Your commercial tenant failed to pay rent. You have heard that things are not going very well for them, but now it is apparent. As a property manager your duty and obligation is to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. When the tenant failed to pay by the due date they have effectively breached the lease and you are entitled to evict the tenant from the property. An eviction lawsuit commonly called an Unlawful Detainer action is a fairly straightforward legal process. The important thing for property managers to know is that the steps involved in this process are critical and must be followed to the letter of the law. A real estate attorney representing both parties in the action is common. If your property manager has followed the law, given proper notice, and has a detailed file of all of the correspondence between the tenant and their company the unlawful detainer action should go fairly smoothly and the landlord or owner should prevail.
The First Step Is To Resolve Rent Payment Issue If Possible
If at all possible the property manager should Lentor Modern Condo make every effort to get the tenant to make the rent payments and bring their lease current. If this involves waiting a few extra days for payment maybe this would be the best course of action instead of filing a lawsuit. Your individual company policies and best practices will dictate this action, but it would be better for all parties to resolve before litigation.
Three-Day Notice Drafted
If a payment is not forthcoming then a ‘three-day notice to pay or quit’ must be prepared and properly served on the tenant. This notice must be in a specific legal format. A commercial owner, landlord or property manager can choose between different types of 3-day notices; 1) specifies the precise amount of rent owed; or 2) estimates the amount of rent owed – usually when a tenant is paying a percentage rent.
If the lease requires the tenant to pay rent and other separate amounts for triple net or CAM charges, the property manager should get the proper advice on whether or not two separate and distinct notices are required to be served. For example, if the property manager or landlord accepts an overpayment of the rent because they have miscalculated and the tenant overpaid estimated rents and CAM charges this may lead to a tenant victory in the unlawful detainer action. This would also possibly give the tenant the right to attorneys’ fees. It is critical to be correct in this step.