Tenenat Abandoned Premises
What are my options when the tenant breaks the lease and abandons the premises w/ rent owed. Can I get a judgement for the future rents? Property is in GA and does not appear to be damaged. This does not appear to be covered in the Landlord/Tenant laws.
The language of your lease agreement should specify your remedies for early termination.
I take it you are referring to things like keeping the Security deposit, etc. But in this case the tenant left without any advance warning. My thoughts were in the line of writing off the remaining time on the lease as a bad debt. But wondered if this required any legal determination by the court. Maybe this is a matter for the legal forum?
Quote:
On 2004-01-07 12:35, nbkj651 wrote:
What are my options when the tenant breaks the lease and abandons the premises w/ rent owed. Can I get a judgement for the future rents? Property is in GA and does not appear to be damaged. This does not appear to be covered in the Landlord/Tenant laws.
You say they have 'abandoned' the apt.
In many areas you still have to go through the eviction proceedures or risk having them come back and say you threw away all their expensive clothing, furniture etc.
the tenant took all of their property and left trash. I had already sent a demand letter and have pictures showing the condition of the house.[ Edited by nbkj651 on Date 01/07/2004 ]
Quote:I take it you are referring to things like keeping the Security deposit, etc.A well written lease agreement will cover the very situation you are dealing with.
You might want to review your lease agreement with your attorney and add "damage" clauses that mitigate your rent loss and legal fees should the tenant break the lease.
In residental leases most of the time you are requirded to rerent the property ASAP. If you want to sue all you can possibly get is the rent until you relet. I have seen Judge Judy and Joe Brown and Larry Joe give the landlord a judgement for only the time the person lived there. In real live what do the tenants own that you can collect against. If you can garnish wages you may want to sue. Texas does not allow this. Best thing to do is forget it and move on.
Good LUCK and Thank You
Hope this helps some
Ted Jr
What is the status on writing off the amount as a bad debt. I reasoned as you stated that I probably could not get the "future rent". But wondered if suing and then forgiving the loan would allow me to write it off?
You as a landlord have a duty to re-rent the property as fast as you can. I don't think you can call the lost cash bad debt, it may be a breach of contract which your lease should set out the penalties. Over that, I think it's just lost income.
I would ask either your Atty or Accountant, professional advice is the best.
[addsig]
Hey,
DaveT is 100% right and you should be changing your lease. Everytime I run in to problems with a tenant, I update my lease. It is now 8 pages.
You can sue anyone for anything. Go to small claims court for all the damages you want. Maybe you will get lucky and win. BUT even then, collecting is damn difficult.
Do you know where the tenants are now?
I have lived through this more times then I want to think about and the best answer it take your hard knocks and move on.
Wow Chris is a bit harsh, but it is a good point. Best thing to do is go to the magistrate with all damages including the rent owed to the end of the lease. Get a judgement against the tennant. The tennant most likely will not show so you will win by default. Now make sure you file the judgement with the higher county court so it is always on file against them. Also try a landlord collection agency on the Net. They will report the collection to all three agency for you and only take a % if they collect money. Now anytime they ever want to borrow money for house, car, college ect. they will have to settle the debt with you. It may take 5 years, but peoples circumstances change and someday they will have to pay up. After that do as Chris says. Forget it and move on and be happy they did not damage too bad and next time check their last place they rented and be sure they have a job. DON'T be so hasty to get a new tennant because you may make another mistake again. Learn your lesson and move on.
Ric.
Yes Chris is a bit harsh. But I wish he had taken the time to make sure he understood what my issue was before opening mouth and firmly inserting foot. This is my first experience with a tenant skipping out on my and I am trying to make sure I cover my bases for the next time around. But hey blame a guy for asking a question.
You have to start somewhere, Right!
I bet even Chris didn't know the answer to that question when he bought his first rental.
Generally, the tenant is liable for any down time until you're able to get a tenant. The courts won't allow you to get double rents for an apartment because a tenant broke their lease. That said you may be able to charge an additional charge for advertising, your time, etc.
Hey this is Chris we are talking about and you have to know everything to be opinionated. But thanks for your response. I have already listed the house and filed the proper papers at the courthouse. I was just suprised that I could not find any reference on abandonment, aside from keeping the deposit in the landlord/tenant law.
Congratulations, you are ahead of the game. One of my tenants proped a basin of water above the front door on the inside above the Lintel.
So I pick the lock and in I go and splash! Down it comes I am soaked. More then that my Atty who came along to learn how to pick locks, well he has to have something to fall back on. Anyway he is laughing his head off.
So you are ahead of the game. I suppose you could file all kinds of actions in Small Claims and obtain a judgement. But unless you like to collect interesting looking documents, you are probably wasting your time as to an effective collections
By the way about two months latter, I walk into a small restaurant in West Hollywood and there at a back table sits my tenant with this really gorgeous girl. So I walk back pick up his water glass and pour it over his head. The lovely girl reared back and slapped me. Go Figure. Stuff Happens. So cool it say the magic words, "May he rot in Tenant Hell where nothing works and everything is on fire."
Enjoy the life of the landlord. Lucius
nbkj651
I have rental properties and I am also in Real Estate . Numerous times I have had questions that were not addressed clearly if at all in the land lord tenant laws, so I would call the real estate hot line [which is available with our membership as a realtor] which is stafffed by attorneys who are supposed to answer the question . It is not uncommon for the attorney to have to put me on hold to go look it up in the statues. At times the answer would be different ,slightly, with a different attorney. The bottom line is that they say that if one was to go to small claims court, some things that were not clear would be settled at the descretion of the judge. In reality it is best to be over prepared and with tons of documentation stating your case
In your situation as far as the loss of rent , I say it is just tough and better luck next time.
In my leases i call deposits an
" indemnity deposit" which I say can be used for fix up and clean up It might even say loss of rent I'll have to check
Also now that I think of it, when I rented last time I checked out the online court records to what I could see. Well I found out that , in the past, the guy had a judgement recorded by another land lord for lack of rent pymt .
I also checked out the landlord and it looks as though he files alot of judgements against people and has a lot of properties.
I brought it to the attention of the renter and he tells me he is paying on the judgement
So in this case apparently, the landlord filed a small claim and won and now is collecting on the judgment
if you had a lease signed with your tenant, reading it may help you underatand what you can do in addition to what was already sad over here.
[addsig]
You made the right move.
You really should review your lease/rental agreement. If you don't currently address this situation in your agreement, you need to immediately change it.
I kept seeing write off in your original post. What do you mean to write off a bad debt. In accounting you can not write off a bad debt unless you have already included that income in the income statement on an accrual basis. Folks use the slang write it off as meaning just to forget it. Just wanted to clear this point up. As i sais earlier for get it. I have adrawer full of judgements on over 150 tenants that I filed eviction on . At $55 each that is $8250 in court costs. It is even higher today. I have collected $250 on all those judgements and that was 50% of what they owed. Not worth the time and trouble. I used to take it personal and get all upset. Guess what I got for that? Heartburn and ulsers. Rerent and move on
Good LUCK and Thank You
Hope this helps some
Ted Jr