Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
Ask Brian is a weekly column by Real Estate Expert Brian Kline. If you have questions on real estate investing, DIY, home buying/selling, or other housing inquiries please email your questions to [email protected].
Question from Howard in NV: Hi Brian, I have a duplex and four rental houses, and I’ve been an active landlord for 16 years. I think I do a rather good job of screening tenants and seldom have a problem with late rent payments. However, one of my tenants did fall behind on payments during the COVID-19 rent/eviction crisis. He was out of work as a restaurant manager for quite a while. At one point he fell three months behind on the rent. Fortunately, he was quick about asking for government assistance and got a rent voucher by the third month that covered the two previous months (but not the month that he received the voucher). I know he bounced in and out of several part-time jobs for at least the next year and struggled financially. However, he did stay current with his rent, except for that third month which was not covered by the voucher. The bottom line is that he is still one month behind on his rent.
Other than that, he has been a good tenant, so I haven’t made a big deal about him being delinquent by one month until recently. After he got back to work full-time at his previous job, I figured he needed some time to catch up on his finances and that he would pay the back rent when he could. Now it’s been several months, and I hadn’t heard that he has a plan to pay the back rent. So, I finally called him. He acted surprised that I was expecting to be paid for the missing month’s rent. He thinks the voucher for the two months is all that he owes for the time he couldn’t pay rent. Shortly before the end of August, I sent him a delinquent notice explaining that I expected the missing month’s rent to be paid but I am willing to work with him up to a point. He countered by sending me the September rent check with a statement in the memorandum line that said: “For September Rent Only.” There was also a short note included that said he specifically does not want the money applied to the delinquency notice that I sent (it showed the delinquent amount, September rent, and total due). My plan was to continue sending delinquent notices shortly before the rent was due to encourage him to start paying down the balance. Now, it seems clear that he doesn’t plan to pay the back rent. What do I do next?
Answer: Hello Howard. I feel for you and other landlords that are still trying to recover payments that were not made during the eviction moratorium. Unfortunately, there are a ton of laws, rules, and regulations on the books at the local, state, and federal levels about what landlords can and cannot do. You are going to need to research the options available to you or ask a real estate attorney for help if the attorney fee isn’t more than the back rent. Some locations also have mediation boards or processes to help resolve these issues.
Otherwise, what I can offer you are some known and proven ways to encourage your renter to make an honest effort to pay the delinquent rent before starting the eviction process.
Howard, you might notice that the rent collection strategy progresses from amicable to harder core. It revolves around communications, encouragement, decisiveness, and good personal financial management. It’s intended to be a positive, helpful approach backed by legal documents and consequences.
What suggestions can you add to help landlords collect delinquent rent? Please comment.
Our weekly Ask Brian column welcomes questions from readers of all experience levels with residential real estate. Please email your questions or inquiries to [email protected].
