Stressed out landlords!!!!

[our2sparrows]

My husband and I are landlords for the first time and so far the entire experience has been horrible. We made the stupid mistake of letting our new tenants split up the deposit as well as splitting the rent in half every month. It has been only 3 months and he is driving us crazy. Every time the rent is due we have to call and remind him. He always pays in cash because for some reason has no checking account. And before he opens his mouth we are anticipating an excuse as to why he doesnt have the total amount......his daughter needed bailed out of court, his work forgot to mail it to him, his transmission went out......we feel bad for him but we have to pay our mortgage with the rent money and we dont want to get behind. Oh and we specifically said NO smoking within the house both verbally and via the contract.....which he has failed to live by! He is also allowing his older children to live with him from time to time, having parties for them and causing problems with the other neighbors, he is late every month and now this month its going on 5 days. We put in our lease that it will cost him $50 per day for every day that is late and he signed the leasing agreeing to those terms. Now he is sending us nasty emails saying that we are crazy and he should not be expected to pay such unreasonable fees and he must have overlooked that part of the lease. How conveinant!! Is there anything we can do??? Even if he does pay the rent in the next few days, we want him out! He has caused us so much mental distress! Please help!

[OHlandlord]

First serve him the appropriate Pay or Quit notice for your state. That will give him a very limited amount of time to pay his rent. With this notice, send a statement showing an itemized list of what is owed ($xxx rent for the period of xx/xx/08 to xx/xx/08, $xxx late fees for rent not paid by xx/xx/08 date, etc.) Make sure it is totaled about what is owed and what date the pay or quit expires. (Keep in mind that you can't evict him if he fails to pay the late fees.) If he fails to pay his rent by the end of the Pay or Quit period, go file for eviction and no longer accept his rent. (Note that these laws vary by state and I don't know your state.) If he pays rent but not late fees, send notice immediately that he still owes the late fees and the next money received will be credited towards the oldest debts first. So his next rent pays his late fees (cap them at 10% of the rent to stay in a judge's favor) and you then send notice that his rent is not paid by another pay or quit. It may take a month or two, but this will work.

As for the smoking, if it states specifically in the lease "No Smoking inside the unit.", give a written notice for an inspection (usually 24-48 hours prior notice is sufficient). Then go in and inspect and note the smoke smell. Send notice of lease violation for smoking in the unit and state that it must cease immediately. Also note that any smoking damages will be deducted from his deposit upon leaving. (So costs for washing down walls, shampooing smell out of carpet, cleaning window coverings, etc are deductible.)