Handling Lease Violations:
What Every Landlord Needs to Know

Transcript

Jonathan Forisha:

I’m Jonathan, this is Krista, we’re here to help you be a better landlord. Today we are going to talk about lease violations. So first of all, what is a lease violation?

Krista Reuther:

Sure, it’s any activity that goes against what is written in the lease and anything that is presupposed in the lease, like the warranty of habitability.

Jonathan Forisha:

Okay, what are the most common kinds of lease violations?

Krista Reuther:

Sure, so from the tenant side, things like nonpayment of rent, noise violations are huge, parking violations, typically it’s behavior that they might not even know violates the lease and thus you see it repeat until you let them know that something’s wrong. But also, I will say landlords can violate the lease too. So both parties are equally bound to this document, so make sure you’re really comfortable with what’s in there.

Jonathan Forisha:

Yeah, that’s a good point. This is signed by everybody, the owner, the tenant or tenants, it applies to everyone. Something to keep in mind.

Krista Reuther:

Yeah, just a casual little tidbit just in case you don’t want to go to court.

Jonathan Forisha:

Yeah, I don’t want to do that. So what should a landlord do if their tenant is violating some aspect of their lease?

Krista Reuther:

Yeah, so what you’re going to want to do is document what’s going on and communicate with your tenant. Now there are specific things that you want to make sure that you include in that communication, so it’s effective, but by and large those are the two major steps you need to take.

Jonathan Forisha:

So say there is a lease violation happening, say that it’s been brought up, it’s been communicated about and it’s still happening, what should the course of action be?

Krista Reuther:

Sure, so this is going to vary depending on your unique landlord style. Some people don’t mind doing an informal notice to the person saying, hey Jonathan, got a noise complaint, you need to stop your 2 a.m. parties.

I won’t. And so you’re a rough tenant, but that’s okay. So you could say it very informally like that in person if you’d like. That would not be my recommendation though.

Instead, I would really say lean on documentation. So first time something comes up, send them an email, say, hey, I noticed that this behavior happened on this date, I’m going to need you to stop and reference the lease where it actually says this is not behavior that’s allowed. If you want to do it informally like that, wonderful. That’s informal because there is a formal way to write a lease violation letter and that’s going to be determined by your local laws and so far as what kind of form you sent.

Jonathan Forisha:

So yeah, let’s talk about the local laws. How shouldn’t somebody research their local laws in this case?

Krista Reuther:

Yeah, well great news. We have a really robust set of law pages for each state on TurboTenant.com slash state. So you can start there as a jumping off point to understand the different kinds of notices that you might be required to give. It also details how long you have to give your tenant in order for them to either fix the problem or face a consequence. Okay, so when you go through there, you’ll see that depending on how they violated the lease, your local laws may dictate that they need a notice to cure or quit versus a notice to vacate versus a couple other different types of notices.

It really boils down to does the tenant have a chance to fix the behavior within a certain time frame or is their lease violation bad enough that they will be asked to leave and evict themselves?

Jonathan Forisha:

Okay, so let’s talk about the cure or quit. I know we’ve gotten questions about that weird wording. Feels like legalese. What exactly does cure or quit mean?

Krista Reuther:

It’s exactly legalese. So inherently it’s saying, hey, you have X number of days to cure or fix this problem. Otherwise you need to quit this rental and move out.

Jonathan Forisha:

There we go. Okay. So we talked about the informal way of approaching a tenant about their lease violation. What about the formal way? If things are really bad, what’s the formal way to tell them?

Krista Reuther:

Yes. So you’re going to want to make sure that you draw up a lease violation notice that’ll either be a cure or quit notice, a notice to vacate. It will be determined again by your local laws, but you’ll go through and make sure that you include the following information. The rental address where they live, the name of the person who’s violated the lease or names if it’s multiple tenants. The behavior that violated the lease, when that was done along with any other supporting evidence if you have time stamped complaints or pictures of them breaking the lease, like whatever it might be, make sure you let them know that this is why you’re approaching them. You’re also going to want to explain their next steps.

So do they have a certain number of days to fix the violation? Are you pursuing an eviction? Let them know in this notice, depending on, again, your local laws. And finally, I would say make sure that you have something in there that requires them to acknowledge receipt of the notice.

That makes it a lot easier if you do have to go to court to say no. I let them know on this date that they needed to cure this behavior. I asked them to acknowledge it. They signed an acknowledgement, and thus the behavior continued, so we are at court.

Jonathan Forisha:

OK, so you have your formal notice of a lease violation. How should this be delivered?

Krista Reuther:

Sure. So I would say use something like certified mail. You want there to be undeniable proof that the person you intended to receive the message received it. Even if you put something in the formal notice asking them to acknowledge receipt, having a backup method to say no, they did receive this notice will go a long way if there is a court case in your future.

Jonathan Forisha:

Yeah, absolutely. TurboTenant’s messaging feature makes it really easy to stay in contact with your tenants and also for them not to blow up your phone. They’re messaging you via TurboTenant. And there is a read receipt built into that. But in this case, you really do want that extra security. With read receipts, somebody could make the case that it was their significant other or their family member or a friend or something that saw it and not them. But with certified mail, you have a guarantee that it was them. Yes.

Krista Reuther:

You got a signature. You’ve crossed your eyes, dotted your T’s, and you should be in a good spot.

Jonathan Forisha:

What if your tenant is doing something that you realize should have been an lease but isn’t yet?

Krista Reuther:

Ooh. So, you’re going to want to consider what they’re doing. If it’s something that inherently violates other people’s warranty of habitability, like they’re being too loud and it’s making it harder for other people in the unit or in your multifamily unit to live their lives peacefully, then you can address that even if it’s not specifically spelled out in your lease.

Now it should be. You want your lease to have all of the different clauses you could ever think of to make it as robust as possible. But in that case, you have some legal backing because you need to make sure that other tenants are enjoying their peace and quiet. If it’s something that you just didn’t think about and you’re seeing it pop up now, I would have a casual conversation with them. Be polite, but let them know, hey, I need this behavior to change because of X and work to find a solution together. Maybe it’s a parking issue, right? Maybe they’re parking in your space as the owner and you need them to not do that. You could say, hey, I see you parking in this space. That’s actually my dedicated space.

Can we talk about other places where you’d feel safe parking? Go from there, work together. And then when it comes time for your lease to either renew or for you to find a new tenant, make sure that you add a clause in there to speak to whatever kind of discussion and solution you came up with.

Jonathan Forisha:

So when somebody is building their next lease, how should they go about that? Sure.

Krista Reuther:

I would recommend TurboTenant. You can build a state-specific lease agreement in 15 minutes or less. And there is a field where you can add whatever kind of clauses you’d like, whether that’s addressing parking issues, noise violations, anything under the sun. You can add it in there, get it done fast, and then send it off to be signed electronically.

Jonathan Forisha:

Awesome. All right. Well, thanks for chatting to me about lease violations. If you out there have any other questions, please leave them in the comments below. Don’t forget to subscribe.