If you’re a landlord, then you’re aware of the challenges that you can face when dealing with tenants. It can be frustrating, maddening, and downright stressful to deal with some of these residents. It can also be costly. Tenants can leave you with expensive repairs and unpaid rent that can quickly chew a hole in your bottom line. This is unacceptable, which is why you need to formulate an effective strategy for dealing with problematic tenants. Here are some tips that we hope will help you formulate your plan:
- Keep calm: This can be hard to do, but you’ll probably be better off and save yourself some money if you can defuse the situation and resolve it amicably without heading to court. To increase your chances of successfully doing that, you’ll probably need to be rational and view the situation from both sides. By being as understanding and professional as possible, you may find that your tenants are more receptive to your position.
- Document everything: Although you should hope for the best in these matters, you should plan for the worst. Therefore, when you’re dealing with problematic tenants you should assume that you’re going to have to go to court at some point. To best position yourself for legal action, you’re going to need evidence. So, make sure that you’re taking notes of your interactions with the tenants so that your memory doesn’t fail you, and retain all written communications with them. Pictures and videos can also serve as powerful evidence.
- Try voluntary vacation of the premises: Before you move for eviction, you might want to see if you can get the tenants to leave on their own accord by getting them to recognize that they’ve violated the terms of their lease. This may require some smooth talking on your part, but more likely than not you’ll simply send them a letter specifying how they’ve broken their lease and why you would like for them to leave. Just remember that you can’t force them out of their unit without a formal eviction order.
- Seek eviction: This is usually the last resort for a landlord since it can require a lot of time and money to complete, but you shouldn’t fail to act to protect your rights just because the process may be a little cumbersome. After all, you might have a lot of money at stake, whether due to unpaid rent or disruptions caused by the tenants that are preventing you from leasing surrounding units. When you enter the eviction process, make sure that you have the evidence that you need so that you can expedite the process as much as possible.
Competently navigate your tenant problems
Just when you think you’ve seen it all from your tenants, something new comes up that you never anticipated. These surprises, along with the usual trouble that you face with tenants, can have a tremendous impact on your business, especially if you don’t handle it properly. We know that it can be hard to figure out how to deal with problematic tenants. After all, you’re in the business of leasing property to make money, not therapizing your relationship with a tenant.
But regardless of the difficulties that you’re facing with your tenants, there are probably legal maneuvers that you can utilize to protect your interests. If you’d like to learn more about them and what a skilled legal professional can do for you, then now may be the time for you to sit down with an experienced attorney to discuss your circumstances.
