Poll of the Day > It disgusts me how renters can screw over home owners

(+) Yeah! (+)

They can just not pay for months, and the owner needs to go through court to get them kicked out, all while they still have to pay the mortgage

It's disgusting that you can screw people out of thousands of dollars and sometimes you don't have to pay it back, just hold their house hostage

This happened to my grandma, some pieces of shit rented from her and didn't pay, then avoided her and the police so they got to stick around for months not paying rent, didn't have to pay it back, and the was nothing she could do about it

The eviction process should be a lot quicker for non payment
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That's why you lawyer up beforehand and make sure your agreements are concrete.

But! I agree. It's jacked up how much one can get away with.
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How would you prefer to have it?
If someone doesn't pay a month, kick them out on the street?
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At least in BC where I live, if you sign all the proper rental forms, you can kick them out with a month's notice for not obeying renter's agreements.

I dunno, I don't really agree with your sentiments, at least in regards to where I live. There are far more shitty landlords here than renters. Rent is disgustingly high where I live, and landlords don't often take care of things they need to (mold/mildew, rats, etc). It's pretty easy to get rid of bad renters imo.
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shadowsword87 posted...

How would you prefer to have it?
If someone doesn't pay a month, kick them out on the street?

30 days notice for 2 consecutive pay periods without paying signs reasonably, no reason to go through months of going through the court so the owner can keep getting screwed
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shadowsword87 posted...

How would you prefer to have it?
If someone doesn't pay a month, kick them out on the street?

Yes

I guess it could depend on the contract they write...
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That's why you should only rent to Japanese.
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I worked in unlawful detainers for years actually.

You can speed everything up if you just do a bit of research online.

It varies from state to state, but in general.

You need to give notice initially, the amount of time varies (30 days in Cali, 20 in Washington). In Wa it needs to be 20 days before the 10th of the month for instance.

In the notice you declare the reason etc, but if it's an at will (month to month) lease, you can basically just say you want em out. If it's a lease, you have to specify why.

At the end of the month you gave notice, you can then start the eviction process. Here is an important part...do not take ANY money from them at that point. As long as they have not paid any money for rent after you have given a 20-30 days notice, you can usually get a 3 day notice pretty quickly. They do have the ability to contest it, and it may take a while to get a court date.

This can make things drag on, and it does cost the home owner some money as well, which is annoying. It also puts an eviction on the tenants record though, most would like to avoid this and if you can show them that they will be out quickly anyway (again use the internet), they will probably leave without contesting it.

If you do a background check before renting to anyone, you can avoid people who already have evictions, and that makes it much more likely they will want to avoid them in the future as well.
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All this being said there are TONS of ways to get around all that. I have seen renters sub-lease for instance (even though it's not legal for them to do so). This can require you to discover the info on the other tenant, and go through the eviction process on them. In some cases this has been tried multiple times where a family would just keep sub-leasing to other people/family members to try and stay somewhere indefinately (this was in Ca though where the landlord tennant laws are very one sided).

If a renter can prove there are damages, or repairs that need to be made in a home, and that they have informed the landlord of them, they can fight an eviction based on not paying rent, on the bases that they are withholding rent until repairs are made. What is worse, they can make it very difficult to have those repairs made by limiting the times the landlord has access to their home, and then not being there when the landlord finally sets up a time (after a few times the judge will obviously realize what is going on, but it can take quite awhile before you get there).

Honestly though, if someone wants to take advantage of another person, its very hard to prevent it...without destroying the rights of every normal person who isn't a crook. There are plenty of landlords who do unscrupulous things as well, which is why the laws are so one sided in many places.

I always recommend that if you rent, you pay with a check and write on the bottom left of your check rent for "month". Make sure you communicate anything important with your landlord in writing as well (things that are damages or need repairs etc). Get a receipt for any security deposits etc.

There are people that will take advantage of you on both sides, landlords and tenants. The general feeling I believe (at least in places like Ca) is that the landlords own property and will not generally end up out on the street if they are taken advantage of (not always the case, but most of the time it probably is). Most landlords aim to actually make a profit each month from renting a property, so courts consider it part of the risk if tenants take advantage of them to some degree. Tenants on the other hand are often in serious trouble if a landlord takes advantage of them, doesn't return their security deposit for instance (which they needed to pay the deposit on a new place), doesn't do repairs that makes a place uninhabitable (while still charging rent and trying to force a tenant to stay due to a lease etc) etc.

I have rented myself and honestly the best solution is only rent to people you know trust if at all possible...and honestly, unless your a recluce and have no friends, you should be able to find someone you like, and trust (or at least a friend of a friend who they trust) to rent from you. If you do rent to randoms, do a background check for sure, and get a decent security deposit along with first and last months rent to cover most of the loss.

Also, try and give incentives for tenants to leave if you can, don't just rely on the courts and what is right etc. If a "selfish" tenant does not want to leave, it may be far better for you to offer them money to help them move, and their full security deposit back (as long as no damages are done) then it would be to fight them in court and "hope" they don't damage your property severly since they don't expect to get their security deposit back anyway. You can easily end up with thousands of dollars of damages from angry tenants and there isn't much you can do about it...even if you do everything legally and get them out pretty fast.
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