Options to enforce a lease when renters want to be evicted.

[titansfan1234]

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

I'm in Tennessee and I have a renter who has not paid July rent. I know they haven't paid because they are wanting me to evict them, thus canceling the lease, so they can move somewhere else. I don't want to evict them/cancel the lease; I want them to have to continue living-up to their part of the contract. If I evict, then I have to go through all the trouble of fixing the place up and renting it again. It seems like I'm the one being punished if I evict them. I know I can evict and then sue for the time the house was open, but I want to force them to pay the full amount they agreed to. Do I have options to forcing them to continue paying me rent, and not evicting?

 

[Banned_Princess]

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

I'm in Tennessee and I have a renter who has not paid July rent. I know they haven't paid because they are wanting me to evict them, thus canceling the lease, so they can move somewhere else. I don't want to evict them/cancel the lease; I want them to have to continue living-up to their part of the contract. If I evict, then I have to go through all the trouble of fixing the place up and renting it again. It seems like I'm the one being punished if I evict them. I know I can evict and then sue for the time the house was open, but I want to force them to pay the full amount they agreed to. Do I have options to forcing them to continue paying me rent, and not evicting?

No, but I'm sure they will happily pay no rent as long as you let them.

Once you evict them you CANNOT sue them for the time the place goes unrented.

You cannot make them do anything except move with a eviction judgement and a visit from the sheriff.

When they move out and you have to sue them for back rent, 1. The judge will want to know why you didn't mitigate your damages by evicting them in a reasonable amount of time and 2. you have limited options of making them pay the judgement, so even then you can't MAKE them pay you.

On the up side the eviction may be public information making it slightly harder for them to rent in the future.

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

Your recourse is to legally evict them, then sue for the deficiency. Hopefully you obtained a large enough deposit to offset much of the expenses.

 

[sandyclaus]

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

I'm in Tennessee and I have a renter who has not paid July rent. I know they haven't paid because they are wanting me to evict them, thus canceling the lease, so they can move somewhere else. I don't want to evict them/cancel the lease; I want them to have to continue living-up to their part of the contract. If I evict, then I have to go through all the trouble of fixing the place up and renting it again. It seems like I'm the one being punished if I evict them. I know I can evict and then sue for the time the house was open, but I want to force them to pay the full amount they agreed to. Do I have options to forcing them to continue paying me rent, and not evicting?

It sounds like it sucks to be you.

You have no way to force them to pay rent without actually getting a judgment and collecting the money from them afterwards. That, however, doesn't get you paid - not anytime soon, and maybe not EVER if they are difficult to collect from.

It seems to me that you'll have to "go through all the trouble of fixing the place up" sooner or later. The sooner you do it, the sooner you can get NEW tenants in the house that WILL pay the rent.

What you're going through is part of the business of being a LL. You try to get the good tenants, and sometimes you end up with duds. You'll just have to do better screening next time.

 

[Just Blue]

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

I'm in Tennessee and I have a renter who has not paid July rent. I know they haven't paid because they are wanting me to evict them, thus canceling the lease, so they can move somewhere else. I don't want to evict them/cancel the lease; I want them to have to continue living-up to their part of the contract. If I evict, then I have to go through all the trouble of fixing the place up and renting it again. It seems like I'm the one being punished if I evict them. I know I can evict and then sue for the time the house was open, but I want to force them to pay the full amount they agreed to. Do I have options to forcing them to continue paying me rent, and not evicting?

1. When does the lease expire?
2. How long have they lived there?
3. Is the "fixing the place up" due to the tenants, your apathy or just normal w&t?
4. Perhaps you should hire a MGR to deal with the property as you seem to find it burdensome.