I have a tenant who has always been late with the rent from the get go. We let it slide at first because he was a family member of a friend and we had moved out of state. Now he is 3 months behind, and have sent him two certified letters that he refused to pick up and sign for. We have the house up for sale & he almost never let's the realtor in to show the house. The only time now that he even pays partial rent is when we drive up a collect the rent which is costing us time and money. We found out after the fact through the tenant himself that he is being sued and is in & out of court since before we rented the apt to him. So now I feel like we have been dooped into renting to someone who will not be paying rent. The house is in WNY and we the landlords live in VA. What Re our options. We do have the certified letters that were returned to us unopened & unsigned.the letters were notice to collect the past due rent

You serve him with a pay or quit notice. In NYS its 3 days. If he doesn't pay in full in the 3 days you file for eviction.

We did... send out pay or quit via certified mail which he refused to sign for

You send your notice by certified mail with a copy by regular mail, and make a notation on the letter that it was sent both ways. That way if the certified mail comes back unclaimed but the regular mail does not get returned then a court will presume that the regular mail version was received.

If you know anyone who lives nearby it would also be a good idea to have them go there and post a copy of the notice on the door.

Yes we sent BOTH letters certified mail which were returned to us... I saved both letters as proof. We will be going up sometime this week and will have someone nail a notice to the door as well. He took down the mail box and did not let us know plus he now has someone living with him who is not on the lease and is not a U.S. citizen... I have family that live on the same street so we that is how we know this other person and her children are living in the apartment with him. We are charging him very little rent by today's standards 350.00 month for a 3 bedroom kitchen, dining room, family room, full bath basement, attic, private fenced in yard and a good size yard at that, a stones throw away from a major highway that brings you 20 minutes to anywhere in WNY... did not charge him first and last months rent for security deposit because he was a family member of a friend,, which has severely dampened our relationship with them... just an absolute nightmare. We are to the point where we wish he would just up and leave with out notice... never again will I rent to someone without first doing a background check family, friend or otherwise... let this go down as a hard lesson learned.

If you're going there this week, hand him the notice personally. Then if you need to sue him for eviction you'll be able to testify that you hand-delivered the notice.

If he doesn't pay the entire amount within the 3 days, immediately file a lawsuit for eviction.

I didn't say send I said SERVE. You need to either hire a process server or personally had him the notice.

Once you do that you can file for a eviction order after the 3 days are up,