One of the more tedious jobs of a landlord is dealing with difficult or unreliable tenants. Although most people are decent human beings and will work with you on paying rent and taking care of your property, sometimes you have to evict a bad tenant. If you are new to the investment business, you may have no experience in evictions and are wondering how hard it is to evict someone. Here are a few things to keep in mind during the process.
- There is a difference between evicting someone and evicting someone legally. Every county and state will have a slightly different eviction process, so you need to educate yourself on your particular area’s laws and regulations. For example, in Texas the property code applies to all counties throughout the state. (Notice that the Texas Property Codes also have some built-in protections for the tenant as well, so read all legal documents carefully.)
- You must have a valid reason to evict someone from your property. Again, each county will have different laws as to what reasons are valid, but in general you can evict someone for the following reasons: nonpayment of rent; violating the lease agreement; damaging the property; pursuing illegal activity or drug-related activity on the premises; or the lease has officially expired but the tenant refuses to move (otherwise known as squatting). Yxou can have their drug test to get some proof like a urine test. But many of the people also used the synthetic urine to escape from such situations. To know more about synthetic urine check out the thblack website.
- If you are having trouble evicting a tenant, you will have to get law enforcement involved. There is no way around this, even if you are trying to be nice or amicable. Having an investment property is a business just like a regular 9-to-5 job so you must treat it as one. If your tenant is a friend or family member, you still need to treat it like a business and they still must follow the rules and laws of the lease agreement. Do not rent to friends or family members if you are not willing to get law enforcement involved in the eviction process.
- A landlord’s “notice to vacate” is NOT the same as an eviction notice. If you send your tenant a notice to vacate, this is nothing more than a letter or memo asking them to leave. An eviction letter is an official court order, which means that it can appear on a tenant’s credit report and be recorded in the public records. If you are going to evict a tenant, be sure and go through the proper legal channels to be assured that it is lawful and authorized so you have the backing of the sheriff in case you need it.
- If all else fails and you are trying to avoid the legal eviction process, you can offer your tenant enough cash to vacate the premises without getting law enforcement involved. This may be your last-ditch effort before beginning the eviction process, but it’s worth a shot if you are trying to save money and time. Evictions can be long and drawn out so it’s a viable option if you are hesitant to start the process through the courts.
So if you keep these things in mind as you write your lease agreements, you should have little trouble evicting a bad tenant if necessary. If you do your homework beforehand, you should have an even better track record of renting to good, honest people in the first place, which avoids the whole issue of eviction.
How do you make sure that you are renting to good people? First and foremost, you must properly screen all prospective tenants before you even draw up a lease agreement. Tenant screening is your number one way to get the best renters into your property. Screening can perform background checks, credit checks, past eviction history, criminal reports, national database searches, court records, and employment history on anyone who has filled out an application. As long as you follow the U.S. Fair Housing Act and don’t discriminate while screening your applicants, you should be golden.
Secondly, take the time to verify your applicant’s income and their references! References are easy to fake so be sure to ask for their previous landlords’ information as well as their personal and professional references. You want references from impartial third parties, not an applicant’s sweet old grandma or best friend. Verifying income should also include contacting their current employer or previous employers as well as taking a look at their W2 statements, bank statements, and tax records that will indicate if the applicant can afford the rent.
In all, evicting tenants is a long and stressful process so do everything you can to prevent the hassle. By properly screening candidates, verifying income, and tracking down an applicant’s legitimate references, you will be going a long way to not needing to ever evict your tenants.
