My wife and I have been having some deep discussions the past couple of weeks about our renters and have done the following:
- Gave a 30 day eviction notice to one roommate now 3 months behind in rent ($1050 owed). He has been struggling trying to find work and he is going to see if his parents can pay his rent.
- Rewritten our house handbook to include our mission statement, roommate expectations (eg: consistent paying of rent), as well as the eviction process.
We are also heavily considering setting into play the following:
- Require 2 other roommates to become current in 60 days or be evicted. After Sunday, both of them are 2 months behind in their rent. If they do not become current in 60 days, they will need to move out.
- If at any point a roommate is more than a month behind in their rent, they have 30 days to rectify the situation or they have to move out.
- If we have to provide 3 eviction notices, the third one is their request to move out.
The problem we're having is that it feels like we're helping them every way we can and they don't view it important that they pay their rent on time. One of the roommates that is behind 2 months just went on vacation for a week to Texas to see relatives. After Sunday, the roommates combined will owe $2200 in rent due. The way we're looking at it is like we're borrowing them $2200 when we barely have enough to pay all of the bills and keep the debt collectors at bay.
Are we being unreasonable?
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2 comments:
You are not being unreasonable, if anything you are being too reasonable. They are not your children, going over 30 days is unacceptable - anywhere.
You are absolutely NOT being unreasonable. Part of being a responsible adult is paying your bills. I have lived on my own since I was 19 years old (many years), and I have always lived by the rule that housing payments come first. The rent must be paid before anything else -- vacations, pizza deliveries, anything.
I am glad to know that you are going to be strict with them, because enabling them to be irresponsible would be doing them a disservice.
Hang in there.
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