Being a landlord isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Even though most tenants pay well and take care of your property, there are outliers that can bring far more trouble than they are worth and will make you wish that you should have never become a landlord.
Below are some of the most common types of difficult tenants and how to deal with them:
1. Tenants who refuse to pay
Some tenants refuse to pay rent. Not that all of them refuse to do it intentionally, however. Sometimes, a tenant may have lost a job and can’t pay at all. In such cases, you can either be understanding and give them some leeway, or you can ask them to vacate the premises.
Regardless of the reason, make sure that you, as the landlord, confront the tenant and ask them why they refuse to pay rent.
Try to keep a record of all communication between the two of you, especially if it’s via email or text. The documentation can come in handy in case legal action is necessary.
2. Tenants who abandon your property
Sometimes, tenants not only refuse to pay rent, they might just go up and about and leave your property with their things still left inside.
If that happens, consult your lawyer immediately. Ask what you can do about their personal belongings first and how you should store them. Otherwise, the abandoning tenant can reverse the argument on you and threaten to take legal action for your mishandling of their things while they were gone.
3. Tenants who have a lot of complaints
Capricious and high-maintenance tenants are the worst. They’ll call you all of the time complaining about something.
The worst thing that you can do is to ignore these types of tenant’s calls. If you do, they are liable to take legal action. Instead, what you should do is sit them down and let them know what kind of requests you can accommodate, preferably in writing.
4. Tenants with suspicious or criminal activities
Call the police as soon as you suspect any illegal activity happening on your property. However, even if a tenant turns out to be a criminal and is arrested, that doesn’t mean that the rental is vacant already.
You have to legally evict a criminal first via due process. You can ask for help from lawyers specializing in property law to make sure that the eviction process is filed properly.
5. Destructive tenants
If a tenant destroys any part of your property, including the appliances, make sure that you call the police immediately to keep a record of all the things that the tenant destroyed.
Make sure that you keep photos, as well as videos, of all the damage done. Field offers from multiple contractors to see how much repairs can cost you. Also, don’t forget to check in with your lawyer as well. If the lawyer says that it is within your rights as the landlord, you can legally charge the repair costs to the tenant and deduct it from the security deposit.
Being a landlord is great, but having difficult tenants can be a deal-breaker.
If you have had one too many difficult tenants, then it might be time for you to sell your property and enjoy a stress-free life. But, selling house fast isn’t easy. Not to mention, it takes a long time to sell a property as well.
If you want a stress-free and smooth transaction without compromising the price too much, you can sell your rental property to a cash buyer. We buy houses NJ cash as is and close deals in weeks. Also, because we buy houses cash, you don’t have to worry about majority of the fees involved in the typical house-selling process as well.
