Posts Tagged ‘move out letter to tenants’

Getting Rid of Bad Tenants

Saturday, July 27th, 2013

 

Don’t’ rent to these guys!

On my Friday interview on the David Sutton radio show (KRSN AM 1490, Los Alamos, NM), David’s co-host Nancy asked me about one of the common fears of people who would like to own rental houses.

Can’t Get Rid of Tenants? 

She said,

“Once you have tenants in your rental house, even if you want to, you can’t get rid of them for at least one year.”

My response was,

“That’s not exactly right. The tenants may have signed a lease for one year, but that doesn’t give them a free pass to do anything they want to in your property. If they violate the contract (by not paying the rent, disturbing the neighbors, doing auto mechanics in the front yard, etc.), then regardless of how long the lease is for, you can remove them.

The bad news is, they can fight you in court if they don’t agree that they violated the contract.”

Month-to-Month Lease -The Bain of Bad Tenants 

The approach that my wife and I take to avoid extended, and costly, legal fights, is to have all of our tenants on a month-to-month lease. This allows us to scrape off bad tenants like barnacles. All we have to do is to notify them that we are canceling the lease, and they have to be out in 30 days. There’s no fuss, no going to court, easy as pie.

I thought that tenants might balk at having to sign a month-to-month lease, rather than having a long-term one, but every one just accepts it as normal. I explain to them that the advantage for a month-to-month is that it protects both the tenant and the landlord. If they are not happy in our rental house, we prefer that they leave.

We Remove a Bad Tenant 

My wife and I have only had to evict tenants once in our 12 years in this business.

The police informed us that they had the people in one of our rental house under surveillance for drugs because a lot of people were coming and going at odd hours. That was the final straw, since they weren’t model tenants anyway. We canceled their month-to-month contract and they left without any objection.

As we do with all tenants, we gave them a “Move Out Information Letter” describing the steps of the moving out process, which they followed.

Our Fondest Desire: Long Term Tenants 

Of course, our objective is to keep good tenants in our properties into eternity. (We’re exploring options to keep them as tenants, even in the afterlife!)

We don’t want them to ever leave, and we will bend over backwards to keep them happy. That’s how money is made in this business, by having good long term tenants.

We lose money when we have a lot of tenants move in and out, and the unvarnished truth is, we  do like to turn a profit.

 

Upcoming “Turn Your Home Into a Rental House ” Radio Interviews (most shows can be heard  on the internet)

Wednesday, July 31, at 8:15 (central time), I’ll be interviewed by Rich Petersen, KROC 1340 AM, Rochester, MN.

Tuesday, August 6th, at 8:10 am (central time), I’ll be on Bob Schmidt’s show, WLFN 1490 AM, Onalaska, WI.

Tuesday, August 6th, at 9:40 am (eastern), Greg O’Conner will interview me, WKHM 970 AM, Jackson, MI.

Wednesday, August 14th, at 9:15 am (eastern), I’ll be on Dave Kelber’s show, WRNJ Radio, Hackettstown, NJ.

Watch this space for information on additional interviews.

Related Articles

6 Steps to Roof Maintenance (for the Home that will Turn Into a Rental House)

How I Evicted A Problem Tenant in 4 Steps

When to Hire a House Inspector – Radio Interview with Rich Peterson

Getting Rid of Bad Tenants

“Turn your home into a rental” on Mark Wayne Show

7 Reasons to Live in a Fixer-Upper House While You Repair It

6 Steps to Roof Maintenance (for the Home that will Turn Into a Rental House)

Our First Rental House Plunge

10 Most Frequent Problems Found by House Inspectors

5 Steps to Get Your House Ready to Rent by Terry Sprouse

5 Steps to take if your house is flooded

Some perfectly legal ways to maximize your rental profits

Add “Start a Rental House Business” to Your Bucket List

The 5 Rules on How to Lose Money and Get Your Rental Property Trashed by Tenants

Window Repair with #2 Son

Required Roof Maintenance for Fixer Upper Houses

Learn to Repair Your Fixer Upper Houses

How I Got Started In Fixer-Upper Houses

How to learn to operate a fixer upper house business

The Peaceful Warrior and Fixer-Upper Houses

The right way to handle tenants who are moving out

Wednesday, November 7th, 2012

Eventually, tenants experience that “feeling I get when I look to the west, and my spirit is crying for leaving,” which Led Zeppelin describes, and they move away.

When this happens, you will want to make the transition of the tenant out of the house as smooth as possible. The best way to do this is by telling the tenant what you expect from them. We send a letter that clearly spells out the checkout process. This way there are no misunderstandings, we are all on the same page, wavelength, sheet of music, or stairway to heaven.

Move Out Information Letter to Tenants

Some key things that we mention in our letter are:

1.) How much of their security deposit will be returned.

2.) There will need to be a review of their check in sheet (and attach a copy for them).

3.) What you expect in terms of house cleaning.

4.) Reminders to contact the utility companies to disconnect services in their name.

5.) Reminders to cancel newspaper and other subscriptions, and to provide the Postal Service with a change of address form.

6.) Reminders to contact us when they are ready for the final house inspection.

7.) A note that if keys are not returned, they will be charged.

8.) Any costs that we must pay to repair the house will be taken out of their security deposit, and we will refund the money due them within 10 days.

Download a copy of my “move-out” information letter to tenants.

(The link to my letter may not work on Internet Explorer. It seems to work fine with Google Chrome.)

Why be lenient with the damage deposit?

In general, we are pretty lenient when it comes to charging tenants for little things on the checklist. If they move out, and they have been good tenants, we are going return to them most, if not all of their security (or damage) deposit back, barring some obvious big broken item.

Our perspective is that we made a lot of money from the tenants over the years, and we don’t want them to leave on a sour note just because they thought we might have overcharged them on some ticky-tack repair.

 

Men of the World Unite!

John and Todd over at FearlessMen.com are staging a mustache and beard growing contest to help raise funds for charity.

I have confidently signed up to participate in the contest, and I have every intention of winning!

I invite you to join me.

The rules are simple:

1. Starting November 1st, start growing you mustache or beard. In the process they will encourage others who see them as they selflessly promote this great cause, to donate to the selected charities.

2.December 1-16 the contestants will have their photos posted at Fearlessmen.com so everyone can vote on said mustaches and beards. On Dec. 17th, the winner will be announced

3. The winner will receive prizes.

For complete details, charge over and read John’s article:

Fearless Men’s Beard and Mustache Competition | Movember 2012.

 

_____________________

Coming VERY Soon!

How to Turn Your Home into a Rental House, Instead of Selling It
Related Articles

6 Steps to Roof Maintenance (for the Home that will Turn Into a Rental House)

How I Evicted A Problem Tenant in 4 Steps

When to Hire a House Inspector – Radio Interview with Rich Peterson

Getting Rid of Bad Tenants

“Turn your home into a rental” on Mark Wayne Show

7 Reasons to Live in a Fixer-Upper House While You Repair It

6 Steps to Roof Maintenance (for the Home that will Turn Into a Rental House)

Our First Rental House Plunge

10 Most Frequent Problems Found by House Inspectors

5 Steps to Get Your House Ready to Rent by Terry Sprouse

5 Steps to take if your house is flooded

Some perfectly legal ways to maximize your rental profits

Add “Start a Rental House Business” to Your Bucket List

The 5 Rules on How to Lose Money and Get Your Rental Property Trashed by Tenants

Window Repair with #2 Son

Required Roof Maintenance for Fixer Upper Houses

Learn to Repair Your Fixer Upper Houses

How I Got Started In Fixer-Upper Houses

How to learn to operate a fixer upper house business

The Peaceful Warrior and Fixer-Upper Houses