How To Get Rid of Bad Tennants
Despite all your best efforts to find a perfect tenant,
you may be left in a situation where tenant eviction is becoming increasingly
likely. This may be because you inherited a bad tenant, or because a great
tenant ended up being the tenant from hell. Whatever the situation, tenant
eviction can be extremely tricky, and there are many processes you must go
through to legally get things right. Here is a list of things you need to do
before tenant eviction can occur.
Common problems
The most common tenant problems are late rents or rent
arrears, closely followed by additional residents, pets, noise and unsupervised
minors. Although at first you hope these problems will simply disappear, this
is just not the case, and you need to get involved before they escalate
further.
Know the law
Before you commence with any tenant eviction proceedings,
you need to know the law inside and out. If you do not do every step correctly,
then the tenant can take action against you. The three common steps in a tenant
eviction process are firstly sending a legal notice, and then if that does not
work, going to court. If that still does not work then court bailiffs will be
called to carry out the tenant eviction.
Tenants
have rights
Even bad tenants still have their legal rights, and a tenant
who knows they are going to lose their deposit and will be evicted might well
try and exercise these rights. The key is to make sure that you know what the
tenant can and cannot do. A clear and enforceable lease agreement stating all
terms will help with this. Also, make sure that every adult who lives in the
house has signed an agreement, so there can be no confusion if one of them gets
the notice and the other doesn’t. If you get them all to sign you will not end
up in a situation where you have to evict each of them separately.
Leave
it to the law
The law will tell you what you can and can't do to
exercise tenant eviction. One thing that is true for all cases is that you
should not carry out what is known as a ‘self-help’ eviction. This means you
cannot just throw the tenant out or get rid of them without going through the
legal process, even if they deserve it. You also cannot evict a tenant who has
already filed a complaint against you, as this can be seen as an act of
retaliation.
How to proceed
The best way to proceed with tenant eviction is to first
make a phone call to the tenant, and explain to the tenant they are violating
the lease. Follow this with a letter that gives an overview of the phone call,
as well as the rental agreement showing where the tenant is in violation.
If the problem is due to rent arrears or non-payment, and
the phone call and letter do not work, then you need to start the tenant
eviction process. Usually a property law form know as a section 8 form is
delivered to the occupant stating the violations and that if they do not leave
within a certain time, then court proceedings will follow.
Often, this notice is enough to get rid of the tenant.
However, if this is not the case court proceedings will follow, which can take
a number of weeks or even months to be completed. Obviously going to court can
be costly, but there are a number of firms that offer fixed price tenant
eviction services, which for all the three processes costs around £600.
Change
or leave
If their violation is related to behaviour, then it is
best to give them a chance to change their behaviour before serving an eviction
notice. You send them a notice that gives them a certain amount of time to
change or their lease will be terminated. If they still persist, then go
through the tenant eviction process. The only time you do not need to give them
an opportunity to change is if the behaviour is a criminal offence, such as
selling drugs or violence.
Other options
Hopefully, the tenant will be near the end of their lease
when the problems occur and you can simply fail to renew their lease and avoid tenant
eviction. However, if they still have months left, then you could always agree
to buy out their lease, which means you effectively pay them to leave. Although
you might be reluctant to do this or feel it is not right, it might save you a
lot of time and money, and will reduce the risk of property damage. You should
make the payment only on the condition that the property remains in a good
state of repair.
However, if none of these options works then you will need
to file for tenant eviction.
Trashing
the place
One of the hardest situations that you will have to face is the
possibility that the tenant, annoyed at being faced with eviction, will take
out their frustrations on your property. You may get them evicted quickly, but
end up with a property that is in bad repair. This can cost you money both in
having to replace items and because you cannot rent out the property again
immediately. The best way to ensure the property is not damaged is to take
someone neutral to the property and take pictures of its condition. You can then get a court order that means if
they destroy anything, they can be held in contempt.
Also, once the tenant eviction process has begun, it is
best to stay away from the property until everything is completed. Although you
may way to go there and see what is going on, it is best to avoid confrontation
with the tenant, and leave the tenant eviction up to the law.