Renters not paying rents.

[punky]

This is our first home for rent, so we're quite clueless on what to do.
Please give some guidance.
We have a 1 year contract with 3 renters, two are paying and happy with it.
The third is not, he refuses to answer messages, and never home.
He wants to get off the contract, but we're not allowing him to.
So my question: is there any legal procedure i can take to either force him to pay and remain with his contract?
Thanks!

[LegendRacer]

your renting to 3 differnet people, so im assuming he rented a single room?

Do you have all paper works signed for 3 year contract? any deposits paid by him? Keep his deposite for the rent hes not paying, and as for the termination of the contract, id ask a lawyer. Depending how your contract was made and if it has legal powers, you may get a little back

but first suggestion is keep him out the house and keep the deposit

[zarge]

Do you really think you're going to get money from a person who can't even pay $500 in rent? lol go ahead and sue them. Force them to eat rice and bread for awhile!

[topmade]

1) Let him go
2) keep his security or damage deposit
3) find another renter.

Sure you can take him to court to get the remainder, but it's probably not worth it if you can find someone else to rent the room within a reasonable time.

Forcing this person to stay will just cause friction, so just minimize your losses and find another renter asap. If someone doesn't want to live in my rental, I wouldn't want to force them to stay, I would be worried they would damage my property.

[FilthyMcNasty]

put an eviction notice on his bedroom door.

[johnboy27]

Originally posted by FilthyMcNasty
put an eviction notice on his bedroom door.

If he is renting a room then an eviction notice is not even needed. If he is just a third person on the lease then the eviction notice needs to be in writing and be delivered in person. You cannot just leave it under teh door.

[em2ab]

You're not allowed to kick him out for not paying rent, I know that. You have to let him keep living there if he wants, and the only way to get forcefully get the money is through court.

[beyond_ban]

Originally posted by em2ab
You're not allowed to kick him out for not paying rent, I know that. You have to let him keep living there if he wants, and the only way to get forcefully get the money is through court.

I do not know much about this kind of thing, but your logic seems a bit flawed. If you own a house and you are renting a room to someone who is not paying the rent, then how do you not have the power to kick them out? If the landlord does not have the power to kick a non paying tenant, then why would a tenant ever pay his rent?

[tm88]

^^^
so does that mean someone could move in and rent a place on a one year lease without paying the rent once, then head back home to mexico without any worries???

I doubt it but if so, doesnt seem right.

[S4maniac]

Its not right. If rent isn't paid you have to serve 15 clear days notice for an eviction. If the renter pays in that time they can stay. If they don't pay and continue to occupy the premises, you would have to go to court with the lease and eviction notice and get a possession order.

Or you can do what i did and wait out the 15 days, take the lease and eviction notice, go to the courthouse and get a seizure order, take the order and a bailiff and seize all their property. You'd be suprised how fast people come up with cash when their Xbox is taken away.

There's some basic info missing here though ... who exactly is on the lease? If its just one, you can evict all of them for non payment, even if they've paid 2/3rds of the rent. If each one has a lease, you're stuck pushing the one around

[punky]

THanks for all the helpful inputs guys.
Here are some more info: the three of them are on the 3 lease for the one unit ( 3 people sharing a 2br house). I'd rather just evict the one person who doesn't pay rather than all.

[SpoonEK9@STRD]

Originally posted by punky
This is our first home for rent, so we're quite clueless on what to do.

If you want no headaches, which renting can be. You can always have a company rent your house for you, which is what im doing.. I pay a small percentage to the company, they take care of the rest.
No worries about keeping the house occupied or if the renters come up with the money.

[ColoDano]

Every lease I have ever been on, no matter one person or 5, gave written stipulation that the rent amount was due in full on such a day of every month, not 2/3 or whatever if some people didn't wan't to pay/ have the money. If the rent was not paid by a certain date of the month, extra fees could be added on, and if rent had not been paid for a month, by the end of the month the entire lease was considered in default and the poroperty at that point could automaticaly be evicted.

In this case, being the owner, I would discuss options with the 2 who want to stay, i.e. if they can pay the full rent, or find another renter to replace the 3rd. If anything will work with them, evict the 3rd tenant, and redo the lease with the others, and make it much more cut and dry as to what they are signing to, and the penalties if they default.

[em2ab]

Originally posted by beyond_ban


I do not know much about this kind of thing, but your logic seems a bit flawed. If you own a house and you are renting a room to someone who is not paying the rent, then how do you not have the power to kick them out? If the landlord does not have the power to kick a non paying tenant, then why would a tenant ever pay his rent?

Originally posted by S4maniac
Its not right. If rent isn't paid you have to serve 15 clear days notice for an eviction. If the renter pays in that time they can stay. If they don't pay and continue to occupy the premises, you would have to go to court with the lease and eviction notice and get a possession order.

Or you can do what i did and wait out the 15 days, take the lease and eviction notice, go to the courthouse and get a seizure order, take the order and a bailiff and seize all their property. You'd be suprised how fast people come up with cash when their Xbox is taken away.

There's some basic info missing here though ... who exactly is on the lease? If its just one, you can evict all of them for non payment, even if they've paid 2/3rds of the rent. If each one has a lease, you're stuck pushing the one around

Exactly what I said. You can't just choose to lock the door on them and keep them out, it's an illegal eviction. It has to be done through the legal process with sufficient notice.

[punky]

Its a really stupid system because you really can't do much to a non paying renter.
That being said, does the contract have any power whatsoever in this situation? I mean there's a reason why we sign a contract so that people does not leave without penalties. i can send them eviction noticed, which is what the 3rd (non paying renter want: to get out without a penalty). I'm uncertain if he even cares i have a seizure order, because he might not have anything left in the house.

[max_boost]

Originally posted by topmade
1) Let him go
2) keep his security or damage deposit
3) find another renter.

Sure you can take him to court to get the remainder, but it's probably not worth it if you can find someone else to rent the room within a reasonable time.

Forcing this person to stay will just cause friction, so just minimize your losses and find another renter asap. If someone doesn't want to live in my rental, I wouldn't want to force them to stay, I would be worried they would damage my property.

Yep.

I posted an ad on craigslist & kijiji helping the guys look for a roommate on one of my rentals, I had 10 e-mails alone yesterday.

Time is money. Hurry and get this thing over and done with and move on!

[realazy]

The lease basically protects the tenants more than the landlord. Stating that the landlord cannot evict the tenant unless they violate the terms of the lease.

[punky]

Definitely, well that's probaly path of lease(pun intended) resistance for me. Gonna post it on kijiji soon.

[bubbley]

Alberta tenancy law is fucked is all i gotta say...tenants have all power and landlords nothing...you cant kick him out..and u cant keep his damage deposit as rent..he will eventually leave....call city of calgary they will give u the details..

[max_boost]

Next time when you write up a rental agreement, be sure to cover a lot more details. Make sure everything is crystal clear. It's your first time through it so live and learn.