Renting out a property isn’t always a fairy tale, as a matter of fact, it can be pretty daunting. The downside of renting for a property owner is having to deal with bad tenants, and mostly bad tenants are made out of bad rental payments or damages. The sort of thing which in the end cost property owners money instead of gaining income from this investment.

In our previous blog, we dived into handling bad rental payments from tenants, but what to do when a tenant keeps defaulting on payments? Some savings will eventually run out and taking action by sending a letter of demand won’t be paying your next bond repayment. The only thing left to do is to get the tenant out of your property so that you can start the search for a new, hopefully, better paying, tenant.

Once you decide on the eviction route, it’s important to realise that there is a tough journey ahead. As a property owner, it’s vital to either know all your rights as well as your tenants’ rights, equip yourself to take on the eviction process or get someone to handle it for you. (Have a look at the Preferental Promise that will take care of this on your behalf.)

There is so much legal substance to remember when dealing with “bad tenants”, and in reality, many things are happening BEFORE eviction can actually take place. Have a look:

  • Place tenant in mora — the first thing that needs to happen when you decide to evict a tenant (that decision alone has many conditions, but let’s say you have a solid reason, and the tenant is in breach of the lease agreement) is to place the tenant in mora. This means you are putting your tenant on terms allowing him/her a certain number of days to remedy the breach. You will need to provide a written letter, known as a Letter of Demand, in order to place your tenant in mora.
  • Allow time for remedy — let’s say you have done your lease agreement through Preferental and its CPA compliant, then 20 business days are required. So for the next few weeks, it’s waiting…
  • Decide what route to take — if your tenant remains in breach of the agreement after the required 20 business days you will have to choose between 1) opt to uphold the lease agreement and claim the rent OR 2) cancel the agreement and proceed with the eviction process.

Every scenario and renting relationship is unique and should be dealt with that way, so there is no easy way of knowing which route is right or wrong to take from here. The sad thing is that you’ll only see when you land in the wrong spot, and by then time and money will be spent without any results. For this reason, it is advisable to seek expert assistance when deciding to go with option 2 — proceeding with the eviction.

Next week’s blog will explore the eviction process itself, in the meantime have a look at how you can protect yourself with the help of Preferental.