Collecting Rent: Why So Bloody Difficult?
Since I’ve listed my rental properties for sale all hell has broken loose in terms of being able to collect my rent. At the moment I’ve got two tenants behind on rent, a third with a bounced cheque, and a fourth who just moved out and owes me for 1/2 a month. Just when you think all is going well…
To go back a bit in time, one of my tenants who’s been great in every other way (except she’s never been on time with rent) just recently moved out. One month ago I did my usual phone call to find out when she’d be able to pay me, but instead of giving me date for payment she informed me that she needed to move. This wasn’t entirely surprising since she’s had such difficulty making rent, but filling vacancies is the most time consuming landlord activity I deal with. I advertised the apartment with very little interest until I offered a rental incentive of 1/2 a moth’s free rent. So instead of being out another whole month’s rent, I’m only out 1/2 and the flat is now rented with a great tenant.
I have another tenant in the same building who’s been paying me rent in small increments and never on time. As of July 1 she now owes me $1,125. To make matters worse she’s a bit of a nutcase. The last time I had verbal discussion with her she threatened to call the police because I was in her apartment without permission (I’ll have to write a seperate post about this one). Without going into details, I stopped by to ask her about the rent when I was in the neighborhood and she didn’t like that very much. You see she wasn’t returning my phone calls and I had no idea what was going on. Long story short, she got upset that I was looking to collect MY money and threatened to call 911 if I didn’t leave. I’ve been communicating with her by email ever since. According to my last message from her I can expect $700 next week. We’ll see.
And finally, the last tenant (in a different building) has been pretty good at getting me paid on time until July. In the past she bounced a couple of cheques, but always got caught up quickly. This month she informed me that she has to move as she can’t afford the rent any more! After the initial shock wore off, I now realize this is actually a good thing. This way I can get her out and a new, paying tenant, in with minimal loss. By the time I keep the damage deposit, I’m only out 1/2 a month’s rent. But alas, there’s the hassle of filling the vacancy.
Anyway, things seem to be coming to a head all at once. I guess that’s what you get for having a whole string of month’s with no issues. Karma.
Not much help to you now, but I advise landlords to keep very accurate records as to what was owed and when. If the tenant moves or is evicted, these records will be important so you may collect what you are owed. I report any previous tenants that owe me money to all three major credit bureaus.
Good luck!
Bill Gray
http://www.thelandlorddoctor.com
Bill@thelandlorddoctor.com
@Bill Gray
I’ve done this as well with my tenants who’ve owed me rent. The procedure here is to have a hearing with the tenancy board, then a small claim court order is issued. I can then register the debt with the provincial registry system which the credit bureaus are ‘hopefully’ checking when evaluating credit.
Unfortunately this system hasn’t helped me actually collect the debt I’m able to at least ensure the tenant has repercussions with not meeting their financial obligations with the next place they try to obtain credit.