Ok, I tried finding the answer to this question, and I can't seem to find anything on this:

The situation is that one of our tenants owes a substantial amount of rent, we just got a letter from them saying they want to leave in 30 days and set up a payment plan (they owe a lot of money and haven't even attempted to pay as of today) can they leave without paying the amount owed?

Is their lease up?

Either way, they can leave whenever they want to, it's not like you can lock them in :) But if their lease isn't up, leaving (even with a 30day notice) before the lease is up is violating the terms of the lease. If they are on month-to-month a 30-day notice is legally sufficient.

However... they are still responsible for any money owed regardless of when they leave or not, it's just a matter if you want to accept the payment plan and hope they stick to it, or sue them for the money and/or breaking the lease.

Since there is no such thing as debtor's prison, you can't force them to stay. If they want to leave, they can. But they will still owe you up to the expiration date of the lease or until you relet the unit, whichever comes first.

If they are willing to work out and stick to a playment plan, then go ahead. Make sure you get forwarding address and know where they work in case you need to sue.

They are month to month now, and we even filed eviction papers, and now they send this letter. Didn't know other than filing those papers, if they could try to leave like this?? :confused:

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Originally Posted by nolongerarenter

Ok, I tried finding the answer to this question, and I can't seem to find anything on this:

The situation is that one of our tenants owes a substantial amount of rent, we just got a letter from them saying they want to leave in 30 days and set up a payment plan (they owe a lot of money and haven't even attempted to pay as of today) can they leave without paying the amount owed??

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Yup. But are you really wanting to keep non-paying folks in a property that you could be renting out to someone who does pay?

They are wanting to work out a pmt plan so much to their credit. Get signatures and Notary witnessed if you do work out something. However, once gone, people's best intentions usually go up in smoke so take it in stride and get on with your lives.

Most just walk in the middle of the night. You may have to go to small claims court, the cheapest route of legal intervention but then you can only get less than a grand or so from that process.

Be happy! Eviction proceedings usually take around 3 months, which would cost you another 3 months of lost income and whatever damage they decided to do the property so you are coming out better than you think you are, though it's a bitter experience right now.

Didja know that cops and preachers are the worst rent deadbeats?

Next time spend the money for a credit report and do the calls to their references to check them out. By the way, you are now a reference for the next place they want to move to... hmmmmm, there's some leverage there but you have to aware of slander and libel issues.


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Originally Posted by ScottGem

Since there is no such thing as debtor's prison, you can't force them to stay. If they want to leave, they can. But they will still owe you up to the expiration date of the lease or until you relet the unit, whichever comes first.

if they are willing to work out and stick to a playment plan, then go ahead. Make sure you get forwarding address and know where they work in case you need to sue.

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Debtor's prison would be nice :D but your right, there is no such thing... It just gets frustrating.

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Originally Posted by nolongerarenter

They are month to month now, and we even filed eviction papers, and now they send this letter. Didn't know other than filing those papers, if they could try to leave like this???:confused:

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Well if you filed eviction papers, and notified them that they were being evicted, then their letter means nothing, other than them trying to get you to stop the eviction process so that doesn't go on their credit.

Yeah it sucks, but as we've said, there is nothing you can do to make them stay. You need to get all pertinent information you think you need or may ever need from then in regards to setting up a payment plan. Or you could just forget agreeing to any such plan and just sue them for it.

Keep in mind, you will want to see what kind of condition they leave the property in. So, if you decide to agree to a payment plan, I would get all their contact info and tell them you will be in touch once they are out and you can go through the rental and make sure there are no damages, because if there are you will want to add the money to repair those into the agreement.

I would follow through with the eviction suit. That will at least give you a ruling for the amount they owe you through the court date. If they want you to stop the proceedings, I'd tell them, "sure, once you're paid up".

I've found that tenants - if you can even get them to leave forwarding info - are likely to leave false info or make it nearly impossible to actually track them down if they owe you money. If you can't have them served, you can't sue them.

Welcome to renting, of course they can, the fact they "owe" a lot is the real issue, why do they owe a lot, why were you not sending collection letters when they were 5 days late the first time, and after about 15 sending eviction letters and then filing for evictions thought he court at about 30 days. * time frame varies by state.

And next renting is a business, you need to know and learn the rules, if this is your first time, hire an attorney, *** then keep copies of all the paper work used, since this will happen again and again, if you do a lot of rentals.

I have one house, where the last 3 tennants were bad, One moved overnihgt ( really) took the air unit, the fridge, the stove, and left it full of trash. The next tenant moved but left all of his furniture in the place, after a hard time in court, we sit his property out ( I had to pay people to move it out)
The next store my new air unit, my washing machine I let them used ( left over from last tennant) And I spent a full day just carrying trash out.

And guess what each one was at least a month late. No amount of judgements will get me my money, they don't have anything, even going after a judgement was just more money I have to spend never to see a dime.

Well thank you all, and to answer the question about whether this is my first time renting and why did it take so long, and so on... well here at work, we manage about 25 properties, I used to do it all on my own, then as time went on, one of the partners decided we should try a management company... (we were doing fine and actually brining in money on our own)... needless to say the management company was horrible, lost lots of money, the list is endless. So we fire the mgmt. company, get back on our feet, however I was too busy with the other jobs I have here, I am an accountant, office administrator (which basically means I do everything) so I wasn't able to take on the mgmt. as well. We hired a college student and he just didn't stay on top of things, so things are back in my hands and I'm trying to clean up his mess. That is why this tenant owes so much money...

Update on the tenant... went to court yesterday, got a judgement, have ten days to pay, then start the eviction process, yippeeee!!

Thanks again to all of you!