For Lawrence property managers and landowners, evictions are an unpreventable part of doing business. When dealing with a problematic tenant, eviction is not always the wisest course of action. Evictions can take up a lot of your time and be costly for both the landlord and the tenant. The eviction procedure is typically not advantageous to either the landlord or the tenant. Due to this, occasionally evicting a tenant may be the incorrect course of action. You and your tenant will likely be better off if you can find alternatives to eviction in these scenarios.
Your Otherwise Good Renter Falls Behind on Rent
To have a lucrative rental property, you must have a decent renter. Even decent renters can occasionally experience financial setbacks, lose their jobs, or otherwise find themselves unable to make their rent payments. Non-payment of rent is without question a violation of their lease. However, it might not be appropriate to evict a tenant who has missed one or more rent payments. This is certainly true if the tenant has a reputation for paying on time and keeping up with the cleaning and repair of the property.
In such occurrences, a preferable alternative to eviction may be to work with your renter to develop a solution to help them catch up on their missed rent payments. This might be a terrific strategy to avoid the price of evicting and replacing your renter while also winning your renter’s sincere gratitude, provided that the renter’s financial issues are momentary. This method is more likely to help you collect all of the missed rent payments and retain a good tenant in the long run if you are prepared to bear a small financial loss in the short term.
You Don’t Have Clear Legal Grounds
Under certain matters, eviction may cause more legal concerns than it solves. Avoid these no matter what. The vagueness of your legal grounds for eviction is an example of these problems. If your renter has been making complaints on the habitability of the home, either to you or to the local housing authority, when you haven’t taken steps to resolve the complaint, your idea to evict the renter might be viewed as retaliatory and be declined.
Another situation would be if your eviction could be interpreted as a form of discrimination against a tenant who belongs to a protected class. The federal Fair Housing Act makes it illegal to evict a renter on the basis of factors like age, religion, skin tone, marital status, sexual preferences, and more. Your renter may sue you if your eviction is thought to be discriminatory.
And finally, before or after attempting to evict for non-payment of rent, be cautious about taking partial rent payments. Receiving any amount of rent from the renter may result in you losing your legal grounds for eviction and finding yourself in a tough position. This is because taking partial payments results in an implied contract between you and your tenant, even if it isn’t documented in writing, and a judge is likely to view it as continuing your lease. It is best to wait until the issue is more evident if you don’t have clearly established legal grounds for an eviction.
You’d Rather Keep Your Money
Not only are legal fees involved, but the entire eviction procedure is costly. Chances are, once your tenant learns that you intend to evict them, they will stop paying rent and, in many cases, refrain from cleaning or maintaining the rented property. Oftentimes this results in lost revenue and increased cleaning and repair expenses.
Think about the possibility of paying your renter to leave rather than going through the expense and trouble of eviction. This type of “cash for keys” plan could enable a renter with financial distress to vacate cordially or urge a troublesome tenant to vacate as soon as possible. Even a lump sum cash payout of several hundred dollars is much less than the cost of evicting the renter, which may seem counter-intuitive if you’re trying to get them to give you back money they owe you.
Avoid Eviction with Quality Property Management
Finding a reputable tenant with a past record of timely rent payments is one of the best methods to avoid evictions completely. However, that could be tough, particularly if you have other things to accomplish. At Real Property Management Indianapolis Metro, we properly vet each applicant for a rental unit, selecting only the most qualified people. Then, if problems should emerge in the future, our Lawrence property management specialists can assist you in identifying the best way to proceed. Contact us online today to learn more!
We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. See Equal Housing Opportunity Statement for more information.
