Follow through with the eviction.

mrsconn23

Dear Prudence,

I made the mistake of renting the studio apartment attached to my house to a friend, “Karl.” I gave him a break on the deposit since he was going through a divorce and desperate to stay close to his kids. In nine months, Karl has paid his rent on time twice. He always has an excuse and gets ugly with me when I remind him. Karl had a car wreck so I let him slide until the second week of this month. I texted him that he owed me the money. Karl replied that he was helping a friend move and the next day he had back-to-back meetings. I told him that he was being disrespectful and dishonest toward me. He owed me rent, I did him a big favor letting him live here, and giving me the run around was not worth it. He told me to stop harassing him.

Fed up, I left an eviction notice on his door and the next day, the rent was in my account. The lease is up in three months and Karl has suddenly got very chummy again. The friendship is over. Karl has abused it too often. How do I weather this? I am not renewing the lease and only need to give 30 days’ notice in my state, which puts me in prime holiday territory.

—Not a Scrooge, Just a Sucker

CharmedPam

Or “hey Karl, you can stay here but your setting up autopay to be deducted from your account every 1st of the month”.
can that be done? I dunno. 

charlotte989875

Move forward with the eviction because it’s probably going to take you until the end of the lease for it to be resolved anyway, and if he refuses to go when the lease ends you’ll have already started the process. 

Karl is an ass who has taken advantage of you. That’s probably not going to change in the next 3 months. 

banana468

"Karl I will not be renewing your lease." 

Be prepared that the holiday period will suck.  Depending on where you are if Karl abused your generosity before he's going to weather the holidays there until a court order may force him out and that may take more months. 

MyNameIsNot

Don't dismiss the eviction proceedings. Tell Karl that you'll postpone the court date until the end of the lease if he pays the remaining 3 months now, otherwise he can wait for the sheriff to remove him. 

But I don't see Karl voluntarily moving out at the end of the lease either.

banana468

MyNameIsNot said:

Don't dismiss the eviction proceedings. Tell Karl that you'll postpone the court date until the end of the lease if he pays the remaining 3 months now, otherwise he can wait for the sheriff to remove him. 

But I don't see Karl voluntarily moving out at the end of the lease either.

Agreed.  Karl's going to need to be removed by force. 

short+sassy

With all due respect, some of you all are incorrect in what the LW can currently do.  But that's because they didn't correctly explain what happened.  They haven't filed with a court for an eviction yet because they don't have grounds to.

The LW posted what is called a "Pay or Quit" notice on the door.  It is the first step before someone can file for an eviction.  They range in time, depending on the jurisdiction.  Where I live it's 5 business days so I'm going to pretend it's that.

What this notice does is gives him 5 business days to either leave or pay the rent in full.  If he does either one of those things, he has complied with the notice and the LW can't file for an eviction.  He paid the money the next day, so he complied.

If I were the LW, this is what I would do going forward:

• Post a Pay or Quit notice on the first day he is late on the rent each month, ie the 2nd (assuming this is allowed in their jurisdiction).  The LW can then file for an eviction if he doesn't comply.  Though they shouldn't collect any rent once they have filed.
• I wouldn't tell him I'm not renewing yet.  Because he might stop paying entirely.  Just make sure to post a written notice on the door with at least 30 days notice that the lease will not be renewed.  I'd do that sometime after he paid November's rent in full, to at least give him a bit more than 30 days notice.
• OR, if the LW is worried about having a vacancy in winter/over the holidays and he has improved his rent paying, they could also just make sure that the lease automatically switches over to a month-to-month at the end of it.  That gives them the freedom to give a 30 day notice to vacate when they want to.  And possibly give him a second chance to get his finances right or he knows he'll be told to leave.  Though it sounds like the LW just wants him gone.

Karl has said to "stop harassing him".  No problem, Karl.  The LW should now just speak with their notices and not even bother asking him about the rent via text/call/etc.

Karl might not leave no matter what the LW does.  But that's going to be the same problem whether it's from not paying rent or because they issued a notice to vacate.  The LW just needs to make sure they are minding all the Ps and Qs of landlord/tenant law.  And be ready to file for an eviction the moment they are allowed to.  

levioosa

Karl is not going kindly. Be prepared for an exhausting and frustrating eviction fight LW, and start socking away extra money to cover expenses. 

banana468

short+sassy said:

With all due respect, some of you all are incorrect in what the LW can currently do.  But that's because they didn't correctly explain what happened.  They haven't filed with a court for an eviction yet because they don't have grounds to.

The LW posted what is called a "Pay or Quit" notice on the door.  It is the first step before someone can file for an eviction.  They range in time, depending on the jurisdiction.  Where I live it's 5 business days so I'm going to pretend it's that.

What this notice does is gives him 5 business days to either leave or pay the rent in full.  If he does either one of those things, he has complied with the notice and the LW can't file for an eviction.  He paid the money the next day, so he complied.

If I were the LW, this is what I would do going forward:

• Post a Pay or Quit notice on the first day he is late on the rent each month, ie the 2nd (assuming this is allowed in their jurisdiction).  The LW can then file for an eviction if he doesn't comply.  Though they shouldn't collect any rent once they have filed.
• I wouldn't tell him I'm not renewing yet.  Because he might stop paying entirely.  Just make sure to post a written notice on the door with at least 30 days notice that the lease will not be renewed.  I'd do that sometime after he paid November's rent in full, to at least give him a bit more than 30 days notice.
• OR, if the LW is worried about having a vacancy in winter/over the holidays and he has improved his rent paying, they could also just make sure that the lease automatically switches over to a month-to-month at the end of it.  That gives them the freedom to give a 30 day notice to vacate when they want to.  And possibly give him a second chance to get his finances right or he knows he'll be told to leave.  Though it sounds like the LW just wants him gone.

Karl has said to "stop harassing him".  No problem, Karl.  The LW should now just speak with their notices and not even bother asking him about the rent via text/call/etc.

Karl might not leave no matter what the LW does.  But that's going to be the same problem whether it's from not paying rent or because they issued a notice to vacate.  The LW just needs to make sure they are minding all the Ps and Qs of landlord/tenant law.  And be ready to file for an eviction the moment they are allowed to.  

Agreed - LW needs to look to the rental laws in their state to see what is recommended as his best course of action knowing the apartment won't be vacated without a fight.