A week ago, I posted two 7-day P/Q notices on 2 separate tenants. One of these tenants paid the following day and the other one did not. As I have stated in previous posts, filing for eviction in my county is expensive. ($297.00 total out of pocket cost). The tenant here has been struggling to pay rent for several months now and it would not surprise me if they skipped out in the middle of night.

I am now wondering if cash for keys would be a viable option here. Does anyone here use the 'cash for keys' approach with any success in getting problem tenants out without involving the legal system?

I have not done this and would only do this on rare occasions. My filings are $175, so if I can get them to move for $100 then I'd try.

Highly unlikely.

My guess is that it's only going to work in cases where the people are junkies or something like that and need the money to get a quick fix.

Sorry for the triple post. If I found myself in this position, I would be asking myself how did I get into this position?

If I'm at the point where I'm asking a tenant if he'll take one or $200 and get out of my property, I have to ask myself how did they GET IN in the first place?

I would hope that the majority of tenants that I have right now who went through my screening and are renting nice places would be insulted by $100 offer to get out of the unit. I would expect that from a deadbeat, but not a well screened tenant.

So how are you getting into this position?

Are you not going to file for civil judgment after they are out anyways? You'll still have that cost.

Or are you just gonna leave the money that they owe you out there and not worry about it?

I know tenants go bad, but I'd also back up a little and look at screening. Especially if the tenant that you are looking to get out is the caliber of person who is willing to take $100 to move.

NE,

Why would you file eviction on tenants that had already moved out??? Sounds like a total waste of money to me.

NE,

All evictions cost me a lot more money than just court cost since my time is involved here in dealing with the court system.

Sisco,

The soldier/tenant and his CO could be in the Middle East or Afghanistan right now! I have never even met the soldier husband here since he was always on maneuvers when his wife rented this house over a year ago.

In the past, after posting a P/Q notice, I would get a call from the soldier/husband asking if he could pay 1/2 rent now and the rest later. I agreed to this once, but as these 1st of month calls continued, I started saying NO to them (ZT). This month I have not received rent or a phone call and I am assuming they have had a financial meltdown.

Did the husband sign the lease?

Assuming yes, contact his CO.

Roy, soldiers families living off post are paid a housing allowance, it is more than enough to pay rents at your rates.

CO doesn't want to hear about this sort of thing, as these complaints reflect poorly on his job performance. If you didn't get his CO contact information on application, just start where you are, and track them down.

I wish we had an option of cash for keys.

Sisco,

Yes, these tenants get a 'housing allowance' which I confirmed during my income verification 14 months ago. Lack of income is not the problem here,..it is lack of money management skills. Maybe they blew the rent money on lottery tickets which some of my other tenants are guilty of.

Me contacting the CO is bad advice here since the CO is NOT listed as 'co-signer'. The CO has no legal authority to force his subordinates to do anything regarding their personal lives. Plus, contacting the CO could be interpreted in a court of law as a form of harassment. One of the tactics used by sleazy bill collectors is to contact the neighbors and let them all know they have a deadbeat living next door. That is harassment, pure and simple.

Roy, you do as you will. But, for anyone else following this thread: should you ever find yourself in a situation where a soldier won’t keep their contractual obligations to you a call to their commanding officer usually results in the debt being paid promptly.

I have called a CO before. He said he would get in touch with the then tenant and tell him to get his head out of his azz.

I have used CASH FOR KEYS when ever I've purchased a Class "C" apartment property with the current tenants being judgement proof. Even if I could evict them, I'd never collect any back rent or a judgement.

So my terms are this. we write up an agreement that I will only pay the MONEY, upon everyone being out and everyone signs a release that they are no longer living there and the surrendered the unit vacant. There are no other occupants that can claim tenancy. Upon an inspection and signing of the document, I will had them a "Money Order" or "cashier's check".

In reference to calling the CO, I think the real question here is: why would you treat a deadbeat tenant in the military any different than you would a non-military deadbeat tenant? In regards to non-military tenants, would you call the tenants parents/relatives (who are not the lease) and tell them you want your rent paid?

Why call the CO?

Because the military provides their members with a specific allowance to use to pay for housing, and because the military holds their members to a higher standard.

You do have a point, that any other (non-military) tenant who didn't get their rent paid, we would simply start legal proceedings. However, that gets expensive. If you call the CO, the bill SHOULD get paid.

Of course, the rest of society is not provided with a specific non-taxable allowance to use to pay rent, either.

I ran your situation past my Army Officer son.

The military has been entrusted with unique privileges from the people of the United States. Your tenant not paying his debt is violating that trust and reflects poorly on the military.

The landlord wants to be paid. As a courtesy, he is trying to help the servicemember (and less issues for himself) by just calling the CO.

So lets say something is actually up and the servicemember for some reason isn't willing to ask for help. This phone call is a courtesy for the servicemember to allow them to be forced to get help. (The miliary offers credit counseling and more to assist servicemembers.)

If you want to be mean, feel free to file (for eviction). As an officer, please be nice and do me the courtesy of helping me take care of my guys. (Some need it more than others.)

If it is a case of the tenant (or his wife) not being able to pay his bills, the Army Emergency Relief fund will help them out with either grants or an interest free loan or some combination of them. The other branches have similar relief funds.

If the soldier is deployed, and you can't get in touch with the soldier's actual commander, there is the rear-detachment commander who is basically the admin back home. That person will ensure the rent is paid, and provide any other assistance to make sure that the soldier's family is provided the support they need while the soldier is deployed.

Barb, that was excellent. Thanks for getting that information.

I once called my son’s first sergeant after he placed a middle of the night drunken phone call to his sister, from half a world away. Just wanted a health and safety check on him. Turns out my son is an even bigger lightweight when it comes to booze than me. Son got in no trouble. First sergeant even followed up with a call back. He appreciated family keeping tabs on him.

Yeah, maybe we don’t ‘ get involved’ in others’ lives. Sometimes, maybe we should. As many on the forum know, I do chat with my tenants, have a relationship. I see myself as a bit of a mentor, just like a teacher would be to high school kids,. Not everybody is cut out for that, so I certainly do not recommend all landlords do that, but, so often, just a few encouraging words make all the difference.

Barb,

Based on your reply here,...I have called my tenant here (wife) and left a message for her to call me back. If she calls, I will try to work something out with her. If she does not call, I will no choice but file for eviction in the morning.

In the future, when I rent to another military tenant, I will get the CO's name on the lease with phone number and let the tenant know why it there,...just in case this situation were to happen again.

Busy,

We get it, Roy. You can only do so much.

In this case, if she doesn't respond, and you then file for eviction tomorrow, that may be the other thing that kicks her into gear.

Roy - please be really careful here:

An active military servicemember gets protection from eviction under the SCRA in the form of a stay of up to three months if:

Their spouse, children or other dependents occupy the rental unit. A dependent is someone whom the service member has supported in the last 180 days by paying more than one half of that person’s living expenses.

Rent is below a certain threshold. This figure is adjusted every year to match changes in the consumer price index and is shown in the Text of the Act.

A judge decides that the tenant’s service is materially affecting his or her ability to pay rent.

Barb,

I can't do anything with any tenant that refuses to communicate with me,..especially when an eviction is about to be filed. My lease and my 7-day P/Q notice is very clear on what happens next when tenants do not pay rent and ignore the P/Q notice.

I have Googled the SCRA thing and I will just have to deal with that if this eviction goes in front of a judge.

Absolutely, Roy!

Lack of communication is the biggest issue there is. We all know it.

I'm hoping she calls this evening. Otherwise, notification from a court may be what she/they need to seek help and get their act together.

If you have documentation that you've tried to call, left messages, etc (so you need your call log printed/written), I don't see a judge just giving a pass.

Barb,

Thanks for the update. I'm really sorry they declined to respond.

Barb,

I was on my way to the courthouse to file and I got a call from the wife!!! I turned the truck around and went straight to her house.

She and I had a talk for about an hour. Long story short here,...her husband is in a military type jail right now at Marine base in NC. He has been charged with domestic abuse and rape. She pleaded with me not to evict her and that the rent with late fees would be paid on Friday. I told her I would wait till Friday and but would file the papers on Monday morning if the rent does not get paid.

The wife told me she has contacted her husband's CO numerous times but all the CO does is give the soldier a slap on the wrist and say "Don't do that". She went on to say, 'the CO has no legal authority to force her husband to do anything in their personal lives' which is what I had suspected all along.

Wow, Roy,

That is totally different than expected.

Not totally correct regarding the CO and authority, since if the husband is receiving dependent BAH that means he is receiving extra money to provide housing for his dependent. So, he only receives that additional BAH if he is providing for the wife. If he spends it on something other than providing housing for his wife, he can be reprimanded more, for example. But, in jail for those charges adds a whole different problem. Apparently, though, the Marine can continue to receive his pay and allowances in order to support HER. And, it is apparently a violation if he keeps it from her during that time.

Wow.

Good luck. It may simply be time for her to move on, back to where she has people.

Barb,

In addition, the wife told me her husband gets a $1,200/month housing allowance and their rent is only $575.00. So where is the money I asked. Apparently, they keep separate bank accounts and the money first goes into his account and then he doles it out to her which he has not been doing lately. The soldier here is a total loser. When he comes home on leave, he gets drunk, beats his wife and when she refuses to have sex, he rapes her. And I have never even met this man,..just his wife who is my tenant.

When I spoke with her this morning, she was on the verge of a nervous break-down,..she was hysterical.

Roy,Every case is different. I have paid for a storage building to put stuff in and paid a mover to help get them out.Oftentimes ,better to cut your losses,get them out and get a paying tenant in ASAP.Rarely ever collect after court .