QUESTION

How do I go about getting my tenant to pay for her rent and utility bills?

Asked on Jan 08th, 2012 on Landlord and Tenant Law - Oregon
More details to this question:
My tenant has not paid rent for December or January and has not paid the water bill which over due over $500.00. Her lease is up end of February and I have filed paperwork to evict her. What else can I do? She won't take my calls or accept my certified mail.
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4 ANSWERS

Steven D. Dunnings
Follow through with eviction.
Answered on Jun 20th, 2013 at 1:15 AM

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Criminal Defense Attorney serving Montrose, NY at Law Office of Jared Altman
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All you can ultimately do is take a judgment against her and then try to collect. I hope that you are using a lawyer.
Answered on Jan 23rd, 2012 at 8:29 AM

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Landlord and Tenant Law Attorney serving Avondale, AZ
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You have filed the paperwork to evict the tenant. Presumably, this means you have served the tenant with a 5-Day Notice to Pay or Quit and, after those 5 days had passed, you filed the eviction action with the court. There is nothing else you can do. Go to court on the scheduled hearing date and present your evidence. You should get a judgment that day. By law, the judge cannot issue the Writ of Restitution until 5 days after the judgment. If the tenant does not give you the keys within 5 days after the judgment, then go back to the courthouse and submit an application for a Writ of Restitution. The Writ is the document that authorizes the sheriff or constable to physically remove the tenant from the rental unit. If any personal property remains, you must inventory it and store it. If you wish, you can move it to another location.
Answered on Jan 20th, 2012 at 6:46 PM

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Kevin Elliott Parks
If you need to collect past due rent, there are a number of potential avenues to pursue which depend on the circumstances involved and how much the past due rent is at issue. You can likely try to pursue the amount via smalls claim court, or you can hire an attorney to pursue the deficiency, or a collection agency or the like. There are pros and cons to each method, of course, so you'll have to make some decisions as to what is most important. That said, your ability to collect on the bill payments due is somewhat nuanced, as the bills are likely in your client's name as opposed to yours. Thus, the utility company is likely to pursue whoever is named on their account for the deficiency, typically through their in-house collections department and then through a collections agency. If the rental agreement clearly indicates that the tenant is responsible for the utility bill at issue, or all utility bills, as it were, you can likely pay the bill off yourself (to ensure that you're providing utility service for any new tenants) and then seek reimbursement of the costs along with the late rent. Unfortunately, however, there's no way to require payment of back due rent during the eviction court proceeding itself and thus you're going to have to go through another process to collect.
Answered on Jan 20th, 2012 at 6:27 PM

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