The Landlord Dilemma and how to resolve it
Many times a landlord will contact my office and inform me that their tenant is three, four, or even five months behind in the payment of rent. The way this usually happens is the tenant has been in the property for many years and routinely fails to pay rent either immediately before or after Christmas. In most cases, the tenant knows the landlord personally and pulls the landlord’s heartstrings because the tenant has children and the children needed Christmas presents. This in effect, makes the landlord Santa Claus for the tenant’s children. The landlord then asks me to put the tenant out and collect the unpaid rent. It becomes my job to inform the landlord that the tenant is never going to voluntarily pay the rent and the landlord is probably not going to collect the unpaid rent. “The Landlord Dilemma”
The crux of the problem is this: Once the tenant is two months behind in the payment of rent, the tenant could use that money to pay the first month and security deposit somewhere else. The tenant has zero incentive to pay the back rent once he/she is two months behind. The “Landlord Dilemma” is whether to file suit when the tenant is one month behind of wait and see if the tenant is going to get caught up before the second month’s rent comes due. How does a landlord avoid the “Landlord Dilemma?” Simple, when the tenant fails to pay the rent by the end of the lease’s grace period, the landlord needs to have a three day notice delivered to the tenant, every month if necessary. The tenant will soon be trained to pay the rent on time and landlord will avoid the “Landlord Dilemma”.