As a new landlord of a mobile home park, I have already experienced my share of tenants moving out in the middle of the night or with extremely short, as in 5 minutes from now and I still haven’t paid rent this month, move out notice. As such, I have become very leary of more move outs when tenants go silent when they are behind on rent. Today I decided to open the door of a rental unit that is 1.5 months behind on rent to ensure they hadn’t left in the night. After getting no response to multiple very loud knock attempts and calling out the tenant’s name I opened the door with my key and (SHOCKER!) she was home and not answering the door. She became very irate immediately telling me how dare I open her door. I did not enter the property at all as my feet remaind outside the trailer at all times. Have I crossed a legal boundary as a landlord?
It seems you should be evicting people immediately after they are late paying, as allowed by your state laws. That way your keys are only needed when the Justice of the Peace shows up.
These late payers talk to each other and take advantage when they can get away with it.
Study your state landlord tennat regulations before you have any farther contact with tenants. It is your responsibility to know the law.
In most jurisdictions you are required to give 24 hrs notice before entering on to a rental property. That includes the lot as well as a rental home. The only exception would be entry in the event of a emergency.
When rent is not received, in full, by midnight the day it is due you immediately issue a pay or quit notice and proceed with eviction when necessary. A few evictions will clear out your problems and allow you to use higher screening standards in selecting future tenants. If tenants are simply moving out your tenant base is sub standard and needs to be improved. I suspect you have POHs that need to be sold off. Tenant owned homes will decrease your delinquent payments as well.
Yes. You cannot enter someone’s apartment without notice beforehand. Unlocking the door with the key would almost certainly be penalized in a court. You should hope your tenant does not sue you. If they do, you will have to take your lumps. You must have a good reason to hurry (e.g.flooding) to enter without statutory notice or permission.
Obviously you cannot enter and seize collateral in lieu of rent either. Even with notice. You can’t require the tenant to stay while you enter either (so entering is not the solution to forcing a conversation).