Rent Eviction Questions

[kiepie]

Hi all,

My work colleague has been renting out her property for over an year now, but wants to evict the lady as she is not paying her rent on time.

The lease says one calendar month, so they can only be out by the end of May 2013 correct?

But now landlord (my colleague) has told me that they haven't even paid the rent for March. It seems the tenant has adopted the strategy to only pay the rent for the previous month on the 7th. (eg. rent for March will only be paid on the 7th of April.)

What is she to do?

 

[Dolby]

You're hoping that she'll go nicely and without fighting, right?

I had a tenant that phoned me and said 'I've chatted to my attorney and I know there's nothing you can do about me because of squatter rights ... however I'll leave in 2 months and you keep the deposit. Are you happy?'

Held ransom by a tenant

 

[AnibugZA]

We only pay our electricity for March on the 7th of April. We only pay our cellphone bill for March on the 7th of April. We pay our bond payment for March on 7th April. Why then is it so strange to pay for March's rent on 7th April? (Unless they specifically had an agreement to pay the rent in advance?)

 

[Dolby]

Oh I didn't even pick that up ... yea, that's the norm

 

[Mars]

We only pay our electricity for March on the 7th of April. We only pay our cellphone bill for March on the 7th of April. We pay our bond payment for March on 7th April. Why then is it so strange to pay for March's rent on 7th April? (Unless they specifically had an agreement to pay the rent in advance?)

No.

You pay your rental on your cellphone bill in advance and the call usage in arrears.
Likewise you pay your basic services on your utility bill in advance and the usage services in arrears.
You can pay your bond in arrears but you pay interest on that to the tune of about 6 extra months onto the term of your bond.

Rent is ALWAYS paid in advance.

 

[F1 Fan]

Do you really want to evict a tenant that is still paying her rent, all be it alitle later?

She's been there for a year, perhaps she's going through a tough time. If she werent paying at all I would be worried. In that same regard, if she needed extra time, she could have just picked up the phone and called the landlord.

 

[R13...]

You're hoping that she'll go nicely and without fighting, right?

I had a tenant that phoned me and said 'I've chatted to my attorney and I know there's nothing you can do about me because of squatter rights ... however I'll leave in 2 months and you keep the deposit. Are you happy?'

Held ransom by a tenant

What you do in that case is attach the ****er's goods for the outstanding amounts. They will pay and leave very quickly.

 

[kiepie]

Thanks for the reply's all.

And AFAIK you always pay rent in advance, you know the amount due, unless like a cellphone bill were the usage is unclear as Madman88 mentioned.

As far as I can determine, their agreement was the 1st of the month in advance, giving lee way to the 7th. But now the payments are a month late already.

Thing is, if she gives her notice for end of May, she might not pay for April (which would have happend on the 7th of May), her deposit will cover her rent for May though.

 

[supersunbird]

Thanks for the reply's all.

And AFAIK you always pay rent in advance, you know the amount due, unless like a cellphone bill were the usage is unclear as Madman88 mentioned.

As far as I can determine, their agreement was the 1st of the month in advance, giving lee way to the 7th. But now the payments are a month late already.

Thing is, if she gives her notice for end of May, she might not pay for April (which would have happend on the 7th of May), her deposit will cover her rent for May though.

But no damage (if there is any)

 

[Cool E]

My tenant always pay on 7th of each month but they agreement was the 1st of each month.

I am not complaining as he is paying good rental money.

Ohh December he does not pay at all.

 

[guest2013-1]

sounds like your friend never really spoke to the person asking whats going on and now you're both just sitting there speculating.

no phone calls. no emails. no smses.

if I were your friend, rock up at the place and (women are bad at this, so NB), without being passive aggressive or bitchy, say hi and that you wanted to check up on them since the rent for march and april is now outstanding and you wanted to know what was going on.

have a nice relaxed chat, and make your decision from there. remember to specify that march AND april is outstanding since you don't pay rent in arrears.

then talk about options, explain to them that you're financially strained as well when they don't pay and it their behavior has a knockon effect that means that you need to make a tough decision soon, but wanted to come over and chat about it first.

That's the NICE way of doing it.

I just sold my place and told the tenant to **** off (they pulled the same **** with me, started paying a week late, then 2 weeks, then 3 then half half then they were a month behind etc...)

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

What you do in that case is attach the ****er's goods for the outstanding amounts. They will pay and leave very quickly.

+1

While it can take 6 months to kick out your tenant, your still allowed to attach their goods. This was tested in courts when a landlord in Strand started to attach his tenants goods each month that she refused to pay rent. She went to court and lost. He was eventually able to also kick her out after 6 months of not paying rent even though he had attached her goods.

Courts rulled that just because the landlord was not allowed to kick her out, he was legally allowed to attach her goods.

 

[rubytox]

The sooner you start the process, the sooner you can kick the tenant out. My tenant gets a letter when she's one day late ....nice reminder. It usually works.

 

[Noob-Noob]

What my uncle did was (after 6 months of no rent), he waited until they left the house, he and a few guys went in, moved out all their furniture to the front lawn, and changed all the locks, they had no choice but to move....

 

[rubytox]

What my uncle did was (after 6 months of no rent), he waited until they left the house, he and a few guys went in, moved out all their furniture to the front lawn, and changed all the locks, they had no choice but to move....

That was before CPA?

 

[Hosehead]

People need to be careful with attachment- including the Sheriff- They need to be 100% sure they are not attaching someone elses goods when it may look otherwise. Goods could be owned by third parties or Trusts or companies.

 

[Gnome]

That was before CPA?

Or the courts it would seem. That would be classified as a criminal offence (house breaking).

 

[rubytox]

The story of my friend's tenant still fascinates me. I'm inclined to believe that he has done exactly what he told me ... he is the type.

His tenant stopped paying rent and refused to move out. My friend got one of the guys who work for him to come over to the house ... he unlocked the house and the worker moved in with blankets, parafine stove, portable radio and all. The tenant phoned SAPS ... big fight when SAPS told my friend that he could not evict the tenant. He told SAPS that he's not evicting the tenant, he's simply moving back into his own property - the guy moving in was his guest and he was in fact expecting more guests to stay over.
SAPS could not argue about his claim to live on/in his own property and left. 2 Days later the tenant moved out.

 

[KleinBoontjie]

You're hoping that she'll go nicely and without fighting, right?

I had a tenant that phoned me and said 'I've chatted to my attorney and I know there's nothing you can do about me because of squatter rights ... however I'll leave in 2 months and you keep the deposit. Are you happy?'

Held ransom by a tenant

Has money for an attorney, but not for rent....that doesn't add up. I would've called his bluff.

 

[bromster]

Sorry. I am unfamiliar with the concept of goods "attachment". How does this work?