Do you have a tenant who continuously keep on making late payments? Are you getting tired of making several request? There are some ways of dealing with such tenants. You can report late bills to the credit bureaus. You need to have a monthly subscription with the major credit agencies to format reports. To protect credit score your tenant will surely start making payments on time.
Common eviction mistakes a landlord should avoid
Knowing what thing to avoid while evict a bad tenant can make the process hassle free. You should avoid these eviction mistakes in order to get rid of the miserable tenant and the process as well. Read on to know the mistakes a landlord should avoid.
1. Send a proper notice to quit
Most of landlord usually take action against their bad tenants without sending any proper notice. This is one of the major blunder. The proper procedure is, before file for an eviction, landlord should send a notice to quit letter to the tenant. In the notice the landlord should mention the reasons as well. Moreover, a landlord should give the notice far enough in advance. Otherwise the landlord may face difficulty while evicting the tenant.
2. Don’t play any tricky game
Don’t take any attempt of self help eviction to make the tenant’s situation miserable. There are some self help activities a landlord shouldn’t try in order to remove a bad tenants such as :
- To change the locks on the tenants house to restrict his/her entry to the house.
- To remove all the assets of the tenant from the house.
- To turn off all the utilities (hot water, electricity, gas)
- Any harassment to remove the tenants from the property.
Remember, if you take any action from the list which are mentioned above, then your tenant can file legal action against you. As a potential business man you should follow the rent rule and shouldn’t take any such illegal action to get rid of bad tenants.
3. Try to keep all evident against the tenant
A landlord should keep all the evidence against the tenant. For instance, if you’re trying to evict a tenant for late or non payment, then you should keep the bank statements and other request notice as evidence. On the other hand, if you’re trying to evict the tenant for any damage, then you should provide the evidence of damages as well. Take pictures of the damages and keep them in a safe place.
Procedure for reporting tenant’s non payments to the credit bureaus?
As a owner, you can report a non pay to the major credit bureaus, however you have to take few steps to report a late payment to the credit bureaus.
1. At first, collect the missed payments documents or bills of late payments. Take some photographs of them. Also take snaps of notification letter to the tenant that the debt remains unpaid.
2. After collecting all these proofs, you need to contact a collection agency such as Tenant Collection Services, Landlord Protection Agency to collect the due payment of your behalf. Give the copies of all the documents, SSN of your tenant, name, document of his/her actual debt and the letter of previous collection efforts to the agency.
3. Landlord Protection Agency will work on a contingency basis or a flat fee service. In contingency service the company will charge a percentage of the owed money. And in flat fee service they will charge $16.95 once the debt is collected by them. You need to choose the option according to your suitability. Both agency will report the credit bureaus about your tenants late payments.
Final words
Try to talk directly to your tenants about his/her due payment, debts or results of late payments. Thus, your tenant may pay the bills on time, or may share the reason of late payments or pray for some days more to make the payments. You can also pay a third party credit reporting service company to report the late payments of your tenants instead of filing an eviction against the tenant. If you want to file an eviction, then you need to follow the the specific rules for evicting the tenant. Remember, the eviction rules differs state to state. So, make sure you’re following the specific rule of your state.