How can I sue for advanced rent? - Landlord Forum thread 342625

How can I sue for advanced rent? by Anonymous (West Virginia) on January 30, 2016 @20:40

Someone signed a one year lease and fell behind after one month.

During the eviction, I want to collect back rent, but also I want to collect all the rent they promised to pay me when they signed the lease.

This means 11 months worth of rent.

How can I do this?

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Re: How can I sue for advanced rent? by Anonymous on January 30, 2016 @21:50	[ Reply ]

You have one month of back rent.....you can sue for that certainly but 11 months? It won't happen and don't make the judge mad at you by insisting. You might get 2 months......but of course once you have the eviction papers and the renter has left you are still holding the bag. It will be up to you to collect - legally.

Re: How can I sue for advanced rent?

Re: How can I sue for advanced rent? by Garry (Iowa) on January 30, 2016 @23:00	[ Reply ]

You cannot collect the rent for those 11 months. You don't understand what the eviction papers meant. The 3 day notice YOU gave your tenant, gave them a choice----either pay the rent, or leave. They chose not to pay the rent, but they also chose not to leave, either. YOU then went to the court system and asked the courts to make the T leave, which they did. Your tenant is now gone, because YOU forced them to leave, thru the eviction process. Depending on how your state's laws are worded. YOU cancelled your own lease, effective either at the end of the 3 days, when you filed in court, the actual court date, or when the sheriff actually put them to the street. In Iowa, our leases are cancelled at the end of the 3 day notice, and we can only charge the T for the full month the 3 day notice was cancelled in, and no future months after that. If a judge ever granted you the 11 months of rent, they would also have to award possession back to the former tenant. Is that what you want? The only other possible scenario is if you were awarded the 11 months of rent, and the evicted T did not get or want actual possession, you would would have to keep your place vacant for the 11 months, because a LL is not allowed to collect rent from 2 different parties on the same unit. That's fraud, and you can possibly go to jail for that, or at least get a big fine.

Re: How can I sue for advanced rent?

Re: How can I sue for advanced rent? by Anonymous (Tx) on January 31, 2016 @09:10	[ Reply ]

The question you should ask is what part of your screening process allowed a deadbeat tenant to be approved.

Re: How can I sue for advanced rent?

Re: How can I sue for advanced rent? by MrDan (Georgia) on January 31, 2016 @23:03	[ Reply ]

According to West Virginia Landlord Tenant law; West Virginia Code CHAPTER 37. REAL PROPERTY. ARTICLE 6. LANDLORD AND TENANT.§37-6-6. Desertion of leased property; entry; recovery of rent, disposition of abandoned personal property; The landlord may recover the rent owed up to the time when he or she became entitled to possession §37-6-7. Reletting by landlord "The landlord, or other person entitled to the rent may, however, at his election, incorporate...after he shall have taken possession of the demised premises...the tenant will still remain liable upon his lease, for the unexpired portion of his term, for the difference between the amount of rent received by the landlord from the new tenant, and the amount payable under the lease of the original tenant" §37-6-8. Tenant's right to recover possession "If the landlord shall have elected to continue to hold the tenant liable upon his lease, as provided in the preceding section, the tenant shall be entitled, upon the payment of all arrears of rent, and the satisfaction of any liabilities which shall have accrued upon the covenants or agreements contained in his lease..." The problems a landlord might incur; <L>If the landlord holds the tenant to future rents, the tenant is entitled to recover possession of the premises (re-enter) upon payment of all due monies. <L>Small claims court limited is $5000.00 <L>The tenant files bankruptcy <L>The tenant is judgement proof This would be something best handled through an attorney before proceeding by yourself.

Re: How can I sue for advanced rent?