Evicting a tenant after collecting late rent

[lufeitan]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

As I stated in my previous post, my family recently bought an apartment and are novice landlords. For the past few months, we've been allowing a tenant to pay their rent late along with a late fee. Finally, we thought enough is enough, and have begun eviction proceedings, trial starts 5/29. I'm worried that it might have been bad practice to allow the payment of late rent as it could hurt our case in the eviction trial. What are the chances of my family winning this eviction case, and, if we lose, what steps should we take from there? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Who's Liable?]

Does your existing lease have a grace period for rental payments? If not than you are correct. By allowing the tenant to continuously pay late, you set a precedent allowing the behavior. Your tenant could successfully argue that their actions did not exhibit any out of the ordinary behavior for paying rent and you as the LL knowingly allowed it.

 

[lufeitan]

Rent collected after grace period

Firstly, thank you very much for your input! Yes, we do have a grace period, but we foolishly allowed rent to be collected after the grace period ended. I have a gut feeling that we will not win this case. Nonetheless, is there any advice you can give regarding how to move forward with this tenant, assuming the case is lost? Once again, thank you.

 

[sandyclaus]

Actually, your gut may be right in this situation.

A judge will look at the actual rental agreement, and will see that you consistently made exceptions by allowing the tenant to pay their rent late.

Being novice LLs, I would HIGHLY recommend that you hire a licensed property management company to handle your rental from this point forward.

 

[lufeitan]

We have property manager

We actually have a property manager, but my parents wanted to let the late rent continue because the apartment was not yet fully rented out and they wanted to get all the income they could, so they insisted in letting such actions happen.

 

[Who's Liable?]

Firstly, thank you very much for your input! Yes, we do have a grace period, but we foolishly allowed rent to be collected after the grace period ended. I have a gut feeling that we will not win this case. Nonetheless, is there any advice you can give regarding how to move forward with this tenant, assuming the case is lost? Once again, thank you.

Just evict them after the lease expires. Give them the proper amount of notice as required per your state's LL/T laws.

OR if you want to keep the tenants, once the lease expires, give them a WRITTEN notice, along with the new lease, specifically stating late payments will NOT be accepted after the grace period and eviction proceedings will commence.