Need advice on deadbeat renter?

[avikar76]

I live in Pennsylvania and I own a 3 stall garage and I rent each space for $20 a month.There is no written rental or lease agreements,only verbal.I have one renter who never pays on time.At one point he owed me for 6 mos.rent.I billed him via certified mail and I have requested that he please pay his monthly rent on time (3 times over the past 3 years).I am sick of chasing him for my money.He is currently behind 3 months on rent.So on 3-15,I sent him a notice via certified mail that I would no longer be able to rent the garage space to him because of his late payments,and asked that he vacate the space by 4-15.I warned that if all was not removed by 4-15 that the items would be considered abandoned and will be towed/removed.I called he town hall and the local magistrate to see what the laws are,but they will not answer my questions.The garage is stll locked.Questions:Is my notice legal? Is 30 days enough notice for eviction?Can I legally remove the lock,and dispose of the contents?

[fitche]

DO NOT LISTEN TO RUSS. While a verbal lease for an extended period of time may not be effective (i.e. the tenant cannot say that you've agreed to lease it to him for 5 years), verbal, month-to-month leases are perfectly valid. BUT they can be terminated with proper notice.

The general rule is that you must give 30 days in addition to the current period of rent (for a month-to-month tenancy, such as this one.) So, if the rent is due on March 1, and you tell him on February 15 to be out, he has until April 1 (30 days plus the current period of rent). This may or may not be true of nonresidential space, and pennsylvania law may be different from the standard.

Also, in general residential spaces, you may not perform "self help" i.e. throwing his stuff in the street. You normally need to file an "unlawful detainer" action to get tenants out. However, I don't know if that's the case for these storage-type spaces. It may be worth it to pay a lawyer $100 to save yourself thousands on legal fees later.

[erwin]

DO NOT LISTEN TO RUSS. While a verbal lease for an extended period of time may not be effective (i.e. the tenant cannot say that you've agreed to lease it to him for 5 years), verbal, month-to-month leases are perfectly valid. BUT they can be terminated with proper notice.

The general rule is that you must give 30 days in addition to the current period of rent (for a month-to-month tenancy, such as this one.) So, if the rent is due on March 1, and you tell him on February 15 to be out, he has until April 1 (30 days plus the current period of rent). This may or may not be true of nonresidential space, and pennsylvania law may be different from the standard.

Also, in general residential spaces, you may not perform "self help" i.e. throwing his stuff in the street. You normally need to file an "unlawful detainer" action to get tenants out. However, I don't know if that's the case for these storage-type spaces. It may be worth it to pay a lawyer $100 to save yourself thousands on legal fees later.

You need to speak to an attorney. The reason the local magistrate can't tell you anything is because that would constitute giving you legal advice. Look up tenant laws for your state on the net.

[crom]

First of all--next time get a written lease!! Then you wouldn't have to worry about this. I only have experience with rental properties such as apartments and in that situation--30 days writ notice to cure or quit is legal.

You can try the links below and maybe they can answer some questions.

[joachim]

Verbal leases (verbal tenancy at will, anyone?) have almost no force under law in most states. Go talk to a lawyer, but my bet is that there is no lease (in legal terms) and you can go throw his crap out of there any time you want.


ETA: Yeah, don't listen to me. After all, I wasn't the one that prattled on about residential leases when the OP indicated what type of lease it *wasn't* and only suggested the OP go talk to a lawyer instead of taking random advice from strangers on a web board. Real bad advice there. ;-/

[zadok]

Try the sites below.