Apartments for Rent

Landlord Resources

Eviction Process

The vast majority of residential evictions are for non payment of rent, which are usually treated as a summary proceeding and do not require a trial of fact.

Termination of a month to month tenancy for any other reason should be done without addressing the cause, if possible, because any reason given can be argued and may require an expensive trial to determine the validity of claims.

Government subsidized housing requires that all evictions must be for cause.

Because of the importance of this subject to both landlords and tenants, our CSEU (Corner Stone Electronic University) provides a very extensive e-course on evictions that is available at no charge to RHOL members. Review the e-course today. Then set aside some time to complete the material and take the eviction proficiency examination. The knowledge you gain will likely be worth thousands of dollars to you and dramatically reduce the stress associated with an eviction. Click Here .
There are four types of tenancy:
Estate For Years
Periodic Tenancy
Tenancy at Will
Tenancy at Sufferance. Evict only when all else fails.
Types of eviction:

·         Constructive

·         Retaliatory

·         Legal or Actual

·         For Cause

Constructive eviction occurs when a rental property becomes untenable, or a landlord substantially interferes with a tenant's ability to use the property for its intended purpose.
A tenant who has been constructively evicted has a number of legal recourses.

Retaliatory eviction occurs when a landlord attempts to evict a tenant in response to some (legal) action taken by the tenant.
There are of course, countless cases where a landlord and tenant become emotionally and personally upset with each other which may not constitute a clear violation of either the lease or the law. In such instances it behooves a landlord to step back from the situation and consider the consequences if he takes any action that could be held to be a constructive or retaliatory eviction. The costs could be extreme.

Legal Eviction. The only legal way to remove a tenant from your property, no matter the reason, is with a court order and writ of restitution.
The eviction laws of every state differ. RHOL has a detailed e-course on evictions . Most landlords confine an eviction for non-payment to possession and back rent. They seek money for damages in small claims court.

You may have to hire an attorney , depending on how you hold title to the property and in which the state the property is in.

Evictions for Cause An important question arises if a rental property is federally owned, or federally funded but privately owned, as to when and how a tenant can be evicted.

Evictions may involve:

1.      A Notice to Quit

2.      Serve the notice

3.      Court Date

4.      Complaint and Summons to appear

5.      Taking Money

6.      Contested Evictions

Consent Judgments

Collecting Rent

Methods to assure prompt payment include:

Good information on the rental application
Strict qualification standards that are both legal and protect your interests
Proper tenant screening
Credit checks, reports and credit scoring
Personal and several liability agreements
Collect Rents Electronically
Delinquency policies should include the following:

Rent due on the 1st day of the month.
When 7 days past due, notice to pay rent or vacate.
Rent collection and procedures should include the following:

Penalties for late payment
Deposits and advance payments
Copy all rent checks
Automatic Rent Collection
Common collection failures include the following:

Fear of vacancy.
Failure to take threatened action.
Inadequate information on a rental application

Always take any action that has been threatened, then ....

Make a deal, perhaps even paying the tenant to move.
Forgiving debt as a strategy - IRS reporting (income to the tenant)
When all else fails: EVICT.

Garnishment may be the only way to collect your money

If you have a money judgment on a former tenant you can garnish wages, bank-accounts and more. There is a great deal of information on the subject throughout the RHOL site.

Put Rent Collection on Automatic with a service that automatically withdraws rent from tenant bank accounts and directly deposits it into your checking account. Costs less than accepting credit cards. Read all about it .

Collecting Judgments .
You win your case in court, and have your judgment, how do you get your money? RHOL provides a comprehensive and detailed e-course on collecting judgments.

Accounting and Book Keeping

"Some small business owners pay more for the accounting and bookkeeping that they think is necessary for income tax purposes, than they actually pay in taxes."
How much money ?
The better your records, the more you can write off on your taxes. Then, when you are audited, the more likely you are to be to keep your deductions . . and your money.

Many small landlords still try to keep books on slips of paper, and determine profits by how much money is left in their pockets.

Amazingly, some larger landlords do almost the same thing, even in this day of computer assisted bookkeeping and tax preparation.

Small business people sometimes keep track of their finances in a slipshod manner because of what is certainly an understandable, but perhaps misguided, attempt to keep government from learning very much about their business. It has been our experience, however, that landlords and property managers who keep good books and use the deductions that are available to them do much better with the IRS, and sleep much better at night than those who don't.

There are still a great many incentives built into the Internal Revenue Code designed to promote housing, and particularly low income rental housing. Consequently, if real estate investors learn the rules and take full advantage of the deductions and tax credits, they will likely pay as little tax as those who try to circumvent the law and deal in cash whenever they can.

An excuse often used for a for lack of good accounting is an inability to keep books and the cost of hiring professional help. We believe that's balderdash and would like to help you get started.

Create a Rent Roll
Establish a Maintenance Log
Set up a Check Register
Keep every bill & receipt
Hire a Bookkeeper
Do it Yourself
Use a Simple Property Management Program
Hire a Property Manager