Can I evict a tenant who is always late in paying the rent and pays only after I’ve called to remind him?
There are many reasons that a landlord may bring legal action to remove a tenant from the rental property. The two most common reasons for eviction are non-payment of rent and chronic late payment of rent.
A landlord should always include specific language in his lease agreement regarding all rent issues – e.g. amount, due date, grace period, and late fees, tenant obligations for rent, and landlord remedies for tenant noncompliance of rent terms. Landlord enforcement of rent obligations is necessary to protect the landlord’s business and help defend against potential claims of discrimination or favoritism of one tenant over another.
You should research your state’s landlord-tenant statues that address the issues of rents to make sure your lease is compliant with the statute. If there is indeed a chronic history of past due rents and you can establish such a history, you should follow the statute and your lease terms regarding giving legal notice to the tenant of rent default. Before you can file a legal action for eviction, you must first terminate the tenancy. To do that, in most states, a pay or quit notice must be sent to the tenant giving the tenant a certain number of days (e.g., 3 – 5 days) to pay rent or quit the rental property. After the notice period expires, if the tenant has not paid, the tenant is in violation of his lease. You can now begin the legal action for eviction.
In some states a tenant’s repeated lease violation allows a landlord to notice the tenant with an unconditional quit notice which does not allow the tenant to pay past due rent but gives notice that the tenancy is effectively terminated at the end of the notice period. The tenant must quit the rental property with no second chance to pay and stay.