Filing for Eviction & Accepting late payment

[concerned1977]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? VA

I sent the tenant a certified letter stating that if I don't receive the late payment for November by December 3rd that I will file for eviction on December 4th. If they send the payment in after the 3rd (whether it's before or after I file for eviction) can I still accept the payment (i.e. cash the check) "with reservation" and still have them evicted? If I can still accept the payment and still continue with the eviction what should I do to make it clear that I've accepted the payment "with reservation" so that I can continue with the eviction process? or does acceptance of the payment put a hault to the eviction?

thanks.

 

[Gail in Georgia]

No, you cannot accept the rent and still file for eviction. Your whole reason for the eviction is because they owe rent. The acceptance of rent negates the eviction process.

Gail

 

[OK-LL]

In order to evict for non-payment, you have to meet 2 criteria: you must not have received payment in full and you must have served the proper pay or quit notice for your state. Whether you must refuse partial payments is a state-specific issue and I don't know about VA. Here in OK, if tenant pays less than full amount due, I can accept payment and proceed to court, reducing the amount I request in judgment.

Maybe someone with specific knowledge about VA partial payments will post a response.

 

[concerned1977]

Thanks for the information. My real problem is that I sold the house through "seller financing" with a rent-to-own management company. The "buyer" paid the second month (october) late and hasn't paid november yet. it wasn't until I asked "where is the payment" (about 2 weeks ago) that the management company finally sent out a demand letter informing them that they have 15 days per the contract (until December 3rd) to make the payment or they would be evicted.

now the management company is telling me that they are required to give an additional 14 day notice to comply (which I think is pure B.S. because it only gives them additional time to pay late) and when I asked them not to accept any payments after December 3rd so that I evict, they told me that "they can't do that" and that "they have to accept any and all payments made". i don't believe that this is true and correct me if I'm wrong. I think that they can choose to not accept or cash the payment if they want, but they are simply choosing not to.

I believe that i will need to hire a lawyer to help me out, but I wanted to know if i'm correct while I'm initially trying to deal with the management company so that they know they cannot take advantage of me.

thanks for the help.