Rents late, can’t reach the tenant, is it possible my tenants bailed on me?
Crazy how often you see this pop up in landlord discussions, but it does, far too often!
So what do you do? Can you, the landlord, simply go to the property unlock the door and look around? After all it’s abandoned, right?
As in so many other landlord situations the answer is a firm maybe…
Is It Abandoned? Have My Tenants Bailed?
Or have they moved out and simply plan to come back to clean up like the great people they are?
We know the answer, but due to the complications of the law, the ability of people to abuse the rules and the utter lack of people feeling the need to do what’s right going into your own property to secure it may be the wrong solution.
Under just about every jurisdiction the laws state the tenancy isn’t over until it’s confirmed it’s over which is a rather circular argument.
Sure you could go barging in and confirm it’s vacant and the tenants have indeed bailed, but what if they are only in the process of moving. You’ve now illegally entered the property and you’re the bad guy.
In tenant friendly jurisdictions you’re in breach and you’ve suddenly lost all your rights. You’re not able to retain any deposits, you may have taken obvious junk to the trash that were prized possessions to the tenant (or so they say) and obviously you’re a lousy human being and a nasty rule breaking landlord.
Just more proof that landlords are abusing the system right?
Follow The Stupid Rules
I get that is a stretch, but in these litigious times, we need to protect ourselves by following the rules. And after all, unless you can confirm there is a safety reason to immediately access (you hear running water, see smoke billowing out, maybe on a stretch it’s raining in a window enough to cause serious damage), you can’t access the property without proper notice.
And what’s one more day?
So simply drop off a 24 hour notice of inspection and attach it to the entrances (front. back and side where applicable) and take a few pictures with your phone as evidence.
Now you’re following the rules and can come back the next day ready and able to legally enter the property. Then you’ll be able to take dozens of additional pictures to help prove that it is indeed vacant and that the property has indeed been abandoned.
Just as added followup, it never hurts to text, leave a voice message and even send an email informing them that it appears they have abandoned the property and that you will be doing an inspection the next day at XX time.
It’s a shame we have to do so much CYA, but it’s how the rules have been set up. After all we’re the rich landlord taking advantage of the poor tenants right?