6 Creative Ways to Get Rid of Bad Tenants

Bad tenants are a nightmare.

Try to get rid of toxic renters at your property, and you can expect to incur thousands of dollars in costs: months of unpaid rents, damage to your property, eviction court costs, attorney or other legal help, and, of course, dozens of hours of your time wasted.

The best answer to avoid this appalling problem, as always, is prevention.

You should start with aggressive, thorough tenant screening, including credit reports, criminal checks, eviction reports, income verification, character references, and rental history verification with several past landlords.

However, prevention doesn’t stop with tenant screening. Landlords need to send a consistent message — month in and month — that they take the lease terms seriously and enforce them without hesitation.

That means conducting regular inspections, serving lease violation notices immediately, checking in with tenants about maintenance, and most of all, serving eviction warning notices on the first-day rent officially becomes late.

If you do all the above, you will prevent 99% of your tenant headaches.

But what about that 1% of cases when the tenants just refuse to play by the rules?

Before we review your options, let's pause and outline what not to do.

The Big No-No: Self-Help Evictions
Before we offer our helpful ideas, let's make something clear: Self-help evictions – of any kind – are illegal.

Not slap-on-the-wrist illegal, but rather you-can-go-to-jail illegal.

Self-help eviction is any intervention the landlord takes to make the property unlivable and/or to try and coerce the tenants to vacate. They include (but are not limited to):

- Changing the locks
- Turning off utilities
- Physically blocking access to the property
- Removing the tenant’s belongings
- Harassment of any kind
- Sending Vinny over to the property with a lead pipe

There is only one legal pathway to forcibly remove tenants from a property: filing for eviction in court.

Now that we have that out of the way, what are some alternatives to filing eviction?

We’ve put together six creative ways to get rid of bad tenants in increasing order of urgency and desperation.

[ABCD-rfhg]

With sky high rents now, cash for keys doesn't work anymore. If the tenant is currently paying $1700/month but new rents are $2400/month and you offer the tenant 2 months rent($3400) to move, after 1 year the tenant is out of pocket $5000 so they will refuse to move.

[heru-deshet]

After I got screwed with a lowlife tenant who was protected by her military employer, I do not rent to couples with kids, animals, one job families or if they can't afford to pay two months of rent up front as a deposit. They need excellent verifiable references. I have a very detailed lease contract that protects me, allows to evict them immediately and hold all of their possessions until they pay me. As long as you have a signed agreement from them there's nothing they can do to you.

[felicialartey]

I have a tenant that ignores me complety now i want her out of my house and oh yes she will leave! 😉

[vickicullins]

I have been the Tennet, and a landlady . The first Tennet stopped paying I told the Tennet I was selling the property .However, a family relative, has a squatter, which depends on what state you live in . It's been a night mare for my relative .

[Vera-dghf]

Some tenants are pure evil. They will file harassment complaints against you and take you to court. A lot of the times you have to plead not guilty and have those lies and records even if youre not found guilty. All because you want them to leave. Not worth the headache.

[heru-deshet]

Set fire to the place, claim the insurance and don't repair for a while so they have to relocate elsewhere.

[nancywilson]

Any tenants that refuse to exercise their legal rights is a fool! 😁😁😁😁😁😁😁☺☺😜😜😜😜😜😜😍😍😍😍😍😍

[josephkingston]

Is it true landlords that in the volume, is it true, that the publisher stated: Landlords, stop the chatter, stop lawyer fees, don't serve a bad tenant paper work, just purchase bear pepper spray, spray the air condition unit or central heating unit at 12 midnight, with bear pepper spray, leave immediately, because they will flee out of the apartment, tenants won't be able to move back in till 5 days later, then spray it again? The volume titled: IS IT TRUE, can only be purchased wherever you might find it, possibly because of its contents, that enables the reader to know things they might never find in any other volume written. There are some realms of knowledge that those who monitor select activities of human behavior, they would rather the general public never know. Knowledge is power, the proper knowledge utilized to save one financially from being taken advantage of by a willful chiester tenant can save an honest landlord thousands of dollars. Some might say: let bear pepper spray be the police officer in chemical garb that does the work for you of removing a non- paying tenant....

[augustuswaltercnjacobs]

I cut off the water electricity, sewerage, next use gangsters, throw red paint into their house,

[nancywilson]

LANDLORD HARASSMENT IS AGAINST THE LAW IN THE STATE OF TEXAS! THAT'S THE STATE I LIVE IN.😁😁😁😁😁😁😜😜😜😜😜😜☺☺☺☺☺☺

[adamfishermen]

My family has 1000 years of experience in owning property. I want to step my foot firm in this become a lord in the states. Of course I am not the government so I can’t enforce strict punishments like the old boys but I want to feel like I have power

[nancywilson]

IT PAYS TO KNOW MY RIGHTS AS A TENANT IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! TENANTS AND LANDLORD LAWS, ARE PUT IN PLACE BECAUSE OF EVIL

[montemacon]

I love the video but one thing I cant go with Is the fact that If that person and or persons are bad tenants why wold you put them on a nother landlord or help them move anyware.

[Kmobful]

Personally I'd just break the law to kick them out. Plenty of methods that can't lead back to you. But then, I've always broken laws I disagree with

[ltr]

Interesting what about a slumlord who does the criminal activities and leaves a trail of evidence

[nancywilson]

THIS MESSAGE IS TO ALL LANDLORDS OUT THERE! TENANTS HAVE THE RIGHT TO EXERCISE THEIR LEGAL

[LandAcademy]

Amazing video Seth on how to properly evict bad tenants. Thanks for the share and for the information.

[liquid_shadow]

I’m in a process to evict a tenant for non payment. Sucks but they are in the wrong.

[caryn]

Just do what my landlady does have her neighbors harass you for no reason .

[ralphcantrell]

Nice advice. Thanks... Or you could just give "Brutus" a serious discount on rent and move him into the apartment next door to them with orders to make their life a living Hell until they take off in the middle of the night never to return.