The Late Paying Tenant Problem
The problem with late paying tenants usually starts with the landlord and their having too much trust and hopes for the tenant.
It’s harsh, but more and more landlords need to protect themselves by starting the eviction process as soon as there is trouble is the best way to protect yourself.
It’s a recurring theme, but the majority of landlords who contact me with problem tenants have given tenants the benefit of the doubt and at least one break if not more.
If you are a relatively new landlord, not having a strategy in place do dealing with late rent payments is the quickest path you can take to wanting out of the landlording business.
The Late Paying Tenants Mantra
“I promise I will have the rent to you next Friday when I get paid!”
If it’s Monday when you’re told this and Friday rolls around with no payment you now find yourself seven days behind!
Seven days because if you want to go through the RTDRS to evict a tenant, you now have to wait until Monday.
At a very minimum when rent is late, you need to give your tenants a 14 day eviction notice to create a paper trail, and in the cases of repeat offences, you should be filing for an eviction as soon as possible.
Remember it doesn’t matter what tenants say, it only matters that you take it serious.
Filing an eviction with the RTDRS will cost you $75 and take several hours of your time, but if the tenant does come through and pays you when they said they would, you can simply cancel the hearing. You are out $75 and some time.
If they don’t pay you, now you still have to go through the process, you are a week behind and you still don’t have any rent money from them. By showing you are serious and acting swiftly you set the precedent. Be fair, but be firm!
I’ve had so many questions about what to do with late paying tenants I’ve put a small $7 guide together that walks landlords through what steps to do for first time offenders and for repeat offenders. Rather than search through the hundreds of comments and replies, find your answers fast here.
Evicting Late Paying Tenants
Late Paying Tenants Cause Landlords Headaches
Think about that the next time you have a late paying tenant. If it’s a one off, fine. If it becomes a habit or tradition, well you’ve created your own headache and you need to deal with it!
hi
i own my house, i live in the house and had someone move into an empty room i advertised online mid Mar 2022, he paid prorated amount and security deposit for march time, i did sign a 3 month lease at the time, now its Apr 1 and hes not paid rent as of yet for the month of Apr, i have a 14 day eviction notice ready to give him tomorrow if the rent isnt paid, im concerned he wont leave, and since i signed a lease then im pretty sure i have to do the 14 days notice?
i didnt know there was such a thing as an inkeeper act in alberta but after this issue i wont be doing a lease again, id prefer to have the option to make ppl leave when i want them too
ive rented my other room since nov 2021 and had no issues, and have no paperwork with that person…
so i guess i have 2 questions 1) since theres a lease i have to do the 14 day notice? and 2) if he does pay rent then can i break the lease and give him 30 days to get out and not have any monetary issues…
Hi Rachel,
It’s a little trickier than that. Some of it will depend on the lease you used and you’re far better off using a lease that is more specific to room rentals than a regular lease. Additionally there are sub rules within the Innkeeper’s Act that you should probably read through to help guide you.
I have plenty of resources (both paid and free) that help with some of your questions.
B
I signed the residential tenancy agreement and the tenant gave me a check to cash the date they have to move.The moving day I went to the bank to deposit the check in my account and I could not do it because the check had no funds. They keep promising to bring the security deposit but they can’t do it, always have an excuse. It’s been 23 days since we signed the agreement. I do not trust these people and do not think they can pay me the rent. I still did not give them the keys of the house. Can I rent my house to another tenant?.
Morning,
It seems like the original conditions of the contract weren’t met (payment of initial rent and transference of keys) and here you are 20 plus days later with no change, so I would go ahead and return their security deposit (if you took one, if you took a deposit against first month’s rent you may retain a portion) and rent it to someone else.
Not sure how many times I have to say this, but never let anyone in your property until you have the security deposit and the first month’s rent paid in full and preferably in cash or a bank draft. If it’s a check, they don’t get access until the check clears.Letting someone in without doing this first could allow them to stay in your property for months without ever paying, is that worth the risk? Good job in this case for not handing over the keys!!
Bill
Hi,
I live out of province and I need to serve a 14 day notice for non-payment of rent.
1. Can I courier the notice?
2. Does the 14 days start from the day they receive it or the day I couriered it? If I do not know how many days it will take to arrive how many days should I use? IE: should I put in a grace period
3. What if I put a 14 day move out date and they got the notice after – not making the day I put on the notice officially 14 days? Do I need to proceed with an entirely knew notice?
Thanks in advance
BM
Hi Brendan,
I cover all of this in my eviction forms guide on pages 22 and 23 under serving notices, did you miss that section?
Bill
Question:
I have been living in my current place for almost 2 years. I have always been early paying my rent by a week. Recently, there has been a change in property management and therefore my method of payment had to change. I called and made arrangements as to when I could bring in my rent (for the first month with the new management) and they agreed to it. (It would be a day AFTER the first of the month, but they agreed that this was ok). The day had not arrived when I came home and found an eviction notice on my door stating I had to move out in 14 days, unless the rent was paid along with almost $150 in late fees. Is this legal? I made arrangements, which they okay’d. And how can they evict giving only 14 days notice? With my perfect history for rent always being paid on time always, I really feel like what they tried to do was wrong. Can you shed any light on this situation? Were they right to do that?
Hi Frustrated,
Start by writing them a letter of objection to the eviction explaining all the arrangements you previously made. Also object to the late fees as they shouldn’t be relevant.
Once you’ve objected their next step will be to move this to a hearing which requires filing for an eviction application. If your objection letter details the previous arrangements it will go a long ways towards defusing their winning any eviction and the penalties they are trying to include will also get thrown out, so include reference to them in the objection.
Bill
P.S. I’ve had so many questions from tenant sin the last six months I’ve actually created a guide for tenants that explains the eviction process and their options as well. You can find it here, An Eviction Guide For Tenants
Hello,
We are landlords and have had the same tenants for about 5 years. They pay their rent late almost every month. It is in our rental agreement that they do not smoke, do not have a dog, do not have other renters without our consent and they have done all three. Also, they have attached a security camera to the outside of the house and they have an inoperable vehicle on the property. We want to evict them but we are worried they will damage the place. Once we give them the eviction notice what happens? What if they do not move out?
Hi Tammy,
Any and all of the breaches are grounds for eviction. So at this point you have two choices.
Option one, if you’re worried about them damaging the property and want to be held hostage by them, ignore all this, let them rule over your property and wait until they leave. With such a sweet setup, at least for them, they could be there forever.
Option two, take control of a bad situation and get them evicted. You can use a portion of their security deposit to repair some of the potential damages, but at this point you also have to consider that you will need to repaint the entire property due to the smell of smoke in what I’m assuming you advertised as a non-smoking house.
With option two, you have two further options. You can provide them an eviction notice if you feel that will push them to move, or if you feel they will fight it, bypass an eviction notice and apply immediately for an eviction at the RTDRS or the courts, whichever serves your local area.
I have a guide I put together that walks landlords through the entire process which you can find here, Landlords Guide To Evicting Tenants Using The RTDRS.
What it comes down to is if they don’t move out, you need to get a court ordered eviction date which is where the RTDRs comes into play. It takes anywhere from two to three weeks at the time I’m writing this to get a hearing due to backlogs, then the tenant typically gets another two to four weeks to vacate after that, so the longer you wait, the more time they have to create havoc!
Bill
We are having some real issues with our tenants. The lease agreement was for him, his wife & 2 sons. I have just recently found out from the tenan’s brother-in-law, that each of his sons has their girlfriends living there as well & one of the girlfriends has 3 children who also live there! That was never agreed upon & our lease states explicitly that anyone staying longer than 7 days, we are to be given written notice of it. Also that if anyone is moving in with them they are to provide written notice so that their names can be added to the lease. No such thing has been done.
Now to the other problem. They have been consistently late with rent since the 2nd month that they moved in! He either pays part of it at the beginning of the month or part way through & then the rest on his next payday. This month he hasn’t paid anything yet! It seems to be excuse after excuse every month! The lease isn’t up until September 1, 2015. What do we do? It’s also February. We were told we cannot evict in the winter. Is this true?
Hoping to hear from you soon,
A very frustrated landlord
Hi Lease,
Sounds like quite a full house. You have multiple options, to start with you can provide a 14 day notice to vacate for the tenants not on the lease, but that doesn’t solve the payment issue.
For that, you can evict them for a continuous breach of the payment terms of the lease. This doesn’t refer to an individual late payment but collectively paying late. Of course for this you’ll need to provide evidence of their being late and ideally you gave them written notice each time they were late informing them it wasn’t acceptable?
If you haven’t it’s a good practice as this becomes evidence later, instead you have a ton more paperwork and proof you need to create to verify it. As far as evicting in the winter, not a problem. It’s more of a rumour that tenants have perpetrated than an actuality. there are circumstances where additional time may be provided when weather is bad, but there is nothing protecting tenants due to the time of year when it comes to significant breaches of a lease.
Bill
Hello, just perusing through the comments left here and I am wondering….I have a problem tenant, on a one year lease. I have several emails of our issues over the last 8 months, but lately they have decided to pay rent whenever they want/can. I have received emails saying, that they are only paying so much rent before the first of the month, when it is due, and in my lease it has a charge for late payment to rent of $25. So they just think, that they will pay late and add the $25 fee onto the remainder of rent, whenever payday comes along again. It also states in my lease to them that if that happens more than 2 times that they may be evicted. This is the second time late for rent, and they don’t pay the bills on time either. Latest email stated that the bills were due on the 16th of the month and it is now the 21st of the month and no payment. I let them know that I do not pay bills late on my house and it just does not seem to phase them. Can a renter be evicted due to this? Everything I read states that all they have to do is make payment and PRESTO, they are off the hook?? Where is the protection for the Landlord in sticking with the lease for eviction? How can I evict them, can I evict them, because I sure WANT to evict them to show them that this is not acceptable. Let me know what you think please, and thank you!
Hi Trish,
They are definitely in breach of the lease as part of the lease most likely includes when payments are due. Evicting for non-payment is easily defeated by them simply paying before the eviction date. This doesn’t mean they can continue to do it though.
You can evict them for continuous breach of the payment terms.
I explain part of this on a separate post on the site and break it out more in my new guide to the Basics of evicting tenants. The new guide shows the basic steps to evict tenants for non-payment, not leaving when a lease ends or for damaging a property.
It’s $7 and it can be found here Basics of Eviction for Alberta Landlords – non-payment, overholding and property damage evictions.
the article/video about what to do with continually late paying tenants can be found here, What To Do With Continually Late Paying Tenants.
hope this helps,
Bill
Great information thank you so much!! When drawing up a 14 day eviction notice, what does one have to include in the letter? Mine would be due to late payments on rent and bills. Thank you again
Hi Trish,
A standard 14 day eviction notice includes the date the eviction is served, the eviction date, the tenants names that are being evicted, the property address, the landlords address, the reason for eviction, any amount outstanding if for non-payment and a notice that the eviction (if for non-payment) is null and void if paid before the eviction date.
I do provide forms packages on the site that include blank forms, examples of the forms filled out and explanations of how, where and what to do with them to properly serve them to tenants. You can find them here, Eviction Forms Package.
Regards,
Bill
Hello, I have a tenant who is continually late on rent payments. And the last 2 months she has been short 200 dollars each month. I want to evict her but am worried cause I have never given her receipts. If I go to court to evict who will have the burden of proof, her or me. I’m wondering if she lies and says to the court that she has paid in full will I have to prove to the court that she has not paid. Thank you so much for your time and help.
Sincerely,
Rosa
Hi Rosa,
You absolutely need to have some form of proof that she short paid. This is often done via cancelled cheques, bank deposits records or written receipts when tenants pay cash. If none of these are available it comes down to a he said she said scenario and the courts usually default to the tenants side.
Essentially if the landlord doesn’t keep good enough records and cannot prove their case the courts won’t rule against the tenants and they get to stay. If you’re not writing receipts, if you don’t have deposits showing checks and you can’t prove it, you are setting yourself up for trouble.
From this point on, you need to start writing out receipts to create a paper trail. You may even want to send a letter or two to the tenant warning them they are behind and breaking it down to create a paper trail. If they have email, email it to them letting them know the problem and how much they are behind and asking when and how they plan on catching up.
They may reply with a plan explaining why they are behind and now you have some proof they are behind. If it all ends up verbal, you still have an uphill battle but you need to keep moving forward and document everything. This may include going back through texts or emails the tenant may have sent telling you they short paid etc.
In your situation, the burden of proof falls on the landlord to prove they have a case and that the tenant short paid.
Hope that helps,
Bill
i have evicted my tenant due to non payment of rent, and damages to the house from their dog. they had changed the locks on the house one day when i was out and put code locks on. they now want to remove those tna not replace them as they discarded the old locks. also they left some of their goods and are saying after 3 weeks they hope to pick up. can i keep some of their goods and can i refuse to let them take the locks?
Hi Alison,
Did you get a judgment agains them? Or just use an eviction notice? With just an eviction notice it’s unlikely you will ever get paid.
The tenants aren’t allowed to change locks on the landlord without providing you a key, but at this point it’s probably too late. If they are using their security deposit for this last months rent, you will be paying out of pocket for the new locks. You can tell them not to take them, but if they move out while you aren’t standing there it’s rather tough.
Whatever they leave behind you will need to inventory, use video and photos if possible to make sure you don’t miss anything. If the items are worth less than $2,000 you’re supposed to hang onto them for 30 days and then you can dispose of them, if they are over $2,000 in value you are to hold onto them for 30 days, then you can auction them off with any monies recovered going to pay any debts to you first, then the remainder to go to the tenant. You can also charge storage fees for storing the items, but they have to be realistic.
Thank you for the information just another question though they showed up this morning 530 to pick up some clothes the 30 days is June 6 I just used an addiction notice they only picked up some of the clothes not everything. after the sixth can I still use the disposal of the items because what’s left and the value is under $2000 or do I have to wait and leave everything still in the house for another 30 days
Hi Alison, the eviction date was June 6th? If the value is over $2,000 you need to hold the goods for 30 days after the moveout/eviction date. If it’s less then inventory it and you can dispose of it sooner, but if you have a place to store it just in case it can avoid future headaches.
Just because they picked up some items it doesn’t reset the clock. You may even want to give them a deadline and follow up tot make sure they know what is going on also just to CYA.
Bill
Hello,
I am a landlord and the lease ran out last year and me and the tenant agreed upon a month to month as long as they paid rent on time. I have had to chase them for rent for the last five months and there currently is not lease in place. This last month they short paid me on rent and once again I am chasing the money owed to me. What are my options?
Hi CJ,
There’s a lesson in this, actually several. First never let fixed term leases lapse. You need to renew them as it leaves you with a definitive date that renting to the tenant can end if it’s not working out.
Second, five months of late payments has set the precedent and not it seems like they are pushing to set a new precedent with you. As soon as there is a late payment you need to give the tenants written notice that it isn’t acceptable and set the proper standards.
Your best option at this point is to evict them for continuous breach of the lease. The breach being they have consistently broken the terms of the lease by paying late. You can give them eviction notice to see if they leave quietly, but it lessons the chance of getting paid and there is no guarantee they will leave.
If they don’t you still need to go to the RTDRS or the courts, so bypass the notice and go directly to a hearing to expedite matters and to get a judgment to help increase the odds of getting paid.
Hope that helps,
Bill
Hi
I HAVE RENTAL SINCE 2012 AUGUST I HAD WRITTEN AGREEMENT WITH THEM FOR YEAR AUGUST 2013 PAYING ME CASH 5000 EVERY MONTH THEY WERE PAYING ME ON TIME .THE AGREEMENT END ON AUGUST 2013 THEN WE HAD VERBAL AGREEMENT IT WAS GOOD UP TO 2013 DECEMBER BUT SHE IS NOT PAING ME RENT .I GAVE SEVEN DAYS EVACUATION NOTICE DAFULTING IN PAYING ME RENT . CAN YOU GUIDE ME WHAT SHOULD I CAN DO ON THAT I DONOT KNOW I SHOULD GO THROUGH LAWYER HOW I WILK GET MY PRPOERTY BACK AND JAN AND FEB 2014 RENT .
HOW LONG I TAKES TIME TO BOOT THEM OUT LEGALLY .
Hi Bhesham.
In Alberta the standard eviction notice is 14 days, so the 7 day notice won’t stand up. If they haven’t been paying, your next step at this point it to file either at the courts or the RTDRS for an eviction.
By registering on the top right of this page, you can get a walk through of the basic steps of the eviction process and if you decide to use the RTDRS to evict the tenants, I do have a guide that has helped hundreds of landlords evict their tenants quickly and effectively.
you can find it here, . Alternatively, you can hire an eviction service who specializes in evictions, which will be a bit cheaper than a lawyer and they often are more experienced in evictions than regular lawyers as that is their primary business.
Here are some eviction service resources to check out, .
Hope that helps,
Bill
Hi me and my fiancé went n looked at the aptartment n wantd it so we gave him the damage n now saying he cant give us the damage is it right for him to keep the damage we were suppose to give him the rent the day we moved in whitch was 4 days later sayin he found other tenants plus we have kids plz help need answers and on another note we didn’t tell him we didn’t want the unit
Hi Samantha,
If the landlord kept the deposit and put someone else in there and you did not say you would not take it, then he cannot keep the deposit. I’m hoping you have receipts for all of this?
If you do, you can file at the RTDRS against him or through the courts to get the deposit back. This can take a few weeks for the process though, just to be warned, but if he’s done this to you, he will also try it again, so he needs to know people won’t allow this!
You may just be able to threaten him with court, which might be enough. I’m not certain, but there may even be fines liable against the landlord for this under certain sections of the Residential Tenancy Act, so you may want to let him know it will cost him far more to keep it and see where that goes.
Bill
Bill
Thanks 🙂
Hi Bill, not sure if you have answered this question for others. I lease a house and rent bedrooms out. One guy replied to my requests for rent money on the 4th by saying he’d bought a flight ticket so he wasn’t going to pay rent. He said I should keep his deposit as rent. He is not on the lease and the agreements are all verbal. Instead, he moved out and now wants his deposit back. I had to clean his disgusting room and bathroom, there is damage to his toilet, and his carpet needs to be shampooed. That aside, does he not forfeit his deposit for leaving me high and dry? He says he’s going to take me to small claims court which would cost more than the deposit. Does he have any right to that money under either the RTA because I sublet to him, or the Innkeeper’s Act because I’m the lease holder and he lives with me? Basically, am I safe?
Thanks!
Hi Ciara,
You’re kind of caught in the middle of the RTA and the Innkeeper’s act, but since you are acting as the landlord in this case, the Innkeeper’s Act would apply.
Which kind of sort of changes all the rules. Sort of, because there aren’t any specific rules laid out in the IA for security deposits like there is in the RTA. Kind of, because where there isn’t a specific rule, we often refer back to the RTA for a guideline.
In this case, I would suggest you total up all the repairs, and time spent cleaning using an approximate real cost if you had to bring someone in to do them. Then factor in the cost of any advertising you will need to re-rent the unit and lost revenue due to the lack of notice.
For the lost revenue, if you found someone to take the space middle of the month, then just deduct half of the month’s rent. At this point, if the amount for repairs, cleaning and the first half of the month is more than his deposit let him know this and suggest if he would like to proceed with small claims court to go ahead. You can then tell him the cost of cleanup and money lost due to lack of notice exceeds what his deposit and once he goes to small claims court you can counter sue for the extra amount.
If it’s less, let him know the difference and how much you will refund him if you rent it prior to the 15th.
Typically when tenants throw up small claims court it is a bluff unless the landlord has seriously breached the laws and/or rules. In this case it sounds like he left you in the lurch and wants his deposit back, it doesn’t work that way, you have to pay the piper.
As I always like to point out, I am not a lawyer and this shouldn’t be considered legal advise, but I am a student of the hard knocks school and this should keep things on track without any repercussions.
Bill
Hello Bill,
I already gave a 90 day letter to vacate my property to our tenant and it will end this June 30th. My problem is the gas provider Just energy informed that the tenant has not been paying the gas and electric bill since january of this year amounting to $653.00. I already sent her several e-mails and messages to pay the bills but to no avail. She also mentioned that why is she going to pay this when in fact the bill was named after my husband? I fear that the longer they stay in my house the bigger the bills will get. is this another reason for me to file an eviction notice?
Hi Thelma,
How is your lease set up? Are the tenants responsible for paying the utilities according to the lease? If they are, you might want to file for an eviction based on the outstanding utilities, especially if they are telling you they aren’t paying since they are leaving anyway.
It sounds like the utilities are in your husband’s name, so if you don’t act now, you will get stuck with them. If you at least get a judgment in the RTDRS or the courts for the outstanding amount you may get paid or at the least have an avenue to try and recover some of the outstanding debt.
You are correct in assuming the bills are only going to increase as they remain unpaid, so if you don’t take action it will be a costly lesson. Side note to this, they may tell you they will pay, but once they are gone it is a nightmare to try and get a judgment from them without significant expense. They will simply disappear on you, that’s why it’s best to immediately file so you can get a hearing and get that judgment.
Regards,
Bill
My tenant was unable to come up with her damage deposit. She has been in the house since March1 . I told her she could take the month to pay me (1/2 on the 15th than the rest at the end of March with Aprils rent). She was unable to come up with the damage deposit. I gave her another extension for The 2nd by 5:00pm. She sent me an e-mail stating she wouldn’t have the money so I sent her an eviction notice. now she is refusing to leave unless its court appointed. Do I have grounds to evict her?
Hi Stacey,
Rule number one, no one gets into your rental until the first month’s rent and the security deposit have been paid, in cash! In todays’ tight rental market there should never, ever be an exception for this or you are setting yourself up for potential problems.
If you have the agreement about the security deposit in writing versus verbal you have a much stronger case, but it doesn’t mean you can’t still evict her, it might just be an uphill battle.
Since she is referring to not leaving unless it is court ordered, it sounds like she understands the system, probably better than you an will utilize it to stay as long as possible. If you haven’t yet, start documenting everything from the beginning and then base your application off of this.
Since you’ve given her an eviction notice you now really can’t do much until the eviction date passes, so start preparing to file in the courts or the RTDRS now and wait. In the future, remember eviction notices are not mandatory.
Regards,
Bill
Hi, Bill, I have a tenant who brought dog onto the premise without my consent, ( it is in our lease agreement that no pet allowed unless consent in writing from landlord), Rtdrs deems that unless the dog damage the property, nothing I can do, ? do I have other option?
thank you.
Hi Annie,
That doesn’t sound right. Did you have an actual hearing, or just talk to the people on the phone. If your lease states no pets and the tenant brings pets in without you providing written acknowledgement that it’s ok, it’s a breach of the lease.
Breaches are cause for eviction. Without being clear of where you are at as far as speaking or attending the RTDRS, my normal approach would be to provide written notice to the tenant that they are in breach of the lease due to the pet and provide them with a date that the pet must be removed. I would include the section of the lease that applies in the letter and to ensure it’s dated and signed.
Make sure the time frame is reasonable, don’t say tomorrow, but give them say a week and make sure you point out that if the pet isn’t removed you will be forced to move forward with an eviction. If they don’t comply in your timeline, then move forward with the eviction either through the RTDRS or the courts.
Regards,
Bill
hi bill
we have tenants in our executive bungalow. they began renting in may 2012 with a 1 year lease. they did not pay their july 1 rent.
our friends across the street phoned us and said the 2 kids and 2 friends were up on the roof of the house. as well they have been playing lacross with an indian rubber ball against the garage door, gable end of the house as well as a window.
We emailed the tenant with our concerns and she emailed back and said they would be out at the end of the month.
i called her and she was furious that we did nothing for them , have spied on them and that we could take the july 1st rent out of the damage deposit. our lease is definite in that it states no rent will be paid with damage deposit. what should we do???
Hi Joan,
At this point the security deposit is the only security you have in case there is any damage. From the information you’ve provided via the neighbours, we can only assume they didn’t have much care for your home, which likely means there will also be some repairs for you to take care of once they are out.
The bigger problem is once they are out, it is far harder to collect or take action.
From my view you have two options. Option one, you can apply the security deposit as rent, hope they haven’t caused any damage or if they have eat the costs just to make this go smoothly. This would be my least preferred route.
Option two starts with providing them with a letter stating you cannot apply the security deposit as rent and if it isn’t paid by XX date (only make this a couple days from now maximum or the following day for best effect), you will be taking measure to evict them. Make sure it is signed and dated and if they don’t pay in time, you need to go immediately to either the RTDRS or the courts and file and eviction based on non-payment of rent.
Best case they pay, worst case you have to go to court or RTDRS in which case you will get a judgment for the outstanding rent. With a judgment, you can then collect much easier. Hopefully your application from them includes their employment info as this allows you to potentially garnishee their wages, or at least threaten too, which is a great incentive for them to pay.
I just received word from someone today that hearings in the RTDRS are currently taking up to 14 days due to a backlog. Depending on the seriousness, you may want to also find out how long the regular court process is taking as bypassing one for the other may save you a week or even several days which to a landlord could save you hundreds of dollars!
Hope this helps with your potential eviction!
Regards,
Bill
Hi Bill,
I have a tenant in for a 1 year contract. In the contract, both parties agreed that the tenant has to set up direct deposit to our company in order for the contract to be valid. However, he didn’t set that up and he is been giving me the check from the third party(social service). He keeps telling me that he will have it set up for next month, and it keeps going on and on like that. However, he is late for his June rent, I already gave him a 14 days notice. If he can’t pay before or on the day of the notice’s expiration then he has to move out (June 25). Now I’m wondering if after I get the rent from him for June rent from the tennant, can I still give him a notice to terminate the rental agreement? If so, how much time am I legally give it to him?
Also, he has 1 parking spot but I noticed that there were more vehicle parked in the property’s parking lot. I asked him if they were his. He only said 1 was his and the other one he doesn’t know. It was a couple months ago and my other tenant didn’t have any vehicle so I didn’t do anything about it. Now my new tenant has vehicle and he needs a parking spot and the unrecognized vehicle still there so I called to har it tow away. He called me and said that was his even he didn’t admit that it was belong to him before and told me that he will deduct it from the rent that he is going to pay me on June 25 for the fee of the towing. Is he allowed to deduct it from the rent? If he does then what should I do? Thank you so much for your time, your help!!!
Kind regards,
Doreen
Hi Doreen,
Thanks for visiting the site.You have a bunch of questions here, so hopefully I can answer most of them.
For the rent, if he pays before the eviction date comes due, then your eviction is void. It sounds like you were aware of that. It doesn’t say whether is is constantly late, if he is, that would probably be a better tact to take for the eviction. To my knowledge, there are no specific rules about how tenants have to pay you, even if it is in the contract. When yes, but whether it is cash, post dated check or direct deposit I think the rules are rather vague. You could potentially try to evict for that reason, but it may get shot down, which makes consistently being late a better route, or better yet, for both.
For the vehicle, here are a couple things. He cannot withhold rent for the towing. If he does, he will have short paid and you can evict him for that. To your knowledge that wasn’t his vehicle, although it might have been better to let him know a tow truck was coming, This also brings up an interesting question. How did you get it towed? Normally a towing company won;t remove a vehicle from a property if it’s not yours.
You can call the city and they will send the parking enforcement people to tag it and then it gets towed with a couple days, you just have to verify you own the property and the vehicle is not yours. In which case he should have, noticed the tag.
hope that helped a bit.
Regards,
Bill
Thanks Bill, I think I will go forward with RTDRS as it seems very easy and efficient. I am so glad that I came upon your site, it has been extremely helpful in understanding the eviction process and what people have already gone through.
Thanks for the feedback Val, glad you have found it helpful. There are dozens of great comments and questions throughout the site that I’ve tried to answer and more and more of the people following the blog also jump in and answer, so it’s really becoming a great resource.
Couple more heads up for you. If you haven’t registered on the site, if you do I will send you a basic walk through of the steps involved with an eviction along with a bunch of tips to make landlording easier in the future. You can find the registration box at the bottom of any page or the top right of any page.
The last part is I also sell a detailed guide that breaks down all the steps and tells you what to expect along the way, you can find information about it down the right side as well.
Regards,
Bill
Hello I have been a landlord for some time but I have never done an eviction. Currently I have a tenant who was late with rent in May and has not paid June’s rent and now indicated she is probably unable to pay June or July. Time to evict, I am sure. The part of the process I don’t understand, utlizing RTDRS, is when do I actually serve her with the eviction notice. After I file with RTDRS or prior to filing with them. Thank you for your help.
Hi Val,
If you are using the RTDRS or the court system you do not need to provide them with an eviction notice and if you do, it will only delay the process!
With the RTDRS, once you file the appropriate paperwork, you have to serve the tenant(s) regarding the hearing date and your application and then show up at the hearing with the appropriate evidence. That’s it.
From there, the hearing officer will determine if the eviction is valid and if so set a date for the tenants to be out, set up a payment plan for the tenant to catch up or worst case throw out the eviction if it’s invalid.
That’s just a rough over view of it, as there are many more steps in the middle, but the main point being, no eviction notices are required! Eviction notices are not mandatory in Alberta, they are really just a nicety.
Regards,
Bill
Oh also, they are subletting, which i have heard from my other tenant who lives across the hall. This is stated in the lease that its not allowed
Hi Bill,
This site is a BLESSING. I am a new landlord and must fall into the category of gulliable. The tenants that we have have been late on rent since they moved in. Which was March. Every month there is a new excuse, but in the pastit has only been a 100 short or whatever. This time the rent is 1000 late with promise to pay tomorrow. I may add this is a semi furnished unit. Anyways, I want to evict her. but of course i want to see what kind of money i can reclaim first. Your advice would be so helpful. I dont know anything about the eviction process. Any other tenants I have had in the rental units have been gems.
Hi Skye,
Thanks for stopping in and glad you are finding this helpful. If they are consistently late you will want to evict them under that breach. If you evict them for just being lat this time, all they have to do is make the payment before the eviction date and your eviction is null and void and you have to start over next month.
You might want to check out this post, Evicting Problem Tenants Correctly. If you tenant is also subletting which is against your lease you definitely want to go watch the video at that link!
Regards,
Bill
I signed a lease with a guy a year ago and verbally told him and he agreed that there would be no other tenants living in his suite. He now has a girlfriend that has been staying here night and day for the past 3-4 months. I talked with him about it, she won’t go on the lease, she won’t pay anything extra for living here and after he blew up at me after I brought the issue up again yesterday I see she is still here. In this case can I serve him with an eviction and am I within my rights to expect her to at least pay for her part in water usage etc.
Thanks Bill………this is a great site, you’re doing a wonderful service.
Hi Lorie,
I would start by providing written notice to the tenants explaining the lease and that at this point the lease states who is allowed to live there. Hopefully there is a clause in your lease that doesn’t allow subletting and that requires the tenant to update you of any new tenants potentially moving in.
If so, you can point this clause out as a breach of the lease. A breach that could result in an eviction. Also, if the lease was a one year term, hopefully you went with a term! You can also let them know you will not be renewing. At this point it doesn’t sound like they are the type of tenant you want to be stuck with long term anyway.
If the lease was month to month and the one year period is coming up, you could also consider giving them a rent increase to cover your extra costs (and more if you like as there is no limit to rent increases in Alberta). you just have to give them proper notice for the increase which consists of written notice of at least three full months before it takes place. Also, the rent can only be increased once every 12 months.
Hope that helps you out Lorie,
Bill
Hi Bill
I managed to speak to the girlfriend during an inspection of the suite and she says she’ll be out by May 30 (train ticket purchased to return home to Ontario) but the reality is that she has no money to pay May’s rent as her boyfriend took all the funds. This is all verbal of course so she may just be lying to me. To guarantee her actual departure, I guess I should still file with RTDRS in the event she tries to stay. Since the boyfriend has vanished with no forwarding address or number, there’s no way for me to reach him at all. In the event she does leave as promised but leaves behind possessions, am I obligated to store the items for the boyfriend’s possible return?
Hi Vee,
Definitely file, it will cost you an extra $75 out of pocket you may never recover, but if she isn;t gone by the 30th, you would have to anyway and suddenly be three weeks behind!
Make sure to have the boyfriend as one of the applicants on the eviction and simply serve her at the house. You don’t need to serve him separately, although it would be ideal if you could. If you have his application form, hopefully there is contact info there you could use to track him down if needed.
Storage of left over items is a bit of a vague area. You definitely need to inventory what is left behind (I recommend photos and video!) and since you need to rent the property ASAP get it boxed up and moved out to separate storage. Just don’t do any of this until you have confirmation they are out, or a firm eviction date.
Some of the information out there states that if the value of the goods left behind is less than $2,000 you have to hold it for 10-14 days and then you can dispose of it, if it’s over $2,000 and money is owed you, you have to hold it for 30 days and then you can auction it off with any extra money generated required to be returned to the tenant. You might want to cross that bridge when you coem to it and get soem clarification from the hearing officer when you go through the RTDRS.
Hope that helps,
Bill
Thanks Bill. Since she’s listed on the lease but without her signature, does this void the current lease now that the only signee (the boyfriend) has abandoned the premises?
Maybe…
Now remember this is my interpretation, so it’s not legally binding. Part of the problem is you intended to have her sign it as she was written into the lease, so from appearances it appears she is one of the tenants. She could potentially argue it’s your fault for not showing up to get her to sign, or that you knew she was there and your intent was to have her as a tenant. If this happens, it just delays getting her out. The courts may look at it differently, but if they don’t you have a setback in time.
I would think, unless she has no clue about the rules and is afraid of her shadow, that trying to go the void lease route will just result in delays. Your goal is to get control of your property back as quickly as possible and at this point a court or RTDRS ordered eviction may be the best bet to guarantee you get them out.
Even if they agree to leave, it’s no guarantee they will and if they don’t leave by the time they’ve stated, you still have to go through one of the systems to get the eviction and they have just bought themselves whatever that time frame was as most likely free rent.Same goes with an eviction notice, if they get the notice and agree (or even disagree), once you’ve given them the notice you are pushed back until after the eviction notice expires before you can really do anything.
If you want to get them out as quickly as possible it’s either RTDRS or courts right now for you.
Hope that helps,
Bill
Hello Bill,
We rented our suite to an older couple and we mainly dealt with the boyfriend (he took care of the inspection, lease signing, and rent payment). Recently, after a week of no communication (we left 4 phone messages about late rent), we found out from the neighbors that the boyfriend has moved out without informing us and the girlfriend is still occupying the rental suite (her name is on the lease agreement but her signature is not on it). Besides the recent late payment, she was in breach of the contract due to smoking inside the premises, which I had hoped was resolved with 2 verbal warnings in the past. At this point, can I proceed to evict her since the boyfriend has now vacated the premises? And based on previous posts, I’m going to assume the best course of action is to file with RTDRS.
Hi Vee,
Just to start, I need to point out to everyone, if you have multiple tenants on one lease, they all need to sign the lease as it can cause issues later on if someone leases. At this point, since the girlfriend is on the lease, but hasn’t signed anything, she’s not responsible. Technically anyway.
So one avenue to pursue is to send a demand letter requesting her to leave. This could get fuzzy as she is on the lease, but hasn’t signed it, so it may get tossed out if challenged as they can simply point out she is on the lease and you made the mistake of not getting it signed.
You may indeed have to go the straight eviction route, either through the RTDRS or the court systems to get this resolved and I would guess this would probably be the best course for you now. Now you provided verbal warnings this time, for future reference if anything like this comes up, always be sure to also provide written notice to backup, something along the line of pursuant to our conversation on month, date, year and make sure it is signed and dated. Since you only provided verbal notice, I’d recommend you try to remember as close to exact dates these instances occurred.
For the actual eviction, it’s always best to proceed with as many issues as possible in case one gets thrown out or cleared up. For example with late rent, if they suddenly come up with the money to pay you, your eviction gets dismissed and you are stuck with them for a while longer.
If they are still smoking and you can prove this, I would include this as well so you have multiple reasons.
you should also be aware, since the tenant isn’t on the lease, you may not be able to go after them for anything outstanding and might have to try and also involve the signed tenant (the boyfriend) on the application for eviction. You may want to confirm this with the RTDRS if you go that route.
hope this helps,
Bill
That is fantastic advice. We were actually looking at a place closer to where we work, but didn’t want all the fee’s associated with getting out of our current lease. This way we can just ditch this landlord completely and take our chances somewhere else. Can they make it difficult to get our deposit back? I’m sure if they can they will, but as long as we pay the rent I don’t see them having much of a leg to stand on.
Hey Anna,
You’re not quite out of the woods yet Anna. I would make sure you give her proper written notice explaining that due to the problems both parties are experiencing, and be sure to list her lack of providing the lease, the non-removal of the junk as discussed and the late payment/eviction issue, it is probably best that the lease be voided.
This situation also wouldn’t include a full 30 days notice, although you may want to negotiate for a June 1st date in case you cannot find anything in the next few weeks. In this case though you would need to ensure you pay April as quickly as possible.
You’ll want to do it written and include everything in case it does degrade down to a court hearing at some point. If you omit parts, like the late payment or the dog poo, it’s harder to bring it up later, it will appear to come out of the blue. If you lay your cards on the table and highlight everything, odds are it will go more in your favour.
And yes, she can make it more difficult, but legally if you leave the property in equal or better condition than when you moved in, as per the initial walk through and mutually void the lease, she has to return your deposit. If you leave it a mess, or she disagrees about voiding the lease, you just need to make sure you have everything documented that you did everything you were expected too, while the other party did not.
Deos that make sense?
Bill
My husband and I are late on our rent this month and the landlord wants to evict us. Rent was due on the first and it’s the 10th. I told the landlord I would pay her on Monday at the absolute latest. She’s saying that she is starting the eviction process tomorrow of she doesn’t get paid by morning. it’s one late payment and from what I’ve read late rent is only a substantial breach of contract if it is a consistent problem, but I could be wrong. Is it legal to evict after one late payment if theres no other problems? I know that even if they do choose to evict us we can just pay rent before the 14 day notice is up and then it is void so I’m not overly worried. I also read that if I do not recieve a copy of the lease agreement within 21 days after move in I am allowed to withhold rent? Is this true? This is our second month in the new place and I’ve asked her twice for my copy of the lease agreement and I still have not received it. There is also a bunch of junk in the backyard the last tenants left there that cannot simply be thrown in the garbage (mostly car parts). The landlord promised to have it removed but this still has not been done. I haven’t been on her butt about it, mostly since she RARELY answers her phone or returns messages (although she gets on the phone right quick when a cheque bounces!). This is the first time I’ve ever been late on rent, but because it’s only my second month here I understand why she’s not being the most flexible on this. Even with that said I think she’s being far too harsh, and seeing as how I have not received my copy of the lease and there a big pile of car parts and dog poo in my backyard that was never removed as promised, do I have enough to play hardball? I also recently discovered that the ceiling in the kitchen leaks sometimes, and while I have not had a chance to tell her yet, it affects the downstairs tenants and they have been bugging her to fix it for a few months now but nothing has been done. I don’t want to be the a-hole tenant, but this lady had been a big time a-hole landlord…
Hi Anna,
The landlord has every right to start the eviction process from the moment the payment is late and often it is in their best interest to do so. Having said that, if it’s the first offence or there is some outstanding circumstance there should also be leniency.
Several times when I have been in a similar circumstance to your landlord, I too have provided a 14 day eviction notice to my tenants, but I also explain to them that it is for my protection. When an eviction notice is being served for non-payment of rent, it must include a clause stating that if the rent is paid prior to the eviction date set out in the agreement, the notice is null and void. Which you accurately pointed out!
When serving my tenants this notice, I point that clause out to them so they understand how it works. I will be more than willing to work with tenants when problems occur, I just want to make sure everyone knows the rules and I’m protected.
In your case, it sounds like this landlord doesn’t want to work with you and in my opinion, it won’t create a healthy long term environment for you. You may want to consider negotiating breaking the lease and finding a better place and a much better landlord.
You are also correct about the landlord needing to supply you with a copy of the lease. I believe it is actually less than 21 days they have, but I don’t have the exact timeline handy.
Withholding rent will just cause more serious problems for you. In Ontario and several other provinces that is a pretty standard right for tenants, but here in Alberta the Landlord Tenant bylaws are much more balanced and withholding can just get you evicted faster.
You can however void the lease as the landlord has breached the original terms of the agreement and also not provided you with a copy of the lease, so in turn they cannot withhold your security deposit for breaking the lease.
Big picture it sounds like the landlord is cutting corners on their property, neglecting to do maintenance and/or necessary repairs (the water issue!) and potentially bullying you at this point. I would use the leverage you have at this time to get out of the lease and find a more suitable property.
hope this helps,
Bill
It actually says on the government website that you can withhold rent until you receive your copy of the lease agreement, legally. I would just tell her that and it may buy you some time but I wouldn’t worry – also tell her you can call health and safety if she doesn’t get rid of the junk in the back yard. Landlords are getting more greedy these days!
Hi T,
Not sure which comment you rare replying to, but you are absolutely correct. If tenants do not receive a copy of the lease within 21 days of moving in, they can withhold their rent until they receive a copy. This is the only time tenants can with hold rent in Alberta.
The junk in the back yard may not be a Health and Safety issue, but it may be a by-law issue.
As for landlords getting more greedy, it’s kind of a blanket statement, just like not all tenants are bad, neither are all landlords greedy. We have costs to cover and yes we need to make money while we can, so when vacancies drop rents go up. To balance that off, when vacancies rise, rents also lower.
Regards,
Bill
What is the Time line Using the RTDRS Method until a Hearing? And Where does this take Place?
Thankyou
Tim
Hi Tim,
It will depend on how busy they are at the RTDRS. You need two or three days to serve the tenant typically, then they require three full business days to be able to review it. When you file, they will take this into consideration and you can book the first available hearing that falls under that timeline.
Under normal circumstances, you can typically have the hearing between five to ten days after filing. If it might be harder to serve the tenant they may extend the date they set. At certain times they have been backed up as much as two weeks, so it may require a quick call in to see how busy they are.
The hearings take place right at the RTDRS offices.
Regards,
Bill