Hi, I have a tenant with no written lease and has not paid the full amount of last month's rent, and none of this month's rent.

Should I seek to evict her via holdover or nonpayment? Which is more time and cost efficient? Is there an option that involves both holdover and nonpayment?

Thank you.

Hello dude:

Evicting her for non payment will do the trick. You don't need to pile on in order to win. It costs no more to write down several things the tenant did against the lease.

excon

You should be able to file a lawsuit for an eviction for both reasons. First make sure that you've given the proper written notices as required by your state. At the top of the Real Estate Law forum there is a sticky post with links to the landlord/tenant laws for all of the states. Check your state's laws to see what notices are required.

The problem with evicting for non-payment is that, generally, the tenant has the opportunity to pay the arrears to forestall the eviction. They can pay right up until the sherrif starts to remove their stuff.

On the other hand, evicting by terminating the lease, takes longer.

Thank you all for the advice. I just learned that the tenant invited someone to live there, even after I told tenant that particular person was not allowed in the house.

Do I have to evict the invited person too? I had no knowledge of it until this point, and that person has never paid any rent for living there.

By the way, the state is NY, but not NYC.

No, This person has no legal standing with you. If he does not leave when the tenant leaves he becomes a trespasser. If it comes to the point where you have to go to court for an eviction order, I would ask the judge to make sure the eviction orcder species tenant and their guests.

Thank you very much. I will let you know how it works out in the coming months. Hopefully I can have the tenant out by January 1.