State Specific Question About: KENTUCKY (KY)

You say you have another month's rent and a security deposit? If he is willing to get out ASAP and you feel confident that you can rerent quickly, then you really aren't losing anything - assuming that there aren't any significant damages.

Let him go, take him to court later, writing a check with out funds in the account is a crime, even in KY.

Be aware that if you have to evict him, you are probably letting him out of the rest of time left on the lease.

That depends on state law and how things are worded, but I never sweat over the tenent's obligation under the lease. If he isn't paying, I want him out ASAP, so I get it turned around and rented to a better paying tenant. (Given the huge loss of jobs in NV, I have lost a lot of Ts who were good Ts until they lost their jobs and could no longer afford the rent.) If a T can't pay his rent, how likely is it that I will be able to collect anything from him if I tried to enforce his obligation to pay until I found a new tenant?

Agree with all; as long as he doesn't leave the place wrecked, good riddance. I won't be out any money and will be rid of a bad tenant.

But here's my question: why not just use a M2M versus year's lease if the "obligation" is only illusory? They're still going to leave when they feel like it, and there's really isn't much you can do about it (or that's worth doing).

Otter, that is a good question. I guess the answer is that tenants might feel obligated to stay for a year if they have a one year lease.

Given the cost to rehab, and the vacancy time and the cost and hassles of finding new tenants, I want a place to be occupied for at least one year. So a one yaer lease at least gives me the pretense that it will be occupied for a year.

I do find that most of my tenants do stay for at least a year. In the past few years, with the economy in the toilet, there are more people leaving in breach of their lease, when they get laid off and can't make the rent. But most do stay for at least one year (and many for more than a decade -- we just lost one of those on June 1, and have a major rehab planned!) It is in large part a question of screening. Screening can't predict job loss or divorce, but it can show you otherwise stable people who are likely to honor their contracts.

The other possibility is that he figures, like many tenants, that I already have the last month's rent, so he doesn't need to pay me for the last month. Not sure the "illusion" of having a tenant for a year is worth having my hands tied in case I want to get rid of one.