tenant has not paid rent!

my husband bought a house a couple years ago, from a man that was just days away from losing it to a foreclosure auction. this man is a family friend of his parents. so, he swept in last minute and bought the hosue for the payoff amount so that the man could rent it back from us and stay on living there ( he didn't want to move out or lose his house and dog).

he paid his rent, on time for almost 2 full years, 22 months to be exact. he is an older man and started showing signs of forgetfullness and stuff like that. a woman got involved ( we had never met her before) and told us that the payments were in the mail, but we never received any of them. this was in april. in may we sent a letter requesting april's rent or we would proceed with evication. we received the money owed for april in a timely manner, but still never received may's rent. fast forward to now, he hasn't paid may, june, and july.

he told my husband that he was moving out of the house at the end of july, he told us this either at the end of june or the beginning of july, 30 day notice pretty much. so, we thought we'd be done with him by aug 1. so while we sent notices of money owed, we didn't threated to evict because he was moving out so soon.

well, on thurs night he announced he wasn't moving out yet, but maybe by the middle of aug. he might be. so, hubby sent another letter stating that we need payment or we'll start with the evication process. he has somewhere to go, and he's supposed to be leaving this weekend, but he's not ( for some reason). PLUS, he said he wants to leave his stuff in the house and sell it to people over time, ie. weeks to months after he leaves. we are already out of rent for all of those months so we said by the 10th of aug. all belongings needed to be out. but now that's changed since he isn't leaving yet.

he left my husband a message today about the unkindness of the letter sent to him telling him how much he owes us, and the deadline for receiving payment and the deadline for moving out and getting his belongings out. we're headed on 5+ mo with no money. (trying to be nice because he was leaving) and now we really want to either develop the property or sell it. but we can't do anything because he won't leave.

my husband is under the impression that NON payment does NOT break the lease.

he is meeting with the courts tomorrow to talk to them, as well as our tenant, to strongly encourage him to get out. at this point we are pretty much accepting the fact we'll never see our money from him, but we just really want to move on with this situation.

how long do we wait and see? do we push forward with actually having him evicited when the law says we can? do we owe him the courtesies of the lease if he hasn't paid us since april? ( like calling before we come over and stuff like that?)

thank you!

Quit waiting! Quit listening to his lies! This tenant is no longer a good tenant. Stop communicating with him altogether. Serve an official Pay or Quit notice (you can get this from the clerk of court) and ask what the correct way to serve it is. Have a witness watch it being served if possible. Don't accept his calls or e-mails. Let the machione pick them up. Accept no money unless it is payment IN FULL. File for eviction as soon as the Pay or Quit expires (again, the clerk can tell you when that is). Make sure the eviction is filed against the tenant "And all others". Get this deadbeat out. He has violated the lease and any trust you had in him. Don't believe him any more when he says he is moving out. (He said he would pay the rent and you believed him then!) Don't allow him to move out and keep his belongings in there. Have the sheriff do a set out of his belongings after the eviction if he doesn't remove them.

And for heavens sake, don't ever rent to firends or family. It is trouble in the making, as you have found out. Rerent this house to a well screened, qualified tenant.