Hello all,
I am a naive landlord and have several issues with tenants that will not pay rent.
To be clear I am non-business savvy. I have made several mistakes and I am looking at the best way to sort out my situation.
1.5 years ago I accepted tenants at my property. I provided them with a contract that was not returned but I assumed there was goodwill. A month into the tenancy I provided another contract and was promised it would return. I put this in the back of my mind and forgot about it (So stupid...). The tenants were quiet without any requests or issues.
At the end of the first year tenants requested some repairs. Thinking back on the year I checked my bank accounts. 2 months rent missing including deposit! Visited them and requested they sign the contract and provide the missing funds. They agreed to return the contact and pay the funds. A week later I saw a partial portion of what was owed enter my bank account. As per usual I regrettably assumed all was ok and forgot about it.
Recently I thought the check on the situation and see NO RENT has been payed for 4 months and obv there's still no contract. Being completely ignorant I only recently learned I need to register with the PRTB.
Yes, I am aware that there is a large bulk of mistakes that are completely my fault. I of course am going to learn from this and apart from meeting all rent requirements and frequently checking for rent and issues with the house, I want to be a good and legal landlord.
What do I do now though? I am trying desperately to contact these people who live 4 hours away and get no reply. I will go down to see them but I am worried they will refuse to pay back rent and even leave. If so they are a family with children so the idea of forcefully evicting them by moving out their things when not home is quite difficult, even given the way they are behaving.
I need advice on how to handle this, whether I should go to the PRTB, how big of an issue it is to not have a tenancy agreement and what to do about eviction. I just want this to be over as easily as possible, handle things legally and move on to a better, educated and correct landlordship.
Any advice is extremely well received. Very stressed out. Should just sell the property as i'm obviously crap at managing it...
I am a naive landlord and have several issues with tenants that will not pay rent.
To be clear I am non-business savvy. I have made several mistakes and I am looking at the best way to sort out my situation.
1.5 years ago I accepted tenants at my property. I provided them with a contract that was not returned but I assumed there was goodwill. A month into the tenancy I provided another contract and was promised it would return. I put this in the back of my mind and forgot about it (So stupid...). The tenants were quiet without any requests or issues.
At the end of the first year tenants requested some repairs. Thinking back on the year I checked my bank accounts. 2 months rent missing including deposit! Visited them and requested they sign the contract and provide the missing funds. They agreed to return the contact and pay the funds. A week later I saw a partial portion of what was owed enter my bank account. As per usual I regrettably assumed all was ok and forgot about it.
Recently I thought the check on the situation and see NO RENT has been payed for 4 months and obv there's still no contract. Being completely ignorant I only recently learned I need to register with the PRTB.
Yes, I am aware that there is a large bulk of mistakes that are completely my fault. I of course am going to learn from this and apart from meeting all rent requirements and frequently checking for rent and issues with the house, I want to be a good and legal landlord.
What do I do now though? I am trying desperately to contact these people who live 4 hours away and get no reply. I will go down to see them but I am worried they will refuse to pay back rent and even leave. If so they are a family with children so the idea of forcefully evicting them by moving out their things when not home is quite difficult, even given the way they are behaving.
I need advice on how to handle this, whether I should go to the PRTB, how big of an issue it is to not have a tenancy agreement and what to do about eviction. I just want this to be over as easily as possible, handle things legally and move on to a better, educated and correct landlordship.
Any advice is extremely well received. Very stressed out. Should just sell the property as i'm obviously crap at managing it...