We have a tenant that hasn't paid rent since July. We used his security for August and half of September. In July we asked him to leave because we needed the apartment for our own needs. He has always been late month after month leaving us notes telling us why he will be late. We have been nice with him. Now we can't take it no more, he said he would be out the end of October, but still he owes us a month and a half rent. We left him a note asking where the rent is and he went off on us saying not to leave petty notes. He tells us we will have rent at the end of the week, and he tells us that weekly. What can we do.

Bronx New York

Ok, first NO NO NO, you can't use a deposit just toward someone's rent, the deposit can be applied during an eviction process.

Next you have caused yourself a lot more legal problems and issues by doing that.

Now they are not late for July, and only partial late for August.

And no you don't leave notes, you send a certified letter with a receipt demading payment by a specific date.

So you send them a certified letter stating all of the rent ( plus all of the late fees they owe for being late)

Then you go down after the date of the letter, and you file for an eviction at the local courthouse. You have a hearing and the sheriff department will send a officer out to watch you move all of their funiture to the curb of the road.

You are being taken advantage of by a renter who knows you don't know anything about renting and nothing about the legal process. They are laughing at you for letting them live rent free for this long.

And now they are living without a security deposit, so what happens when they move out and there are holes in all the walls and so on.

You need to have standard forms for issuing late payment notice,

And you always need a written rental agreement even on month to month explaining what the late fees are, and when rent is payaboe and what happens when they don't pay.

And yes leaving a note ont the door is a joke at this point, you are acting nice with dead beat people and they will never pay you at this point and will live there for a another month or two while you go through correct legal evicetion procedures

Thank you for replying to my question. I don't know how important this is, but this is a two family home and the tenants rent the upstairs. We did use their security because we can't afford to pay for their living. We did inform him of this and he didn't have a problem with it. But true, what if they do leave the place in an uproar, then we are at loss. This is the first time that we have been starting to leave note, second time. He told us that we should give him a break because he just put 4,500 on a new place and he has two small children. Why should we give him a break? We have to children in Catholic school and our own bills to pay. They order food every night, go to the beach everyday in the summer and have two nice jeeps. I just don't understand why the tenant that don't pay have more rights then the landlord in certain cases.

I said you can't do this because you can't legally do this. Not at least until you balance up when they move out.

In most places you are required to keep the money in a separate bank account and will owe the tenant interest on that money.

Once they started to owe you money is when you start the eviction procedure.

And honestly had you started the eviction procedre in July after he was late, sent him a demand letter. He would be out by NOW

But in general he is doing it because he knows you are a "sucker" who can fall for his stories, and he just don't want to pay you.

I am not saying this to be mean, but just some hard honestly.

Now if you are trying to be a nice perosn and letting them live rent free, then you can do that.

I let people work off rent to me from time to time to be nice but always on my terms

My advice is to take your tennat to court, find out all his details then one day when he is out get all of there property and throw it outside and take him to court.

First, you need to read up on NYS laws with respect to tenant/landlord relations. There is a sticky note at the top of this forum with links to them. However, this being a 2 family home, some of those laws may not apply to you.

Second, a security deposit is used to secure the landlord from damage when the tenant leaves. It can be applied against unpaid rent but ONLY after the tenant has left. However, since you made the mistake of telling the tenant you did that, its too late to reverse it.

Both landlords and tenants have rights and they both have to adhere the law to gain those rights. As soon as the tenant was more than 30 days late you should have informed him to pay up or face eviction. If he didn't pay up you should have followed through and started eviction proceedings. You should be able to get help on how from the Office of the Boro Pres in the Bronx.

Had you followed the rulesm you proably would have either gotten your rent or had him out back in August so you wouldn't be out the rent. Now you are stuck. I would contact an attorney who can help you file eviction and make sure you do things within the rules.