I’ve often stated that one of the most important factors in your success as a real estate investor is your ability to select, screen, and retain quality tenants. This is something that I think I’m pretty good at, which has helped me as an investor.

I was going to write an article about this not to long ago when, bam, I ran into a problem: tenants who stopped paying.

The tenants were a flaky young couple that I knew I might be taking a chance back when they signed the lease in May. But I decided to rent to them and mitigated my risk by signing a short lease (six months, with renewal contingent on timely payment), charged them first and last month’s rent upfront, plus one month’s rent as deposit. I won’t go through the boring details, but they ended up breaking the lease and abandoning the property while they owed me money. If you find yourself in a situation like this one here are some points to keep in mind.

• Property codes, generally speaking, exist to protect the tenant. However, most tenants who end up in situations like this have not followed the law. On the other hand, you have – assuming you’re a responsible landlord. The party who is on the right side of the law (you) negotiates from a position of considerable strength.
• Ensure that you use a current, legally compliant lease contract that includes specific references to the property codes. For example, all of my leases state that tenants are prohibited from withholding payment for any portion of any month’s rent on grounds that the security deposit is security for unpaid rent, and that bad faith violations may subject the tenant to liability up to three times the rent wrongfully withheld plus Landlord’s reasonable attorney fees.
• We all have our own style, but in tenant/landlord disputes you want to be more like Agent Friday (“just the facts, ma’am”) than, say, John Madden. Communicate clearly, calmly, and factually. Quote relevant state property codes, chapter and verse. Read the relevant clauses from the lease that the tenant signed. Use the facts, the contract, and the law as a blunt instrument.  Don't call or email when you're angry. 
• Back up phone calls with written communication – email or a leter. Tell ‘em on the phone, the follow up in writing to tell ‘em what you told ‘em. Keep copies of everything.
• Once you feel a problem brewing, keep a written log of everything. Capture dates and times of phone calls and what each party said.
• Follow the law with regards to notices. You can’t just put deadbeats out on the street; you need to serve them with a Pay or Quit notice with the proper lead times. Consult your local property codes and know what your obligations are.

The idea of all of this is that you’ll be following a rational, well planned strategy. If you end up in front of a judge, either in an effort to evict the tenant or suing for damages, your ducks will be in a row.

This reminds me of my brother. Greg isn’t always right about everything, but if he offers to bet me about something then there’s a 99.9% chance he is. Greg hates to lose, so when he puts his money where his mouth is and offers to shake on a bet then I tend to back down. If you end up in court you want to be like Greg; you should know you’re going to win. Smart, ethical landlords don’t lose these cases.

And if you follow these guidelines then, in the end, the tenant (if he has a rational bone in his body) will often back down. That’s what happened in my case; they paid and got out, and I didn’t have to drag them to court. They saw the handwriting in on the wall.  Sure I wasted some time hammering out threatening letters and trying to chase them on the phone, but all in all it wasn’t a bad outcome.