Continually Late Rent Payments – What To Do
Late paying tenants happen and the longer you own rental properties the more likely a late payment comes up. Occasionally a tenant needs an extra day or two for a check to clear and as a good landlord this may be an option available to you. However it can also set a dangerous precedent that you may not want to go down.
Worse yet, some tenants understand the rules use late payments in their favour. They realize that as long as they pay the rent before a 14 day eviction notice for unpaid rent due date comes around, the tenant eviction is null and void (at least under the Alberta eviction laws).
Does this mean tenants can consistently pay late and a landlord can’t do a thing? That could turn them into a real problem tenant for a landlord and a real problem making sure everything is paid on time!
So what can you do about a tenant who perpetually pays their rent late?
Fortunately there are some options and in the following video I walk you through that information so you can solve your dilemma using the Residential Tenancy Dispute Resolution Service (RTDRS) or through the courts themselves.
As I always like to mention, the key to evicting problem tenants is documenting everything and you will likely have to provide the tenant with at least two 14 day eviction notices before you can move to this next step, but at least there will be light at the end of the tunnel for you.
The other important part is to make sure you document to the tenant that late rent is against the lease and continued late rent can create issues for them. Making sure you tell them this, and have written documentation proving it become key with evicting them later!
Late Paying Tenants – Your Options
Here’s the video,
If you have questions about evicting tenants in Alberta or would like to share your experiences with tenant evictions to help other landlords, please take a moment to leave a comment below!
Late Paying Tenants Need To Be Educated
Continually late paying tenants put stress on your life, so be sure you know how to deal properly with them and make sure you educate the tenant that it’s not fair and can cause them issues later. The same can be said for any other tenant problems you’re dealing with. You shouldn’t have to be stressed, so make an effort to get yourself educated about the process by looking through the many articles and comments here on the site!
Thanks,
Bill
Hello. Ive been reading through your posts for over an hour and find it very helpful and clearly understandable. I’m pretty sure I know what steps to take for our chronically late tenant. Our problem is a bit different in that we have a rent to own contract with our tenants that states clearly the consequences of breaching the agreement. I sought a lawyers advice when I wrote out the contract, although he was not directly involved in writing it. He did send me a sample and I based our contract on that sample. Are you able to give advice on this kind of situation or should we go directly to a lawyer? I have a ton of documentation but we have been too lenient for too long and from reading some of the comments on here, that’s not going to help our cause. Thanks for being such a help to so many Albertans!
Hi Ellen,
There is definitely lots for you to read here, especially with the hundreds and hundreds of comments and replies. The challenge is, I think there are only one or two rent to own issues brought up….
The worst challenge is, most of the information on this site can’t help you because of the rent to own.
What everyone teaching rent to own strategies fails to mention these days is that with a rent to own contract in place you fall outside of the RTDRS system and often fall outside the Residential Tenancy Act and instead fit into contract law due to the rent to own contract or agreement.
How your contract is worded strongly affects the outcome which is why it’s advised to have a well written rent to own agreement.
At this point you are on track with moving forward ASAP, I’d suggest you do that via a lawyer who is well versed in Rent to Own and Real Estate as well as maneuvering through this can be tricky although no impossible.
Perhaps once the RTO tenant receives a strongly worded lawyers letter with a discussion of the potential repercussions he hopefully understand he needs to move on, or your next option is to simply proceed with the lawyer getting him out through the courts.
Bill
Hi Bill, Thanks so much for your quick answers and comments. I knew right from the start that this contract was going to need exact wording and clear consequences. Funnily enough (not really), we got a call today from the manager of the trailer court where we are renting our mobile home out saying that THEY are evicting our tenants (technically us I guess) for several reasons. I have a pretty strong suspicion they will be taking us to court and I know that’s beyond your scope of assistance. However, I feel that the contract was clear regarding breaching any of our stipulations and stating quite severe consequences. We also sat down with both husband and wife before they even moved in and I read through every step of the contract and they agreed to each one. I even double checked a few times with them to be sure they understood. My lawyer has given me some names of other lawyers who deal in this area. Just thought you might find that turn of events “interesting”. Thanks again!
hi, we live in a rental that has other tenants downstairs. The landlord a property management company has us the upstairs tenants have the utility bills in our name we provide the tenant downstairs a copy of the bills in her mail box every month we are responsible for 60 percent she is responsible for 40 .Recently the tenant downstairs informed us about 2 months ago that she is moving out at the end of this month. around the middle of November we could hear water running from what it sounded like the bath tub. at the beginning of December I told the land lord about the water running and that they should check out the plumbing to make sure there was no water leaking some where. They sent a plumber to look at our toilet and he told us he only had a work order for the toilet and nothing else there was not really anything wrong with our toilet so he left. water was still running. a week later the plumber came back open the access to the bath tub to make sure the taps weren’t running from behind the walls nope dry as a bone but the water is still running anyways the plumber had no way to access the basement suite and kind of blamed that on us that he couldn’t get downstairs . so on January 15 the plumber came back because I was complaining to the landlords over the fact we had no hot water for a week and a half . when the plumber went downstairs he found that the bath tub hot water tap was on full blast and it was running the whole time. So now the bills have come in last month the bills were $227 higher for the gas and power bill and 71 dollars for the water and waste this month the water and waste bill is at $430 .80. $ 141.98 more than the month before. I went to the landlord about the bills last month we haven’t even got our second bill yet but they will still tell us we are responsible for 60 percent of the bills. I think they should reimburse us part of those bills considering we told them about the running water a long time ago and it took them at least a month and a half to resolve this issue we have had problems with the tenant downstairs for 3 years and we think she left the tap on on purpose to screw us over and we told that to the landlords and we were told we are still responsible for our 60 percent. by the way I don’t think the 60 /40 split is fair we have no access to laundry even though we were promised laundry before we moved in and I think there is a dishwasher downstairs .Anyways we are wondering what our potions are?
sorry what are our options regarding the bills since none of increase of bills are our fault how much water can we really use with no hot water and no laundry? the land lord has told us to take it up with the other tenant as far as I know she hasn’t informed them about moving out . as far as I know we are on month to month because the landlord did not give us a lease to sign when the last lease was up
Hi again Cheryl,
yes if the yearly lease hasn’t been renewed you are now on a month to month lease and as such the tenant downstairs should be giving 30 days notice or may forfeit all or part of their security deposit (and possibly more due to the water leak which the tenant should have addressed.
Bill
Hi Cheryl,
You may have a valid argument for not paying the additional charges as you did inform the landlord quite early in the process. It’s not really an RTDRS situation, although if it escalates into evictions for not paying utilities that could change things.
Having said that, the RTDRS may have some authority in the area so you may want to call them Monday and inquire about utility disputes with your landlord and ask if they are a viable avenue to use if this doesn’t go well.
If you’ve informed the property manager, you may want to go past them and deal with the owner, they may not even be aware and knowing the PM didn’t do anything for a month and a half may help your side.
Bill
Thank-you for taking the time to read and respond to this. We have been landlords for a while now but have been fortunate to not have too many issues with tenants until this last little bit. We recently accepted a tenant and were stupid enough to allow him to move in with the promise he would pay rent and dd in two days. We did end up receiving rent (short $100) and the DD but a week late. We are into month two and our tenant has not paid rent again and although we are phoning every couple of days to remind him of his new rent (late fees at $20) he has every excuse in the book. We are now over a week late and he claims his “lawyers” are working on it. The kicker is the unit he rents is a duplex and our other renter has phoned in the middle of the night upset over loud noises/parties coming from the attached unit. We are ready to evict. My question is are we out the monies owed to us to this date if we base our eviction on both late payments and noise complaints?
Hi Amanda,
As you’re probably aware now, first rule of landlording, no keys until security deposit and rent are prepaid or paid in cash. In full!!
99 out of 100 times, when tenants use the word lawyer they are bluffing or working you. You can call the bluff and ask to speak directly to them and you should probably start working forward to evict anyway. You may not have enough grounds yet, so you may want to consider building up evidence.
If you try evicting for non-payment right now, all he has to do is pay to void the eviction. If you try to evict for noise complaints, it becomes he said she said where it might get thrown out.
I’d start by documenting everything, making sure you have a paper trail showing you’ve been following up with him regarding the late payments and update him on the problems with the late night noise and the complaints you have been receiving. You won’t want to specify it was the other party in the duplex, but rather let him know the neighbours contacted you and that you are in touch with several of them.
If you build up a case of continuous problems, continuous late payments and have a paper trail to show it you’ll be in a much more solid position next month if he is late or doesn’t pay. By paper trail I’m saying you will need written letters either delivered to him in person or posted at the property to him backing up any conversations you’ve had.
You’ll just want to have evidence that this is on going, not a one time occurrence if you have to go to an eviction hearing. If you need more information on the process and what you need to do for a successful eviction I include all of this information in My Eviction Guide which you can find at the link here. Landlord’s Guide to the Alberta Eviction Process.
Good luck,
Bill
Question in Alberta if the rent due day falls on the weekend is the tenant allowed to have till the next business day (Monday) to pay the rent?
Hi Kyle,
The simple answer is rent is due on the day set out in the lease. The real life answer has become much more complicated due to online banking and various electronic payment methods available these days.
If you are paying by check and the 1st falls on a Sunday, depending on the landlords bank it most likely won;t get processed until Monday anyway. Even if he does bank with an institution that is open on Sunday, I’m not positive fi they process it until Monday if deposited anyway.
If you pay cash and have a history of paying on the 1st as the lease states, then it would be due on the 1st. You may be able to discuss with your landlord getting an extra day or two if the 1st falls on a weekend or long weekend, but I would suggest not springing this on him or her on rent day, but rather as much in advance as possible.
I know personally I am much more willing to work with someone and to make alternate arrangements if I know they will be short in advance. I’m actually dealing with this with a tenant of mine right now as their pay periods don’t align with the 1st.But they told me in advance so I wasn’t scrambling to cover mortgage payments.
Your landlord may not even be aware they won’t withdraw his mortgage payments until the Monday so that may help appease them if you are only delayed until you can get the cash tomorrow.
Anyway, hope this helped clarify, even if it may not be the answer you were looking for,
Bill
Dear Bill,
My current tenants have a ‘fixed tenancy lease agreement’ which simply states their lease started May 1 2014 and ends April 30 2015. There is no option for renewal or an option for month to month. My question is this, if on April 30 they are still maintaining residency with the expired lease, is that grounds to have them leave immediately? Can i enter the property since the agreement has expired? My intentions are to move back into the property my self or sell it. Undecided. Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You.
Hi Christian,
You still should be giving them some type of notice as you can’t expect them to leave if they haven’t been told the lease isn’t renewing. Also, without any notice or talk of renewal, the lease may simply default to month to month, so you need to show it will be ending and that is your intent.
As far as entering, until the tenants vacate or unless you give notice of entering, you cannot simply enter, even if the lease has expired. So you need to provide them notice and along with it, or a few days prior to the end, also give them a 24 hour notice that you will be coming in to inspect the property.
Bill
Hi. I have served my tenants a 14 day eviction letter on their front door. They haven’t even acknowledged me since and refuse to answer my messages. I’m assuming they aren’t planning on moving out on the day the eviction stated. Do you think I should wait until then to find out or should I go ahead and hire baliff now? Thanks alot
Hi Eileen,
You can’t hire a bailiff until you have a court ordered eviction notice. You’ll want to read this article and the accompanying comments What if My Tenant Won’t Leave.
Bill
Thanks Bill. Do you find filing through the court easier or through RTDRS?
Hi Eileen, they changed the process in the fall, now if you are in an area serviced by the RTDRS, that’s your option. I’ve put together a guide that walks you through the entire process of the RTDRS along with steps to help ensure your eviction sticks rather than making a mistake along the way that gives the tenants an extra month or two.
You can find that info here, An Eviction Guide For Alberta Landlords.
Bill
They are not obliged to answer or acknowledge you aside from paying the rent on or before the date outlined in the eviction notice.
Don’t assume they’re unwilling to pay. Rather that, misfortune has befallen them and ashamed to face you.
If your finances are in order, depending on the income of a tenant should never be a issue.
Hiring a bailiff…you have no financial issues to assume.
Does/do your tenant(s) get up and go to work every day? Do they have outrageous or extravagant parties? Do you notice them coming home with bags full of needless wants? Just a couple of the few questions you could ask yourself.
I would never toss a tenant who is legitimately down on their luck. We’ve all (loosely speaking) gone through very hard times. If your tenant is honestly in a humbling place, don’t toss them aside. They will pay you above and beyond. Not only in the mighty dollar, but loyalty.
I Love “awaiting moderation”. This is the process where your comments are deemed worthy of the masses by a singular being. 🙂 Highly doubtful to see the light of day and yet again….rejected. Woot!!!
It’s also the process where I can avoid posting the hundreds of monthly spam comments I receive, where I can ensure tenants and/or landlords who accidentally post private information can be edited and where I can delete simply offensive or baiting comments.
You’ll see replies to your other comments over the next several days as none of them are urgent questions, but rather mostly your views and thoughts.
Bill
Hiring a bailiff, just the $400-600 directly out of your pocket, plus the lost rental income, potential damages etc.
Lots of financial issues to assume.
Even if your tenant does go to work every day, if they can’t afford your property you either have to discuss what you can do to lower rents or how the tenant can amicably move on. It doesn’t have to be a negative situation, but something has to change.
Now having said all of this, if you read through many of the comments, the problem typically found isn’t that the tenants are living paycheck to paycheck they are often just taking advantage of the landlord.
Bill
Bill
So Jake,
Lots of anger obviously built up in you and honestly, you’re annoying.
What good does it do anyone for you to tell tenants they don’t need to respond to the landlord other than paying the rent? While it’s true it doesn’t help repair any issues that may be created by the non-payment originally. Perhaps a better course of action would be to discuss with the landlord the problem and come up to a solution allowing you to stay?
By the way at no point is anyone assuming they are unwilling to pay, but if they are continually late they are not honouring the lease they signed and are in breach. why would I want to keep anyone that couldn’t hold up to their part of the bargain that was struck.
You’re missing the entire point here, if they keep paying late they are causing you more trouble than they are worth. It’s not a matter of whether your finances are in order.
Bill
I agree with u bill some tenants they taking advantage even u give them a lots of consideration as a landlord they need to understand we paying a mortgage as well so we can continue them to rent the property we not buying a property for charity even our relatives they need to pay the rent so if they can’t afford to pay a rent why they didn’t find a place that the government help them in a welfare I have too much head ache in my tenants now they have until August 31 to stay in my house every 1st day of the month on or before 5pm they need to pay there rent that’s what the result I file for dispute now they making excuses again for payment so I told them the court hearing I will evict them if they didn’t pay in specific time and date I hope there’s an association that all landlords can share the delinquent tenants so we can notify and give us an info so no one can be a victim again with the bad tenants.if you want the info of my tenants I can tell to all landlord so I can tell u how bad they are.
Hi,
There are some privacy issues that surface with just randomly sharing bad tenant information, unless of course you have evidence like judgments which are available publicly, but many screening services maintain lists of problem tenants which is why it’s advisable to use some of these services when checking on new tenants.
Over the years, I’ve found the landlords with the majority of the problems are the ones who put the least amount of effort into the initial screening. It’s also why I put together a screening course, that teaches landlords how to properly screen their tenants, you can find it here A Landlords Guide to Screening Tenants.
Bill
Bill
Our landlord has refused to provide us with a copy of our lease agreement. He has also never provided a late payment notice or receipts and we have always paid in cash. He is taking us to court for “continual late payment of rent”. Can you tell me, without providing us with a copy of the contract, can there be a substantial breach? I’m trying to wrap my head around if late payment is a breach of the contract or a breach of the RTA.
Hi,
Late payment can be a breach if it’s continuous or constantly happening. If however, he is trying to evict you for this without previous notices or providing you a copy of the lease at any time, you may have multiple reasons to fight it and you’ll most likely be able to have it thrown out. No guarantees, but he should at least be giving you some written notice that the late payments are unacceptable.
Also, withholding rent for not receiving a copy of the lease is one of the only acceptable reasons for not making a rent payment. If you’ve never received a copy it opens up other issues for him.
I’d suggest your first step going forward is to make sure that you pay on time from now on. I’d also suggest if you are paying cash that you always get a receipt or write one out on your own for him to sign as verification.
He could be bluffing about taking you to court, but even if he isn’t you have reasonable grounds to try and fight it as he has to prove he’s warned you about paying late. He may be basing this on the grounds of verbally telling you, but the courts and the hearing officers like written proof which it doesn’t sound like he has.
Hope that makes sense,
Bill
Thank you!
hi there. im in Alberta. my tenants are almost always late with the rent. their lease was supposed to be up oct 31 but aug 1 they said they wanted to give a months notice. i let them know that their agreement was until the end of october but i would try to re-rent it asap…they did not pay rent for august. i asked repeatedly when they would pay. no reply. i served them with a notice to evict for the 19th if they did not pay within 2 days. no payment. now 6 days later they claim they are forced to move as they found mold in the basement (the basement has no rooms just laundry…but anyway they never let me know there was a supposed issue before) they still have not paid the rent for this month. can i still evict them on the 19th? thanks so much!
Hi Shelley,
Continue with the eviction, the mold is just a typical stalling tactic. You will likely need to go to court or the RTDRS however and since you cannot do that until after the eviction date, the hearing likely won’t be until after they move out.
Bill
What’s the costs of going to the dispute resolution centre?
$75 to file at the RTDRS and $100 to file at the court house.
Bill
Thanks a lot Bill! Appreciate your time. I’m behind I’d say by about $500 (including cleaning costs) and hopefully no other damage- probably not worth to fight eh?
Your priority should always be to get control of your property back and your bad tenant out first. I’ve found for amounts less than a couple thousand dollars the added frustration of trying to extract blood from a stone simply isn’t worth it the majority of the time and often just getting a judgment against them gives me some minor satisfaction.
You need to win the hearing in the courts or the RTDRS to get the judgment and it affects their credit rating for up to ten years (you can extend it another ten years if you never get paid and feel particularly vindictive). Judgments are never a guarantee you will ever get paid, and for many low end tenants it has little effect, but occasionally they turn their life around and discover they need to pay you to purchase that new home or new vehicle!
Bill
I have a tenant that didnt pay rent I gave a 3 day notice. We went to court and won eviction with marshals for 13th of May. I need to know if I can keep all of security deposit for Mays rent even though she has to be out on 13th. I live in NY
Hi Charlene,
Unfortunately I’m unsure of the specific rules in NY, it varies from state to state and province to province. It can even vary from city to city. I did find this for you though, it’s from a Housing Council out of Rochester NY and lists much of the information you should need, plus at the end it has multiple phone numbers you can refer to if you need better info,
Housing Council at Pathstone
good luck,
Bill
I have a tenant that has lived in one of my properties for a little over two-years. In the 26-months that he has lived there, he has been late with the rent “8-times”. I recently went to Court and tried to have him evicted on the bases of multiple “substantial breaches” – including history of late rental payment. I provided copies of all of the late payments, along with copies of the bounced cheques. When I brought the subject of chronic late rent before the judge, they simply asked if he paid this month’s rent, I said that he had and they said “then what’s the problem?” Monday was the 1st of the month and big surprise – no payment for rent again. I’ve gone to the house several times and the clown simply chooses not to answer the door. Under Alberta law, he is considered a “Periodic” tenant and with members of my family scheduled to relocate in the summer, I also gave him his 90-days notice – again. When I left the notice, he said that he would be staying for at least another year. When a judge “assertively” asks me “where is he supposed to live if I grant your application?”, it makes me wander (a) why I went to court in the first place and (b) why would I ever go back? To the tenant, this apparently is nothing more then a game. Further, the “honourable” judge, has done nothing but empowered the fool. Any suggestions on how I can bring this nightmare to an end? Thanks for your time.
Hi Allan,
I’m going out on a limb and suggesting you’re in a smaller rural area? Situations like these pop up in the larger cities all the time and I’ve personally assisted dozens of landlords with similar situations with no problems. It sounds like you’re ending in front of the same judge each time who has a very pro tenant stance.
The problem that you have with late rent payment is that it’s a breach of the agreement. Your agreement should state that rent is to be paid by X date and the tenant is breaching that. Under the RTA, if they do it once, it’s not a problem as long as you get paid. If it’s a continuous breach, then it’s a problem.
Ideally in circumstances like this the first time perhaps the tenant is given an eviction notice for non-payment, if you believe it’s going to be a one time deal. After a couple times, then it should be ramped up to an actual eviction. In your case the judge could also be seeing that you have allowed this to carry on for over two years and are only doing something now, so it’s not that big a deal. This is why it’s so important to act right away and to show you are serious.
As for part two of this, under the Residential tenancy Act, you are allowed to evict the tenant for family members coming back to a property. The correct response when asked about “where is he supposed to go if I grant my application?” it’s not really your problem. Under the rules, he has to vacate because where will your family go if he doesn’t?
I would escalate this and push back as it’s going to be the only way you can get your property back. If you feel it’s beyond the scope of what you are prepared to do, you may need to hire either a lawyer or an evictions service company, but from what you’ve told us here, the tenant has to go!
Bill
Bill
Thanks for taking the time to reply. I actually live in a large city (I’d say which one but with my luck of late, that judge would visit your site, read this post and the next thing you know, you’d see me picking-up garbage alongside the highway for the next six-months).
It was crystal clear almost immediately, that this judge was a “pro-tenant” judge. I kept trying to steer the case back to the original lease that he signed (it has long since expired and he is now month-month) and the fact that it was/should be considered a legally binding contract – they would not even acknowledge me, when I quoted sections/paragraphs from the lease. The third paragraph on the first page of the lease, does indeed clearly specify that rent is due in full on the first of every month.
I choose Provincial Court over the RTDRS hearing, because I heard from other landlords that I stood a much better chance of having the clown evicted, because the judge would ultimately have to go by the “letter of the law”. Since that was not the case and since I’m now back to square one, do you recommend that I apply for a hearing with the RTDRS and again try to evict the tenant for chronic late payment of rent? My concern with that is, that the hearing officer will see that I just went to Provincial Court for the same thing, that I lost my application and am now basically trying to do a run-around through the RTDRS, since I was unsuccessful in court.
Even though the judge ruled in the clown’s favour, they also instructed him that it would be in his best interest to start looking for a new place to live, since the landlord/tenant relationship has deteriorated to this point. I think that was their way of telling him, that if this went before a different judge in the future, that ignoring the rule of law wasn’t as likely. When we walked out of the courtroom, he told me that he would be staying for another year and laughed, so obviously, he has no fear of the system.
Thanks again for your time and assistance.
Dear Bill, ‘Have been renting to a man for the agreed of 1yr. tenancy…he signed the rental agreement June1st 2013…the year is almost up. Due to our stupidity he was allowed to move in May21st-22nd – rent not fully paid for!…from that point on I could count on the hand how many times rent has been paid in full and on time….how long do we have to give him notice the tenancy will not be renewed…as of today he still owes 1/2 the rent for May.
Hi Janice,
It sounds like you have learned a couple of lessons during the last year, hopefully lasting lessons! As per the Residential Tenancy Act, you don’t have to give any notice, but for all practical purposes not giving notice will just shoot you in the foot.
Expecting them to leave on the last day of tenancy simply backfires, so you are best giving them at least 30 days notice, but if you can give more better. In your case, I would suggest doing it ASAP.
Since he still hasn’t paid May’s rent though I would also take a stronger stance and tell him he has to pay the rest of the rent by let’s say tomorrow, or you will proceed with an eviction.
Then you have to stick to your guns and get to the courts or the RTDRS to evict him, DO NOT USE AN EVICTION NOTICE! You need to go through the courts to get a judgment and an actual eviction date. If you simply use an eviction notice and he doesn’t leave, you end up being two weeks plus behind and it can take up to two more weeks to get a hearing and by that time he can be long gone and you will never collect any money, or he will delay and he ends up staying an extra month causing you more headaches.
Hope that helps answer your question,
Bill
When I have tenants that are continually late on their rent or the rent goes NSF I dont even bother anymore and get conditional orders ( Cinderella Orders ). I have over 200 tenants and get played every month often by them
Hi Susan,
Thanks for the comment, but why get a Stay Order when you can simply evict them for the continuous breach?
Bill
Because many times the tenant will shape up when they are told in the court that if they are late again we can have them out in 24 hours. In the past 3 years I have only had to use the 24 hour eviction one time(knock on wood).
Just to let you know I really love all the information you have.
Thank you
hello…. I have tenants leaving in my basement and did not pay my rent for this month ..its two weeks up and still they haven’t paid me my rent saying will pay soon .. can i give them eviction notice for not paying the rent ?.. and i also wanted them to go as i want to make my basement legal with is suited and i have month to month tenancy . thanks .
Hi Preety,
If you want them out skip the eviction notice and file directly at the RTDRS for all breaches of the lease. You can’t necessarily evict them because you are renovating, you have to give them proper notice of the renovations and they get 90 days notice for this (I didn’t verify this, it’s by memory only, you will need to verify it).
by filing you can a) get a judgment if they haven’t paid and b) get a firm eviction date, again if they don’t pay.
Regards,
Bill
Hi there,
I have a renter in my condo since July 1st. They are late with this month’s rent. I was told it was going to be received today, but the day will draw to an end soon, and I still don’t have it. It keeps getting pushed back. I’m not happy or patient for this. I don’t want this to become a habit every month. I want to bring it to an end as immediately as possible. What do you suggest as my first steps?
Thank you.
Hi Melissa,
You have two options right now, you can provide them with a 14 day eviction notice which is void if they pay before the date set out in the eviction notice or you can take them to court either through the regular court system or the RTDRS. If this is the first time and you just want to give them a warning you won’t tolerate this, the eviction notice would be the best route to warn them, although not the most effective to get them out.
The eviction notice has to include information like your name, the date, your address and more and has to be signed and I have a complete set of the forms for sale with info on how to fill them out, serve them etc available here, Alberta eviction forms.
Regards,
Bill
Hi Bill,
Thanks for all the great information you’ve provided! This is an enormous help and is greatly appreciated.
Sheri
Thanks Sheri!
Hi Bill,
Excellent articles and website. Thank you so much for providing this.
A what if. If you go through the RTDR and obtain a judgement for arrears and eviction and you have to get a civil enforcement agency involved. How do you recover the fees from the civil enforcement agency? Thanks.
Jake
Thanks Jake,
I haven’t been able to figure that one out either Jake. Realistically you will have to eat the costs, you could try to sue them to recover the costs, or try applying at the RTDRS for the extra costs incurred, but usually when you cannot get rent out of them the $500 plus for a bailiff service is even more unrealistic.
That’s why it’s so important to take action right away if tenants miss payments or cause problems. If you let it run too long it just costs the landlord more and more. So probably not the answer you were looking for, but it;s the most common answer.
Regards,
Bill
Bills right on that one. I had the same problem & question last year, after I had to foot the bill for a bailiff. Unless they have something your writ of enforcement can go after & they haven’t run themselves up in debts.
Hi Bill,
Just came across your website. Very helpful.
My tenant was just given her three months notice that I am terminating the month-to-month lease. Now she is 21 days late on the rent, will not call me back, return emails, and when she does answer the phone she let’s it sit so I can hear her working but she never speaks.
Is there anything in addition I can do? Come the end of the three months, if she hasn’t vacated am I able to change the locks?
Thanks,
Sara
Hi Sara,
Just want to clarify I understand. You’ve given her three months notice and now she’s stopped paying?
If that’s the case I would accelerate things, the important thing is you want to get paid, so I would recommend going directly to the RTDRS or the court system. You could provide her with a 14 day eviction notice, but if she understands the system she will just pay you before the eviction date set out in the notice and then it is null and void.
By then she will be 35 days plus behind and you will have to repeat the process. By going to the court/RTDRS system, you can either receive a court ordered date she has to be out, or potentially have her put on a payment plan (stay/Cinderella order)for the remaining three months. Either way it is a win for you as you get paid and she has to honour her responsibilities as set out in the lease.
I break down the whole process in my Eviction Guide or there is plenty of information on the Service Alberta site as well, although the government site just confused me when I tried to decipher it originally, hence the guide to streamline and make it easier to understand. Plus it includes some tips I learned to almost guarantee success.
hope that helps Sara!
Bill
Thanks Bill!
Will order it today. You’re speedy with the help. Greatly appreciated.
Sara
It’s all timing Sara! I try to answer questions within 48 hours, but you caught me sitting at my desk 8′]
Bill
Bill,
We purchased a rental property about 6 months ago in which there were already tenants living and rthe previous owner of the property assured us that they were good tenants. When we went to meet with them for the first time the woman informed us that she would be paying us on the 10th of the month because that was the verbal agreement she had with the previous owner (the contract says the rent must be paid by the 1st of the month). We told her this was not alright with us and we needed to have all of the rent by the 1st of the month as stated in the contract. She then went on to inform us that her boyfriend would be moving in with her the next month, which was fine with us but his name was never added to the contract. We allowed them to pay by the 10th the first month with the understanding it was a one time allowance. Since then they have habitually paid part of the rent on the first and the rest of the rent betrween 10 and 14 days late using various excuses. We have verbally informed them that this was not acceptable but have put nothing in writing. My question is can I just write them an eviction notice or do I have to get a formal letter from somewhere? They seem pretty savvy on their tenant rights so I don’t want to go about the eviction process the wrong way. Help!!
Thank you
Brandy
Hi Brandy,
Thanks for stopping in and asking a great question as this is an issue that anyone buying a rental property that comes with tenants should be aware of. At first glance it’s perfect as you start earning income immediately, but you never really know how good the tenants really are.
If the landlord who is selling is selling because they are tired of troublesome tenants, there is likely zero chance they will tell the new buyer’s that. This is similar to a landlord giving a reference on their current problem tenant. If they tell the truth, they are stuck with the tenant, if they fudge the truth, the problem goes away.
There are a few options you have now though. I’m pretty sure you don’t wish to retain them as tenants, so you could start with a nice formal letter explaining the issues and how it’s not working. If they are really savvy and their intent is to work the system, it likely won’t have much effect.
You could issue them an eviction notice for continuous late payments (note this is for continuous, not a one off situation as the rules differ). Again if they are savvy, they won’t leave after the eviction date and you have to take them to the RTDRS or court to actually get them out.
Finally you could just go directly to the court or RTDRS and file for an eviction based on continuous late payments. This is probably the fastest and most decisive course of action for you, but you will need to have significant documentation showing late payments and the issues.
The important lessons for you, and other landlords, is when tenant issues pop up, don’t leave everything verbal. Provide written notices to the tenants either when the incidents like late payments come up, or shortly after as follow up. This works as evidence for you later and the tenants cannot claim they weren’t properly informed.
Hope that helps Brandy, if you haven’t registered on the site yet, you might want to do that as well and I will send you soem information on the basic steps of an eviction along with tips to make landlording a bit easier for you.
Regards,
Bill
Great information Bill and it is greatly appreciated.
We are about to serve the 14 day notice of late payment. What do we do if we cannot get ahold of our tenants? They have stopped returning our calls and emails and our townhouse they have rented does not have a mailbox. I am assuming they will not answer the door. Any suggestions?
Thank you,
Paul
Hi Paul,
Thanks for the comment and I am glad you are finding this helpful. I have two thoughts for you on this one, but I’ll start with how to notify the tenants.
If the tenants are avoiding you, which isn’t uncommon, to serve them an eviction notice you can always tape it across the doorway. This would involve taping one side to the door and the other to the frame and if there is multiple entrances doing this to each entrance. The common complaint from tenants looking to avoid getting evicted is that they never received the notice, if you post the notice this way it is hard to say they never saw it unless they never came back or never left the property.
To make sure your covered, I would also recommend taking some pictures of the posted notices in case you ever need them as evidence. This is where your cell phone can be incredibly handy or even a video camera.
The second thought is how effective will the notice be? If you really want to get rid of them, you may want to skip the notice and go directly to the Residential Tenancy Dispute Resolution Service and evict them through the system. For experienced (or desperate) tenants, the notice just gives them extra time as you still have to go through the RTDRS or the main courts system to actually evict a tenant. The notice is effectively a warning that they have to be out in 14 days (plus a day on either side of the notice and a day for any statutory holiday) giving them 16 or 17 days before you then have to file for an official eviction.
If you think the notice will scare them out and they will politely leave on the eviction date, then go ahead with the eviction notice. If you think they will continue to stall and won;t leave on the eviction date, you need to file this through proper channels so you can have the law behind you and can use the services of a bailiff or Civil Enforcement Agency to ensure they leave when they are supposed to.
Hope that helps as well,
Regards,
Bill Biko
As Bill said you should start the eviction process based on non payment of rent. I’d like to know how this turns out.
Hi Bill,
my tenants signed a 2yr lease starting April 1, 2010. They have been there for 18mths so far and just this month they called and said that they wanted to leave the house early (by Nov.1) because her son had recently moved back in with her and they needed more space (mind you, this is a 3bdrm house with a double garage and the son was initally there when they signed the lease). This first conversation took place on October 1. They are usually on time with the rent but they have not paid it yet this month. What started out as (what I thought) a good conversation, quickly started to turn ugly. We are out of the province right now visiting family and are not scheduled to return to Alberta until November 16th. So, we told the tenants that right now it wasn’t feasible for us to agree to let them leave since we can’t be there to show the house, and sign a new lease with new tenants and so on. The tenant said that it was ok because they just wanted to run it by us first and they would stay there til the end of the term (April 1, 2012). I told her that in the meantime, I would put an ad up and if I got any response with interest to rent the house for November, I would let her know asap and she could decide if she still wanted to move out by then. She offered to show the house for me, but I told her that my parents would agree to do that since we couldn’t be there. So far so good right?
Well she emailed me again the next day and said that she didnt realize that Oct. 1st was on a Saturday so she would have the rent deposited into our account first thing Monday morning. Monday came and still no rent. On Thursday, I called and left a message asking her to call me back to which she emailed saying that she had recently gone through a family members death, financial difficulty and a break-up with her husband and that she could not afford to pay the rent. She told me to take the $2000 damage deposit, that she gave us a the beginning of the lease, for rent, and she would deposit the remaining $1400 on Oct.14th since that would be the next time that she would receive any money. So we replied to this email saying that we were sympathetic to everything that she was going through, but that were could not be involved in her personal life since we have a legal agreement only and that as landlords, we were still due rent for October.
After this, things got bad, I informed her that I had to consult with a lawyer to see what my next move should be and now she wrote me an email threathening to stay for 3months b/c she says we cant kick her out in the winter, she can sue us b/c last year her husband fell down the front porch steps and we had to repair the steps(which we did last year immediately after this incident), I didnt give her a walk through when she first moved in(which I did but how can I prove this?), she had to clean up garbage and dog feces in the yard (all of which she verbally agreed to b/c she “wanted to get in and settled away”. We offered to clean up the yard when the snow had melted but she said not to worry about it), and shes saying that she refuses to let my parents show the house to other potential renters now b/c it states in the lease that I have to give her written notice for me to show the home(which I have) but she said that it has to be me, not my parents. I really don’t know what to do at this point. What do you suggest?
Mary
Hi Mary,
It sounds like she was looking for an excuse to get out of the lease as she couldn’t pay or to potentially buy her more time. Obviously this relationship has gotten to the point where you don;t want her in there, so I would suggest you start the eviction process immediately based on non-payment of rent.
The security deposit is not rent, it cover potential damages, so never ever let a tenant tell you to apply it to the rent as it leaves you unprotected in case there is actual damage. The issues she is bringing up are all pretty minor. Unless you were extremely negligent and waited months to repair the steps there isn’t much she will be able to do there (we are not the US!), you should have had the walk through on paper with extra notes about the yard cleaning etc, but that too can be minor, unless there is tons of damage, and she cannot block people you have recruited as “agents” from showing the property. The downside about the showings are that you still have to provide 24 hour written notice each time and there is no guarantee she will make the property presentable.
You may want to explain to her that you are starting the eviction process and if she cooperates you will not come after for everything outstanding, but if she doesn’t cooperate you will definitely go after her for everything she owes. At this point it sounds like it is only a couple thousand, but sometimes it’s best to come off a little fierce so they understand you take this seriously.
From her side, you have to consider she is probably scared and broke with few options, so stand your ground, make sure you don’t get taken advantage of and get the eviction started. If suddenly things change you can always cancel any hearings, but if you wait, you will suddenly find yourself two or three weeks behind as more excuses pop up.
Hope that helps,
Bill
Hi Mary,
Just to add to that, I forgot to mention it’s a myth that you cannot evict tenants in the winter. Tenants can be evicted in the winter, the summer, the fall and the spring in Alberta. Here’s a post talking about it, Can a Tenant be Evicted in The Winter
Good luck,
Bill
Hi Bill,
I have been reading this thread, I have the same problem as Patrick, I recently rented my house, she gave me a check for the DD, which she asked me no to chashed until the middle of the month, also I received partial august rent in cash and the rest in check, 2-3 days after she asked me no to cash the dd check she will give me cash covering the dd and the rest of the rent on a specific date, when i went to the property, she was not there, she called me next day apologizing, i had to go there again and received the rest of august rent only she did not give me the postdated checks we agreed and she did not pay the dd either.
september rent came, she gave me just part of the rent, no dd, she excuses saying that her mother is seriously ill. when i chose her as a tenant it was because all the references were excellent, the previous landlord, the job. now she doesn’t work there anymore. she doesn’t answer the phone, the emails, this is the first time I rent a property, and now, I do not know what to do…
Please help.
Thank you.
Hi Ana,
My initial read on this is you are getting taken advantage of. All damage deposits and the first month’s rent need to be paid in advance and in cash by new tenants. If you make this part of your system, it can help avoid similar situations like this. If you register on the site (top right side of the page), I will send you a bunch of helpful tips for landlords that will help you in the future. But what to do now?
You need to take a stand. If you want to give her a chance (probably not recommended), you could give her a 14 day eviction notice for the outstanding rent. From what you have told me you likely want her out as the precedent has been set and she knows she can get away with this and that you are inexperienced. To do that you will likely want to file with the Residential Tenancy Dispute Resolution Service and apply for the outstanding money plus attempt to get her evicted. If she pays in full or pleads her case well you may be stuck with her for a while as they will give her a chance to catch up with her payments. Again, you have set the precedent for accepting late payments, so the hearing officer will see you as being lenient and will factor that in too their ruling.
You really need to take action, the longer you wait, the more potential for you to get taken advantage of there is. I’m not intending to be cold hearted here, as there is a possibility her mother is ill, but I have heard this far too many times.
Hope this helps,
Bill Biko
Hello, having read everyones comments I would like to share my own story.
First I would like to start with some words of encouragement for some of those discouraged landlords who have undergone significant stress and are feeling pressured. Don’t let fear get the best of you. “Fear is the mindkiller”(Frank Herbert, Dune). Being a landlord is a great business and can be fun too (sometimes). Ultimately the landlord/tenancy laws in Alberta favour the landlord. Nobody will argue your mortgage responsibility.
As for myself, Im a new Landlord. Ive done property management work in the past but this was my first real rental property and the first time i could call myself “landlord”. So after buying the place I inherited the previous landlords tenants who turned out to be great and very responsible. They were renting for about a year and then after they left I was in the market for a new tenant. This is where my trouble began. I was approached by a woman who immediately offered to pay me the deposit (in cash) with the promise of paying the first months rent within 2 days. I foolishly accepted (did i mention I was a new landlord?). She seemed nice and sold me on some story about her sick father and responsible working husband.
Once i handed over the keys the situation quickly turned into a nightmare for me. I did manage however to get them to sign a 3-month lease and I agree with Bill that 6-month leases are ideal ( in normal circumstances). When the first month rent is due they immediately do not answer my phone calls or the door. When I was able to get ahold of them they gave me bizarre instructions on when to pick up rent at random locations in the city and just more excuses. I served them with a 14 day notice of termination for substantial breach on the 14th of the month. On the final day after the 14 days are up they contact me to come pick up “half” of the first months rent, and it is now the 29th of the month. I pick up the half and then 2 days later the next months rent is due and now they owe me ONE AND AHALF months rent, which again they don’t answer my calls or answer the door. I waited until the 5th and applied at RTDRS for a hearing. Served them (took me 4 tries cause they tried to evade service), and only one of them shows ups to the hearing. I have nothing but respect for the RTDRS service after this experience as I was immediately granted an order in my favour. They did not pay me after the date ordered so I got a WoP and had a bailiff kick them out on the 15th. Luckily i was able to get them out after only a month and a half. I found out later that they have done this to 17 other landlords and they are experts on this. They have so many creditors against them. Drugs were also a factor. These were real dirtbags.
Being a new landlord I don’t have a lot of money so I really felt the costs and losses associated with the process but mostly it was the bailiff fee that caught me off guard. I wonder if its possible to get any of it back? (already did WoE).
Anyway I feel that I learned a tremendous amount about the system from this experience and someone told me once that as long as we learn from our mistakes then we profit this way too. Im a completely different landlord now then before this happened to me, which is good. I hope theres some landlord there who can read this and see that If i can do it you can too. Nobody was there to help me or tell me how to do stuff properly. I had to learn and pay for it all myself.
Im back on track now with a great tenant, the place cleaned up nicely and no matter how long you are a landlord eventually we all get caught up with some bad tenants. In my case it was among the worst.
Im sorry i wrote so much but I have alot to say about the whole experience and alot of steam to blow off.
Great comment! Thanks very much for sharing your story with everyone. It really is true that if you learn from your mistakes (and don’t repeat them), you profit from it in the end! If you haven’t already registered on the site to receive the eviction information you may want to consider it. Although the first few emails I send out cover what to expect during the tenant eviction after that I proceed into a series of tips and advice for landlords to help make the process easier.
Thanks again for taking the time to tell us your story.
Bill
Hi Bill,
I have a tenant in my basement – she was late in junes rent – we gave 14 day eviction, she paid prior to the timeframe and invalidated the eviction. she did not pay julys rent – we gave 14 day eviction – that ended today the 16th at noon – and it is now 230pm and she hasnt paid, hasnt contacted us, and hasnt moved out. What do i do now? she has been evicted – can i force her to leave? can i remove her belongings? can i cut her power? as she has been evicted?
please help
Hi Deb,
Great question and this is the problem with the eviction notice. Now that the eviction date has come up you still have to either go to court to get the eviction finalized or through the RTDRS. I recommend the RTDRS as it is quicker, less stressful and easier to deal with (oh and I have a great guide 8′}).
Basically at this time you have to get a court (or RTDRS) ordered eviciton date. This will involve filing an eviction application with one or the other and attending a hearing. You will need to serve the tenant if they are still there, you have some paperwork to fill out and then attending the actual hearing. At the hearing depending on the information you provide and how you complete your paperwork the hearing officer will provide a final eviction date.
If the tenant hasn’t vacated by that time, you then have to go file at the real court house a couple of pieces of paperwork so you can get a writ of possession. This takes 24-48 hours and once you have that you can hire a bailiff to post the eviction and assist you with changing the locks. Soooo you still have a ways to go.
The only circumstance I ever use a 14 day eviction is when I am using it for leverage, but not if I really want to get them out. Hope this points you down the right path.
Good luck,
Bill
Hi, watched the videos and read the posts, but still have a question.
Chronic late pays for 19 months. We want them out. Still have not paid July and arrears almost $2000.
I have served any eviction notices as we have tried to work with on a schedule that would work, but nothing has.
Q: should I serve an eviction notice now, it would the first, or go directly to the RTDRS and start that process?
Typing on a tablet…sorry about the grammar, the spell check keeps messing things up.
To clarify, we have never served an eviction notice. We documents detailing the chronic late payments.
Is the RTDRS the first and best choice?
Hi Frank,
While it might have been best to previously provide them with eviction notices as warnings to pay, at this point you are indeed better off going directly to the RTDRS. You will need plenty of documentation showing they paid late often, since you didn’t give them eviction notices. If you are acceptable, the hearing officer may suggest putting them on a payment schedule again, but as part of the court order, if they miss any payments, they can be evicted immediately without going through the process again.
Hope that makes sense,
Bill
Make sense, thanks for all the info.
Glad I could help!
Bill
Another note to anyone who may read these posts, is in our case the tenant almost always communicates to us via email. They never return calls. The emails have plenty of information, including paying rent, e-transfer, and excuses for not paying rent. So the paper trail is long.
Great tip Frank, paper trails are so important!
Bill
Hi Bill, I recently got tenants and they gave me a cheque for Security deposit and rent. A couple of days later they sent me an email that the cheque was a wrong one. They have been in my property now for 15 days and so many different stories still no rent or deposit has been paid but the have moved in. I have served them a 14 day notice . I recently spoke with the RCMP who acknowledge that they have in recent times gotten a lot of the same complaint that I have “wrong cheque”. I do feel with someone like you out there as a voice for the Landlords this should be investigated because its a fraud. It hurts to know that some people out there just want to have their way at your own expense as I have to cough up thousands to pay for the mortgage.
Hi Patrick,
Thanks for the heads up on this, I think it’s important enough I will send a separate email to all the people who joined my email list to update them about this. Our standard procedure (and one I recommend all landlords learn!) is the security deposit has to be paid in advance and must be cash, bank draft or money order. The first month’s rent also has to be paid before they receive the keys and it must also be paid the same way.
If people are reading this and are not on the list and want to receive important updates like this along with other tips and strategies to make your job as a landlord easier, simply sign up on the top right side of this page and you will also get the Free walk through of the updated eviction process.
Regards,
Bill
Question, if I do not give my tenant a copy of the lease but continue to accept rent, be it late alot, can i still evict them or do they have grounds to go after me?? They only paid part of the DD, they have been late most months over 3 yrs(although one of the tenant’s cheques for 600 always is ontime and has never bounced). I have been understanding with them but i want them out. Cant i just tell them to be out in 7 days?? or do they HAVE to have 14 days? and what if they have no copy of the lease, i withheld it because the DD wasnt paid in full, and even had them sign 2 more leases to extend the tenancy.
Hi Suzy,
The tenants really need to receive a copy of their lease. The argument can be made that without a copy, how can they be aware they have breached any part of it? It’s a horrible argument, but one they can get away with.
You can evict them on the grounds of being continually late, even though you are accepting the payments. If you evict them for non-payment, this becomes void every time they pay you in full, as long as it is within the eviction period.
It sounds like you have two joint tenants living there, perhaps copy both of them on a letter or email stating that they will be evicted for continual late payments if if happens again. Perhaps the one tenant can pressure the other to stay on track.
Make sure you document every contact point from now on if you haven’t been and go back through all your records to track when they were late, by how long and any interactions you had with them. If you do need to go through the RTDRS process, you will want all of this information, it’s part of my process to make sure your eviction sticks!
Good luck,
Bill
I have read with great interest, all your comments regarding “late payment renters”. I too am in the same boat with renters that have a 2 years lease (which I thought was great!) and they had fantastic references (former landlord couldn’t say enough good things) but continue to pay their rent late; well it’s been on time BUT been NSF; most of the time it ends up being paid 10 – 14 days late. I tried to be understanding the first few times it happened as they kept telling me some sob stories, but now I have requested only cash or certified cheques for payment.
Although I have never formally issued an eviction notice, I have emailed them every time their cheques have bounced (6 times in 10 months) and continued to remind then of their legal obligations and that not paying rent on time IS grounds for lease termination. I contacted the AB Tenancy Advisory Board asking for advice and the lady there did not mention anything about issuing eviction notices – all she said was that continual late payments of rent is considered a “series of breaches with the lease” and is grounds for lease termination and/or eviction. Now they have just informed me that again, they will not be able to pay the rent on time and will be almost 2 weeks late! I will have to rearrange mortgage payments and other bills that come out and possibly incur extra fees for doing this (I do charge them these fees every time it happens).
Do eviction notices HAVE to be issued? Or are these series of breaches enough to have a final eviction notice? I have also offered them to find another person/renter to replace them in the lease – this way they could get out without breaking their lease as long as I approved of their replacment. I was also informed by the Advisory Board that if they accepted this and could NOT find a suitable replacement tenant, that i would not have to return their DD.
Renting is the biggest stress I have ever felt in my life!!
Hi Tanya,
I’m now firmly believe six month leases are the way to go. The hassle of renewing far outweighs the headache of bad tenants. Regarding former landlords, they are usually the worst reference you can get. You never know if they are telling you what you want to hear to get rid of a deadbeat tenant, or if it’s actually true. The landlord prior to their current one is the one you really need to talk to, he or she will be completely honest as they are rid of them if they are bad.
It sounds like the tenants have forced you to work with them, instead of you being in control. Immediately go back and build a timeline of everything that occurred, what checks bounced, what dates, when you talked to them, any correspondence by email and prepare to go the Residential Tenancy Dispute Resolution Service to get them evicted. Obviously they will not change, so either you live with this process or take action. Trust me, experience ha shown me they will not suddenly become “model tenants”. They have established a pattern and will run with as much rope as they are given.
You do not have to provide them with an eviction notice, you can go file directly at the RTDRS. The reason will be continually late payments which is a breach of the lease. I wouldn’t wait for this, I would push forward immediately. It appears Edmonton is taking about two weeks for hearing dates currently, so if you wait it will take longer and you can always cancel a hearing if things change.
Offering to have them find replacement tenants is one way to get them to work with you, but you can also have the hearing officer make a ruling on the damage deposit while you are at the hearing, just make that part of your request. I explain all of this in my guide, at the very least you may want to register for the walk through information on the right side of this page so you know what basic steps are involved.
Being a landlord can be very stressful this is why I recommend all landlords make sure they do an incredibly thorough job of pre-screening tenants. That extra hour or two up front can save many more hours later and thousands of dollars.
Good luck and let us know how it works out!
Bill
Anyone want to buy a house? I am SO tired of dealing with tenants who are rude, ALWAYS late and who won’t leave. Where did the owers rights go?
Hi Vicki,
Landlording can be a pretty draining experience. It’s really a matter of doing extra work at the beginning so you can make the rest of the experience better. This is the preparation of the property, the tenant screening and the establishment of the rules for the tenants. Without this solid beginning base to work with the problems can snowball and create an unbearable nightmare.
Where is your property located Vicki? I do know people purchasing investment property, no guarantees, but I can pass it on.
Regards,
Bill
Why can you not call the police and charge these people with Trespassing? Or enter the premise, remove all their possessions and change the locks?
They haven’t paid rent and ignored an eviction notice thus the contract (lease agreement) is void and they are living on your OWNED property without cause or justification? That’s trespassing, no?
Hi Robert,
This situation actually fits under the Residential Tenancy Act which dictates what can and cannot be done in this situation. Due to this it’s not trespassing and the police would not be able to charge the tenant with anything. Additionally if the landlord did go into the property, remove their possessions and change the locks he or she could be hit with a very hefty fine.
There is a very narrow path and set of rules the landlord needs to follow at this point to ensure they can proceed with the eviction. Once you have gone through the full process and received what is called a “Writ of Possession” you can finally bring in a bailiff to have the tenant removed and at this point if they re-enter, they can be charged with trespassing.
I break down the steps in the free report you can grab by just registering over to the right and at the top of the page. It shows the steps involved in using the Residential Tenancy Dispute Resolution Service for you and might help clarify the process. I’d also recommend all Alberta landlords should read through the Residential Tenancy Act just to have a better understanding of their responsibilities, what the REAL rules and laws are and to have an appreciation of what they are doing.
Hope this helped,
Bill
bill thanks for all the help yu were AWSOME and if I need future help you will be the one I will turn to. I really appreciated that yu got back to me so quickly and your knowledge was invaluable
Just to add to this reply, Kit and I also responded back and forth via email. Kit brought up that they also found out the tenants were smoking in the property which was a non-smoking residence. In Alberta, if you have written in the lease that the property is non-smoking and can find evidence they are smoking it is an additional breach of the lease.
Whenever you are evicting a tenant, you need to include all of the breaches in the eviction information. If you only include an outstanding payment, if the tenants make the payment, your eviction is null and void putting you back to square one!
Regards,
Bill
can yu evict tenants who do not pay all damage deposit its been 1 year now and who are always late paying rent but when threatened paid up in full.We have had these tenants for 1 1/2 years
Hi Kit,
It’s a bit of a problem if you don’t collect security deposits up front. You could be hard pressed to evict over that. However, you should have an avenue to evict over the constantly late rent payments. Have you been providing them with an eviction notice each time they are late? If you have and can show at least three instances you can evict them for being chronically late.
Hope that helps,
Bill
Hi Bill,
Thank you very much for your advice.
The evicted tenants were texting me constantly asking when they were going to get their money back.
Once I told them that we were under the innkeepers act and because they were evicted, they weren’t due back any money.
I even went as far as to tell them about this website, and since then I have heard nothing.
Thank you once again.
Anyone I know who are in similar circumstances, I will be sure to let them know about albertaeviction.com.
Take care,
Brian
Great to hear it worked out Brian!
Congrats!
Bill
Hi Bill,
I have a home that I live in with my family full time.
My wife and I decided to rent out our basement as a shared accomodation.
We met these three kids, one couple and one single male, in their early 20’s who were down on their luck and needed a break.
They needed to move fast, and since this was the first time we had rented to anyone, we let them move in that day, with no lease or paper work of any kind.
We let them move in on the 22nd of September and not pay us any rent till October 1st.
On rent day the single male left leaving the other two in a bit of a bind to pay the rent, so we cut them a break charging them $300 DD and $500 rent for their room, and allowed them to pay at least 8 days late if not more.
We have 2 rooms so we found another single male tennant to rent out the other room for $350 a month.
On November the couple
were late paying, and once again we let them be 12 days late.
December came around and they paid us, not on the first, but close enough.
Then on the 8th of December, the single male came up to inform my wife that the couple had been eating his food without permission and my wife noticed items missing from our freezer.
It wasn’t much, some oranges, pork chops from the other tennant and frozen pizza, french fries from us.
The thing that really got to us was my wife, mother and daughter did a whole mess load of Christmas baking, I mean enough to keep Santa here for a month.
My daughter made special cookies for her Grandparents for Christmas.
When my wife checked on the baking, everything was gone, the baking, the containers, everything.
At eight pm on the 9th of December we heard the couple come home, so we went downstairs to talk to them about this.
The door to the suite was open so I knocked on the door and yelled out their name.
We could see light coming from under the bedroom door, until I knocked it wa on, then they shut it off.
My with walked into the suite and banged on the bedroom door until they answered.
She told them of what she suspected and asked to search their room.
They said they wanted to tidy up a bit, dirt laudry and all, but my with said she didn’t care about that and they let her into the room.
Upon entering, my wife found a couple of empty baking containers hidden under their bed.
That was the last straw, we wanted them out and out now.
We told them we wanted them out by three pm on the 10th.
They demanded their DD deposit back, but we with held back $100 for the ingrediants and labour put into making the baked goods.
They left at around two pm on the tenth.
I gave them $200 for the DD and an eviction notice, which they requested.
On the notice I put “stealing personal property” as the reason for eviction.
Now they are demanding the remainder of Decembers rent, which they figure is $340.
My question is, did we do anything wrong in the way we evicted them and do we owe them anything.
Thanks Bill.
Brian
Hey Brian,
From the sounds of it, you don’t have much to worry about. The big lessons for you here, are that you really need to ensure you have adequate leases in place and that you need to remember renting out property or rooms is a business and you need to treat it as such.
It sounds like you have gone above and beyond and these tenants have taken advantage of your generosity. As I recommend to everyone, make sure you document everything that occurred so it’s fresh in your mind and in the future document everything that happens with tenants, especially any problems, in case it comes up later.
They have broken the lease, even if it was verbal and technically they could try and come after you through small claims court, but at this point it is most likely a bluff, don’t fall for it. You are in a unique circumstance where you actually fit under the Innkeeper’s Act, not the Residential Tenancy Act. The reason for this is you are renting out rooms in your primary residence and the Residential Tenancy Act specifically states it does not cover this situation. I wouldn’t mention this to the tenant though, you can let them spin their wheels if they are serious about trying to recoup their rental payment. Then if need be you can bring up the point that this isn’t a landlord tenant issue.
Final note, be sure to document the deduction for the security deposit refund and send a copy of the receipt to their last known address. If you don’t know the address, simply send it to the last known address (which is your place) and if it doesn’t get forwarded to their new address, when arrives don’t open it and file it with all the other documentation. You have attempted to provide them the info, so you are covered.
Hope that helps and I hope you have a great Christmas!
Bill
Hi Bill. We had a tenant who refused to pay rent. Period. We ended up using an “archaic” legal practice (that is what our RTDRS Tenancy Dispute Officer called it) called “distraint”. Our tenant began renting from us last December, bounced both security deposit cheque (I know I know…cash is preferred!) as well as December rent cheque, and proceeded to bounce the January one as well. On January 18th, we hired a bailiff to distrain (ie. seize her car) while it was parked at the rented premises. (It needs to be parked in its assigned stall in order for this to be legal.) We did not have to go to court to make this happen. We just hired a company who does this sort of work, filled out their necessary paper work showing that rent was owed, and they did the rest (it took 2 days from the time we contacted the company, til the time of the actual seizure). The tenant chose not to pay us and get her car back, so the car was sold and we received ALL monies owing – $4300.00 for three months rent – in July of this year. She was responsible for all costs related to the seizure so any profits that may have been realized through the sale of the car were most likely eaten up by those additional costs. It took 8 months but when we think of really how little work we had to do to make this happen, it is nice to know that there are some laws which work in a landlord’s favour – very nicely! Just thought I would let others know about this law…
This practice has come up a few times in the past. Most likely the reason they refer to it as archaic is that the actual law is quite old, but that doesn’t make it any less valid and they don’t call stealing archaic, yet it is just as old!
The important part to know if you are going to use this tactic is to verify the tenant has possessions worth seizing. Vehicles are perfect, but the threat of losing a big screen TV can often help money appear out of no where to pay the rent. Of course if it is a TV on payment plans or rent to own, they may not care anyway. As mentioned the tenants are also responsible to pay the enforcement agent (bailiff) who seizes the property, so it can be a win win situation for a landlord.
More great advice and feedback, so thanks again. Remember if you are a landlord who has had problems and wants to share what happened in your situation feel free to leave a comment or send me a private email and I can post it without identifying you or your property. It’s more important to get some of this information out there as I am sure it will help many others.
Bill
Hi Bill, i am in somewhat similar situation as you described. In my case, i had 6 month lease agreement with my tenants. they decided to move early because there developed a mold in the washroom due to their kids splashing water. now i am getting it fixed but they want to move out before their lease is over. Now they have refused to pay rent saying i can use DD as a last month rent. The reason is because there is some damage done to the walls and structure itself which they suspect i will deduct from DD. They also said they are moving out a good month and half before the lease is over. Now they have refused to pay for the rent of the last two months and their cheque has returned. I was just wondering what are my options. thanks for your post, it was very informative.
Hi Hasan,
If you let them use the security deposit as the last month’s rent you are almost guaranteed to be personally picking up the cost to do any repairs to damages they may have caused and to do any post move out cleanup.
You need to provide them a letter immediately informing them if rent is not paid by Sunday evening you will be proceeding to the court system to get July’s rent. Then of course you have to follow through, unless you enjoy paying for their damages.
On top of this they are breaking the lease, which allows you to charge some of your associated costs to them as well. You did mention there was a mould issue, so depending on how big an issue this is, it could also impact the breaking fo the lease, but if you don’t hold your ground, you will be out completely.
Hope that helps,
Bill
Thanks for your help Bill. They have refused to pay even after i mentioned the court. They said they will be moving out soon. Is there anyway to find their new address if they move out within 4-5 days or to still be able to recover the losses? One thing interesting is he has started threatening me that he will complain about health hazard situation in the suite and that my basement is illegal. When i bought the house, the realtor told me that the house has the permit to rent out basement, but i’m still doublechecking with the city now. i told my tenant that i will be starting working on the washroom on monday, the same day i will be serving them 24Hr notice to evict the property for substantial property damage. I do realize that there will be no washroom to use in the suite. I want to find a way to get them out of the suit and then follow the legal process if i have to. My goal is to have a minimal damage done to the suite. I honestly did not appreciate these threats and feel uncomfortable having them living in the suite anymore. thanks again for your kind and prompt reply. Thanks