT last month's rent, that I can't legally touch it until after they have returned possession and that is to protect THEM, to prevent the LL from having a party with their money during their tenancy. I explain how it is held in a separate account, etc.

I promise them we try to return every dime if THEY do their part during their residency - including paying last month's rent.

It costs me over $100 to file on two people so that is an issue.

"It costs me over $100 to file on two people"

On Tuesday, it will cost me $249.00 for each tenant. $498.00 total to drop the hammer on 2 separate deadbeats.

Roy, my good friend, you know the answer already....should have started eviction process the day rent was late...it's the 13th now. Almost 2 extra weeks of lost rent. :-( Anyway, no use crying over spilled milk or lost rent. I will cry over spilled beer...don't even go there!

Yes, the "keep my deposit for the rent" is a typical tenant game. Once those words leave their lips, it is 99.99% certain they do NOT intend to pay you, ever. There shouldn't even be a question of filing. File immediately for two reasons:

1) She's already handed the new land lord the money that should have been your Jan rent. Probably asked the new guy to "work with her" on the deposit or whatever. You know how it goes.

2) She will have no problem staying put as long as you let her. She'll probably still be there Feb 1st unless you kick her out.

People who break their word cannot be trusted or reasoned with. Step 1 when someone fails to give proper notice: get their new address! Before you say ANYTHING ELSE like "Hey, you still owe me Jan rent!" ALWAYS get their new address first. They may or may not cooperate, but you can rest assured they will not cooperate after you lay into them about owing rent.

Good luck. Been there a few times, but not so much since I've started getting picker about tenants and ensuring they really do have something to lose if they try to pull a fast one like this.

.

Maybe after drinking a case of Coors,

some New Tenant Retention ideas

will come to mind.

Yes, I would file. But filing is cheap here. $42, plus another $10 if we actually have to kick em to the curb.

But yes, even if I KNOW I will lose money by filing, I will file. It lets them know Aldo's rule #1 and #2:

1. The Landlord is in charge.

2. The tenant is not.

It happens often enough that it isn't unusual. A tenant gives their 30 day notice and all of a sudden, they don't need the landlord anymore and no longer feel the need to be polite or to take care of the unit.

It's counter-intuitive, considering they always want their deposit back, but garbled thinking is the reason some tenants are tenants.

There really is no guarantee that she will be out when she says she will be out. If she gets a free last month, she might decide that is a good deal and try for another free month.

It's also possible that the new landlord will change his mind and not take her after all and she will try to stay.

There's no question that your January rent went towards move-in costs at the new place. You're never going to see it again.

Given that she's found a new place and put down money on it (your money), chances are good that she really is moving out. So the purpose of filing an eviction is really to alert other LL that she might do the same to them, and maybe recover some of your losses.

Well, as usual I disagree with most posters. I think it was done poorly from the beginning. If it was me (and MANY times it was) I would have not threatened the tenant with eviction, taken the rent $ on the 11th, taken the late fee out of the SD, and them kept the remainder of the SD for not giving the proper notice. Then I would have used the money left in hand for repairs and cleaning, and sent her an accounting with a DUE balance and requested how she was going to pay the remainder owed.

At that point I would have had the rent, the late fee, and the repair and cleaning money. And she would only have a letter showing in black and white what happened to her SD and that she still owed money due. At that point she would quietly disappear from your life so you couldn't get any further money from her. My Memo for Record on the incident would be stapled to the SD acctg and filed against any action she might take. (But that never happened.)

"The conditions of our lease state that...'you must pay by the nth day or we must file for eviction' 'security deposit must not be used for rent' I would hate to have to do that but both of us must abide by the terms of the lease. If you do not pay, we will be forced to file for eviction Tuesday."

Try to call the tenant and be civil yet firm.

Tricky because she might just move out over the weekend, especially since you probably can't file Monday.

Sid said,

'Coming to St. Louis this year for the Convention'? I'll have your case of Coors waiting if you do!

I would have asked for that in writing.

I would have said " put a written note in the mail stating that your rent will be late, paid on or before January 11 with the late fee included and I need to receive that note by January 5. I want us all to be on the same page. Leave the place undamaged and clean.

If I do not receive that note by January 5 there will be a three day notice taped on your door.

I want to work with you however you have to work with me also.

I had this situation happen a few years ago and I was hard and firm about it. The people did not pay rent and left the place really dirty. It took me another month to get it back and ready. That was lost money and time

Don (PA)

For psychological reasons,...if I make her think there is a REAL possibility of getting her deposit back,...I would hope that would motivate her to do the right thing and pay rent on the 11th as she promised. Apparently it did not work here.

Lynda (TX)

I have read your solution to this situation several times and I am trying to make sense of it.

You are assuming my tenant would have paid rent on the 11th,...if I had not posted the P/Q notice. That is a debatable point.

After receiving the P/Q notice, she did call me and was pissed off. On the phone, I told her repeatedly, that if you pay rent as promised on the 11th, you can tear up that P/Q notice and toss it in the trash. She then agreed to pay on the 11th but didn't.

My lease (page 1) spells out in detail what happens when a tenant is late with rent. It specifically says a P/Q will be posted on the 8th day if no rent has been paid by the 7th day. I was just enforcing the terms of my own lease.

Roy, I was going to say maybe you should have.... But then I see you already did. You have some hard tenants down there. I've had good results with the 'If you pay as you said you would....'