Trouble With Tenants? Here Are Some Solutions

Owning rental properties can be a worthwhile investment; however, not every tenant follows the rules, and as a Landlord, you need to know your options.

Background checks, lease agreements, and personal interviews of prospective new renters can help you weed out many of the “bad risks,” but it is always still possible you will get a “surprise” nonetheless.

Here are five common property management problems that landlords have with their tenants and some suggestions on what to do about them:

1. Perpetually Late Payments

When it comes to collecting rent, late is far better than never. But on time is what you are looking for. You may have a tenant who is always late with the rent, sometimes by a week or more, and late answering your posted or phone messages concerning the matter as well. What do you do?

If you have a good renter who suddenly starts paying late after always paying on time before, you should find out if there is some temporary difficulty your renter is going through. Perhaps you can bear with them. But you should issue warnings if it is just forgetfulness or taking advantage.

Eventually, you may need to resort to an eviction notice if the tenant shows no concern for correcting their behaviour, has repeatedly broken the lease agreement, and has better potential renters waiting in the wings.

2. Failure to Pay Rent At All

If your tenant fails to pay the rent, that is much more of a problem than merely delayed payments. Perhaps he or she is refusing to answer the phone, not responding to notices, and pretending not to be home when you knock on the door.

Your renter may have lost his/her job or is otherwise unable to continue to pay the rent. He/she may be trying to stay free at your place as long as possible. Under the lease, the tenant would be liable for unpaid rent if evicted, but collecting it can be expensive and time-consuming.

It’s best to act fast. Try to contact your renter and find out why he/she hasn’t paid. Arrange a face-to-face meeting 24 hours or more in advance. Hopefully, you have a security deposit to defray some of your losses if you have to evict.

3. Illegal Subletting Activities

Suddenly, you discover your already leased-out unit is being subleased on Airbnb or another online site without your consent or knowledge. Or do you find out about it?

You want to know if your lease agreement is being broken, and you want the right to control who lives in your apartments. Illegal subletting robs you of your ability to screen building occupants.

You may need to follow up by evicting the illegal “extra” piggyback renter. If necessary, you may also need to evict the original leader. But knowing is the battle in this case, so signing up for alerts is in your best interests.

4. Rules Are Constantly Broken

Without some basic rules and guidelines, people can’t live together peacefully. Your property manager (which may be you) may be getting constant violations from the same tenant.

Maybe someone is sneaking pets into a “no pets allowed” unit, playing loud music, or disturbing a neighbour. Parking in someone else’s parking space might be another violation.

You don’t want to drive good tenants away based on minor infractions, but you must draw the line somewhere.

Only have rules you intend to enforce, and let everyone know ahead of time what those rules are and what the consequences are when those rules get broken. In extreme cases where property is being destroyed, compensation is demanded for the pain of eviction.