Comments on: How To Legally Serve A 5-Day Notice To Pay Rent or Vacate http://petriestocking.com/blog/2009/08/25/how-to-legally-serve-a-5-day-notice-to-pay-rent-or-vacate/ Tristan's Landlord - Tenant Law Blog Tue, 15 May 2012 19:37:19 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. http://petriestocking.com/blog/2009/08/25/how-to-legally-serve-a-5-day-notice-to-pay-rent-or-vacate/comment-page-1/#comment-2001 Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. Wed, 07 Mar 2012 23:56:43 +0000 http://petriestocking.com/blog/?p=384#comment-2001 Erika --- Please understand that I cannot give legal advice via this blog so I cannot answer your specific quetion as I dont know all of your facts. But generally speaking if you choose to not renew a tenant's lease -- which are legally allowed to do for any reason or no reason at all as long as you are not retaliating agaisnt them or discriminating against them, and then the tenant doesnt pay the last motnh's rent you could serve them with a 5 day notice for failure to pay rent and if they dont cure the breach you could evict them. If a tenant doesn't pay the last month's rent Wis. Stats. does allow you to deduct rent from the tenant's security deposit. So yes, landlords often apply the security deposit to last month's rent and then not return security deposit. A security deposit itemization letter must still be sent. You should read my blog post on how to draft a legal 21 day letter (security deposit itemization letter) as I believe I use just this example in the post. It is better to be safe than sorry when deducting from a tenant's security deposit, but barring any crazy facts or situations, a tenant's past due rent can be deducted from a security deposit. Again, retain a lawyer to review your specific situation who can actually give you legal advice that you can relay on. T Erika — Please understand that I cannot give legal advice via this blog so I cannot answer your specific quetion as I dont know all of your facts. But generally speaking if you choose to not renew a tenant’s lease — which are legally allowed to do for any reason or no reason at all as long as you are not retaliating agaisnt them or discriminating against them, and then the tenant doesnt pay the last motnh’s rent you could serve them with a 5 day notice for failure to pay rent and if they dont cure the breach you could evict them.

If a tenant doesn’t pay the last month’s rent Wis. Stats. does allow you to deduct rent from the tenant’s security deposit. So yes, landlords often apply the security deposit to last month’s rent and then not return security deposit. A security deposit itemization letter must still be sent.

You should read my blog post on how to draft a legal 21 day letter (security deposit itemization letter) as I believe I use just this example in the post.

It is better to be safe than sorry when deducting from a tenant’s security deposit, but barring any crazy facts or situations, a tenant’s past due rent can be deducted from a security deposit. Again, retain a lawyer to review your specific situation who can actually give you legal advice that you can relay on.

T

]]> By: Erika S. http://petriestocking.com/blog/2009/08/25/how-to-legally-serve-a-5-day-notice-to-pay-rent-or-vacate/comment-page-1/#comment-1996 Erika S. Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:47:32 +0000 http://petriestocking.com/blog/?p=384#comment-1996 Thank you for this blog! My husband and I have been landlords of a duplex in which we live in 1 of the units for almost 5 years. The landlord/tenant laws in the area are very complex! We have tenants who are due to leave at the end of the month, we didn't renew their lease because of a plethora of problems with them. They haven't paid their rent for the month thus far and my husband has tried to get in touch with them but they avoid us. My husband was just telling me that legally we can't just keep their deposit in the place of their rent because they can come back and sue us. Is this correct? They can sue us for the $700 but they still owe us $700, so it seems silly that we couldn't keep it. This set of tenants has made me feel like we need a lawyer on hand because of the problems we've had with them! But yet WE are the bad guys. We didn't force them to break lease more than once. We were more than lenient when they did break the lease. Apparently they feel they can make up the rules as they go. Thanks for any info you can provide! Thank you for this blog! My husband and I have been landlords of a duplex in which we live in 1 of the units for almost 5 years. The landlord/tenant laws in the area are very complex! We have tenants who are due to leave at the end of the month, we didn’t renew their lease because of a plethora of problems with them. They haven’t paid their rent for the month thus far and my husband has tried to get in touch with them but they avoid us. My husband was just telling me that legally we can’t just keep their deposit in the place of their rent because they can come back and sue us. Is this correct? They can sue us for the $700 but they still owe us $700, so it seems silly that we couldn’t keep it.
This set of tenants has made me feel like we need a lawyer on hand because of the problems we’ve had with them! But yet WE are the bad guys. We didn’t force them to break lease more than once. We were more than lenient when they did break the lease. Apparently they feel they can make up the rules as they go.
Thanks for any info you can provide!

]]> By: Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. http://petriestocking.com/blog/2009/08/25/how-to-legally-serve-a-5-day-notice-to-pay-rent-or-vacate/comment-page-1/#comment-1925 Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:33:43 +0000 http://petriestocking.com/blog/?p=384#comment-1925 Randy -- I'm sorry to hear about the foreclosure -- you are not alone. I have heard of landlords in foreclosure who stop paying their mortgage but continue to get rent from tenant - which they are legally entitled to do since they still own the property. But I have to admit that I have never heard of a landlord who just let the tenant live rent free once the foreclosure started. That is money that you are leaving on the table. No there is no time limit. Even if there was you would then just serve a 5 day notice based on the last month rent or two only. But that is not necessary as you can (and should) list all past due rent. The only problem you could have would be if you told the tenant they were no longer responsible for rent. Good Luck Randy —

I’m sorry to hear about the foreclosure — you are not alone. I have heard of landlords in foreclosure who stop paying their mortgage but continue to get rent from tenant – which they are legally entitled to do since they still own the property. But I have to admit that I have never heard of a landlord who just let the tenant live rent free once the foreclosure started. That is money that you are leaving on the table.

No there is no time limit. Even if there was you would then just serve a 5 day notice based on the last month rent or two only. But that is not necessary as you can (and should) list all past due rent. The only problem you could have would be if you told the tenant they were no longer responsible for rent.

Good Luck

]]> By: Randy http://petriestocking.com/blog/2009/08/25/how-to-legally-serve-a-5-day-notice-to-pay-rent-or-vacate/comment-page-1/#comment-1924 Randy Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:15:37 +0000 http://petriestocking.com/blog/?p=384#comment-1924 I will try to make this as simple as possible - my rental property is in foreclosure. I have a tenant who has stopped paying rent however I have not evicted them, thinking I was helping someone out. However, now they have stopped paying their water bill - which the owner (me) is responsible for. I have tried several times to at least get the money for the utility bill but have received nothing. Can I pursue an eviction for a year of back-rent that they owe? Is there a time limit on how many months of rent you can sue for? I will try to make this as simple as possible – my rental property is in foreclosure. I have a tenant who has stopped paying rent however I have not evicted them, thinking I was helping someone out. However, now they have stopped paying their water bill – which the owner (me) is responsible for. I have tried several times to at least get the money for the utility bill but have received nothing. Can I pursue an eviction for a year of back-rent that they owe? Is there a time limit on how many months of rent you can sue for?

]]> By: Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. http://petriestocking.com/blog/2009/08/25/how-to-legally-serve-a-5-day-notice-to-pay-rent-or-vacate/comment-page-1/#comment-480 Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. Sat, 29 May 2010 20:36:23 +0000 http://petriestocking.com/blog/?p=384#comment-480 Scott -- Thanks for your kind words. I am glad the blog is helpful. When serving a Notice via certified mail it is deemed served once it is in the mail. It does not matter whether the tenant accepts the cert. mail or not. I advise most of my clients to serve notices via certified mail (and all of the notices that I serve for my clients I send via certified mail) and in almost 70% of the cases the tenant says that they never received the notice --- too bad. I have not had any problems with service via certified mail -- the court commissioners and judges are aware that the tenant need not "pick up" the cert. mail in order for it to be a valid service. Scott — Thanks for your kind words. I am glad the blog is helpful.

When serving a Notice via certified mail it is deemed served once it is in the mail. It does not matter whether the tenant accepts the cert. mail or not.

I advise most of my clients to serve notices via certified mail (and all of the notices that I serve for my clients I send via certified mail) and in almost 70% of the cases the tenant says that they never received the notice — too bad. I have not had any problems with service via certified mail — the court commissioners and judges are aware that the tenant need not “pick up” the cert. mail in order for it to be a valid service.

]]> By: Scott http://petriestocking.com/blog/2009/08/25/how-to-legally-serve-a-5-day-notice-to-pay-rent-or-vacate/comment-page-1/#comment-466 Scott Wed, 12 May 2010 15:58:51 +0000 http://petriestocking.com/blog/?p=384#comment-466 There is an absolutely fantastic amount of information on this blog -- thank you so much for providing it to us landlords that are always trying to learn from past experiences! Regarding this topic, I was wondering what happens in a situation where a tenant is late with rent, a 5-day notice is mailed via certified mail, but the tenant simply refuses to accept/sign for the letter? Where can a landlord turn to at that point? Thank you again! There is an absolutely fantastic amount of information on this blog — thank you so much for providing it to us landlords that are always trying to learn from past experiences!

Regarding this topic, I was wondering what happens in a situation where a tenant is late with rent, a 5-day notice is mailed via certified mail, but the tenant simply refuses to accept/sign for the letter? Where can a landlord turn to at that point? Thank you again!

]]> By: Is It Time To Hire A Property Management Company? | Tristan's Landlord - Tenant Law Blog http://petriestocking.com/blog/2009/08/25/how-to-legally-serve-a-5-day-notice-to-pay-rent-or-vacate/comment-page-1/#comment-426 Is It Time To Hire A Property Management Company? | Tristan's Landlord - Tenant Law Blog Tue, 27 Apr 2010 04:05:09 +0000 http://petriestocking.com/blog/?p=384#comment-426 [...] Third, a landlord gets “dinged” by a tenant.  This could run the gamut from having an eviction action dismissed because of improper service of a 5 Day Notice, or getting sued by a tenant for making an improper deduction from their security deposit, or any [...] [...] Third, a landlord gets “dinged” by a tenant.  This could run the gamut from having an eviction action dismissed because of improper service of a 5 Day Notice, or getting sued by a tenant for making an improper deduction from their security deposit, or any [...]

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