Deadbeats and Evictions

If you have ever had the joy of a "For Cause" eviction, you know how important it can be to keep detailed notes of the reasons you are evicting.   Yes, you may have followed stringent tenant screening guidelines, tried your best to find the most qualified tenant and still end up with a bad apple you need to evict.  Failing to provide proper documentation can end up wasting your time and money, not to mention a judge not signing off on the judgement, and you having to live with a deadbeat even longer.   

In my property management career, I have had to evict tenants for reasons ranging from violent behavior, indecent exposure, child pornography rings, racist behavior, drug trafficing, creating a fire pit in a living room, intimidation, non-payment of rent... and thankfully I had a well-seasoned property manager train me to document the hell out of any and all suspcious activity.  And, might I say, I managed high-end properties with "well-to-do" folks and even they were not exempt from the title of low-life needing to be evicted.

Keeping a daily log was part of my routine but I know many managers in the biz who did not document activity (I would hear their sob-stories at industry meetings...) and they had a heck of a time evicting their deadbeats.  In those cases, not only the manager suffers, but so do the neighbors.  And, I can't imagine the property owners had much confidence in their lack of managerial skills. 

In our property management software, we have a location for landlords/managers to document tenant activity or notes.  What I love about this option is that it provides a running log with dates and times that can be used, if need be, in filing an eviction.  

With a web-based rental software program, you don't have to worry about losing your paper-log or risk your computer crashing. I highly recommend that, if you're not already do so, you adopt a methodical and reliable system for documenting tenant activity.  You'll be grateful you did when you're standing in a courtroom.